chris_d
Established Member
Dear all,
Given the many discussions on this forum related to tree surgery, I thought it worthwhile to share a recent DIY experience to aid others who may be considering a similar path. I've got 2-3 years of serious chainsaw experience and a good selection of saws but still consider myself a novice with a very healthy respect for the lethality of such powerful tools.
Yesterday morning, I started the day with two problem trees shown below. A large bow of a 35m oak tree had partially broken away and was firmly wedged against another tree (first picture). Furthermore, another 25m oak tree is growing at an angle of 50 degrees to the horizontal and is seriously threatening my workshop (second picture).
I hired an all terrain cherry picker costing £252 for a weekend and got stuck in. Despite getting an access plant specialist to survey my sloping property, to select the most appropriate machine, the cherry picker came far short of what I expected from an all terrain type, The machine had a tolerance to inclination of just 5% which meant it kept raising an alarm on even the slightest of slopes! Each time the alarm goes off, you are then forced to bring the basket back to the ground-level and re-position the machine to a level plane (the driving controls in the basket are disabled). Frustratingly, the alarm didn't sound when first positioning the machine, only when you've got the basket 20m up in the air!
Removing the crowns of the bow and leaning tree was quite straight forward providing that you under-cut the branches first. Thus, I was left with the following mess to tidy up today:
However, the broken bow simply refused be budge (with safe working practices). I don't want to simply log it up since I intend to get some decent planks and beams from such a straight piece (using an alaskan mill). Here it is still lodged 10m up in the air (albeit a bit shorter than when I started):
A local tree surgeon quoted a felling cost, without site clearance, of £465+VAT per tree and I may have to consider contracting him to finish the broken bow but my friendly local farmer may try to pull it down with a tractor!
To conclude, I may have saved a bit of money through the DIY route but I'm left with an unfinished job that will eventually have taken far longer than a professional would have. Also, it is worth test driving a cherry picker before you hire one, especially if you have any slopes on your property! I was intending to use the cherry picker today to take down a large holly tree that is endangering some power-lines but its just not worth the effort of maneuvering it (very slowly) across my entire property just to find that it complains about the slightest bump in the ground. And before someone cuffs me around the head and explains "Moment = Force x Perpendicular Distance", I'm really not the risk-taker I may appear to be and the cherry picker really was complaining unnecessarily!
I hope this serves as a balanced view to those contemplating their own DIY tree surgery. I'm off to clear up the mess ....
Cheers,
Chris
Given the many discussions on this forum related to tree surgery, I thought it worthwhile to share a recent DIY experience to aid others who may be considering a similar path. I've got 2-3 years of serious chainsaw experience and a good selection of saws but still consider myself a novice with a very healthy respect for the lethality of such powerful tools.
Yesterday morning, I started the day with two problem trees shown below. A large bow of a 35m oak tree had partially broken away and was firmly wedged against another tree (first picture). Furthermore, another 25m oak tree is growing at an angle of 50 degrees to the horizontal and is seriously threatening my workshop (second picture).
I hired an all terrain cherry picker costing £252 for a weekend and got stuck in. Despite getting an access plant specialist to survey my sloping property, to select the most appropriate machine, the cherry picker came far short of what I expected from an all terrain type, The machine had a tolerance to inclination of just 5% which meant it kept raising an alarm on even the slightest of slopes! Each time the alarm goes off, you are then forced to bring the basket back to the ground-level and re-position the machine to a level plane (the driving controls in the basket are disabled). Frustratingly, the alarm didn't sound when first positioning the machine, only when you've got the basket 20m up in the air!
Removing the crowns of the bow and leaning tree was quite straight forward providing that you under-cut the branches first. Thus, I was left with the following mess to tidy up today:
However, the broken bow simply refused be budge (with safe working practices). I don't want to simply log it up since I intend to get some decent planks and beams from such a straight piece (using an alaskan mill). Here it is still lodged 10m up in the air (albeit a bit shorter than when I started):
A local tree surgeon quoted a felling cost, without site clearance, of £465+VAT per tree and I may have to consider contracting him to finish the broken bow but my friendly local farmer may try to pull it down with a tractor!
To conclude, I may have saved a bit of money through the DIY route but I'm left with an unfinished job that will eventually have taken far longer than a professional would have. Also, it is worth test driving a cherry picker before you hire one, especially if you have any slopes on your property! I was intending to use the cherry picker today to take down a large holly tree that is endangering some power-lines but its just not worth the effort of maneuvering it (very slowly) across my entire property just to find that it complains about the slightest bump in the ground. And before someone cuffs me around the head and explains "Moment = Force x Perpendicular Distance", I'm really not the risk-taker I may appear to be and the cherry picker really was complaining unnecessarily!
I hope this serves as a balanced view to those contemplating their own DIY tree surgery. I'm off to clear up the mess ....
Cheers,
Chris
