brush clearing

[cchoate]

What's the best attachment for a b7500hydro for clearing brush (3' high) and small (2" diameter) trees? It has a MMM, but I don't want to destroy the blades. Anybody ever use the fel like a dozer?

 

[Grunge]

I would think a bush hog and a chain saw might do the job for you.

 

[Alan L.]

It all depends on how much, and how big. I wanted to clear about 12 acres. I brush hogged everything an inch or so and smaller. Then I tried pulling up the biggers ones, pushing them over, etc. I found that in our heavy clay my B2710 wouldn't pull up over push completely over a very big tree. Many times the trees would just break if they were dead.

Then I went to the chain saw, figuring to cut trees of at ground level. Had problems keeping the chains sharp, from getting them in the dirt. It was also back breaking labor.

I had dirt work to do - a road to build and a tank (pond) to dig. Since the guy had his dozer on the job (along with other equipment) he agreed to push over and pile up all the remaining trees (50 maybe) for $500. MUCH easier than trying to do it with your compact tractor.

The only problem is that I now have 3 brush piles. They won't burn because most of the piles are dirt from the tree roots. Also, there are corresponding holes all over the property where the roots used to be. Not a real big problem, as there seem to only be 10 or so that need attention.

I plan to use my new bucket forks to help me sift the brush out of those piles and burn it. I've already sifted and burned one of the piles - without the forks - and it was a 3 or 4 hour job and involved getting on and off the tractor repeatedly.

For small areas around the property the brush hog, brush cutter attachment on my Stihl trimmer, and the chain saw get the job done. And of course the FEL to haul it to the brush pile.

 

[lblair]

I use a 48" KK brush cutter. I cut alot taller stuff than 3 feet. Nothing much bigger than 2" though. It handled it all just fine. Ide go with the brush cutter if it were my choice. Larry

 

[Woodbeef]

Sounds like you are a canidate for a very ingenious Canadian developed fel attachment called the Brush Brute made by D.D. Scissons in Smith Falls Ontario. They work unbelievably great. Just ask MChalkey!

 

[Anonymous Poster]

<font color=blue>...clearing brush (3' high) and small (2" diameter) trees? It has a MMM, but I don't want to destroy the blades...</font color=blue>

On your MMM... you'd be lucky to get 1/2" saplings for any length of time before the unit starts to self-destruct... Don't worry about the blades... it's the rest of the unit that would probably fall apart first... /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif

Use the search tools on TBN and you'll see a number of previous discussions for brush clearing and reasons for not using a MMM for the job...

Obviously the first weapon of choice would be a rotary cutter... /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[MikePA]

I just cleared out some 7 foot high forsythia. Used the FEL w/toothbar to pull it apart and pile it up. Then I used a rotary cutter to chop the pile of brush up.

 

[cstocks]

I used my NH TC33D to clean up a grown up fence row around an old garden plot on my uncle's farm in south Ark. I used the FEL to pull vines from the trees, pull out entangled barb wire and hog wire and dig up 1 and 2" saplings by the roots. I backdragged to pull weeds, bushes and smaller saplings out from around trees that had grown up along the fence row and and then either dragged or pushed them to the burn pile. I even reached up with the FEL and snapped off a few sagging, vine infested limbs from a pine tree. Granted, the broken limbs did not look as good as if I had cut them off with a chain saw but now that I have it all cleaned up I can go back and dress up the broken stubs on the tree with my chainsaw. Once I got the fencerow cleaned out I made a pass with my Bush Hog mower and leveled the scrub left sticking up from the ground.

I amazed and impressed myself with what I accomplished with the FEL. I bought it when I bought my tractor last year and it's primary function was going to be to level off a bunch of 40 year old dirt piles on a highline that runs through the property. I really had no idea just how useful the FEL could be. It saved me hours of work with a machete and chainsaw and definitely saved me from wearing my back out from all the manual labor!

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Cstocks,

It sounds like you had a great time and accomplished quite a bit. I'm just curious about one thing. Do you have a toothbar on your loader bucket?

 

[cstocks]

No, Gary I do not have a tooth bar. I do have the heavy duty bucket though. Basically, I just dig under small saplings until I get down past the roots. Then I curl and lift the bucket as I move forward and (hopefully) pop them out of the ground. Sometimes it takes several tries! If they are too stubborn I break 'em off close to the ground and finish 'em off with my Bush Hog. With all the digging I have done in the last year I have often thought about buying a tooth bar but just haven't done it.

Yes, I have a blast playing on my new tractor. I can't wait until I can go back to Ark. and do it some more! There are several more fences rows waiting on me.

 

[Gary_in_Indiana]

Well, I'm not much ahead of you there. I have a toothbar but don't have it installed yet. Here's <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.tractorbynet.com/cgi-bin/compact/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=off&Number=159218&page=0&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=> why</A>.

 

[cstocks]

Oh, by the way, Gary. The soil is sandy down past about a foot there in south Ark. where I was clearing the fence row. Then it gets into clay. You'd be surprised how ornery those little trees can be to dig up even in sandy soil.

