Clearing project

[Knute]

Hi all, I've been reading many many many (did I say many?) pages of posts and still have a question, or rather would like to get some opinions.

I live in Western Washington, we've got about 15 acres that was clear cut around 25 years ago and left wild. Today we live there and had roughly 1/4-1/2 an acre cleared with a dozer. I'd like to open it up more, leaving as many trees as possible - anything over 3", limb them to around 8'-9' up and clear out the underbrush which is a nasty mixture of blackberry, salmon berry, devils club and other woody nasty thorny stuff. I'm thinking of clearing out roughly another 3/4 acre.

I've basically decided on a B7500 with FEL and backhoe for this and numerous other tasks / projects that my wife and I want to do. My question is what implements/attachments would be best for this kind of clearing? A brush hog that could replace the bucket on the FEL sounds ideal, but I've never seen something like that. Would just using the FEL work, just drive over it with a brush hog behind the tractor? Drag a box blade?

I've only done this kind of clearing before using a DR Field and Brush Mower type tool, or a by hand so I really don't know what would work best (I'm sure all of those would work) for the task.

Thanks for your input.

John

 

[Bird]

John, I'd look for a 4' brush hog (rotary cutter). You can drive over the stuff that small enough to bend and pass under the tractor, but you can also back slowly over even larger stuff, either with or without raising the mower with the 3-point. On the largest stuff you want to cut, you can raise the mower, back slowly over it, then slowly lower the mower onto it.

 

[Knute]

Thanks Bird, I've been thinking that might be the most efficient way, likely doing it in several passes. Set the brush hog fairly high, FEL lower than the BH and make a pass to see what's hiding under the brush, then additional passes setting the equipment lower once I know what's there.

 

[BubbaJr]

Hello Knute,
Something for you to keep in mind if you are going to drive over trees, brush, and other things and cut them up with the bush hog. After you bend them over with the FEL, they will spring back up under the tractor, and pull out pins, rings, and knock linkages loose. If you check under the tractor often, you may be allright. But if possible you might be better off backing over the trees.

 

[icat]

Might want to make sure you have the tires filled with "Slime" or other puncture resistant liquid. Some of those thorns you mentioned will surely spoil your day if you get a flat. When I flatten a tree with my FEL I make sure to keep it "pinned" down with the tires as I roll forward. Then the Bush Hog takes care of the rest. But you have to be careful, otherwise all kinds of things can get knocked off - just as Bubba Jr. said! /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[Knute]

Knocking things off and getting a flat back in the brush isn't something I want to happen! I don't have a long enough tow rope to haul it out with the truck if that happens. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

A assume going with ag tires and filling them with superflex (I think that's the stuff) is also the best route? That should seal up the size of hole a thorn could make, right? My current yard, such as it is, is wild grass that I've mown down with a Toro, I'm not really worried about tearing it up with the tractor while doing all these other chores.

John

 

[B7500]

Bird,
I'm kinda in the same situation. The trouble is I also have stumps of various sizes. I know the big ones I'd take out with my Backhoe but would a brushhog "chip" the smaller ones?
-Terry

 

[Bird]

Terry, I don't know what size stuff you're talking about, and of course, they make light, medium, and heavy duty brush hogs, so it would partially depend on which brush hog you're talking about and of course a brush hog is basically a mower so you won't get right down to the ground. With tractors of the B7500 size you're probably going to use a light duty brush hog rated for up to 1" thick stuff. You can actually cut brush twice that thick if you go slow, but they really aren't a stump grinder.

