We Had Problem Trees To Cut Down and Used A Ventrac With A Grapple Bucket To Clean Up The Mess

All right, we’ve got some problem trees to deal with. We’re getting ready to build a house on this land and there’s four trees we need to cut down. These are tulip poplars and unfortunately, they’re diseased and hollow and in really bad shape. You can see what condition they’re in… I started out by cutting the smallest one first. This tree had a dead spot at the top so I was careful to make sure nothing would fall down and hit me while I was cutting it. Thankfully I didn’t have to deal with any wind. Now that the tree is down, I cut off all the limbs and then cut logs into 8 foot sections that will be used for firewood later. This is land is really beautiful- it’s 12 acres with a lot of privacy, and nice mountain views off the distance. I wanted to use a Ventrac to clean up these trees. My tractor is newer, but it doesn’t have the right hydraulics to run the grapple bucket, so I borrowed this older tractor that has the right hydraulics. Unfortunately, it had been sitting all winter, and the battery was pretty weak. I had to jump it the first time I started it, and it ended up dying again on my trailer. Luckily, I have this little EZ start jump pack. This thing runs on either a Milwaukee or a Dewalt tool battery. It’s super compact. I keep it under the seat of my truck for emergencies. It’s got a button you push once you’re ready for power- that way you don’t accidentally ground it out when you’re connecting it to the terminals on a battery. Once I had the EZ Start on it the tractor, it started no problem. I need to add the accessory hydraulics to my Ventrac-that way I can run the grapple bucket with it. Mine is actually a 4520. This is an older 4500-It’s been a good machine. It’s just got a lot of hours on it. It took me a little bit to get the hang of the controls for the grapple, but I was blown away about how well this thing worked. This tractor has a lot more lifting power than you would think. The homeowner is thinking at some point they might build a fire pit, so these logs will be great for that. They can cut them up and have all the firewood they need. I found a spot that I knew would be out of the way and stacked the logs in a neat pile. I piled all the brush and limbs in another spot- we might rent a chipper later and grind this up. I went ahead and cut the stumps off low. I’ll come back later with a stump grinder and grind these. I find it’s a lot easier and safer to cut trees at waist height where I’m comfortable and then cut the trunk down low to the ground later. Next up, I went ahead and cut the rest of the trees. I usually notch about a third of the way in, then I make my back cut. I have some plastic wedges that I pounded in- this made the tree lean in the direction I wanted it to fall. Hollow trees are especially dangerous to cut, and this one was more hollow than the other three. Got my angle a little too steep on this cut, but it did the job anyway. Here you can see how hollow this tree is- it gets worse the lower you go. I made my back cut then I put in the wedges. The nice thing about plastic wedges is if you hit them with the saw, you’re not gonna hurt the blade. Now that all the trees are down, we just need to clean everything up. This Stihl Farm Boss is the perfect size saw for doing jobs like this, it has tons of power and it’s not so heavy that you get tired from running it all day. Here you can see I got my saw pinched- that’s why it’s always good to have at least two chainsaws when you’re doing a job like this. That way you can cut the other one out, but I only own one chain saw. So, I decided to use the Ventrac to see if I could either lift up on the log or push down on it to get the saw un-pinched. Moving these logs around with the Ventrac was a lot of fun and I was really impressed with how high I could stack them. I’m thinking to rent a chipper and chip up this brush. It would make some good mulch that we could put down for all the subcontractors to park on while we’re building the house. It’s also a good idea to put mulch around the foundation of a new house. Before the gutters are installed, water can run off the roof and splatter mud up on the brick or siding. I was really impressed at this point- look how this little tractor pushed up the pile of logs like nothing. That’s it, all done and time to load the tractor. We got this mess cleaned up in a couple hours. We’re going to be building a new house in this spot soon, and we’re planning to show the entire process. Make sure to subscribe so you don’t miss out. @hausplans #build #howto #construction #diy #contractor #ventrac #tractor #tools