Pretty scary, but good outcome

[Lil Foot]

 

[JohnDB]

Wow, extraordinary. Thank goodness you are OK.

 

[jkrubi12]

'Dodged a bullet on that one' ..... Understatement of the year! Wow!

Nice removal! Did the ROPS get smashed?

The video brings the reality of that incident in a way that the story just wouldn't do...

Amazing that no one got hurt, and even more amazing that the tractor appears practically undamaged.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

ROPS is fine, top section isn't ON the tractor, not even the nuts and bolts.....
guy must be a great sawyer....wearing shorts, no earplugs.

 

[woodman55]

Even if it is green, to see your tractor get smashed in front of your eyes, makes for a very bad day.

 

[torch]

First he was almost killed. Then he made up for it by almost maiming himself and his helper. More than once. This is how Darwin Awards are won.

He just jumped in with the chainsaw without any clear plan, cutting the wrong end to start. You can actually hear him realize the repercussions at about 2:30 when he says "<sigh> I've done it now".

IMHO: He should have stepped back, taken a deep breath and planned things out in advance, considering the effects that changing the centre of balance would have on stability and what additional stabilization might be required to compensate. (Maybe something more than teetering the remaining trunk on a dead branch?) Then assembled all the required equipment before jumping in with a chainsaw and safety shorts.

All in all, it brings to mind the phrase "Power tools are perfectly safe, until you forget how dangerous they really are." Same can be said of tractors and chainsaws.

 

[Pawnee]

Looks like he was not in the seat when the tree fell?

 

[torch]

He says in the video he was clearing out brush beside the tree. There's a lot of brush lying horizontally on the ground to the left of the tree, suggesting the tractor may have been just parked there while he was using the chainsaw. Either that or he jumped and ran like a raped ape.

 

[Geezer3d]

That looks like a white ash based on the sections with bark that I could see. It appears to have been dead long enough for the stump to come free from the roots.

I don't understand why the ROPS was removed on that tractor. It may have saved the tractor from the little damage it suffered and probably would have saved the operator's life if he had been on the tractor when the tree came down.

There was a professional excavator killed in my town last year when a tree unexpectedly fell on him while he was walking around looking over a job.

The Emerald ash borer came through my part of the country and killed most of the white ash a few years ago and I have some big ones which are standing dead and could come down like that one did. I took down the ones which were easy to drop and I am very careful about working near the others until I get a chance to take them down.

 

[D2Cat]

First he was almost killed. Then he made up for it by almost maiming himself and his helper. More than once. This is how Darwin Awards are won.

He just jumped in with the chainsaw without any clear plan, cutting the wrong end to start. You can actually hear him realize the repercussions at about 2:30 when he says "<sigh> I've done it now".

IMHO: He should have stepped back, taken a deep breath and planned things out in advance, considering the effects that changing the centre of balance would have on stability and what additional stabilization might be required to compensate. (Maybe something more than teetering the remaining trunk on a dead branch?) Then assembled all the required equipment before jumping in with a chainsaw and safety shorts.

All in all, it brings to mind the phrase "Power tools are perfectly safe, until you forget how dangerous they really are." Same can be said of tractors and chainsaws.

I agree with what you posted and was wondering about his process as he picked up his saw. Then his helper holding/stabilizing the end one handed with a yoked limb. I wonder what he learned from this experience!

 

[minthral]

lol sorry but I gotta say 'idiot.' Who parks their tractor near a dead tree and also removes ROPS. The chainsaw use and other stuff screams 'i dunno what i'm doing.' That tree was so ready to fall years ago based on the stump.

This can't be at the OP because it's a green tractor...1025r with a tiny backhoe.

To be fair...ROPS are not FOPS...Even if ROPS were up, they are not designed to stop a tree. Though they are designed to support the weight of the tractor which in this case probably was less than the tree (1025r weights less than 2k LB), the fall of the object would change the geometry of things, possibly leading to more damage.

 

[skeets]

I hope he went and bought lottery tickets !

 

[Mark_BX25D]

ROPS is fine, top section isn't ON the tractor, not even the nuts and bolts.....
guy must be a great sawyer....wearing shorts, no earplugs.

Great sawyer, or a complete idiot.

I know which way I'm betting. He's one of those, "I have no clue, but I'm just gonna do stuff until somethin' happens,. Maybe it'll be a good thing." kind of guys.

And he probably thinks he's just the cat's meow. Something about the Dunning-Krueger effect comes to mind.

 

[PaulR]

as above.
I dont get it either. lots of q's
video is 99% dude cutting a tree off his tractor.
Glad the OP is not dead.

 

[ctfjr]

That's gonna leave some scratches tho. . .

 

[RCW]

Great sawyer, or a complete idiot.

I know which way I'm betting. He's one of those, "I have no clue, but I'm just gonna do stuff until somethin' happens,. Maybe it'll be a good thing." kind of guys.

And he probably thinks he's just the cat's meow. Something about the Dunning-Krueger effect comes to mind.

Yeah, there's WHOLE bunch of things I wouldn't have done with the saw.

Apparently it worked for him, but could have gone south real quick.

 

[Flintknapper]

he probably thinks he's just the cat's meow. Something about the Dunning-Krueger effect comes to mind.

^^^^^

I think Dirty Harry said it best: "A Man's Got To Know His Limitations"

 

[NCL4701]

And he probably thinks he's just the cat's meow. Something about the Dunning-Krueger effect comes to mind.

Thanks for the Dunning-Krueger reference. I’ve run across numerous folks for whom that was definitely applicable, possibly myself a time or two, but didn’t have any term for it aside from vernacular phrases.

I know personally, sometimes I exceed my competence at a task because I overestimate my competence/underestimate the task. More often it’s because I don’t have any viable alternatives. One thing that’s very consistent about the times where I’m taking a swing at whatever after what I believe to be adequate research/training: I do NOT video my first attempts.

 

[lugbolt]

was a local guy, a professional arborist, had something similar happen. Totaled the tractor. Almost totaled him too but he's still around. Saw him last Wednesday, still cuttin trees for a living.

 

[Mark_BX25D]

One thing that’s very consistent about the times where I’m taking a swing at whatever after what I believe to be adequate research/training: I do NOT video my first attempts.

Yeah, you got that right!


It's amazing to me what people will post as a brag, when it clearly shows their own incompetence. Tree cutting, tractor work, you name it. Even car crash videos - it's not rare to see someone with a dash cam submit something with commentary about the other bad driver, when it's either clearly the fault of the cammer, or it's an accident the cammer could have and should have avoided.