Building a "Brush Hauler"

[have_blue]

What's a brush hauler? Dunno, never heard of one!

All seriousness aside, I need a very low wagon to haul brush. I trim my fence rows 1-2 times a year, and have the darndest time hauling and piling up the brush.

What does everyone use to haul brush? I don't have a flatbed trailer, and don't see buying or building one. I scratched up my truck hauling limbs, and for a while I piled it up on my 6' bush hog. Both were slow and laborious.

I was thinking of building something say 6'X8' or a little bigger. Real low to the ground, maybe using 4 cheap 10" caster wheels from HF. Weld the frame from 2" square tubing, with some smaller cross bracing. Maybe make the bed to fit 1-1/2 sheets of plywood, or most likely no plywood at all. It would most likely be pulled with the drawbar.

Maybe dump the brush by tipping it up sideways with the front loader.

I can see it being handy for a few other things too, but not hauling bricks.

Ideas appreciated!

 

[EdK]

I use just forks. I find I can fit quite a bit on them.

For extra capacity I once attached a 10' chain to the lower portion of the rear guard and stretched it out on the ground about 6-5' beyond my 4' forks. After building a large pile of brush, I attached a come-a-long to the top of the fork guard and to the chain. Tightened that sucker up and got easily triple the load.

Normally I just use the plain forks as the load is pretty big and I don't have too far to drive with it.

 

[workinallthetime]

guess it depends on how far you are hauling them, i just stack all the butts the same way and hook a chain up and drag em off. I use a small chain because it grabs better and hook it up to choke the pile while pullin.

 

[RollTideRam]

The best method I have is my grapple. Just lay all limbs in the same direction and start the tractor. I should have took some pics, I just did all the cedar trees along the driveway Monday. JC

 

[studor]

I have brackets welded inside my FEL that I can stick 2x6's in (or metal). Put the bucket down -- stack the brush on a pair of 8 foot 2x6, lift, drive to the burn pile, dump, repeat as required You can stack a lot of brush on that area (4 x 8 ft) because it does not weigh that much. I have used a carryall framed platform but it does not work as well IMHO -- except to see where you are going

 

[Kernopelli]

guess it depends on how far you are hauling them, i just stack all the butts the same way and hook a chain up and drag em off. I use a small chain because it grabs better and hook it up to choke the pile while pullin.

Ditto here. I have hauled some huge bundles of limbs this way.

 

[RobJ]

Ditto here. I have hauled some huge bundles of limbs this way.

Same here, use the atv a lot of the time. 30' chain laid flat, pile into the chain near the atv, then double the chain over and hook it up(its not choked). Pull the load to the drop off point, unhook the chain and pull it out. Keeps the chain clean!!

If I have some problem stuff I may use a 50' cable and choke the load. I find this is harder to unhook because the choker will embed itself into the pile.

Cheap and easy.

 

[jmc]

Lately, a root grapple. You can roll the glob of brush a little to compact it before grabbing it with the grapple to get 2 or 3 times as much in one load as you would think possible. Depends on the size and type of brush though.

Before the grapple, as I trimmed the fence row, I'd line the cut limbs up in a row, side by side, then come along with the FEL and push the whole bunch to their grave. After a while, the pile would roll and several limbs would duck under the FEL so you had to back up a few feet and start again. No big deal.

John

 

[simplicityguy92]

if you can find a small pickup thats d.o.t.ed but still runs get it
i haul brush all the time with mine
unloading is real easy just back up real fast and slam on the breaks.

 

[workinallthetime]

here is another trick im sure alot of you know, when im loading brush on my 18 foot trailer i lay a chain down first, then bind it with that chain to haul it. when i get to the dump site i hook the chain to a tractor or a tree and pull off, ths pulls all the brush off the trailer and off i go