85' JLG Straight boom reserved...

Tornado

Well-known member
May 7, 2019
793
254
63
usa
To any who may be interested...For the 3rd time now in the past 2 years, I'm renting the good ol straight boom yet again....to take down yet another dead pine tree. This time however, I have declared war on the pine trees. Any pine tree within striking distance of the house is coming down. That means about 14 trees will need to come down, and possibly 2 or 3 others. I am so not looking forward to it. The cleanup will be a pain. Thankfully this time I will have the tractor to help me move all the logs to the burn pile. These are all loblolly pine trees, I'm pretty sure (could be slash as well). Ill share a picture below of a loblolly that looks just like the ones I'm taking down for any who may not be familiar with these big trees.

This will be my first time using the 85 foot straight Boom. The prior 2 rentals were the 65 foot boom. The 65 was already so heavy it cut deep ruts in the yard. I expect the 85 will be even worse. The weight difference is several thousand pounds heavier. I looked up the difference in weight 2 weeks ago but don't recall it now. All of the 65 foot booms were out, and not scheduled to be back on the rental lot I was told for several weeks. The 85 foot will actually serve me better for what I'm doing, as many of these trees are around 75 foot tall, and I need to literally go to the top due to their proximity to the house and such. I will have to take them all down in about 6 foot pieces or so and just work my way down on each tree. I will have a mountain of logs - big, heavy logs, when I'm done. The trees that are 30-50 feet away from the house or so I am planning to just bring them about half way down and move on to the next one. I may leave several stumps sitting up 30 to 40 feet high where I can, and come back later to cut them down and clean up. This should help me minimize the volume of wood and cleanup to some degree.

I will try to post some pictures before and after if I get time, and if there is some interest. I know I always like reading other folks little projects like this on the forum.

 

Tughill Tom

Well-known member

Equipment
B3200
Dec 23, 2013
1,217
1,345
113
Turin, NY
85Ft straight boom? Or is it an articulated stick?
Please use a proper Safety Harness and Lanyard to be tied into that rig, I've seen the results of not and it didn't end well and at a way lower height.
Good luck and post up those pic's!
 

fruitcakesa

Well-known member

Equipment
M 6040
Oct 26, 2010
856
270
63
Cavendish Vermont
To any who may be interested...For the 3rd time now in the past 2 years, I'm renting the good ol straight boom yet again....to take down yet another dead pine tree. This time however, I have declared war on the pine trees. Any pine tree within striking distance of the house is coming down. That means about 14 trees will need to come down, and possibly 2 or 3 others. I am so not looking forward to it. The cleanup will be a pain. Thankfully this time I will have the tractor to help me move all the logs to the burn pile. These are all loblolly pine trees, I'm pretty sure (could be slash as well). Ill share a picture below of a loblolly that looks just like the ones I'm taking down for any who may not be familiar with these big trees.

This will be my first time using the 85 foot straight Boom. The prior 2 rentals were the 65 foot boom. The 65 was already so heavy it cut deep ruts in the yard. I expect the 85 will be even worse. The weight difference is several thousand pounds heavier. I looked up the difference in weight 2 weeks ago but don't recall it now. All of the 65 foot booms were out, and not scheduled to be back on the rental lot I was told for several weeks. The 85 foot will actually serve me better for what I'm doing, as many of these trees are around 75 foot tall, and I need to literally go to the top due to their proximity to the house and such. I will have to take them all down in about 6 foot pieces or so and just work my way down on each tree. I will have a mountain of logs - big, heavy logs, when I'm done. The trees that are 30-50 feet away from the house or so I am planning to just bring them about half way down and move on to the next one. I may leave several stumps sitting up 30 to 40 feet high where I can, and come back later to cut them down and clean up. This should help me minimize the volume of wood and cleanup to some degree.

I will try to post some pictures before and after if I get time, and if there is some interest. I know I always like reading other folks little projects like this on the forum.

75 foot long stemmed pines like that should have some decent saw logs in them.
 

