Middle Buster for digging up sapling roots??

[tcnjdeluca]

Hi Everyone.

I recently had about 2 acres of brush cleared by a hired brush hog. The brush had a lot of 2 and 3 inch saplings. They have left a lot of little stumps and roots. I have a little 21hp Kubota and I was wondering if I picked up a middle buster if I could run it shallow and pop out most of those roots and stumps. I would not want to stop at every stump and dig it. A box blade might be better from what I understand but its much more expensive and I am afraid I wont have the HP to pull it though roots and stumps. All I have now is a rear blade and a 5ft finish mower. I tried "raking" the mess with the rear blade but it would constantly get stuck on little stumps.

Any thoughts?

Dan

 

[jenkinsph]

I suspect a small tractor would have a hard time with those small stumps. I would use something larger for a day that can pull them out. I would recommend contracting it out to someone with a 75hp tractor and heavy box blade.

 

[magicheater]

Hi Everyone.

I recently had about 2 acres of brush cleared by a hired brush hog. The brush had a lot of 2 and 3 inch saplings. They have left a lot of little stumps and roots. I have a little 21hp Kubota and I was wondering if I picked up a middle buster if I could run it shallow and pop out most of those roots and stumps. I would not want to stop at every stump and dig it. A box blade might be better from what I understand but its much more expensive and I am afraid I wont have the HP to pull it though roots and stumps. All I have now is a rear blade and a 5ft finish mower. I tried "raking" the mess with the rear blade but it would constantly get stuck on little stumps.

Any thoughts?

Dan

I do this on a regular basis with my bucket. What model tractor do you have?

 

[tcnjdeluca]

I have a kubota 6100 2wd that the previous owner upgraded to a 21 horse engine. I do not have an FEL. The guy who brush hogged said I would need a dozer to clear the little sapling roots out, I think this is overkill. Before I hired the brush hog I was able to pull out these saplings fairly easily with the tractor and a chain.

 

[jenkinsph]

I have a kubota 6100 2wd that the previous owner upgraded to a 21 horse engine. I do not have an FEL. The guy who brush hogged said I would need a dozer to clear the little sapling roots out, I think this is overkill. Before I hired the brush hog I was able to pull out these saplings fairly easily with the tractor and a chain.

If you had pushed them over to start with it would be easier. With the stumps cut off low it will require more force to get them out, a dozer would be a good choice imo. A half day with a dozer and good operator and you would be done. Then use your tractor to clean up.

 

[Ford850]

A middle buster cuts a 'V' and rolls soil to each side leaving a trench. I think a subsoiler running shallow might work better than a middle buster. It would snag the roots and pop out the small sapling stumps. If you could pull them out with a chain before ctting them off, then the subsoiler should work.

 

[bikerdib]

I second the subsoiler for the same reason. Run it just deep enough to hook the stump and you won't have a lot of smoothing of the soil to do afterward.

Unless you are in rock or really hard soil your tractor should do OK. This will be a time consuming job however since you will have to do it one stump at a time.

 

[tcnjdeluca]

Thanks,

Maybe I will try a subsoiler or one of the subsoiler Middle Buster combo units. This would not really be a big gamble if it did not work I could always find something else to do with it. I'll keep the thread posted

 

[r8nger]

A subsoiler works good for small saplings, just lift as you pull and it plucks them right out without leaving a huge hole. On the bigger ones, you run the subsoiler around the stump then pluck it out. Works good for rocks too.weight on the front of the tractor definitely helps a bunch.

 

[Baby Grand]

You could run the subsoiler at 3 to 6" deep, depending on what depth the majority of the stump roots run. If you do a grid at 12 or 18" spacing you should be able to loosen up most of them. Then I'd guess a pass with a box blade with scarifiers down should pluck them out pretty nicely.

If you have the weight/traction/power to do it with just the box blade, that would seem to be an even better use of your time & fuel. I don't have a box blade so this may just be wishful thinking on my part, but they seem like such useful impliments for such a wide variety of tasks.

I haven't used my subsoiler for the smaller stumps that Dan asks about - I have just hit them with the brush hog until they throw in the towel and die. I have very had good luck using the subsoiler to pull larger stumps (4 - 8" diameter hardwoods). The amount of vertical lift available from the 3pt close to the rear axle makes this very effective. Down side is you may find it's necessary to cut the stump very low to the ground so you don't get your rear tires hung up on it as you systematically break it out, one big root at a time. Cutting it low like that eliminates some other removal options, so it's an "in for a dime - in for a dollar" proposition.

Jim