a big cotton wood, about the biggest stump ive ever dug out. took a few hours to say the the least! enjoy the pics!
Wow! That's a pretty big stump! Nice work!
well done. and, safely done.
Nice. Did it take both dozers move the tree after knocked down?
at first yea, but once we rolled it a few times, broke a bunch of big limbs off and knocked some dirt out of the root ball, the Rake cat could move it on its own. (its set up to push like crazy, got the ripper for more wieght and the rake is heavy too, and Ive got her fuel pumped tuned right up haha) those are both D8K's, took them both to really do anything to that tree.
more pics of the job.
Nice pic's. What would the operating weight be on that dozer with the rake and ripper? The reason I ask is I am looking @ purchasing a dozer for that type of work. Thanks
Nice little stump there. What is it, about 12 or 14ft diameter root ball? I remember one from a eucalyptus tree once that was about 10 ft accross. It had a single trunk of about 7 or 8 ft, and when the woodcutters got tired of cutting on it they left about 10 ft of tree trunk past the rootball. I got it with a good sized loader, and coaxed it into an end dump to haul off. I had to pad the bottom of the trailer so it would not set down and wedge in. With the couple of loads to pad it off of the floor and then the stump, it nearly flattened the tires on the end dump. Wish I had pictures. When I pushed it over, I ramped up like your picture, and had a D-9H against the tree, and 2 D-8K end to end pushing on the rippers. All the 3 of us could do to push it over. That was fun. I haven't seen that big of a tree come down since then.
my guess would be close to 85,000?!?! i dunno, never wieghed it. always haul it around at night :nono haha
just curious..........did you push that dirt pile up against the tree to get up high to be able to push with better leverage once you dug out the other side? that is 1 huge tree....
awesome job, knocking down that big tree. how old do you think the tree was? did it really take both dozers to push it over?
You guys do that out there to lol!!! My dad would haul his old 8H(sold now) with the dozer on, a 80 cable scraper , with the back tires on the highway free rolling all on a 8 wheel lowboy, at 4 in the morning But great picts, never seen a tree that big:notworthy tim
we dug around the whole tree, made about a 8 foot deep cut on all 4 sides of it, then made that ramp to get the leverage. and what a fight it was from there, eventually i went and gathered up a bunch of 6-10 inch sized poplar logs with the rake and pushed them to the top of the ramp so we had something for the grozers to bite into, we're just spinning against it otherwise.
200-300 years old most people would say. theres lots of cottonwood trees that big in this area, rich Red River Valley soil, silt and sand is 50 feet deep before you hit to clay. They have to root so deep in the sand to find moisture on dry years. And yea it took bother D8's to push it over and to move it out of the hole after we pushed the ramp away haha.
Nice job. Wow---200-300 years. That's pretty incredible. Around here the tree huggers wouldn't let you touch a tree like that. They'd probably chain themselves too it or some other stupid leaf licker move. Sounds like you had some fun pushing it over. Two dozers working together like that is awesome. Like to hear how you made the 8 foot cut, then got up high enough to get some leverage on it, and down she comes. Nice job. How often do you get to push over big trees like that? Was the wood any good? Is it worth anything, or did you end up burning it or trashing it? Why did they take the tree down anyway? Was it sick or just in the way? Nice going, dude.
What did you do with the stump? Bury it? Or do you have an excavator or something to claw the dirt out so you can burn it?
Nice pics man! thats a hell of a tree! this is the kinda stuff i enjoy doing!
Looking good CatSkinner77V.That's a big ol tree !Love those d-8 k cats,great pictures.Somtimes I can split a forked tree and bust it in half to save extra digging around the stump,and some wont wont bust in half and I have to dig all around it to get it down.Your tree looks like it was pretty hard headed.It wasent going to fall unless two d-8k's started working on it.
