Uprooting a tree using a 45 to 1 pulley system 

What is your equipment rated and what is the weakest link?

here after destin's snatch block

_”Give me a lever long enough, and I will yank a big-ass tree outa the ground”_ Archimedes “Bubba” McSyracuse

Purchased this to replace a guide pulley ru-vid.comUgkxO9seYZjlnuP5UvMkb7osQW3WxPVeSnPk on our John Deere x304 snowblower. As I stated in the title, it is just about perfect. The stock pulley has a spacer at the bottom. I used four washers to emulate said spacer, and it works perfectly now. Great product, and great price especially if compared to typical JD prices.

The squeeking is either some unhappy ball bearings in one of them pulleys, or the tree urgently exclaiming that it never got an an eviction notice and doesn't recognise the law of man.

Did anyone else think he was gonna pull it by hand?

The amount of lateral force that trunk sustains while not snapping off, is amazing.

Why am I watching this, I don’t even own a tree

Guy must have watched SmarterEveryDay.

I'll be honest, I was kind of disappointed when he fired up the engine to pull that trunk. I was half expecting him to just pull a rope by hand or something

Very impressive, the ropes you used must be very strong. I had some education at military school in the 1960’s, about blocks, tackle, multiplied force etc, with regard to moving cargo and supplies on ships. The man who taught all this was an ex WWII navy commander, and he warned us about making sure that the breaking strain of cables was not exceeded. To illustrate this, he recounted how, on another ship, a mis-calculation had led to a cable breaking while lifting a heavy load, and the whiplash of the broken end cut a sailor clean in half.

Looks like a “Final destination” moment waiting to happen.

“Let’s see what happens” Spoken like a true man

That works until you meet a tree that has a 45-1 root system.

Makes you really appreciate how strong those orcs in Lord of the Rings must have been....

When the tree finally gave up he was at least 60 miles from home...😜😜

Hello 911, I was sitting in my kitchen when a red block and tackle with 6' of chain came through my front door, down the hall, hit the TV and landed out on my back deck.

Bravo! Work smart, not hard. Looks like it was fun to engineer. I know from experience that flooding the area with water will make your job go faster. You also end up pulling up less dirt.

I rooted for the guy but fell for the tree.

Lots of ropes and pulleys. Love it. The only thing you could have added to make it better would be more cowbell.

the best example of work smarter and not harder i have ever seen 👍🏼

An excellent example of mechanical advantage. This old woodsman agrees about removing those roods. Thanks for the nice video. It was very enjoyable, Scott.

Scott,,I read all of the reply’s. It amasses me at the number of people that will watch a man perform a work of his choosing,,get the results he anticipated and yet condemn him for NOT performing the work by their method of choice. Unbelievable!! Congrats on a job well done. I was intrigued and entertained. Thanks for the video!

Nice demonstration on the how pulleys can be used to increase mechanical advantage. I was questioning why you would spend so much time doing this when it would have been so much quicker to cut and and grind the stump and then I read your comment. I agree, not getting it all out would have come back to haunt you 5 or 10 years down the line so good choice and nice pulley demo.

Wow...you should show this whole setup in step by step detail. Amazing!!!

My Old Grandad taught me this principle 60 years ago. He used the term "Block and Tackle" Worked then, works now! Great video, really enjoyed, Thank you.

I can use this system for some of the weeds in my yard. thanks

This guy is wild!! Had my safety squints on the whole time! Great content 🍻😎👍

When I saw 45 to 1 I thought WOW this guy is gonna pull it down by hand! Very cool

Archimedes once said: "Give me a long enough lever and a place to stand, and I will move the Earth." This guy responded: "Give me enough pulleys and a place to string them, and I will do the same."

I was rooting for the tree

Hahaha! This is awesome because this is exactly the sort of thing I love! For years in my workplace (transmission line work) I have been a great proponent of the use of mechanical advantage utilising ropes and blocks, performing all manner of miracles from vehicle recovery to conductor stringing, recovery and transfer etc., to the amazement of the younger members of the crew. Good to see I have some kindred spirits out there! 👍👍👍

Never ceases to amaze me how many applications the wheel has. Probably one of the best basic inventions of man haha

This is basically what my dentist had to do to get my left wisdom tooth out.

What an amazing show of how pulleys can be used

Never ceases to amaze me how tough some of things can be in nature. I tried removing a larger butterfly bush with a 4 ton come along...got to the point I couldn't crank down anymore...didn't budge. I'll have to try a pully system like yours but simpler...it's not nearly as big as this.

This is an Awesome video I did my share of Rigging as an Electrician through the years. Great Job

Sir, I'm a professional arborist. My chainsaw and I thought your method of tree felling was epic. Great video and incredible use of mechanical advantage.

very impressive but I have to point out that I used that very setup on my mother in law and it did not work.