 

[icat]

I have R4's on my "baby grand" and they're loaded with 10 gallons of sealant. I've had several tell me that the 10 gallons was overkill, but I've pulled catus, Huisache thorns (2" thorns no less), and some stuff that I don't even know what it was out of the tires. Even had to use gloves on some of it. So far - no flats, no leaks, no errors -and I'm one happy camper. The dealer charged me just under $160 to load all four - I think it was money well spent. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

You can save some bucks doing it yourself, but when I added up the cost of the 10 gallons, my time was worth a lot more than the $20 the tire place made off of the process. I suppose you could put less in the tires and lower the cost as well. Don't know how that would work, but I do know that 10 gallons on my size tires works VERY well. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[icat]

Terry - I have a Bush Hog Squeeler 600 on my L3130. It's 5 foot wide and is generally considered a light duty unit. The factory rating is for 1" brush, but I've cut several 2" diameter stalks without any major trouble (and some larger). The bigger the stalk the slower you have to go. When I'm going for one of the larger stalks I push the tree over with the FEL, then slowly drive over the tree pinning the branches and main stalk down with the tires. As the Bush Hog passes over I watch the PTO RPM's carefully, If they start to drop significantly I simply raise the cutter a bit and/or stop for a second until it gets through chewing. Makes a bit of a racket, but it chomps them down real good! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

On the 3" and larger trees I just "pop" them out with the FEL and drag them to a brush pile for burning. If the tree is stubbron then I use the FEL to scrape off as much of the stalk as I can. Several passes over the stalk tends to turn the 3" tree into a 2" tree - and then the cutter does the rest. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

As for the 1" trees - I don't even slow down! /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[B7500]

Bird,
Then what would you do if you were me?
Woods, brush, ferns...All beautiful but I'd like a lawn too.
-Terry

 

[Bird]

Terry, if the FEL won't take them out, just keep using that backhoe. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[kubotasaurus]

Youre going to want a bigger tractor or perhaps hire the rough clearing out. Friend of mine lives on a clearcut out there and had a heck of a time clearing it out more after his house was built. He only managed to put in trails in the end, not clear it. He has a B7500. He didn't want to go with a bigger tractor as the ground is so soft out there all winter.

Problem was all the deep ruts left by the logging equipment (even years later) and the many, many large stumps. Seems that many of these don't rot down too well. Also I seem to remember there was a lot of ground clutter underneath his blackberry bushes. I also recall that his wife did make some excellent blackberry jelly and Apple and Blackberry pies.

I guess all those blackberries hide a multitude of evils.

 

[looch]

I have the SQ480 on my B7500 (4' Bush Hog). It is described as a light duty cutter - able to cut brush up to one inch in diameter. I've mentioned this in another post awhile back:

Are they talking about a 1" thick piece of mesquite or a 1" thick piece of American Basswood?

Establishing the limits of the cutter through brush thickness is not the best way - but how else do you expect them to do it?

I've taken down 3" diameter spruce trees without incident (what a wonderful aroma), going very slowly.

Also, you can drive forward over thick brush but DO NOT change your mind while in the process. Changing direction while you have a 2" sapling under your machine will almost certainly rip something from underneath.

I still have bigger trees that I need to clear from my property. A backhoe would be fantastic, but I'm getting by with a long piece of stout chain wrapped around the tree as high as possible with the other end attached to the draw bar on the tractor. I pull slowly one way (which is sometimes enough) disconnect from the tractor, drive around to the other side, reconnect, and pull the other way. Another tip: make sure your chain is longer than the tree is high /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif.

 

[Knute]

Hmm, not exactly what I wanted to hear but thanks kubotasaurus. I have a neighbor with a fairly large dozer (about a 8-9 foot blade on it) who's done other clearing down here, I guess I'll hire him for any larger scale stuff we need done. His dozer has no problem taking anything down here out, but it's like cutting with an axe where my wife wants to cut with a scalpel.

Stumps seem to take a very long time to rot out here any significant amount. I cut down a couple 10-12" Alders and 4 years later the stumps were still solid enough that I broke a cable trying to pull them out with my Suburban - not the best idea, but you use what tools you have. In that time they hadn't rotted an inch, we still have many giant old growth stumps that haven't completely rotted - those we're keeping.