Pulled a giant white oak down last Wednesday and the hinge broke too early

I was taking down a 30 inch white oak near Albany, had my notch and back cut set perfect, but the hinge snapped when it was only halfway through its fall. Lucky nobody got hurt but the tree landed on a shed and tore it up. Anyone else have a hinge failure like this and figure out what went wrong?

2 comments

2 Comments

margaretw414d ago

Oh man, that's a scary situation. A 30 inch oak coming down wrong is nothing to mess with, glad you're okay. Sometimes those big oaks can have hidden cracks or rot deep inside that you just can't see until it's too late.

johnthompson4d ago

That Albany oak probably had a hollow or soft spot in the middle you just didn't see. I've cut a lot of trees in the Adirondacks and a solid 30 inch white oak should hold a hinge way better than that. More often than not when a hinge blows early it's because the tree was rotten inside or someone misjudged the lean and put the back cut too deep. Maybe check your notch angle too, a 70 degree notch with too shallow a face can snap a hinge on a heavy leaner. I'd bet the shed was just the unlucky target of a tree that was gonna fail anyway.