What is the most bonehead mishaps you have seen in logging?

[beenthere]

For certain I wouldn't ask the cameraman to make a video for me.

The rest may have been just for show. Call it "reality".

[shelbycharger400]

i tell ya what...after words were said,     
only one would be walkin out of the woods.   

[John Mc]

That's not the one I saw, but roughly the same idea.

The one I saw the guy had the cable tied up high, and started maybe 30 feet from the stump. He just started driving. Once the tree started coming down (straight at him), he would turn 90° to get out of the path. The skidder was moving along at a pretty good clip. On the last tree, he didn't make it out of the way. Since he was further out from the stump, the tree was moving pretty good when it hit the skidder. Did some significant damage, if I recall.

[thecfarm]

I think that is pretty stupid and than some.

[clww]

No, I would not have him working for me. Playing with too much fire there! Somebody is going to get burned up.

[MJD]

Well the only ones ive seen were mine, always worked alone. I was taking my skid steer to a landing to pile logs, it was a real small landing. I parked the pick-up and trailer on the road which was slightly down hill, calked the back tires( thats the stupid part)and started backing the skid steer off the trailer when the back tires of the pick-up came off the ground and were rolling the truck and trailer jack knife in the road with me still in the skid steer. A good thing no damage except pride. #2 felled a couple ash trees and were topping them, I noticed a 6 maybe 7" springpole and started taking the presure off but failed to see how it was wedged in a few trees, the next thing i know i get wacked in the hip and fly for 10 feet, picked up the saw and called it a good day, I didnt die. Im sure I will think off a few more.MD

[Woodchuck53]

WOW. Very infomative guys. I cut alone all the time and use cable's to pull suspect trees away from house, power lines and other things. I hope I have used good judgement on these things as I feel I am still learning. Thanks for the read and lessons learned.

The only thing I can add to the list is a friend gave me a new Homelite XL12 a few years ago because he new I had a spare saw I take to the woods with me. It seems after a hunt he and his dad are going to cut a load of camp wood and had two saws working. He decided to help his dad and sat his down on a stump. Yep they took aim on the stump and got it. I had a lot of spare parts for my saw. His wife wouldn't let him buy another. Stay safe. Chuck

[WDH]

I was with one of my field Foresters one day to go see one of his contract logging jobs cutting timber on our Company land.  We were instituting some new environmental and safety standards, so everyone was a little on edge, as I, the Boss, was going to the woods to check things out.  When we got there, my Forester told me that, "You might not like what you see."  So we got there, wood was being cut, skidded, de-limbed, and loaded.  We heard a shout and saw that the fellerbuncher was smoking.  A minute later, it was on fire.  The operator tried to put the fire out with the water tank on the machine that was there for exactly that purpose.  It was empty.

They called for the skidder to come over and spray out the fire using the skidder's water tank.  The skidder got there, but its water tank was also empty.  Now the fire is really getting going.  As this was going on, at the landing, the loader operator was loading a truck.  There was a guy topping and de-limbing trees on the deck.  The loader operator swung a log around and it smacked the saw-man on the side of the head, and he was down with a head injury.  Called 911.  By now the $250,000 fellerbuncher is burning up.  Plus, now the woods are on fire.  Called the Forestry Commission.  They dispatched a fire-plow tractor to come and plow out the fire.  The Ambulance comes and takes the saw-man to the hospital.  The fellerbuncher, it totally burned up.  The Forestry Commission got the woods fire contained.

We left the site and as we were driving out, I turned and said, "You were right."

True story.

[MJD]

This one came to mind, same site as the spring pole, 2years later. Site is a huge swamp, with very nice soft maple/ash, big stuff(cut/skid a load a day with 1/2 mile skid) it was mid january and I needed to get a couple tracks in the swamp to get it froze in, I got almost to the lake where I needed to clear all trees with somthing in them from this point when the front tires broke through then the back and sat right down on the belly pan well its only getting deeper the more I tried to get out, so I pulled the cable and hooked it to the base of a tree and pulled that tree over onto the skidder (440c), so now I got a tree on the skidder stuck in the swamp. After cleaning that tree up the 2nd tree held in the ground and was able to winch myself out.

[MJD]

This Boneheaded one is pulling trees away from mink buildings, the mink farm wanted to clear for more sheds, I got to log the whole woods in exchange for removing the trees leaning over the buildings where they wanted to add mink sheds( most leaners were cottonwood), had 2 trees left to pull so backed the skidder to a 16" cottonwood stood on the arch to get the cable up as high as I could, pulled away and put some tension on the tree. Started to notch the tree  and o cr*p its rotten on the bottom, before I even got the notch done the bottom broke loose and crushed the fence and landed on the building. The farm owner was ok with it as the fence was coming down and the building was empty and was going to be re-tined anyway. The last tree I paid to be topped($500) because it was 40" and it could of reached more than one building. Still made out real good as the woods held nice oak and walnut.

[Ken]

I'm glad to see that I am not the only one who has seen (or done) some bonehead things while at work.  I too have run over saws, upset machinery, broke things as well as many other stupid things over the years. 

[Maine372]

a guy i worked for off and on had a brilliant idea one time. he would drop the tree, drive around to the top of it, put the blade down and drive up it breaking limbs off. all he ended up with was a radiator full of branches and repair bill.

[treejoe]

I wedged a tree to hook it around this ladies trailer. It didn't want to hook and after looking at it closly it was caught by another tree. so to the truck i went to push it over. I left the truck in nutral, got out to move my saw. When i got back in i decided to push the tree from another angle. So 1 click down with the shifter for reverse, punch the excelerator and. . . hit the tree pushing it off the stump and what happends? Landed right on the cap.

I skint the side of a tree to drop it so the branckes wouldn't hit the house. Well the TV tower had a bent pole on it and when i dropped it . . . it hit the pole up top, twisted on the stump and took the overhang off the guys house. I missed the flagpole though. . Latter the guy had me take down 3 more for him. He told me "19 years and only hit one house is a prity good track record."