How deep? Sounds like a back hoe project initially
No more than 30 inches. I'm actually moving 16 thuja evergreens, mostly 6-8 feet tall and 30 inches diameter spread so I don't want to use backhoe, need to dig forward. I can't use the nice tree spade because they want $1,000 to rent it and the tractor/skid steer PER DAY! My B2320 is too small to even pick up the 1,500 pound tree spade not to mention the 200-300 pound root ball. I can probably spend about $600 to rent something like a ditch witch to trench all around the trees if it fits where all 16 trees are in about 70 foot row, then get em out somehow with the tractor while trying to keep roo tball intact along with an adequate amount of dirt. Or fabricating a pin-on contraption for the FEL. I'm thinking about putting 1 inch (25mm) solid steel rods from one arm to the other of the FEL to hold a tree scoop (not tree spade) or a 30 inch wide bucket if I can find one, maybe fabricate something to get the bucket further away from the loader arms to hopefully dig better. Also trying to figure if I can add a couple hydraulic cylinders with 36 inch stroke to mount on those steel rods and fabricate a large sheet of steel something like what a tree scoop blade looks like but a butt-load cheaper. ALSO thinking a bout extending the fabricated contraption further in front of the machine by attaching channel steel to the new rods and the attaching rectangular tube steel for a short boom projecting out to whatever digging implement I devise.
ANY IDEAS anyone? Am I over engineering? I don't want to use a shovel much, I did that until I was 46 and it wasn't 5 minutes shoveling and 2 hours watching, it was shoveling, lifting, breaking concrete, straightening basement walls, raising houses that settled too much,...etc. all slave work耀o no shovel except when I can't build a tool.
I forgot to say I figure with the right narrow bucket, and a trenched large rectangle going all the way around the trees and cutting the soil in between each tree, I should be able to wiggle a 30 inch wide bucket under each plug of dirt and tree. I realize the B2320 is wider than the bucket I hope to find but I'm hoping to drive above the bucket with tires straddling trench. If it caves, it caves and I'll do a work-around and clean it up later.
