3-Point Hitch Clearing rocks and stumps

[Jnasystems]

Hello, I have about 3.5 or so acres under some power lines and the power company cleared it and left quite a mess. We were thinking about what we could do with the land that would also be productive and thought that planting corn and pumpkins would be nice. The problem is that there is a bunch of "mulch" (sticks about 2ft to 5th in length and shredded), stumps (mostly 3" and smaller) and rocks (up to 2ft in diameter) to remove before I can plow it. I have 2 tractors I could use, a Kubota BX 2360 with a loader and box blade or a 1950 Allis Chalmers WD with a rear blade.

I thought I would need to buy something to do this job, maybe a sub-soiler. My WD doesn't have a 3pt - would the BX be up to this job? A 3pt for the WD is about $350 and would be handy for other implements so I may get one anyway. Is the sub-soiler even the right implement? Everything-attachments had a video of a root grapple that looked to be the best tool, but I would need to rent a skidsteer to use one of those. How long would it take to prepare the area to plow with a skidsteer and root grapple?

 

[manganos]

I'd rent a good sized skid steer to tackle the job then keep it maintained with your tractors.

I have a little more land then you and powerlines cross my property in the rear. I don't really have the rocks (there are a few see pics) but what I did was use a 100HP RC100 ASV skidsteer to clear the junk and use my Mahindra 2516 to bushhog it a few times a year. I am lucky to have a friend who owns a rental company

Pics...

I used the skidsteer to clear out some huge pines for the driveway too.... That is me standing on the bucket

 

[Gary Fowler]

That old WD with a subsoiler would dig up the rocks pretty well I think, but if you have big ones like janasystems it isnt going to roll those out and you for sure arent picking them up with a BX. Best thing would be to rent a piece of equipment for a couple of days to do the job. You could use a subsoiler if you had one on the WD to locate and flag the area that it stalls on and do some excavation around it then to expose the large rocks and maybe drag them out with a chain with the WD

 

[Thomas]

Have you consider renting dozer..dozer to rough it out,and your tractor for final touches.

 

[JoelD]

Rent an excavator and knock is all out in a day, use your equipment for final clean up.

Rent with thumb.

Will be money well spent, I've done it a number of times.

Joel

 

[jimmer2880]

For what it costs to rent equipment around here, I've found it's cheaper to fine a local excavator who has some "spare time" to come in and do it for me. I've had him do a couple things around my place that I could do on my own, with something rented. However, he was able to do it much quicker than I could. I'm sure it was cheaper than renting something for a full day when he was able to knock it out in a couple hours.

 

[Egon]

Do you have a plow for WD?

 

[crazyal]

My personal experience with rocks is if you have lots of them on the surface you'll have lots of them below the surface. It could take a lot of work to get the land to a point where you can farm it.

 

[Jnasystems]

Do you have a plow for WD?

Ya, I didn't include it in the list above because I didn't think it would be usable in this situation without wrecking it. It is a 3 bottom.

I didn't think about more rocks below the surface. The idea about ripping it up and marking the tough spots seems appealing. That would help reduce rental time. Hiring it out is one option I probably won't entertain as this is a hobby and I want to do it all with just my family if possible.

 

[Reverend Blair]

A couple of clydesdales and some chain will pull most of the small stumps.

If it's a hobby thing and time isn't an issue, the rocks can be picked by hand...the ones too heavy to lift will have to be dug up though.

You can build a stoneboat from a telephone pole cut into four foot lengths. Brace between the pole with dimensional lumber (the bigger the better) and top with plywood. Bolt a chain, one end to each piece of telephone pole, so it forms a V that can be attached to the tractor hitch.

Now you have a low platform to throw stones on by hand. This is great, especially if you have kids because you can drive the tractor slowly while the kids pick the stones.

We used to do this when we were kids. The tractor, which was also used to pull small stumps and largish rocks, was a Cockshutt 30.

Odd fact about stoneboat usage...once we grew up and weren't readily available as free labour, my grandfather bought a stone picker. Funny how that worked out.

 

[Egon]

Do the rock removal with the small tractor and bucket.

If the Box Blade has rippers set them down and rip the area twice at right angles. Might find a few more rocks that way and perhaps pull out some stumps.

Then try your plow and see how it goes. It might turn over the three inch or less stumps.

You will quickly know if it will work or not.

And please let us know how things turn out and what methods you used. Thanks.

 

[Reverend Blair]

My brother in-law, who seems to have come over to tell me that he forgot to bring my compressor back with him, suggests home-made explosives. Anybody want to buy a brother in-law? He doesn't work very hard, but he has an excellent beard.

