Tree pushing / pulling

[NM_Shooter]

I watched a video of land clearing in which some folks were pushing over fairly small pine trees (maybe up to 10" diameter) using a small tractor and front end loader.  They put the bucket up high on the tree and gave it a nudge, and it went over pretty easy.

So can i do this with a winch?  My thought was to put a pulley low on another tree, so I could get my truck out of the line of fall, and attach to a point 10' up or so on the other tree, then pull the tree down.  Has anyone done this? 

Thanks!

Frank

[Willy]

Depends 10 inches in dia is realy not a small tree in my mind. Where live it is windy and little rain so roots are very deep in the ground. Now in a close stand of trees and lots of rain the roots are just under the surface. That kind of a root system would be easier to push over. Our trees get hit with 40-60 MPH winds pretty often so they are real strong rooted. In fact they don't fall over they bust off at mid point. A tree snaping could realy put a strain on a cable pulling it over. I would cut them down first and remove the stumps by digging and a winch to get them out. At least you would have better control over the process. If I tried to push over a tree with my loader it would just stop it. Mark

[MountainDon]

My neighbor in the Jemez pushed over a number of trees for us in clearing a roadway. He used a small skid steer. There's a couple short VIDEOS on my 14x26 thread. Most of the trees were 12 inch and smaller. THe second clip shows a stubborn one. Most of the trees went over easy to reasonably easy. There were some where the roots were too tangled or maybe too deep and that made for real work. There 's no way a winch would have done the job with those IMO. Another nice thing about using a tractor is you can lift the root end and drop it to shake the dirt loose and leave it in place. Plus it makes hauling the root ball away easier.

So as with many things we run into, It Depends. 

But pushing them over is the best way to do it especially if you want/need to get rid of the root ball as well. If you only have a few it would be worth a try to see how it goes. Keep everyone out of the path of the winch cable. It can get very messy injury-wise if something lets go.

[Daddymem]

You should see the size of some of the trees they yanked down on our lot with an excavator.  'course we live in sand sand sand.  They use brush breakers around here to push the trees down during forest fires. 
http://schluterhomestead.blogspot.com/2006_04_01_archive.html
Scroll down to Saturday, April 15, 2006.  That was a medium sized one, some pines were bigger than 23" diameter.

[MountainDon]

... made it look like child's play.   

[NM_Shooter]

Don... that was the video I was thinking of.  Sigh.  I wish I could remember what it was like to have a good memory.

-f-

[mvk]

If you wont have any other equipment on your lot I might give it a try. If you can get out of the way of the tree with a snatch block. But as Don said broken cable can be prety bad, kill you seen it both on 4 wheels and in the mine. The advantage I see would be that its stumped and maybe the leverage would help you do it and save cost of machine.
Mike