I like them that bust in half that are full of honey bees. Makes me want to go push a tree over with a yellow jacket nest under it just so I feel lucky with the bees. ointhead We got a lot of cotton wood around here. I never took one down that big though. Good Job. I'm glad you took the time to get the pictures. The old tree deserved it.:usa What is it with cottonwood BTW? When you saw it green the lumber won't warp when it dries? I don't remember right now. Maybe a sawmiller will set me straight.
We get some pretty big trees here, but nothing of that size. Very nice pictures, brings back memories. I always enjoyed clearing trees, easy on the back and interesting work. Fence bottom trees in clay were tough to get out and the fence wire was always a threat. One D8H we had used the same ripper and it was 37 1/2 ton. Phil
Very nice job! Was this part of a larger job or did you get hired to just remove the tree? What does something like this cost?
Nice... but I think you're berm was to large. You added alot of weight support on the tree stump, reducing the ability to use the trees own weight in helping you to bring it down. I have done this sort of tree removal in the Sierra Nevada against Large Ponderosa , you want a smaller berm to push from, using the Dozers weight to you're advantage, and pull out away from the fast, as the tree begins to fall, or else the roots / stump being very large, will come up under the tractor and might turn the machine over. Dangerous work with large trees. I used a Terex 8240.
How big and how old were the ponderosas you knocked down, Trakwork?
They averaged about 200ft and 200-250 in. in girth. Very heavy trees , but once you get them swaying a strong final push will send them over , ... but get away fast they will throw a dozer like a toy.
Your D8K hasnt had the lift cylinder updates done on it . They were free from caterpillar a few years back. Hydraulic hoses would chaf on the tin work and cause a heck of a fire. Windshield looks like you been pushn with it too. ha
:tong nice
Big Trees Who else has gotten to push monster trees over like that? What kind of trees and what equipment/technique did you use? Got any pictures?
I've pushed over a few monsters but never anything that big. about the biggest tree I've pushed over was 48- 50" in diameter, still makes for a good smash when they hit the ground!
Yes, Chris, you have pushed a lot of trees. I remember, you are the original "tree huggers nightmare." LOL. How you doin' bro?
I found the best technique in falling a big pine was to first circle the tree with a single shank ripper, destroying as much of the roots as possible, build a berm on the highest ground , about 15ft , with a flat plain on the top , push on the tree with the blade raise high, power hard , let off , power hard let of until the tree sways enough to break the remain root support lose, watch out for a huge number of pine cone and branches falling, .... get the tree really moving back and forth then push with all the machines might... it will fall but move off the berm fast or you just might pay dearly as the stump will be under you're tractor and throw you. Worded for me many times but i have no photos it was years ago.
Cool. How long has it been since you pushed some big trees like that? Nowadays, the tree huggers would be chaining themselves to most of those big Ponderosas in California, and you'd have to contend with them too.
Close to 20 years. Oh, the tree folk were around then, but those trees where on my land and i had a tentative map to put roads in where they stood.. I cut the trees into 32 and 16ft length sold them to the mill. I had to remove the trees in this way, with the stump or else it would have much more work. I burned the stumps.
Where is your land in California? Did you end up developing it with roads and houses?
this was part of about a 30 acre land clearing/leveling job. and I bid this job, so it was just apart of the job, but definatly quoted extra time when i saw that behemoth on the edge of the bush.
i don't need a lesson on taking large trees down Trakwork. Its been the base of our work since we started in this business. I dug around this tree with a D8 for 3.5 hours, then started to make my ramp. do you think I just made that ramp that big before i ever tried pushing on it??!?! No, as we went up with the ramp we would try pushing on it as we gained a foot or so of hieght untill USING BOTH D8's!! I might add, it finally started to lean. And it didn't just go crashing down, it leaned right till the bitter end. These are tough dangerous trees to work with, and I have seen what happens when you get too cocky with them. This method is the safest I have figured out so far, and it hasn't steered me in the wrong direction yet.
