Wind and how car parts saved a tree.
 

It's freaking crazy here.. insane wind blowing. I spent the night saving trees, or at least trying to, in our backyard.

We have a large cypress tree that started to get blown over. I went to garage to McGuyver up something. Then I had an idea.

I drilled a hole in the top of the cinder block wall by the tree. I then inserted the long J-rod that held the spare tire down in the Fairlane. From this I used car trailer tie downs to go around the tree and ancor to the Fairlane part. The pressure of the tree pulling keeps the rod in the hole.

On the other side (since I only have one Fairlane) I found an old piece of all-thread from Penny. To this I bolted a bracket from my Simpson racing harness (a piece I won't be needing again). Then I drilled another hole in the wall and with another tie strap the tree was secure. I hope.

On other large tree in our backyard was split last night, what a mess. At least we're not on fire.

I will try to snap a pic later of my creation. I just though it was funny that old hot rod parts came in handy like this.

And since all posts are worthless without pics...

Exhaust hanger from Penny, Simpson harness bracket, tie down:
http://picsorban.com/upload/wind1.jpg

Ford Fairlane spare tire rod, tie down:
http://picsorban.com/upload/wind2.jpg

Not going to be so good for shade now.. chainsaw time!
http://picsorban.com/upload/wind3.jpg

Stryder says: "damn! that was my favorite tree!!!"
http://picsorban.com/upload/wind4.jpg

Could see the fires glowing in the distance last night. My Camaro is around 15 miles from the Malibu fire :willy:

Many of the fires were started by arsonists.. who if caught should be burned at the stake!

Very nice! I used an old Trans Am seatbelt to hold a big bush to our deck post to save it during Hurricane Floyd. It s amazing how junk comes in handy. :thumbsup:

Damn shame Steve ! Trees really add to the look and value of your property and it's always a drag to lose one and have to clean up the mess. (Nice McGuyver work though !)

I was watching CNN last night and wondering if anyone from the site in the area was effected. Those fires are moving so fast with that wind pushing them. CNN kept showing 2 huge homes that were totally engulfed.

It would be unbelievable 'bad' luck if Penny went up in a fire just before SEMA :wow: Whats next ? Locusts, cockroaches, fire ants, killer bees (and not the Mopar types).

haha, you have a really nice lawn. and i like the bungalow :D

Nice work :) . Hope it calms down over there and the fires stay away from you, your family, house and cars. That goes for all of the members over there :yes: .

David

I flew into Burbank a few years ago with fires all around the place. It looked just like the movies. I was only on the ground for an hour and when I took off I was amazed at how far and how fast the fire had spread! Simply amazing!!

We got a taste of that wind up here in Vegas. L works for Metro and took nothing but calls about downed trees, power lines and poles all night. Nice to see someone getting out and saving there trees rather than call screaming for the Police department to come out and do some thing about it.

:cheers:

I wouldn't be so fast to cut that tree down Steve. It would be well worth the time and money to let a tree surgeon/arborist look at it first. Still plenty of tree left and the leaves will grow on the injured side now that those branches are getting sunshine. The trick will be saving the roots.

How deep into the wall is that bolt? hopefully it doesn't pull out. I hear the wind gusts are reaching 65mph. I had to do the same thing one night in my yard as well. Tie straps come in handy for households as well as cars I guess.

I believe that is called oakie engineering.

We had gusts up in the 80-90 mph area.. :willy:

The rods went almost a foot into the wall. They are in there loosly and the weight of the tree pulling forward on them has a wedge effect. Unless the wall fails they arent going anywhere.

Well, part of my family does hail for there.. :yes:

This just proves that hotrodders are more innovative than others. Just hope that it doesn't bring your house with it if it blows really hard.


Jan

Im hope everything goes well in the LA, SB,and SD countys.
My brother was evacuated out of his house in san diego today as with 250,000 other people.
Those wind gust are just killing every body down there.

Yeah, if a restoration guy was out there he wouldn't be able to save the tree because he didn't have the right date code bolts for that Fairlane bracket!

I heard they did catch an arsonist who was witnessed starting a fire and then trying to flee on a motorcycle. Perhaps there are more than one but at least they caught this a$$hole.