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Cats moving 500,000 lb oak

DPete

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2007
Messages
1,677
Location
Central Ca.
Now the tree huggers can hug, wonder what the bill was? Cool vid and pretty good they can move that big of a tree without a wreck. Had to be a little scary on the dozers under the umbrella
 

caterpillarRy

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Joined
Sep 26, 2012
Messages
87
Location
massachusetts
uh i dont think they understand you can pull more with a dozer if its goin forwards and that excavators are not meant to push or to pull things
 

OzDozer

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Jan 18, 2007
Messages
2,207
Location
Perth, Western Australia.
Occupation
Semi-Retired ..
Yeah, I'm a little puzzled as to why they used such a mish-mash of machines, in that odd manner, to move the tree along. Maybe it was all they had available at the time?
Interesting to see how they lifted the tree straight up with cranes. Not a lot of people know, that a tree can be popped out the ground, easy as, with a direct vertical lift.
You can try pushing a tree down, and it'll fight you all the way. The reason being, that tree roots are designed to hold a tree upright, and resist wind forces - but there's nothing in the root system to stop a tree from being lifted straight up, vertically.
 

390eric

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Joined
Feb 24, 2009
Messages
274
Location
pittsburgh PA
just wondering why every machine was running in reverse. Probably could have just got away with two dozers if they went forwad with them.
 

ben46a

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 11, 2007
Messages
773
Location
Waverley NS/Fort Mac AB
The only thing I can figure.... Is that they ran the cables over the blade to try and get some lift on the front of the tree to help it slide.
 

X Quad Operator

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Joined
Jun 29, 2011
Messages
112
Location
Washington St
g_man, working down in California moving the big old Oak trees is pretty common, one day at lunch where we parked our cars, on an Ebensteiner job, we had a finish slope that we cut must of been a 20 foot 1 1/2 to 1, we were sitting there eating and I looked over, there was the top of this tree moving by, I'd be willing to bet the top of the tree was a good 10, 15 feet taller than the top of the 20 foot slope. At first I thought it was one of those fantastic California earth quakes, but it turned out 4 or 5 D10 were pulling it. What a neat allusion that was, Thanks for sharing that video. Mike Nebergall
 

Seabass

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Joined
Sep 5, 2011
Messages
78
Location
Canada
I still think a chainsaw would have been the fasted way to remove it..:D
 

Colorado Digger

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 3, 2008
Messages
1,169
Location
Carbondale,co
Why does everyone have to bag on moving a big tree? I think it is awesome, who cares what iron the used and how they did it. They got it done, right?
 

Buckethead

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 4, 2007
Messages
1,055
Location
Waterfront
Occupation
Operator
Why does everyone have to bag on moving a big tree? I think it is awesome, who cares what iron the used and how they did it. They got it done, right?

Yep. The job got done, apparently it didn't take forever and no one got hurt, nothing was damaged.
 

Buckethead

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Apr 4, 2007
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Waterfront
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Yeah, I'm a little puzzled as to why they used such a mish-mash of machines, in that odd manner, to move the tree along. Maybe it was all they had available at the time?
I am thinking maybe that the tree-moving contractor rented the machines w/operator from the contractor already working there? Instead of mobilizing a whole spread of their own.
 

Vantage_TeS

Senior Member
Joined
May 28, 2008
Messages
495
Location
Calgary, Alberta
Occupation
HE Operator. Surprise?
just wondering why every machine was running in reverse. Probably could have just got away with two dozers if they went forwad with them.

I am actually fairly impressed they managed to get every single machine's U/C completely backwards, and have as much force possible in the opposite direction ever intended on a blade. At least if the dozers were going forward they would only have the force of the excavator pulling on the blade! I'm surprised they didn't rip one of the blades off. Also the way the high track system is designed it pivots to deliver maximum traction to the ground. In forward. It does the opposite in reverse...
 
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JDOFMEMI

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2007
Messages
3,074
Location
SoCal
My thoughts exactly V-TeS. I could not believe that every machine was used in a way that lessened its ability.

It is nice to see a tree, or anything else that size moved successfully, but it seems it could have been moved with less drama. Maybe they did it that way to show just how hard it was and justify the high price???

One dozer behind it, pushing, and one in front pulling and it would have probably gotten moved just as easily.
 

Buckethead

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Apr 4, 2007
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The only thing I can figure.... Is that they ran the cables over the blade to try and get some lift on the front of the tree to help it slide.

I'll buy that. That's probably why they were going in reverse. I don't know why they didn't have the track hoes going forward, though. Guess they had their reasons.
 
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Buckethead

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Apr 4, 2007
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Waterfront
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Operator
But really, its still some friggin hard on gear. I was waiting for a blade cylinder to fail.

I know. But when the winning bid was read, my name was not on it. Their name was, so they did it the way they wanted to do it. Apropos of a big tree move here's a link to a nursery that grows big trees. http://www.halkanursery.com/ They use loaders to pick up the rootball of the trees in the buckets. I've never been inside the place, but when I drive by there sometimes I see an early Cat 992 with no cab parked there.
 
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