little project i was working on. the pics are from my fone, hence the bad quality. tree was about 85 ft tall, took out with sk130 in about 1-1.5hr. couldnt move it when on the ground, so we had to cut this one up. also just burried the stump as deep as i could dig.
should have dug/snapped the roots up on the side you wanted to fall, 5-6 mins, maybe....reach up as tall as you can, push that way....down in another 3 mins...nothing to this silly game
Wow thats a heck of a root ball, were you able to move it once you cut that off or did you have to secion it up more than that?
that's a big tree you pushed over.
dayexco, thats what i usually do. almost every tree i take out i have on the ground in prolly 2 min total. this one for some reason had some hellish roots or something. i actually had to cut them all the way around this time. amlandmgmt, the first pic is kinda decieving, there are 2 main trunks on it that look like one in the pic. so i cut the rootball off, then cut the trunks apart, then cut them in half so they'd fit on the pile. wish i knew what kind of tree it was, it was sure heavy for the size of pieces we were moving. i didn't recognise the bark :beatsme i am pretty impressed with my little 130, i know there a guys out there that say dont do tree removal with anything less than a 200, but i think i am doin ok.
That third picture made me cringe. I knew a guy that was cleaning up a bunch of trees that were blown down. He cut the stump off then rather than climb over he went around the root ball. It up righted itself and crushed him. It took them a while to figure out where he was. I can't see if the trees been cut off yet. Just something to think about.
I thought the same thing Lashlander. I pushed a tree that size over last fall and then couldn't move it. Decided to cut it off about 10 feet up from the root ball. As soon as the saw was thru the trunk the stump unexpectedly stood right back up. There were a couple of guys helping me and we sure were glad no one was standing under that root ball.
I think it looks like a elm kind of hard to tell.
lashlander and buffaloman, the rootball was still attached, that makes me nervous as well. maybe if i get a chance i can take a pic of the bark to see what kind of tree it is.
I have had a fairly close call with a root ball that almost got me. really makes you think twice about getting into harms way when it come to these things
We remove trees with our Case 580SK Backhoe, or our Case 1450B dozer. Nothin' to 'em. Good job on that one though, it's a biggin'!
buffaloman, where are you located in eastern ia? i am near davenport.
Gotta be careful. Those trees have minds of their own. Maybe they don't like getting attacked like that and decided to fight back.
that tree must hvae been part beech, they have roots that grow straight down to china, they are hell to push over
Any advice on removing a lot of stumps. A tornado came through my property 2 years ago and took down about 1500-2000 mature oak, pine, & hemlock trees. Had a logger come in and remove the fallen timber but left the stumps. Tomorrow I'm looking at a JD690A. My only experience has been with an older backhoe, very small dozer and a very large wheeled dozer (Cat 830MB). Never used a excavator. Am I just looking for trouble? The machine is only $8500. I have about 10 acres to clean up and don't think I could afford an experienced operator. I'd appreciate any comments. Thank you.
I say go for it. Pulling stumps would be a good way to start learning the excavator. Check the machine out carefully, preferably with an experienced excavator man. Just be sure that the machine is in good enough shape to do the job. You could easily double your cost with a major repair down the road.
Thanks for your advice and encouragement Tim. I am going to look at it now and if it passes my initial inspection I'll take an experienced operator or mechanic to check it over before final purchase.
hey sorry to be off topic Komatsu Pc 200-3 for $3000? hey just wondering how the Pc 200 -3 were. serial number is 28002. Found one for 3000 bucks cash with two buckets and its in need of a motor job. Only 6200 hrs showing but prestone is going in the oil on the old brute. Just wondering what some common problems with these units might be and if somebody could fill me in on the details of the unit also. thanks
how hard do you push? When do you know a big tree is ready to be pushed over? Do you just use your boom or do you drive the machine forward? I just bought a well used 235 cat and need to remove some big hedge trees. Can you mess up the boom hydraulic cyclinders if you push too hard using the machine? Will i loose traction before I break something? all comments appreciated.
