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Dead ash tree platform squeak

J

jooleyen

New Member
Joined
Sep 7, 2019
Messages
12
Where I hunt there’s a lot of dead ash trees and the standoff of my predator platform loves to squeak on that particular dead bark. Anybody found a trick to stop it creaking/squeaking? I’m going to try shaving the bark away with a knife and report back if it works. Or maybe a piece of cloth between the bark and stand-off before camming the platform down?
 
Replying to myself...an old rag between the teeth of the stand-off and the bark of the tree eliminates the squeak. I’ll try the unpainted standoff included with the platform and see if it makes a difference. I am using the black one now.
 
dlist777 said:
You probably have that emerald ash borer which has killed all of your ash trees. I understand. But, you should really avoid climbing dead trees. Squeaking is the least of your problems....
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You’re probably right. Thankfully I’m only 140lbs. Use good judgement people!
 
Careful in those dead ash in wet areas. The roots will rot out under them and the first time you get a good wind they come down. Only takes about 4-5 years from when they die till they start coming down. In our area if it is windy I won't get within a 100 feet of them they are falling everywhere around here. Ours have been dead for about 8 years now. In the woods we own I have went through and cut them all down. To unsafe to let them stand.
 
The black stand off? I sanded the paint off down to the aluminum and the squeaking stopped. Been using the all aluminum stand-off with better results with bite on tree and never squeaked.
 
One of my best spots was in a dead ash tree. It was the only tree that was possible to hunt a couple acre bedding area. Hunted it 2 years and got one decent buck out of it and when I went back this year it was blown over. That'd be a hell of a ride haha

Sent from my SM-G973U1 using Tapatalk
 
jooleyen said:
Because they’re newly dead.
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Dead ash usually started out dying from the top down. The trunk may still have some remnant life in it but if you look up, there are often widow makers above you. Those can break off and come crashing down with no warning. A half pound branch falling 40 feet is enough to do serious damage to you. I've been hit on the head with 1 ounce hickory nuts falling from 60 feet and it's put me down on a knee. A small branch is nothing to mess with.
And just the disturbance of us climbing 15 feet into the tree can cause branches to fall.
Don't even climb live trees (let alone dead or dying trees) when there are widow makers above you.
 
Allegheny Tom said:
Dead ash usually started out dying from the top down. The trunk may still have some remnant life in it but if you look up, there are often widow makers above you. Those can break off and come crashing down with no warning. A half pound branch falling 40 feet is enough to do serious damage to you. I've been hit on the head with 1 ounce hickory nuts falling from 60 feet and it's put me down on a knee. A small branch is nothing to mess with.
And just the disturbance of us climbing 15 feet into the tree can cause branches to fall.
Don't even climb live trees (let alone dead or dying trees) when there are widow makers above you.
Click to expand...


Didn't look good enough this year one sit and a big dead branch (100 lbs at least) fell off another tree (branch came within 10 yards of me). It was sticking up and levered down, so it covered some area. It was pretty calm with maybe 4 mph winds that day. Pretty scary from the time I heard it start to crack to the time where I was sure I wasn't going to get hit.

EDIT: This is one of several reasons that setting up in the dark in a new area is not worth it to me anymore. It is too easy to missing something in the dark like this, especially if you don't like shining a bright light high up in the trees.
 
Last edited:
Dead or dying ash trees are nothing to take lightly.
Here's some pics that I took from my stand several years ago during the local peak of our dead ash falling. We still have them coming down but the peak of them falling was a few years ago.

So I climbed into my lock-on and as it got light, I saw a double ash that snapped off 10 yards from my stand. One ash fell in one direction and the other one fell and narrowly missed my platform (glad I wasn't there when it happened!)
20171109_095500.jpeg

This is looking straight down. You can see the ash missed my stand by only a foot or so!
20171109_095243.jpeg



And here's the only reason it missed my stand...
As the ash was falling, it made contact with a multi-trunked ash (which had also died in the following year) and as it fell and made contact with the leaning trunk of a standing ash, it was steered away from my stand. Had that leaning ash not been there, my stand would have been destroyed. And had I been in the stand, then I wouldn't be here to type this warning. Ash trees in the area of the Emerald Ash Borer are an enormous hazard. Don't climb them, and keep eyes in the back of your head. There are days when we hear trees and tree parts crashing down every hour or so, and that happens on days with zero wind. The stresses and jiggling that we create when climbing a compromised ash is enough disturbance to make crap fall. Treat them with paranoid respect.
20171109_095332.jpeg
 
I was walking in to ground hunt last year (because it was windy) when a 20”+ diameter white ash “thundered” off at 15’ above the ground. Luckily I wasn’t walking into the wind! The top would have been close!!! I decided I was being told to go home (and do some laundry)! That was mid afternoon. So now I only go into new areas when I can see where all the ash trees are. If you only have an ash to climb—put your saddle away.
Stay Safe
 
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