Ok...I wasn't trying to give you a lesson , only stating what appeared to have been done by looking at you're photos. I would assume them that this tree was a very flexable wood( is it?) and the root system was deep. I'm surprised to hear you pre-worked the root for 3.5 hrs that's a'lot of ripping a small area. Anyway Nice work.
The project was North of Tahoe. I developed the lots, never built on them. I only improve lots.But nowdays with the recession(depression) and all that work is dried up. Looking at mining for the future.
That's quite the tree. I had no idea that cottonwoods grew that large in Manitoba! A question about taking down trees that size: How would a good sized excavator work for that job? An excavator could quite rapidly dig a deep trench around the base of the tree. With the roots cut, an excavator then could reach quite high on the trunk for leverage to push over the tree. I don't have a dozer but do have an excavator. You have probably tried this, but I'm wondering if there is a reason it would not work well.
Awsome!
CatSkinner, love reading your post. You and my dad and uncle would be able to tell timber tales for days I'm sure. All done with dozers and skill. Growing up I was put on the excavator and I thought that was the way to do it, til Dad and Harv showed me how to do things with the dozer(for years that was all we had so you learned to do everything that way). I'd much rather fall timber all day on a dozer than an excavator. Thanks again for sharing. Trbo
Yair...hey CatSkinner77v if "taking down trees" as you put it is the base of your work how come you don't have treepushers on the eights? Your right swampdog a twenty ton excavator would have tipped that sucker out no problem but you gotta use what you got.
nice pics! and i hear ya On the weight of the rake-- i have a young rake on my 8H and it is HEAVY
Pushed this out with the D9G. Spent 10 or 15 minutes digging around it and making a small ramp. The dirt was very soft and it was quittin time, the tree would move but not go over as the dozer would sink in whenever things started getting tight. Came back on a cold morning with some frost in the ground and tipped it right over. Hooked the top corner of the blade into the tree for higher leverage, saved making more than a small ramp. Kent
Darn, I have some pics of taking out a monster with a TD14A, but don't know if I can post ém.. Fairly shallow root system, which I ripped and then got her rocking.. [image]tree1[/image] [image]tree2[/image]
Hi Catskinner77v it sure looked like that cottonwood was realy rooted.We have some large cottonwood,s out here also and about 1/2 of them are filled with hornet,s ,cool suprise!! Happy pushing.
OK, this is a little Black Pine on my farm in Australia, dying and dangerous. In Feb 09, I took the old TD14a, and nudged it over She may be 60 years old, but has some push still.
Wow. Looks pretty fun!
The dozer is 60 years old, but how old is the tree. What kind of push did the tree have to fight back? lol
If it hadn't been for that big branch hanging out towards bills mother's place, I don't think it would have shifted. tree isn't native to the area, so could not have been planted before 1837, original homestead here was built around 1860, I think the tree dated from around then.. years of drought have taken their toll however, and it was just about dead, and half rotten at the base. Even after ripping around the roots, the root ball was still higher than the canopy on the dozer. Above pic shows it hitting the ground, tractor to the far right
Td These are great pics! Those old dozers are awesome. My husband and I have six Cats ranging from the early 20's to early 40's. I love operating them because the power you have at your fingertips is absolutely awesome! One of our D4's has a headache bar and he sort of knew why it was called that, but one day after building a little hill he went over it too quickly and REALLY found out!
Those are the types of trees that scare me to the point of reaching for the chain-saw and clear-cutting; had to do it plenty of times. Embarrassing to have to park the iron, but sometimes safer, I think. And I've run into those auspicious Cottonwoods also. They're Icebergs for sure! I've always used a 70 - 100, 000 lb excavator to dig 'em and fell 'em..... but sure is lots of azz scratching when you roll the root-ball to a lowboy for ferrying.... ya don't realize how much mass is there till you try to do something with it!
Sounds like you hooked it just right, Kent, to get the big time leverage to push that big daddy right over. Nice job, man