Tree Removal

I want to remove the aspen trees from my property. Three (or four) of them are dead; I lopped them incorrectly. These three trees run along the western fence line. Another five trees, lopped to reduce shading over my vegetable garden, run along the southern fence line, terminated by a pine tree. Another eight or ten aspen trees take up space where I should have my orchard in the front lawns.

Genius Tree Stump Removal Trick Using a Wheel this video is NOT genius but it does show a general idea. The tree being removed appears to be a very dead small pine shrub. The tractor is overkill

Nature of the Problem

Trees have evolved to withstand strong winds; strong winds blow horizontally, sideways. Trees have not evolved to withstand a vertical force. Even trees with a deep vertical tap root will act as a nail being pulled from timber.

Use quality chains, cables, or straps; we do NOT want to be decapitated by a whipping broken chain.

Method

Wrap the cable securely at the base of the tree trunk, as close to the ground as possible. This has not been done in the video.

Roll the wheel rim (car, pickup, or better yet a truck wheel) against the tree trunk and bring the cable up and over the wheel. This has not been done in the video. The wheel translates the vertical force to a horizontal force.

Take the end of the cable through a pulley on a strong mount. In my back yard the pine tree will serve as a strong mount. This directs the force at right angles horizontally. This has not been done in the video.

Pulleys

The cable between the two trees will hold a pulley system. This has not been done in the video. The pulleys can be mounted in series or in parallel. In parallel each pulley can represent a two-fold mechanical advantage, so five pulleys will yield a mechanical advantage of 2^5 or 32 times. This means that a force of ten pounds on the winch end of the cable will generate a force of 320 pounds on the tree to be pulled.

The disadvantage of pulleys is that we have to pull much more cable than a straight pull. In our example a mechanical advantage of 32 means we have to pull thirty-two feet of cable for every vertical pull of one foot. This is what driveways are for!

Force Supply

The end of the cable is taken past the shed (which provides a barrier from whipping cables) to a small vehicle in the driveway – a trailer hitch on a small vehicle usually suffices. Remember whatever the drawbar force of the vehicle will be multiplied by your pulley system

Videos

Removing stump using a wheel . Me? I’d stand a sheet of at least ¼-inch plywood vertically in the truck tray to protect the back window. This video is removing a small dead stump. I suspect that most of the roots rotted away years ago, so there is really little holding the trump at all. The pickup truck exerts enough force to pull the stump

Pulling Trees With A Wheel Rim “I have about a 99% success rate this way” suggests that the writer has pulled at least a hundred trees, maybe many hundreds. A wheel rim might work better than a rubber-tyred rim, but I would be wary of splitting the rim in half. I like the idea of a serious piece of pipe welded to, or passing through the rim to provide another level of leverage. Two or three more pulleys may be a better return on your investment of time and money. Keep it simple.

Drawbar Pull

I am no automotive expert, but a casual web search suggests 2,000 pounds, which would translate to 64,000 pounds with a mechanical advantage of 32:1

Data

I recommend keeping a diary and publishing your setup and results. Saying “it worked” doesn’t help anybody, but recording even simple data can help people decide.

Monday, February 10, 2025

This video provided a few more ideas.

(1) The tree shown in the video is way bigger/stronger than mine; my first three trees have been dead for two years. The winch had a 45;1 mechanical advantage.

(2) The winch itself provides a mechanical advantage inasmuch as a narrower shaft provides an improved ratio of movement.

(3) Gains could be made by opening up one side of the tree root system, and then pulling from the opposite, or at least a varying, direction.

(4) I suspect that moving the root system one foot and then pausing for half an hour would allow time/tension to snap a few roots. Coffee break.

(5) We ARE talking a mechanical advantage of around 50:1. In practical terms, the load point, which is the attachment point to the tree, will need to be strong enough to take the full load. If you can exert a 200 pound force on your take-up point, then you will need a chain/cable/strap that can bear a load of 50x200 or 10,000 pounds.

(6) That said, at your take-up point, if the best you have is your body-weight (say 200 pounds), then you might be well-served by taking the end of the strap around a single pulley, mounted high. You then climb a step-ladder and grip that take-up rope and let your weight take up another three feet of rope. Two or three of you could “keep the kettle boiling”

(7)  How to Use a Ratchet Strap - Tips and Tricks!