The machines are designed such that their own strength cannot hurt them in normal operation. A 235 can push over almost any 'normal' sized tree, but I'd recommend digging around the roots before pushing to get rootball to come out with the tree. Try to push with the stick and boom rather than by crawling forward.
good place to practice eh
little dieter, i usually just kinda know what it takes from experience. i usually push a little here and there to see if it is getting close. look close at the root ball, near the bottom of your hole, and see when you push up high if it moves at all. when i know it will go i just keep pushing. i dont track at all when i am pushing them over, i just figure that it is more wear and tear on the machine. just my opinion tho i guess. good luck.
just push it over
Just dig up some of the roots and give it a gentle shove, if it doesnt go over dig a little more and push it over. I don't track i just use the boom and stick. I say gentle shove because you don't want to start slamming around hard and snap the top half of the tree off. Worst stump i ever had to take out was a big maple stump, probably 5 feet across, about 6 trunks shooting out of one root ball. It was 3 feet away from a small shed, and 1 foot away from a retaining wall that was poured ontop of the roots, and i only had a 55. took me about 5 hours with a 12" bucket breaking everything i could get to, and had to ax through a lot of the roots heading under the wall. finally broke free and didnt damage the shed or wall.
:notworthy:notworthy I've been there-ish and destroyed the equivalent shed and wall. . . ointhead Oh, and you need another post, quick!:tong (666)
:notworthy Now that is tough. I've never attempted anything half as tricky as that. On my farm (where I have to remove tons of stumps, big and small), space is practically limitless and in terms of machine size bigger is better... well... to a point. The John Deere 200LC I just bought should do all I need and still fits indoors (unlike the old CAT 245 I was also looking at :tong). I'm looking forward to its delivery on Monday.
Looked like Elm by the shape of it
thats and elm
i think that taking out trees is one of the funner jobs in an excavator. prolly right behind demo. destruction is fun, altho i wouldnt turn down much of anything in it. i have found it alot easier to take out trees and rootballs than stumps. obviously you cant take out everything with the hoe, like when you're close to buildings and what not, but i usually get a kick outa the guys that wanna save time and have the tree on then ground when you get there and just want ya to take out the stump. i like using the trees own weight to pull the stump out. what do you all think?
That's one monster of a tree!!!!! Good job.
People who insist on doing the easy part of the job and make the rest harder for me are a constant frustration for me. Not long ago a fellow got a price to clear a 1/2 acre in the woods, it took me about 3 weeks to get there, when I got there he had cut down and burnt all the trees and brush including 25 tons of $65/ton sawlogs. He said "I made it easy for you all you got to do is dig up and burn the stumps." I had told him not to do that when I priced the job, so I told him the price just doubled. The stumps had to be hauled out and dumped at $300 a load cause you cant burn 24-36 inch stumps with no kindling and it takes three times as long to dig stumps as to push trees. He got mad and I gave him 24hrs to check with the other guys that had priced the job and he called back and said "All you ___________s said the same thing so go ahead". Another guy this week insisted on cutting a bunch of 6" pines so it wouldn't be "too much stress on your bucket" on a 45,000 lb hoe!
I Hate the ones with the long roots out to the side that pull the tree sideways. Good to dig those out first.
What kind of demo have you done? Must have been some awesome demo job if it was more fun than taking out that big tree. I can tell you love the destruction. What else have you destroyed? Buildings? Trees?
wolf, the only things i have demo'ed are: a barn, hog house, grain bin, and part of a house (pics in the demo page). these were all really fun to do. yes i like destroying things. i also like land clearing, taking out trees and planting corn there instead. i would like to get in with someone demo'ing houses. i think that was the funnest job i did. had the single story part, about 7-800 sq ft, tore down and hauled out in 3 hours. the tearing down part was only 10 mins tho. my neighbors were all impressed. what kind of demo do you do wolf?