A few pictures from today pulling trees down in downtown detroit for Habitat for Humanity. All Go, No Show.

 

 

What kind of mileage did you get?

I've been doing the same kind of thing on a much smaller scale, but the quantity is the killer. I have 5 acres and the previous owners cut down a lot of trees. In their place I had all these small plants growing very close together. When I realized I had trees growing about a foot apart I decided that wasn't what I wanted. Most are still small enough to be cut with a gas trimmer with a blade, but they're everywhere. I've cleared a few hundred square feet and it took two full loads to haul them off. They're not thick trunks, but it doesn't take long for them to hit 15' tall or so.

You're tackling much larger game, for a much more noble cause...

 

Dang! The new F-150 makes a really clean cut right there near the base of the tree!

 

Cool pics, I like seeing a F150 earn its keep, and very good reason also.

 

If that tree fell the other way at all it would have dragged that truck like it was a toy !!!

 

Actually Bear I would disagree. The truck wieghs three tons, plus the force applied through the engine, and I am assuming the cut was made to cause the weight of the tree to fall toward the truck. As long as it was a farily straight tree there was no isuue.

Haven't you used a come-along when cuttin' trees in the woods! No way you 4-5 tons of force with one of those!

 

Worse yet...what if that chain or limb gave away and you had 40 foot of chain come screaming through the windshield...or at least make some ugly marks as it wrapped around the truck.

 

That's an ash tree if I'm not mistaken. Too bad it wasn't a walnut. It would have been worth more than the house behind it.

 

...saw a Chebby commercial who tried the same trick - it just stretched that flimsy Chebby frame 'till they added a door and called it a Crew Cab!!

[The tree was still standing when the commercial cut-away...]

 

Good to see a truck at work, especially for a good cause.

 

We use the trucks to direct the trees. In the city the old trees hang over houses and powerlines. We have a very small window of area to fell them in. The guy with the chainsaw is a 72 year old norwegian man who is an artist with a chainsaw. He can cut a 40ft limb in a way that it hinges and swings away from over powerlines. So the truck is just to ensure we have tension in the right direction. The ropes (rated at 800lbs combined) would snap before the truck got pulled. Infact I gotta be careful and wait until the tree is cut, elsewise I could snap the ropes with the truck. Later that day we moved onto using chain for a tree that was angled toward a house, but still the chain was only rated at 1400lbs, so it's hard to say if the truck braking could take 1400lbs. I'd like to think if I was pulling a 9500lb trailer that I could brake with 1400lbs of force. I don't know, we didn't lose it.

We couldn't indentify the tree at first either until we cut it. The Norwegian said it was an oak. We gave it to some guy for firewood. Later we took down this dark walnut.

When these 80ft trees come crashing down they shatter, and some limbs actually plant themselves 2ft back into the ground. We cut on them for days.

There will be new low income housing there by fall.



Habitat International

Habitat Detroit

 

Oh, boy - I probably shoudn't go here...but -

IzInBloOm - your first post showed the F-150 contribution in falling a tree, and I go Woo Hoo! for Ford Tuff.

I am politically conservative; and I think that Habitat for Humanity is a godly cause. I am not a tree hugger, yet I look at those pictures and ask one question... Was that tree an imminant hazard to the house or the house to be built? Did it need to be removed for the construction of the new habitat? (OK that's 2 questions). That tree was probably a hundred years old, and the pictures do not appear it to be overhanging the electrical service entry conductors. Trees can be trimmed to minimize these hazards.

If every tree that overhangs a power line has to be cut down, well...

Please tell us the tree was dead.

{Sorry, off topic...}

 

The oak was very dead. Some trees aren't as much. We only pull the ones that must go, like ones that would be inside basements. Otherwise we just trim off branches that could cause problems. For example the one in the front is staying. They are beautiful trees. They are downtown in the middle of the old city, a part that has been deemed "Tri-Centennial Village". It's amazing to see trees that are 100+ years old and 100ft+ growing around houses. They are so beautiful. But rest assured we only remove the ones that directly interfere with our construction. Even the old brick houses are awesome, as in poor condition as they may be. We are going to preserve as many of those trees as we can. We don't want it looking like no-tree, cookie-cutter suburbia, now do we?

Peace

-ii