I use the same technique on my three acres here in southeast Tx. where I live and have about the same success in the "gumbo" soil we have here. I am sure a toothbar would make a huge difference but I seem to do okay if I have a little patience.

 

[cstocks]

There's nothing worse than getting a new toy and not being able to play with it immediately!

Congrats on the new toothbar and deepest sympathy for the delay in getting to try it out!

 

[ns_in_tex]

Chris,
If you have a lot of fence rows to clean, you might want to think about a tool I learned about on tbn & built myself one. I think it is the best thing since sliced bread.
I posted pictures of it along with what it can do.
I will try to make my first link to it.

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.tractorbynet.com/cgi-bin/compact/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=implement&Number=133000&page=&view=&sb=&o=&vc=1#Post133000>Cleaning the fence is fun now</A>

Do you have a quick attach for your fel? If not, you would want one, if you get more implements for it.

 

[cstocks]

Whoa! I needed this attachment a year ago! I do not have a quick tach for my FEL yet but plan to get one in the near future. Unfortunately, I am not talented enough or equipped to make a tool like that. Man, oh man. I can see where it would make short work of a grown up fence row! I won't be able to clear any more fence rows without thinking about how good it would be to have a tree grabber like the one you made.

 

[John_Mc]

ns_in_tex -

I have a request for you from those of us with limited computer screen size:

When you post a link that is a mile long, use the [ url=mylink]title[ /url] format. Where mylink is the URL you are pointing to, and title is any name you give it. (I put in a couple of extra spaces in my example after the "[" to keep it from being interpreted as a link.) This will display something short, only as long as the title, rather than an extremely wide link. Since links won't word-wrap, it widens the whole post (and all the other posts in the thread) to match your link, forcing those of us with small screens to do a lot of left & right scrolling. This can make the posts tough to read. If you have a minute, you can go back and edit your post to make this change.

Don't mean to sound preachy. It's nice that you take the time to put in a link in the first place.

John Mc

 

[normde2001]

John, I only have a 14" (13 1/2" viewable) screen and that long link worked fine on my screen with "maximize" enabled. It took 4 lines of text, but was all viewable at one time.

 

[Harv]

Since the subject of long urls has popped up here, I'll take the opportunity to say a few words. /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif

Don't worry, Neal, your link was mostly done right -- not at all bad for a first try.

You used the correct ... tag, but then stuck the whole url into the "visible" part. That's where you can put any text you like, hopefully something that will make sense and make it readable. In this case, the title of the thread would have been a good choice.

Also, it looks like you found the url by means of a search, which has some interesting side effects. You may have noticed that when you use the search feature on TBN, the messages you find will have the search words highlighted (bold) when you view them. That information gets incorporated into the url and is probably not what you want the other readers to see. In that case, you might want to sneak up on the url from a corresponding reply or the threaded list of messages that go with it. That will give you a "pure" url, suitable for posting in another message.

Hmmm... /w3tcompact/icons/hmm.gif I may be confusing more than helping, but I thought I'd give it a try.

BTW -- if you see long urls, oversized picts, or anything that stretches a message beyond the normal width you are used to seeing, you can flag down a moderator by clicking on the icon, and it will be given a cosmetic makeover.

 

[John_Mc]

<font color=blue>that long link worked fine on my screen with "maximize" enabled. It took 4 lines of text, but was all viewable at one time</font color=blue>

How did you get the link to wrap at the end of a line? On my screen that four lines of text (which has since been shortened, by the way) was all on one line, the entire post (and all the other posts) ended up four screens wide.

John Mc

 

[Hawkflyer]

Your tree puller looks real good. I am making one of these as well. There are a number of companies that also make "tree Shears" for either FEL mounting or TPH mount. These things are amazing but really very heavy for a compact. I have added a grapple to my FEL this year and in combo with the tooth bar this thing has converted my B2410 into the worst enemy of multaflora rose, greenbriar, trees up to 3", grapevines, suckle vines and anything else that might want to popluate a fence line. You simply approach the victim, raise the bucket all the way, roll the bucket so it faces the ground, pull forward a little, lower the bucket as far down as it will go, close the grapple, roll the bucket back, and push forward with the machine. This technique rips out huge chunks of brush at a time. In fact, usually you wind up carrying so much stuff in one load that you can't see where you are going.For stiffer trees, say 2-4 inches, you have to swing the FEL in from the side as you push down with the bucket to bend them over. You do this by getting the bucket beside the tree as high as you can reach, then turning the tractor hard over as you pull forward and push down. Once the tree is in a position where you can grab it with the grapple, you latch on and roll the bucket back. Sometimes the tree can be pulled at that point with just the FEL. If not, move the tractor back and forth while lifting. If it does not pull out it will usually break off at the point where the edge of the bucket is bending the trunk.After you clear the ares in this way, go back over it with a Brush hog, kick back with a cool one and watch the grass come back.Good luck.