I like that box blade idea, Egon. I think I'll put it to use at a friend's next spring.

 

[Gary Fowler]

That is what I am going to do with my garden spot if I ever get around to it. Use the scarifiers on the box blade and make several passes to hopefully uproot all the rocks. Put the scarifiers in the ground as deep as I can get them, then use the landscape rake to windrow up the loose rocks. Then maybe I can scoop most of them with the FEL. If needed, B-I-L has his tractor and FEL that I can use as a back stop to hold them or shove them into his bucket. Either way they will be up. Got a good start on a low water crossing on the creek that can take all the rocks we dig up, except maybe a few of the ones in the photo. This is a smaller one that came from a pond dig. SOME really large ones are still in the pasture where the dozer pushed them and are likely to stay since they are twice as large as this one.

 

[jake98]

there's a thing called a brush grubber, that clamps to small saplings and you pull them out with a chain. It's got teeth and the harder you pull the harder it bites. I've only used mine a few times, but it worked great. brushgrubber.com I have the original (I think it's an extra large size)

 

[toolaholic]

Hire a local that has a cat w. rippers . It'll take a year with Your Lil machine and kill it !

 

[Anngarr]

there's a thing called a brush grubber, that clamps to small saplings and you pull them out with a chain. It's got teeth and the harder you pull the harder it bites. I've only used mine a few times, but it worked great. brushgrubber.com I have the original (I think it's an extra large size)

Jake98 - thanks for the information. I'm a brand new tractor owner, but have owned my home with 3 acres for quite a while. About 1/3 of the lot is covered with alders which my wife wants removed. I've been wondering how I could best pull the alders out, after cutting them down. Just went onto the brushgrubber.com site and they offer an "extreme plus" model that looks rugged enough to get the alders out. Besides the alders, we've cut down quite a few silver maples, which grow like weeds, and I think the brushgrubber will be the answer to removing those roots as well (in order to prevent regrowth). I'll give it a shot this summer/fall once I'm back to the house (deploying oversees this winter) for a two week break. Garret Hubbard, Knox Maine (currently at Camp Lejeune).

 

[Anngarr]

Oh yah. Forgot.. I own a Boomer 35 with FEL. Dealer will drop off the boxblade and bush hog later this month, though the bush hog won't see any use until late in April or early May. Just got the tractor and I put about 10 hours on it moving snow during/after the blizzard last week (was home over Christmas break).

 

[KenKubota]

I just got the brush grubber model that clamps onto the loader bucket of my tractor. You can release and cock the jaws with a rope so that you don't have to get out of your seat to operate it. It works well on smaller stuff up to about 3 inches. For bigger stems I use my backhoe and thumb. When you cut down the larger trees, be sure to leave a tall stump so that you can leverage the roots out of the ground. Have fun!

 

[SandburRanch]

Jake98 - thanks for the information. I'm a brand new tractor owner, but have owned my home with 3 acres for quite a while. About 1/3 of the lot is covered with alders which my wife wants removed. I've been wondering how I could best pull the alders out, after cutting them down. Just went onto the brushgrubber.com site and they offer an "extreme plus" model that looks rugged enough to get the alders out. Besides the alders, we've cut down quite a few silver maples, which grow like weeds, and I think the brushgrubber will be the answer to removing those roots as well (in order to prevent regrowth). I'll give it a shot this summer/fall once I'm back to the house (deploying oversees this winter) for a two week break. Garret Hubbard, Knox Maine (currently at Camp Lejeune).

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There is no need to monkey around with an aggravating brush grubber when a chain can be attached with the correct knot in less than 5 seconds. It will pull saplings from about an inch in diameter to however big your tractor is. This walnut stump was 6 inch diameter with a 7 ft. root system. It took all 70 horses of a 4x4 NH with loaded rears and wheel weights but the 1/4" grade 70 chain does the job.

If you need more information about how to pull several trees in one pull just ask. Since retirement all my advice and tricks I've learned over the years are free.

 

[Anngarr]

Sandbur Ranch - you sound a lot like my old man - he does a lot with a chain and his 2 wheel drive Ford Tractor. Anyway - how do you connect the chain to the tractor - across a drawbar? I'm pretty concerned about not damaging the tractor as its really a small compact. Also, do you work on loosening the roots prior to trying to pull the stump out? I'm not sure how big the root systems are going to be for the alders, but I'm assuming not as big as the silver maples. Thanks.