Came for the snatch blocks stayed for the excellent use of PPE. Stay safe!!

Very impressive. Well planned, prepared and executed!!

I have done this same thing about 15 times before. 1. Get an extension ladder and go as high as you can go in the tree. 2. Chain a 12,000 lb snatch block for cables to the tree at that point. 3. dig a small trench around the base of the tree and turn a hose on a slow drip for about a week. 4. Go to Harbor freight and get at least an 8000lb or more winch. maybe a 12, 000 lb if you have the coupon. 5. Strap the winch to the base of another tree in the direction you want it to fall. 6 . jumper cables to a truck or tractor to run the winch. Soaking the ground will greatly reduce the tonnage needed to pull the tree down and reduce the risk of the trunk exploding under the strain. Ever notice how trees just seem to blow over in storms especially when its been raining. This will also leave most of the dirt on the ground and just pull the roots through the mud. I get it why you want pull the stump out too. I had dig footers for a garage and five large trees where in the way. The stumps needed to go.

A good illustration of the strength of force multipliers. Cool video!

WOW !!! I haven't stressed out like this from watching a RU-vid video in a long time, or more likely ever. I was waiting for that pully directly behind you, to break loose and then the credits to start rolling, with condolences from your friends and family. If ever a job called for 3/8's or 5/8's steel cable, it's this one, at least on the rig right behind you.

At about 7:46 I realized that I was tilting my phone to the left trying to help them pull that tree up.

Impressive work, Scott. Thanks for posting this.

I've sort of done this myself: Pressure Washing (13hp, 4000psi) the roots and then pulling tree over. Worked on 80 ft Eastern Spruce. But the trick was: softening the soil with water. (You could have done this while rigging all those pulleys!) Each day, I washed away dirt until the hole filled up with water. The next day the water would be gone, resume, blast, make bigger hold, fill with water, REPEAT next day. I think I had a 2x hooked to my 3/4 ton truck and as I was blasting (my neighbor came over and was watching, said, "It's going..." and it leaned over and uprooted. On trick I use is a follow force: half way along rope, hang a big log. With truck parked, log is 20 ft off ground so when tree starts to go, the log keeps the force on the tree for a fair range of motion. I have a big leaner (95 ft Eastern Spruce) to do but I can let it go where it wants so is PERFECT for the pressure washer!

Great Thinking Job and video! Many thanks for your thorough explanation in your answer in comments. Regards from Florida.

We all thought chainsaws were more practical, but now it's been empirically tested. Cheers!

The tension was killing me...and the tree! Entertainment value rating 45:1 !

Nice demonstration of mechanical advantage. I'm surprised that you ignored the easiest leverage of all--Just tie to the tree as high as possible! I've removed large cottonwood stumps by leaving 30 feet of trunk and tie high on that with a single chain hand winch (rated to 3,000 lbs). With the larger ones, it comes out much easier if you take an axe and cut off the lateral roots to deny the tree of its own leverage. Fun example though. Always be careful when putting heavy tension on rope (or cable, or chain) so it doesn't break at a weak point and send deadly things flying to kill you. Thanks for posting this.

Thank you 2x playback speed for being there when I needed you

I’ve watched this video several times. Just fascinating!

a thousand years from now when scientist dig up your home and see you uprooted a tree, they will say you used ancient alien technology that can't be replicated...

Why am I watching this. I have no interest in uprooting trees.

Preventing the ground from sinking by creating a huge hole. Brilliant!

Great job with over 3M views. It would be nice to have a followup video that details the rigging with a few pointers and some dos-donts. Kinda hard to visual although most of us know it is a compound pulley system. It makes for great instruction to helps others since we know it works and was done without any mishaps.

Pretty cool. I was a Line Foreman for the power company and before that a Tree clearance Foreman. Sets of of 4&4s and 3&3s with proper size snatch blocks and rope and a decent truck and you can conquer a lot of problems . It’s nice to see someone with patience and no know . I dearly miss building power lines and storm recovery work. Great video. Carry ON !

That is some serious mechanical strength you created. Most these commenters have probably never tried to rip a tree out of the ground with a 20k lbs. Machine and had the machine lift off the ground. I have have so I fully understand what you just created here. Enough force to pull a house off a foundation. Well done!

Fantastic display. Thank you for teaching me.

@YankeeDiver....Whether it's a professional tree service, a boatswain mate, the ground crew that works with a construction crane, or your application here, I'm fascinated by guys that know rigging. I find the mix of brain and brawn captivating to watch. Thanks for sharing.

I've done similar work ( to have a tree land exactly) but in between adjusting the pulleys I'd lock the tree in the current position with a solid chain to an anchor so you don't waste any time retracing the rebound.

