Cleaning lawn of branches

[kenmbz]

Ohio Steel 50" in action last year. Plastic gears though.

 

[dcarman]

Every spring, I spend at least a full afternoon cleaning up downed branches from my ~4 acres of lawn, mostly from the more mature walnut and maple trees. I get to repeat this exercise after each major storm, all summer long, and I'm getting awful tired of the routine. Presently, I drive the FEL to an area with a bunch of downed branches, pick up each larger one and put them into the bucket. Then I rake up all of the smaller bits, and scoop them into the bucket. Very tedious.

I'm wondering what automated options might be possible. A landscape rake with float (anti-scalp) wheels would do half the job, at least gathering them together. Although driving over them in the process is just going to make them harder to pick up, in the end. Perhaps a tooth bar on my bucket, fitted with large swivel caster mounts on either side, so that I can drive around gathering branches with the bucket floating just an inch off the lawn.

Ideas? I can't be the only one hating this chore.

Ya! I have the same problem. With all the wind we get it seems like a weekly chore but I haven't found a good answer yet. I rented a lift last summer and got up in the trees and cut all the dead branches and some that were rubbing against the house and garage. I then found some that looked weak and cut those too but it was only good for one or two storms and then back to picking up branches.

 

[Maknwine]

Ohio Steel 50" in action last year. Plastic gears though.
View attachment 791533

Are the gears/teeth on the wheels plastic and metal chain drive? Regardless, they accomplish alot of work.

 

[kenmbz]

Are the gears/teeth on the wheels plastic and metal chain drive? Regardless, they accomplish alot of work.

All some kind of plastic. Did not see any metal in the drive gears, only the shaft and all the basket parts. Those parts are pretty heavy duty.

 

[MMM2]

I’m interested in possible solutions too. I surrounded by a dozen 80-100 year old pecan trees. They are notorious for self-pruning, twigs to thigh sized limbs. Note: do not park or build anything of value under them. My solution so far:

Hello
I have purchased many of these pick ups. If they are too heavy, it don't work. If took cheap don't last. 5 acre of lawn, I use cheap HF one, last one season if I don't run it over with 0 turn mower. very time consuming

View attachment 788208I

 

[gatornapper]

I have 8 grandkids & step-grandkids. I make a game of it and have them all pick up sticks and put them in my front end loader of my JD 5045E then dump each load in the surrounding woods. They have a ball!

 

[olenjohn]

Every spring, I spend at least a full afternoon cleaning up downed branches from my ~4 acres of lawn, mostly from the more mature walnut and maple trees. I get to repeat this exercise after each major storm, all summer long, and I'm getting awful tired of the routine. Presently, I drive the FEL to an area with a bunch of downed branches, pick up each larger one and put them into the bucket. Then I rake up all of the smaller bits, and scoop them into the bucket. Very tedious.

I'm wondering what automated options might be possible. A landscape rake with float (anti-scalp) wheels would do half the job, at least gathering them together. Although driving over them in the process is just going to make them harder to pick up, in the end. Perhaps a tooth bar on my bucket, fitted with large swivel caster mounts on either side, so that I can drive around gathering branches with the bucket floating just an inch off the lawn.

Ideas? I can't be the only one hating this chore.

MS661 Magnum made by Stihl. It may take a few days but once it’s done, no more limbs.

 

[EdGooding]

We have a lot of mature beech trees on our property and they shed branches like crazy. I use a combination of a clamp-on debris fork on my loader (Clamp on Debris Fork, 60 In. Bucket | Agri Supply 87637) and a landscape rake on the 3-point to get the ones that I can't just mow over to shred.

 

[jjp8182]

Not a #2 pencil, but: https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/0315191630-jpg.694417/
(for reference the upper grapple tines are ~3/8 inch thick)

It's a bit bigger of a stick than I tend to just to mow over, but picked it up with the grapple tines for fun after doing some larger cleanup. However, a grapple does tend to be my tool of choice either to use like a bucket to toss limbs/branches in by hand or to directly rake and pickup larger branches & limbs. It may scrap up a bit of grass & dirt at times, but the grass recovers pretty quickly around here.

Of course, it's also pretty routine for the oaks in my yard to drop several limbs 2 to 5 inches in diameter (& few larger) every winter so using the tractor & grapple removes quite a bit of saw work every year.

 

[philtymps]

Every spring, I spend at least a full afternoon cleaning up downed branches from my ~4 acres of lawn, mostly from the more mature walnut and maple trees. I get to repeat this exercise after each major storm, all summer long, and I'm getting awful tired of the routine. Presently, I drive the FEL to an area with a bunch of downed branches, pick up each larger one and put them into the bucket. Then I rake up all of the smaller bits, and scoop them into the bucket. Very tedious.

I'm wondering what automated options might be possible. A landscape rake with float (anti-scalp) wheels would do half the job, at least gathering them together. Although driving over them in the process is just going to make them harder to pick up, in the end. Perhaps a tooth bar on my bucket, fitted with large swivel caster mounts on either side, so that I can drive around gathering branches with the bucket floating just an inch off the lawn.

Ideas? I can't be the only one hating this chore.

We manufacture and sell a large volume/light weight bucket that is perfect for moving all this debris. Check out our 3rd Gen Bottomless Bucket. This will make light work of your storm cleanups! We just announced a price drop of 31% for the Spring, but it's for a limited number of buckets that we have in stock.