Best grapple for a cutover?

[RollTide1974]

Instead of burning all the piles where they were left when they cut the land, I decided to find one spot and burn it all there. Which grapple (Root or Rake/Clamshell) would work best to pick up the left over timber? I haven't walked the entire land (48 acres), but doesn't seem like there is a lot of large logs to move. I have a Mahindra 4540 4WD.

 

[Xfaxman]

Best grapple for a cutover?​

Which grapple (Root or Rake/Clamshell) would work best to pick up the left over timber?

Which ever style that you get, since any grapple is better than no grapple.

I have had both styles and prefer the dual lid L bottom style:

 

[jyoutz]

Instead of burning all the piles where they were left when they cut the land, I decided to find one spot and burn it all there. Which grapple (Root or Rake/Clamshell) would work best to pick up the left over timber? I haven't walked the entire land (48 acres), but doesn't seem like there is a lot of large logs to move. I have a Mahindra 4540 4WD.

A bit of free advice from a forester: making one huge burn pile is going to damage the soil. That is why we always distribute slash throughout the unit. Also, burned slash adds to soil nutrients if the burn isn’t a huge pile that burns too hot. When you remove all the slash from the land, you are also removing nutrients and reducing soil productivity.

 

[4570Man]

I’ve been working on a similar mess which appears to have more trash left behind than yours. I found a grapple on my CTL to be almost worthless. It’s too tangled to pick anything up with a grapple. All the stumps don’t help. I found an excavator with a thumb to be much better at picking up and burning brush. Your land already looks fairly clean but picking apart those piles is much harder than it might seem.

 

[jyoutz]

I’ve been working on a similar mess which appears to have more trash left behind than yours. I found a grapple on my CTL to be almost worthless. It’s too tangled to pick anything up with a grapple. All the stumps don’t help. I found an excavator with a thumb to be much better at picking up and burning brush. View attachment 732891

On most forestry projects, we would establish perimeter fire lines, develop a burn prescription, and burn that slash in place during appropriate weather conditions. Talk to your state forestry people or a consultant forester to discuss some slash treatment options before spending months working on this.

 

[RollTide1974]

Which ever style that you get, since any grapple is better than no grapple.

I have had both styles and prefer the L bottom style:
View attachment 732887
View attachment 732889View attachment 732890

Nice setup!

 

[RollTide1974]

A bit of free advice from a forester: making one huge burn pile is going to damage the soil. That is why we always distribute slash throughout the unit. Also, burned slash adds to soil nutrients if the burn isn’t a huge pile that burns too hot. When you remove all the slash from the land, you are also removing nutrients and reducing soil productivity.

Well....that kind of makes me think a little differently about this . What would you advice to do with all the slash piles? I'm guessing there is probably 20 of them spred through the property. i want to clean the land up some, but also want to keep the deer coming in ,and try and not damage to many pines that are planted.

 

[RollTide1974]

I’ve been working on a similar mess which appears to have more trash left behind than yours. I found a grapple on my CTL to be almost worthless. It’s too tangled to pick anything up with a grapple. All the stumps don’t help. I found an excavator with a thumb to be much better at picking up and burning brush. Your land already looks fairly clean but picking apart those piles is much harder than it might seem.

I haven't walked mine entirely, but it does seem like they done a pretty good job cleaning up afterwards. I figure I have years to clean it up the way I want it.

 

[4570Man]

On most forestry projects, we would establish perimeter fire lines, develop a burn prescription, and burn that slash in place during appropriate weather conditions. Talk to your state forestry people or a consultant forester to discuss some slash treatment options before spending months working on this.

There’s no regulation against doing that but the pile is too sloppy combined with 60 inches of annual rainfall. It just won’t burn in place.

 

[MossRoad]

Why burn them at all? They make good wildlife habitat. When I take trees from my forest, I limb them, then remove the trunk. The branches and stumps rot down eventually. I have a great abundance of wildlife now.