Clearing land

[RWolf]

Started clearing my 25ac of cedar brush/trees. I have in the past used my truck and "snatched" them out of the ground with a tow strap. This time around I figured I'd use my tractor. Only down side is when I went to use the tractor a couple of days later I found a flat tire (on the rear of course) so I have to fix that before continuing. Average trunk size is from 3-4 inches up to about 10. The one pictured is one of the largests I've pulled so far.

 

[F.L. Jennings]

Those look like they'll come up pretty easy. When I was clearing a little field I had some Hackberrys that were 24-28" dbh. Dug around them with the backhoe, pushed them over and sawed away the logs/limbs. Stumps were rolled to the woodline and holes were backfilled/disked stump holes

I saw a video of bruch land being cleared out west and they usd two dozer swith a massive chain stretched between them. Cutter clades were bolted to the chain and they just drove along pullin the chain between them and ripping out every thing in the way, mainly pinon pines.

 

[RWolf]

There not bad. On the larger ones I have to push against them to break loose some of the roots then I can pull them up. After I get these done and the land disc'd and seeded I'll be doing a cross fence and starting on the other 15 +/- ac. Hopefully withing a year or two I won't be so reliant on buying hay for the winter.

 

[Flatheadyoungin]

that's a beautiful field!

this gives me even more inspiration to clea off that back field that is all grown up.....

Those look like they'll come up pretty easy. When I was clearing a little field I had some Hackberrys that were 24-28" dbh. Dug around them with the backhoe, pushed them over and sawed away the logs/limbs. Stumps were rolled to the woodline and holes were backfilled/disked stump holes

I saw a video of bruch land being cleared out west and they usd two dozer swith a massive chain stretched between them. Cutter clades were bolted to the chain and they just drove along pullin the chain between them and ripping out every thing in the way, mainly pinon pines.

 

[Kfbeal]

It's a lot of work but kinda fun isn't it? Especially after seeing the end product. I've got about 80 more acres of clearing and I'd like to do the same as you but sprigging some Jigs or Alicia hay in there.

Is that a bale spear up front? It looks homemade if so, and was wondering if you have pics of it? I'm looking to build a complete unit for mine instead of what I made.

 

[LBrown59]

Here are some scenes after I grubbed my place and a couple of pictures of the tractor I did it with.

http://s283.photobucket.com/albums/kk286/lb59/?action=view&current=100_2541.jpg

 

[RWolf]

Yep, that's a homemade spear. The spear itself is purchased from Agrisupply but the frame is built in the garage. Used 3x3x3/16 box. I'll post some pictures of the frame as soon as I can get some. So far my JD has done everything I've asked of it.

 

[Kfbeal]

Once I got my clutch adjusted, I finally felt the power of my 5103. It's a nice tractor at a nice cost. It won't push what my father-in-law's backhoe does, but will do most anything I need.

I have all the material with 3 x 3 x 3/16" and the spear with collar. I just never built it. I used the 4 x 4 x 1/4" I already had and hooked my rear bale spear into it.

Sorry for robbing your thread. Don't forget to post pictures of it when you are complete. I need to go take pictures of mine, although I'm a little embarassed of the before pictures.

 

[RWolf]

If you're talking about welding then don't be embarassed. You should see my splatter zones. In building this project a friend of mine did the welding (he was dying to try out his new welder).

And your right the 5103 is a great tractor. I'm approching 100hrs and my first service. Tonight or tomorrow I have to fix a flat (rear ). If I can break torque on the wheel bolts that will save me a $50 service fee.

 

[Kfbeal]

Yea, those fees will get you. Mine have tubes and the time I had a flat (it was a slow leak) I drove it to the farmers coop close by. Luckily it's only 3 miles or so away. It's great to have a coop out in the country.

Just be careful with the wheel. Those things tend to be heavy and awkward.

I used to be a fairly decent welder. When I was welding up the other one, first time welding in a few years, my yellow lab kept running off with my cables jerking my electrode, pulling on my gloves so I have a reason those looked terrible. I pinned him up and he just crawled through the holes under the fence he dug.

 

[RWolf]

We'll I got my tire fixed and that will be the last time I use these people unless there isn't any other option. $50 service fee, $2 mile and (get this) $2 an inch (tire size). All they did was slobber some tire mounting paste on the rim and plug a small hole. Bill $118.00.

