I've posted pics of this tree before, on here, but I'll include one here, anyway.



This tree fell before thanksgiving.

Fell across the back corner of the chevy pickup.

We got out there and cut up the part that reached from the pickup, out to the road, so that I could get into and out of my driveway.

However, the part that is left is still supported by the truck on that end, and is supported off the ground by both the height of the hillside it fell from, and by it's rootball.

This tree is rotten. It's why it fell in the first place.

The wood that was cut from it already, was taken and used for firewood, and I am told it burned just fine as firewood.

However, the height at which this span is suspended, and the rottenness of the wood, concerns me.

I am thinking that when it is being cut, it can let go at any moment, because you have no idea how far the rot extends into the tree at any given place.

Given the slope of the ground, the slope of the tree, the heights that it is supported, the fact that one end is a rootball, and could collapse, or roll, or tilt at any moment... I think the tree could go any direction at all, at the moment it separates at the cut.

And as big and heavy as it is, I REALLY don't want to be in the way when it decides to fall and roll whatever direction.


So, some advice please from our resident tree experts.

How would you go about cutting this?

I am considering first wrapping a cable around it and pulling it off of the end of the truck.

While that might add a bit to the damage on the truck it would at least eliminate a small part of the danger.

Just not sure where I want to go from there.

Can you safely burn it? Maybe in small controlled sections?

I had several similar downed trees on my old property. ( OK, without the truck).

You can slice rounds , starting at the 'top' end and if it does move, it will go slowly.

Stay uphill of it. Be quick on your feet.

the rootball may wish to reorient horizontally back into its hole once enough counter-balanced weight holding the rootball perpendicular to its original orientation is removed. The rootball can fall over and what's left of the tree still attached to it would resume its original vertical stance; a sort of Mister-Selador-and-his-saw flinging catapult.

ALWAYS buck any blowdown from the top towards the butt...

To bad you're so far away, I'd come and do it for you.

Good advice. And I was hoping OG would chime in.

Still thinking and considering, here...

I'm not taking pics of things because I have already learned I can't show what I want to show, with pics. It's impossible. It's the 2d nature of the pics.

For one, in my estimation, it looks like the rootball will want to fall forward, toward the tree, instead of away from it, if I make a cut there at the rootball.


My thoughts at this point...

I MIGHT wait until someone with a longer saw shows up.

MAYBE pull the tree off the truck first.

Then, the first cut, at the rootball.

As OG says, whoever cuts, is going to have to be light on their feet and ready for anything. (I am picturing me, in the background, holding a rope tied around the chest of someone else who is doing the cutting. The instructions are to cut it the right way, and be ready to just let go of the saw. Better to replace the saw than a limb, or a life. The rope is intended ONLY for if I have to jerk the person backwards, away from the tree and rootball. And I am the ONLY person I know, who I would trust to pull on that rope, or to NOT pull on it...)

First, a "V" cut on the top. Then undercut. And if it takes it, go back and cut downward from the vee.

Again, being ready to just let go of the saw and scramble backwards.

That spot is probably going to be the safest place, to cut from, for the first cut. You'll be right beside the trooper, which will provide crush resistance. And it will keep the body of the tree from being able to swing in your direction.

Anywhere else, you just can't possibly know which direction anything is going to travel once it is cut enough, and/or it just cracks in two.


If it can be cut loose from the rootball, and has been left on the truck, now it can be pulled off the truck, and now it is all directly on the ground. Easy peasy from that point on. Done it a few thousand times.


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Or, as has just been suggested elsewhere...

Drill a hole and pour in some powder.



I LIKE that idea a lot! Just have to find someone with some powder and some expertise...

Maybe tannerite? Can be put in a hole in the tree, and then shot from a good vantage point well up the hill on the other side...

Won't make a bit of difference to me if it damages the two vehicles there. Apparently no one wants them, so they'll be going to the scrapyard anyway.

Post a free firewood thread on Craigslist.. Might have it gone in a few days.

Put a car jack before it gets to the truck to support some weight and then cut off the parts by the truck. Then just work it from the top back.


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I have a 30ft Cherry Tree behind my house that needs to be taken down , Im also closer to you than the OP lol

There are so many variables, its a waste of time giving advice. Bucking blowdowns is a skilled hazard. They can be loaded from ANY direction.

You have to cut slowly and read the cuts movement. It looks like an old dead shitty maple from pics??

Cutting trees is kinda like poking a hornets nest. Sometimes you just gotta be alert and fast and you still might get bit.
If you were closer Id buck it up for ya. I even tried to get a couple of my buddies to come get that truck. They are all to lazy tho.

Most loggers don"t retire.

Mmmm, pork shoulders!

You can have the wood....

Thank you. I agree with every bit of that. I knew it. Just kinda hoped someone might know somethin I didn't. LOL

I am going to see what I can do to make the tannerite option happen. If I do, I'll try to video it.

I figured the tree was the biggest part of making people lazy about the truck. That's why I have changed my tact and decided to get the tree out of the way.

Although, once the tree is out of the way, I'll probably just take the vehicles in for scrap. And they are worth a LOT more than that, to the right people. I'd hoped to be able to pay it forward and let some of those people have a chance at them.


I think he wants pork shoulders too.

I know where they sell those....