Dead Trees

[Grizzly]

Hey guys,

It may be obvious but always remember never to winch off a dead tree. We found out why just last weekend.

If you have a read the thread on the Springs4x4 park forum meet up you'll find that Bigrig's tank was turned into an ambulance to ferry out 'old mate who pulled a dead tree down ontop of him whilst using a hand winch during a recovery. This was a huge tree as well (atleast 1 metre in diameter), but once it was down you could see it was hollow. Could have easily killed him.

Make sure you check that any tree you want to winch off is alive, has a decent root footing in the ground, and isn't damaged or infested with termites.

[Maxhead]

Good info, cheers mate

[macca]

They are buggers of things those trees, a few months back near here a bloke had one fall on his car and kill him during a storm and recently another was sheltering from a storm in QLD and a branch fell and killed him. You just can not be too careful.
They self prune or simply fall over at the most unfortunate times.
We have pulled heathy trees down with a winch as the ground has been so wet and is poor soil to start with.
We had the protectors right on the ground as well.
Luckily we saw them start to go and no one was hurt.

[AB]

When I was about 6 years old we were in a big convoy heading into wanangatta. Long story short someone winched off a massive dead tree and I was infront making bark canoes as you do and the tree came down and scraped my forehead.

Would have killed me instantly. My dad was distraught for years for not paying attention and I think from that moment on he stopped taking the family on the more extreme 4wd trips.