Anyways you requested some more photos so here goes. I've now ran into a couple of trees that I had to basicall break off at the bottom. Most of them don't have deep roots but spread out quite abit. I think the longest that came up without breaking was about 8ft.

Notice in the third picture of the bale spike frame, yes that's a horseshoe. We work at least one into every project we do.

 

[8934]

Rent or buy a mini excavator... Best thing to pull trees with, and you dont have to worry about flat tires.

I got one and it made a beleiver out of me.

I had never ran one before, but in one weekend I ripped up hundreds of small trees from 3/4" to 6". After a little practice many came up with one swipe of the bucket.

I was not looking forward to doing this with the tractor and a chain. The excavator saved me countless hours of work.

 

[RWolf]

That might be an option if it were'nt for the rental places wanting approx $300 an hour. One reason I had a service truck come is I needed to move some hay and needed it yesterday. Normally I would have repaired it myself and will in the future but because of time and breaking my breaker bar (new heavier one to come soon) just put be behind my timeline. Anyway back in business of pulling scrub and should have this section done by next weekend weather permitting.

 

[mrob2012003]

We'll I got my tire fixed and that will be the last time I use these people unless there isn't any other option. $50 service fee, $2 mile and (get this) $2 an inch (tire size). All they did was slobber some tire mounting paste on the rim and plug a small hole. Bill $118.00.

Have you tried putting water in the tires front and back? I have in my tractor and the flat tire just leaks down the the water level. Unless of course you have a huge hole. It also helps with traction. You have a lot of work ahead of you pulling those cedars out of the ground. Have you considered using a forestry mulcher? I am sure you can rent one at your local bobcat rental. We have them here in east texas.
I use them in my business but central texas is to far for me to drive to give you a demo. I think there are some contractors in the Austin area that have them you may want to look them up.

 

[Kfbeal]

Yea, it looks like a cumbersome project. If you could have some sort of gripper that would grab the cedars and you could just pull'em out and drop'em where you want'em.

I just filled my tires last weekend but haven't really used it since I filled them.

 

[firemen122]

ya need to fab you up a root rake for that tractor and in between the center teeth weld 2 pieces of flat bar to form a v grind edges to an angle. Then you can catch tree trunk in vee and push and pull up at the same time. works great and should make you alot more productive.

 

[Airic]

That is a nice picture. One thing I notice is that you don't have a hard break to the woods in the background. Your trees go from smaller at the edge to older growth tward the back. Within my land managment classes they say somthing like 90% of wooded creatures live in this soft break as it provides more protection. I'm working on trying to achieve this with some areas of my land.

[/QUOTE]

 

[RWolf]

>Fireman< you've got a good idea. Would work on "most" of the scrub trees and the others could be pulled/pushed/cut as I'm doing. >mrob< There was a pretty good sized hole in the tire so even if filled it would have leaked down. The biggest problem wasn't the hole but getting the tire to reseat on the rim. After this episode I'm going to pick some tire mounting paste. Service guy had the tire reinflated on the rim in about 5 -10 minutes. I had worked on this tire for about 1-1/2hour before giving up. >kfbeal< a grapple might work and I think a 4in1 might be a better choice but sadly a new impliment is not in the budget just yet and before the wet weather starts here in ernest I want to have at least this portion of the pasture done.

This coming weekend "weather permitting" my neighbor and I have a friendly challenge to see who can pull the most trees using our different methods. I'll be using my FEL and he will be using chains,wheel rim and 3pt.

 

[AKfish]

I'm in the process of clearing land on my place to expand my horse pastures, too. So, I read your efforts with added interest.

As well, I can realize the need to hold off on more "tools" until the cash reserves have some time to build back up again.

However, you might reconsider using your FEL on some of the larger Cedars. You could end up with a "tweaked" loader arm (no need to ask... ) before you know it!

The 3pt will lift more and the tractor will pull more off it as well. My FIL fabbed up a rear mount ripper using a scrap yard ripper tooth from an old Cat motor-grader. He's got about $125 into it and 4-5 days of trial and error fabrication time.

I don't know if that's an option for you - but any type of ripper on the 3pt would be a better option than the loader - IMO.

Best of luck.

AKfish

 

[J_J]

Here is an example of a device for ripping out trees, posted by someone on TBN .