Tornado

Well-known member
May 7, 2019
793
254
63
usa
85Ft straight boom? Or is it an articulated stick?
Please use a proper Safety Harness and Lanyard to be tied into that rig, I've seen the results of not and it didn't end well and at a way lower height.
Good luck and post up those pic's!
Yes it is the straight boom. It works better for trees than the articulated boom. The 1st time I rented the lift I didnt use any safety equipment, but I hardly went over about 50 feet. The 2nd time I rented it I had to take down one of these pines and I went and bought a harness and everything. I have a phobia of heights, so I get a little squirmish every time I get up in this lift. I move slowly and and careful to be very deliberate with every move I make. I even put ply wood down on the floor of the bucket because the floor is nothing but expanded metal, and I dont like the see-through floor lol. With a solid floor it takes the fear factor down a little. But yes, I will be in a harness and lanyard. Really the only way to really hurt yourself in this is to make a bad cut on the tree. This is why I need to go to the very tippy top of these pines. My biggest fear is cutting too low and then the top falling back on top of me in the bucket with me 60 feet in the air. You can elimiate this risk if you swallow your fear and just go higher, cut higher, take the top out. After about 4 cuts Im able to come down to a height where I feel more secure. At 70 feet in the bucket I can see our for miles across tree tops. At 50 feet you dont have that same view, and the anxiety levels I find for me at 50 and then at 70 feet are vastly different. I try to focus just on the tree and the cutting I'm doing and not look around.

75 foot long stemmed pines like that should have some decent saw logs in them.
They 100% do Fruit. I don't have a saw mill though, and the only objective here is to save my roof and house from a future catastrophe. There is nothing worse that could fall on a house than a pine tree like this. I've seen aftermath of pines falling on houses down here after hurricanes or bad storms. It often goes right through the roof, through the walls, all the way down to the ground, and cuts the house in two. They are so big and heavy, and they have no branches to break the fall like most hardwoods would have. Its like a guillotine coming down. I will be taking them down in 5 or 6 foot cuts as I come down.


I'm really not looking forward to this weekend. I get a little anxious just thinking about it. I think its the whole heights thing that does it. Knowing I've got to go that high for a 3rd time and this time, I need to do it about 14 times rather than just 2 or 3. Its one of those jobs I want to do it and just get it over with.
 

Tornado

Well-known member
May 7, 2019
793
254
63
usa
Too bad they don't rent one of these.


boy does that make it look so easy, especially time lapsed like that. The only benefit to dealing with these big pines is that there isnt near the cleanup involved as there would be with a dozen big hard woods. The cleanup will mostly be just moving a ton of heavy logs. There are very few actual branches, and they are only on the top 25% of the tree.
 
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Tornado

Well-known member
May 7, 2019
793
254
63
usa
Well I survived. Job is done. Got 4 good days of work on this project friday-monday. The rental company dropped it off around 12pm Friday, so I basically got half of Friday, and all of Saturday and Sunday for essentially a one day rate charge on the machine. Grand total when its all done is around $700 for the 85' if anyone is curious. Several Thousands of dollars cheaper than paying a tree crew to do everything I did this weekend.

Ended up taking down 24 trees. a good 8 to 10 more than planned. I was making such great time mid day Saturday, and my gosh was the weather perfect here in Florida! The high Saturday was 71 degrees, and it was cloudy with a little breeze. Just perfect weather to do this job. Its typically still in the 90's here - first cold front made it through and we really got a taste of fall here this weekend. The breeze helped keep the fire really pumping hot as well. I also decided to take down 3 water oaks while I was at it, so that added to the cleanup a lot. Its easy to get carried away when up in that thing. Its really easy to make a mess down below you while you just find more and more to cut. The L2501 was a workhorse at cleaning it up, pushing piles, stacking the logs, and keeping the fire piles pushed and tight. Such a stark difference to last time I rented the lift and cut down a bunch of trees - that time I had no tractor, and done it all by hand with a chainsaw. I done more cleanup in a few hours sunday in the seat of the tractor than It took me 4 days by hand previous - and I didnt kill myself to do it. I should have bought a tractor a long time ago.