Using a Bottle Jack to Push Over Trees

[Does’ Leap]

After hearing about Traveling Woodsman’s idea of using a bottle jack to push over trees, I took the idea and ran with it. I find pounding wedges (within reason) to be tiresome and time consuming. After a day of frozen pine spitting out my wedges, I bought a 12 ton jack and welded a plate on the top so as not to compress the wood. I used ¼ flat stock and promptly bent it jacking over a large pine. I welded on another ¼ inch plate (to make ½” total) and that seems to be holding. I also welded some small bits of scrap steel on the face of the steel plate to prevent the jack from kicking out.

I use the Game of Logging plunge cutting system. If I find myself (or anticipate) that I am going to bury my first set of wedges without being able to tip the tree, I will use the jack instead of cutting shims and pounding more wedges. Here’s what I do: I cut notch, plunge through the tree to set my hinge thickness, and cut toward the back of the tree on the “danger” or leaning side. I then set a wedge and cut a space for the jack and pump it up so it is putting upward pressure on the tree. I then plunge my saw on the good side and move back toward the rear of the tree setting my trigger. I usually set a wedge on my good side and then cut my trigger. Now I start jacking. I jack up the tree a couple of inches, then set my wedges. If my jack fails or gets spit out, I want the wedges to hold the tree. Thankfully, I am only tapping the wedges in to match the height of the jack not pounding the heck out of them like usual. I have shims on hand for when the jack height is greater than the wedges. Then I just keep jacking and setting wedges until the tree falls.

In my experience, the big advantage of using a jack over pounding wedges is it takes considerably less effort and less time then wedging over back-leaners and the like. I have also used the jack to push over trees that were slightly hung up on the crown of their neighbor. One disadvantage of the jack is that it is heavy to be hauling around the woods (13 lbs). Another disadvantage is that you can lose footage on your but log. In the worst case scenario, I lose about 8″-9″. This is a minimal amount of money for softwood, but I might think twice about jacking over a veneer tree. If you are cutting on a hill, you can use the change in elevation to your advantage and not lose anything (see picture above). Lastly, I just purchased a 20 ton jack b/c I found I was maxing out the 12 ton on some larger hemlock.

I am farmer that does some logging – on the order of 20 mbf of sawlogs and 25 cords of wood yearly. I don’t have a fraction of the experience of Carl, Scott, Taylor et al., so take my experience with a grain of salt. Perhaps others can chime in regarding the potential effectiveness and safety of this approach.

George

[Big Horses]

I learned that trick from a couple of the old timers here that used to do the fire patrol in the summers for the State of Montana. We had a big Larch snag that got struck by lightning one night, so they came out to help us get it put out before it spread. It was leaning hard the wrong way to go away from a fence, so we were prepared to take the wires down and just drop it to take care of the problem…. One of the guys started sawing into it, just as you did, and the other one came back with a small hydraulic jack with a plate on it (almost identical to yours) and stuck it in the notch (just as you did) and over it went the “right” way…. problem solved! Needless to say, I was impressed!
John

[goodcompanion]

That is really nifty.

[Jay]

Thanks for the pictures. They are wonderfully illustrative. Jay

[Traveling Woodsman]

Yeah that’s pretty much how I do it. I think the plates I use are 3/4″, definitely need thick so it doesn’t bend. The other thing I am looking into is making a pivoting plate with some kind of textured/grabbing surface so that when you have to jack a long ways it won’t try to break the plate off, which I’ve had happen several times.

You definitely need shims, I usually use 2 wedges stacked on each other. My 20 ton lo-profile jack also has the screw-out head on it with 3-4″ of stroke.

The pictures pretty much show how I do it, except maybe a few details. I always have the jack as far into the the stump as I can go to reduce the effect it has on butt log length, like George mentioned. That is also why I like the low-profile jack. In the one picture it shows the jack entirely in the butt log, which I try to avoid, and it may have been necessary on that tree. But usually you can get by with less than that.

And you do have to consider the effect that the notch would have on log value. Like George said, unless it was on a hill, you would probably not want to use this jack method on a veneer log. It’s just another little trick that is not used in every situation, but is really handy where it can be applied.

Have fun jacking!

[Tim Harrigan]

@Traveling Woodsman 24086 wrote:

The other thing I am looking into is making a pivoting plate with some kind of textured/grabbing surface so that when you have to jack a long ways it won’t try to break the plate off, which I’ve had happen several times.

Would it be adequate to just weld a collar on the plate to slip over the jack? That would allow it to move without breaking the weld but it would not slip out. And if you did not need the plate you could just leave it.

[Big Horses]

That’s what I’ve done, Tim. I don’t use the jack for only trees, so I’ve got a plate with a steel tube welded to it, that just slips over the jack stem.
John

[Traveling Woodsman]

Yeah you could but then you would sacrifice having a short jack, because the collar would have to have something to fit over, which makes the whole rig taller. Most of the time I cut the smallest notch I can fit the completely lowered jack in, which helps cut down on the effect it has on the butt log. And I always use the plate, it’s not in the way for anything else I use it for, like jacking vehicles or buildings. I’m sure there might be some situations where the plate might be in the way, but I keep a number of jacks around with different capacities, heights and speeds to match the situation. I need a jack optimized for trees.

[Tim Harrigan]

I noticed that TSC has 12 ton bottle jacks for sale this month for $25, regular price is $40. I think I will get one and jack over a couple of dying ash just for grins.

[Does’ Leap]

Tim, let us know how it goes. I killed my 12 ton jack, so be careful not to overload:eek:.

George

[Tim Harrigan]

How big was the tree? What kind of tree was it? When you say be careful, is that because I may break the jack, or is there danger that the jack will collapse and I will be in danger?

[Does’ Leap]

I meant be careful you might break the jack. You should back up your jack with wedges just in case. I don’t have a clear recollection of when the jack died. It had diminishing lifting capacity until there was none at all. I have been cutting hemlock up to 26″ dbh.

George

[bburgess]

George,

While you may have overloaded your jack, if it is of Chinese manufacturing then the jack itself may be the reason it slowly quit. I’ve purchased a few things from Harbor Freight and other such companies, and a lot of their equipment will be duds to start with. This may not be the case, but I thought I’d throw it out there. It sounds like the seal just blew. You should be able to rebuild it.

I really enjoyed your pictures.

Keep up the good work,

Ben

[Author]

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