Cutting trees with imbedded woven wire fence

[houser52]

This winter I want to start replacing about 2000' of old rusty fence. Along the fence there are places where trees/ bushes have grown around the wire. Originally the woven wire fence was put up onto clean ground, using new posts and no wire was nailed to any trees.

I can cut the trees high enough to stay away from any wires when removing the old fence but would like to cut down the remaining bottom part of the tree that is left standing. Some of the trees are small enough, 3"-5" diameter, that I can take out with my tractor but there are some cedar trees that are bigger that I won't be able to use the tractor.

What would be a good for sawing them off at ground level? Carbide chainsaw chain? Something better? Can't afford to hire a bull dozer.

 

[bcp]

Two things I would try.

Saws-all, battery or generator powered, demolition or nail-cutter blade.

Drill, battery or generator powered. Make lots of holes to weaken the trunk. Break it off.

Bruce

 

[aczlan]

Sawzall or demolition saw (chainsaw with a round blade) with some kind of metal cutting blade.

Or, cut them above and below the fence with the sawzall and make a burn pile.

Aaron Z

 

[jeff9366]

I use a Milwaukee Sawzall for similar tasks. Choosing the right blade is important. I recommend Milwaukee's THE AXE demolition blades in 9" length.

 

[oosik]

Stihl makes a "demolition chain" for chainsaws. Designed to cut thru nails, sheet metal, metal tubing, etc. That would be my choice.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Depends how many you have to do. Doesn't everyone have old chains lying around? It won't take much to cut through some brittle old fence wire.

 

[TractorGuy]

If they are on the fence line cut them above the fence and use them as anchor posts.

The other option would be to cut them high and try pulling them up by chaining to the top.

Option 3: If any have a solid tree in front of them you can tie a rope high on the unwanted tree, wrap the rope around the base of the tree in front, and pull at 90*.

 

[aczlan]

Depends how many you have to do. Doesn't everyone have old chains lying around? It won't take much to cut through some brittle old fence wire.

Depends on the fence wire, if it's the woven fence we're like we have had, it may be high tension and not cut easily.

Aaron Z

 

[Industrial Toys]

The old (twisted barb wire) stuff in the trees around here, you can just fold it over in your hand and break it. Removed thousands of feet this spring. Cut if off a few inches from the trees and flagged it.

 

[hosspuller]

Cut above fence with chain saw, Sever bottom with saw-zall. Then burn the mess, recycle the metal. That's what I do ...

 

[oosik]

Definitely depends on what you are dealing with. I busted my azz removing REALLY old barbed wire. Found out it was strung by the homesteader around 1894. Old twisted wire with FLAT barbs. It was still as tough as any of todays barbed wire. It turned a normal chain saw chain into an almost perfect skip tooth chain.

 

[houser52]

Thanks for all the ideas. I like the sawzall idea and that might just work.

There are at least 40 trees in that 1800 feet of fence. Most of the bigger trees are cedar with smaller wild cherry, oak, shrubs and multi floral roses with a lot of poison ivy.

I guess the original wire was put up close to 40 years ago which runs along the highway. It was regular field fence with one strand of barbed wire at the top. The original owner built it right using good materials. It was top of the line at the time. Now the field fence and barbed wire will snap like uncooked spaghetti when you try to bend it. At some point since the original wire was put up 4 strands of low tensile barbed was added. That wire is rusty but still bends without breaking.

I'm going to wait until cold weather to start, after the leaves are shed and any hornets are dead and gone.

 

[ruffdog]

Can you dig around the tree a little and identify the bottom strand? Then just cut below that?

 

[houser52]

Can you dig around the tree a little and identify the bottom strand? Then just cut below that?

I could try that but with 40+ assorted trees, shrubs, etc...

I've also been looking online at tree shears today. That's something that hasn't been mentioned yet.

 

[hslogger]

You might as well just make a full package of artillery. Sawzalls and blades, two carbide chains and you should be in business to tackle anything. Just remember when you get done with your burn pile there are gonna be zillions of little pieces of metal that you want to get cleaned up the best you can. A real good magnet is one way to help alleviate that problem and another is to dig a deep hole and push all the spoils in there to continue rusting, away from hooves, cloves, and tires.

On thing not mentioned and in a different mode..... Get a cat and doze the whole maryanne into a pile or two or three. Bingo.

 

[kthompson]

If you have a true farm single shank subsoiler your tractor should be strong enough to rip most if not all the roots if you back to each side of the stumps making them easier to pull out. The low price common subsoiler will be destroyed. My opinion.

 

[GimmeShelter]

Triclopyr several months in advance to weaken/kill vegetation and disarm the ivy. Chain longer swaths of fence to a machine and tear it out of line. Any trees still bound in wire can be cut above fence level first and cleaned up later. Pathfinder II is an excellent choice, especially if you girdle larger stems a few inches above ground level and spray from the wound to the base of the stump. Maintaining fencelines with selective herbicide to leave grass for erosion control should be somewhere in the farmer痴 manifesto. It sure is cheaper than a dozer, and the value retained to potential buyers for clean fences should cover the recurring costs as well.

 

[houser52]

On thing not mentioned and in a different mode..... Get a cat and doze the whole maryanne into a pile or two or three. Bingo.

The more I look at that overgrown 1800' section of fence the more I think that hiring a dozer maybe the most sensible option. It might save me days or weeks of labor not counting the cost of buying specialized tools. Hiring a dozer might actually cost less overall.

 

[Diggin It]

I could try that but with 40+ assorted trees, shrubs, etc...

I can tell you from first hand experience that cutting stumps with recip saws ain't a whole passel of fun. I can do a 4-5" diameter or less fairly easily, but larger than that gets mighty annoying. Saw tends to bind, saw motor gets real hot after two or three and needs to rest/cool. On the larger ones, I tie a chain or strap to the top and use a come-a-long to put tension on it away from the side to be cut. That helps reduce the blade binding but doesn't eliminate it.

 

[shooterdon]

You will be surprised at what a small dozer can accomplish in a day. Take out the easy stuff with what you have and leave the awful stuff for the dozer.

BTW, I have a $1000 tree and post puller and it will snap a small tree if I am not careful. Tree type, soil type and tractor capability play into how well it would work. Look at some YouTube videos to get a feel for it.

I am too old and lazy to spend a week to do what you need done. If my tree/post puller could not do the job, I would hire a dozer. I did that a few weeks ago as I had a few trees to clear for my 200 yard range that were too large. Cost me $125/hr and what he did in 2 hours would have taken me 2-3 days.