(8) I noticed in the video when they pulled the jeep with the wench while it was in gear there was a blanket draped over the cable in an attempt to mitigate the force in the case that it actually did go down like that.

(9) I would consider loosely wrapping the cables with common nylon rope, enough to hold back a whipping cable’s loose end.

Tuesday, February 11, 2025

A fun introduction to pulleys and snatch blocks.

Wednesday, February 12, 2025

Once a stump has been pulled, the same pulley system can be used to tug out major roots.

Friday, February 14, 2025

At the top of this image are 1+5=6 anchor points. In the image all six are anchored to one device – the model board. In practice they could be anchored or a single tree (or power pole or …) or could be distributed two or three to separate trees.

We want to pull a tree out of the ground; the tree is represented by the meat tenderizer.

The force is applied to the long rope stretching off to the bottom left of the image.

Wednesday, February 19, 2025

An aerial view of my lot. The driveway is marked with an arrow in the winching direction.

Three sets of aspen trees are circled. The smallest circle holds the three dead trees (two years dead). At the foot of the left-hand circle is the pine tree that can serve as a redirection pulley.

Saturday, February 22, 2025

A trip to St John’s introduced me to Jackie at Hercules SLR mtpearl_sales@herculesslr.com

The three dead aspen trees. The driveway leads off to my right, at right-angles to this view. The pine tree is just out of sight to the left.

The raised bed is 24’x16’, so there is at least 24 feet between each of the three dead trees and the pine tree.

There will be less distance of travel for the live trees, and so there will be more pulley retrieval.

Two of the dead trees and four live aspen trees. The pine tree stands to the left. I can bring that down to a stump and mount a picnic table on the stump!

Three live aspen trees on the western side of the driveway – on which I am standing. The pine tree is to my immediate right, some forty feet away.

Four live aspen trees on the eastern side of the driveway – on which I am standing. The pine tree is behind me, some forty feet away.

A model of part of my back lot. The right-hand of the three pulleys indicates the load, a dead aspen tree, by a green arrow,

The red-circled pulley is my directional pulley anchored to the pine tree.

The red-arrow indicates a red pickup truck or a winch providing the force.

Those three pulleys in parallel each provide a mechanical advantage of two, so the overall mechanical advantage is 2 raised to the power three (pulleys) or eight times the force supplied by the winch.

Five pulleys would provide a mechanical advantage of 32:1 (two raised to the power 5)

In this image the winch has pulled the cable one unit length; perhaps forty feet down the driveway.

Pulley 1 has traveled half that length, twenty feet, across the yard toward the pine tree.

Pulley 2 has traveled half that length, ten feet, across the yard toward the pine tree.

Pulley 3 has traveled half that length, five feet, across the yard toward the pine tree.

With five pulleys in action, a forty foot winch travel will produce 40/32 or slightly over one foot of travel at the dead tree end.

Using a wheel rim to convert the horizontal force to a vertical force, forty feet of winch will provide a foot of vertical lift.

This is not enough to lift a tree out of the ground, so a second and third pull will be required; I will need to bring the pulleys back to their original position twice.

A view from the driveway looking south to the pine tree. The winch cable can be threaded through the deck railings.

Bonus: The holes left by the trees can be filled with grass clippings and a fruit tree seedling planted soon after. The fruitless aspen trees will be replaced by fruit-bearing trees (apple, pear)

Monday, February 24, 2025

I will include a paragraph about “dstarting a small business” in my email to Jackie so that she hears of the application to young entrepreneurs, and a solution that does NIOT involve cranes in my yard.

As well I would like a strain guagge to measure the pull at the tree end to let me know what forces are required by trunk diameter.

Wednesday, February 26, 2025

David says that his winch exerts 4,000 pounds. Suppose I weight 200 pounds, Then (stepladder) I need a mechanical advantage of around 20:1 or 2^4 to 2^5 , thus 4 or 5 extra pulleys (in parallel).

A fully mobile system then could use five extra pulleys rather than a motorized winch.

Of course two step ladders is an improvement, which takes us into the pyramids and Egyptian slaves.

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