Brush Grubber

[Xfaxman]

The BG-20 is the one I had, worked great on tree roots:

And small stumps chained to the front SSQA:

 

[ning]

I considered the brush grubber but the reviews were too mixed for my tastes.

I use the pipe & chain very successfully, usually pulling with the front loader bucket hooks.
I use it on anything smaller than about a couple inches - cleared an area that was very densely packed with scotch room which tends to slip easily but the pipe grabbed it really well; I find that wrapping a chain around bigger stuff a few times with a slip hook involved works well for bigger thins that have some bumps.

Would your massive Kubota ruin the grubber? My baby Branson would ruin it easily, if I hooked it up to the wrong thing. Your humongous titan of a tractor will do fine if you use it on the kind of thing it's designed for, but I don't know that that's what you're intending to do.

 

[ruffdog]

The chain and pipe method:

 

[5030]

I considered the brush grubber but the reviews were too mixed for my tastes.

I use the pipe & chain very successfully, usually pulling with the front loader bucket hooks.
I use it on anything smaller than about a couple inches - cleared an area that was very densely packed with scotch room which tends to slip easily but the pipe grabbed it really well; I find that wrapping a chain around bigger stuff a few times with a slip hook involved works well for bigger thins that have some bumps.

Would your massive Kubota ruin the grubber? My baby Branson would ruin it easily, if I hooked it up to the wrong thing. Your humongous titan of a tractor will do fine if you use it on the kind of thing it's designed for, but I don't know that that's what you're intending to do.

What I'm intending on doing. Pulling from the drawbar, steady pull. Was watching the Grubber website and posters on there were pulling it with their loader buckets, that made me cringe. Good way to wreck a bucket. According to their website, the harder the pull, the tighter it bites in.

 

[Quaffer]

Would your massive Kubota ruin the grubber? My baby Branson would ruin it easily, if I hooked it up to the wrong thing.

I was excited to try them, but that changed with actual use.

With one person using a brush grubber is not very effective. On and off the tractor a lot.

The ones I tried either slipped a lot, or broke if I applied too much force. I don't use them anymore.

 

[2manyrocks]

its the on and off the tractor with anything that wastes time.

If the pipe and the slot in the pipe are sized right to the chain and the hook, my experience is it will pull tight to the brush. Dont be sloppy making the cutout for the hook.

 

[ning]

What I'm intending on doing. Pulling from the drawbar, steady pull. Was watching the Grubber website and posters on there were pulling it with their loader buckets, that made me cringe. Good way to wreck a bucket. According to their website, the harder the pull, the tighter it bites in.

I think if you pull so hard that it's going to wreck the bucket, you're going to bust that grubber.
Most plants pull out fairly easily, upwards, though not so easily if you pull sideways. It's almost like their designer didn't expect gravity to reverse...

Check the reviews? A couple years ago when I looked into it, it seemed like most people using it were using an ATV/UTV or small tractor, and still broke it.

YMMV; let us know how it works... and how long it works. The rest of you, I'd advise just using the chain & pipe - you can probably make ten of those setups in case you actually break a chain, for the same price.

 

[doneill127]

I’ve had one for about 5 years and it works really well. However if you have a lot of brush/saplings to pull you really need a second person because as others have said, the on and off the tractor is not very efficient.

 

[RayIN]

My issue with using a chain is on the smaller trees, it likes to slip off and I want a positive no slip grip. I grind off the bigger ones with my stump grinder but the smaller ones are a PITA for me. I got the Green Manufacturing weld on grapple that I will weld on the top edge of one of my loader buckets (I have 3 buckets actually). Between the grapple and the grubber, I should be set, hopefully, that is, if the grubber don't fail. Last year I bought the Land Pride 3 point mount stump grinder and it does the job on the big stumps, especially with 90 PTO driving it. Storm damaged trees are an issue here in my woodlot. Gotten to the point where I cannot give away the wood so now I roast it.

Can probably use the grubber as a skid puller as well. Wasn't all that expensive either. Just over 100 bucks delivered.

Wrap the chain 3 full wraps downward to ground level, attach hook on bottom end to open chain near top wrap. This forces the chain to tighten as its pulled. Too large chain size works poorly.
I have 8'- ¼" chain for pulling trees up to 4" dia. I carry on the tractor all the time. Ya never know when you'll come on a downed limb/tree while brush hogging or mowing.

 

[ning]

Wrap the chain 3 full wraps downward to ground level, attach hook on bottom end to open chain near top wrap. This forces the chain to tighten as its pulled. Too large chain size works poorly.
I have 8'- ¼" chain for pulling trees up to 4" dia. I carry on the tractor all the time. Ya never know when you'll come on a downed limb/tree while brush hogging or mowing.

That's what I've always done, but even a 1/4" chain doesn't work well on stuff smaller than 1" or so, which is why I was looking into the grubber myself. The' ol pipe & chain trick works great down to about 1/2" at which point I find it usually breaks whatever it is in half, but most things that small can either be cut or yanked out by hand.