I just think someone was having way to much fun playing with ropes and pulleys :-)

Wow. I really felt like I shouldn't have been standing right there. Great video. Now I see why you wore the head protection. But eyes man!

- "Dude, can you fell?" - "Fell what?" - "THE TENSION!!"

I pulled a sunken boat on the bank for some people with a similar system in the spillway. Guy amd his wife sunk there surface drive in 42 degree weather. I'm glad I lived out there and was taking a ride. Seen them in the bank with all there things floating. I went got a few snatch blocks and a 3/8s cable I had. Put the snatch blocks on the tree and one in the boat and back to the tree to dead head it. Sucked it right out the water on to the bank. Let the water out the boat. Pulled his plugs and bowl on the carb. Got it all cleaned up with break cleaner and back together. Started right up. Pulled it back in the water and escorted them back to the landing since they where both a lil drunk amd freezing. But all in all this system works wonders.

Would've been funny if the other two trees came up

This is commendable, I salute you! Good work!

I used to be a bo'son mate on a seagoing tug. And I have been an arborist since the '80s. So I wish I were there to help compact this rig. The mass of roots and dirt that came up is called a root ball. I read a lot of comments before someone shared my thought: soaking the root area would have made this a lot easier. Just watch the current hurricane news. Many of those trees fell much easier because of the soaked root zones. And I enjoyed the funny comments too.

Backstory: This is a retake. The first video showed all the anchor point trees being uprooted and the target tree stood its ground.

I was waiting for that tree to snap for so long i forgot to look at the ground to see it being uprooted

Physics is awesome! I bought my first snatch block and I it was like Christmas.

Love it when Engineering works out. Nice job.

Would have been cooler if it was then pulled by hand lol

Pretty cool. I pulled an empty oil tank out of the ground using a similar technique. Rope stretching was an issue, but it worked. Thanks

That was impossible! ......and, yet......??!!?!? You, sir, are Genius AND Impressive. Well done!!!

Glad it didn’t drag the building with it 😂. Cool method. Looks like something I would piecemeal together and tryout 👍

I enjoyed watching that but I can't escape contemplating the choices that led me to this point

This man actually just pulled out an alive strong tree with a lawnmower using a pully

This makes you appreciate the insane power of hydraulic logging equipment

Surprisingly entertaining. Good job

Physics teacher or Engineer? I'm going to guess teacher because an Engineer would have designed in a 5x safety factor that management would have reduced to 1.5x while cutting the budget and imposing an unrealistic deadline.

I've never seen this before=awesome!

I was expecting him to winch it by hand....... But those ropes held up brilliantly..... Very clever system

WAY BETTER than watching PAINT DRY! Great Job.

Any engineer hearing a rope snatches : shivering

Great video! Fun to watch the forces at work. I could be wrong, but my math comes up to 28 to 1. 4 x 2 x 3 + 4. If the lowest anchor on the removed tree would have been attached to the shackle on the green pulley closest to the removed tree, it would have been 36 to 1. 4 x 3 x 3. I am saying 4 to 1 for the purple connection, because it looks like a double sheave pulley, so 4 lines and 4 times the input force from the tractor. If you had a double sheave pulley back by the tractor and had the tail end of the rope come back to the purple double pulley and connected to the caribiner/quick link, for a total of 5 lines, then it would have been 5 to 1 at that point in the system. Again, great video showing mechanical advantage at work. :-)

Thank you youtube algorithm This is just what i was looking for after that one pulley video

Put a section of a larger tree at the base as a fulcrum point and it will get the roots for the other side.. I did and it saved lots of time and digging becsuse it popped the base right out of the ground..

Yes, it's pretty neat how pulleys work but it still doesn't explain the lump on my testicle.

Always amazed with the power of block and tackle.

Technical uprooting! Great job!

"What the hell is that squeaking noise" At first I thought it was the soul of the tree crying out, "Save Me" but I do believe it was one of the pulley axels in your setup that needed a drop of oil.

I’m really scared that RU-vid knew I’d enjoy this!

One in a series of "Pulleys Gone Wild." This is analogous to Ham Radio obsessions!

Laziness is the engine of progress. Way to go sir

What's that squeaking? Those are the shrieks of the now homeless Keebler Elves.

I think it went slower because of that dandelion in the front of the soil clump. Those are always tough to pull out! ;-D

A lot of the Comments on this are valid in terms of alternative approaches to the problem but this method is undeniably the most fun and educational I think. Very dangerous though what with ropes and speed of light missiles if crap happens, eh? I loved your video and wish I was there for the take down. Thank you for your enthusiasm.

Enjoyed your vid . Great results speak for your method !