My third post: Best way to clear brush

[LBrown59]

web page=== > Grubbing

<font color="green"> Done a lot of it this winter using nothing but my tractor and 2 12 foot chains. </font>

 

[riptides]

Hey welcome to TBN.

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( BTW, the leafless bushes that form a crescent shape in the photo mark the location of a Confederate field house from the civil war. I'm always digging up mini-balls, tent stakes, ceramics, and other stuff when I mess with the soil in the field just on the other side of the fence from those bushes. )</font>

That is way cool.

On the issue of clearing, woods is woods and pasture is pasture. I think your going to have to come to grips with clearing the woods where the fence is. It will be easier in the long-term.

Get a toothbar for your FEL. Plenty of posts in the attachments forum on this.

Trees, horses and pastures have their own particular order in the world. Sometimes without the complement of the other.

Just rambling thoughts.....


Again, welcome.
-Mike Z. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[LBrown59]

1* <font color="blue"> I can't figure out a way to then clear all the brush and debris effectively.

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1*The FEL pushing and the chains dragging the downed trees and brush to the burn piles cleaned up a lot of this stuff for me.
***********
Be very care around dead treeas.They're a killer. They don't call them widow makers for nothing.

 

[Glenn9643]

I'm not familiar with the capabilities of your tractor, so my thoughts may not apply.
A toothbar was added to my bucket before the tractor left the dealer, and has been one of the best things I bought imho.
I have a place in MS that was clearcut 10-12 years ago and it's since grown up in privet hedge and sweetgum, with the occasional pine or oak, all surrounded by briars about 7' high. I've found that the toothbar will help to get the brush up by the roots when pushing with the teeth just beneath the surface with minimal soil accumulation. When I encounter the larger saplings 4-6" they may require a little deeper attack with the teeth to make the surrender when I push them over from higher up on the trunk. Some small trees are easy, and others difficult. I've found that locust require more digging around to cut the roots and are tough to remove that way. When I'm faced with something like them I put on my pallet forks and push the forks together on the mast. The ends of my forks are sharpened, and I can force them into the ground around the tree easily cutting through most of the large roots, weakening the tree's support and allowing me to push/pull it out.
If the terrain allows, I've found it's quicker to push brush piles to the burn site with the fel/toothbar than to try to pull. As I push the pile usually accumulates smaller stuff and carries it along. If my load gets unmanageable, I separate it by angling some of it off with the bucket and push a smaller portion. Trees that are too large to push through your standing timber or too heavy for your tractor can be cut into smaller sections using a chainsaw. Anything that will allow you to work without having to get on and off the tractor to hook/unhook a chain is better.

 

[1bush2hog]

Another complicating factor is that I have to drag each log up, out, and around the fence to get it it any sort of area to burn.


Is it possible to remove some of the fence boards to gain easier access to the brush/debris from the pasture side instead of the woods side?

Also, what about several smaller burn piles? They do take a little more effort, but saves transport time -

 

[JimMorrissey]

The FEL is definitely not "essential", it's just easier as you are pushing forward to pull and drag stuff out. It won't hurt the machine. Little saplings are not match for the tractor/loader and it won't hurt the hoses (withing reason). Use the drawbar for the bigger stuff or anything that gives you some trouble. Most of it should come right out.

As others have said...if you can rip stuff out with a toothbar and push it into piles then that is certainly faster and better way to go.

 

[JimMorrissey]

LOL!

 

[Cottonhawk]

I hired an outfit with a brush eater looks exactly like the Bullhog you hired. It disintegrate brushes, blackberries, sapplings, and small trees like cutting butter. Fun to watch.

 

[Farwell]

Some where on TBN someone mentioned using real live hogs to clear the land. The advantage of using hogs is they will plow the ground and fertilize it at the same time. Get some portable fencing and some electric fencing, as the hogs clear the land, move the fence along with the hogs to another area that needs cleared. Not sure if they will damage the hard wood. It is amazing how fast hogs work up soil and clear brush.
Just another option.
Farwell

 

[miltrade]

Weekend update to my intro to brush clearing:

I will post photos later.

I decided to tackle it using the FEL (I don't have toothbar), chain, and chainsaw. I started by using the chainsaw to cut all the smaller trees (everything 8in diameter and under) up at about 4-5 feet high. Then I linked the chain as high on the remainder of the trunk as I could and popped them out of the ground by pulling with the chain using the drawbar. When I came to a fallen tree, I just linked the chain and dragged the whole thing.

In the process of pulling the stumps, dead trees, and top portions that I cut off out of the area, it dragged a lot of the tanglefoot and other debris out, but not all. I was trying to manage it with the FEL but it was useless. I decided to try my forklift attachment and this worked somewhat better. It managed to pick up a lot of debris that would get tangled together. There was no easy way to then rake up the remaining dead wood, branches, etc., so I went this morning and bought a six-foot tractor rake. It's still in the truck in the driveway and my wife left me to babysit twin toddlers so all I can do is stare at it.

I am dragging everything into a burn pile and will burn it later. Unfortunately, we have a 4pm burning law here at this time of year, so that means I can only burn for a couple of hours. I am going to use the strategy somebody mentioned earlier of creating a burn pile right where I am working and just doing that over and over, so there will be many burn piles as I go.

I only managed to get about 30 feet of several hundred yards cleared.

I will update with photos.

 

[HomeBrew2]

Sounds good! A few comments if you don't mind:
You will find that PUSHING the rake will do a tremendous amount of work for you.
We have a similar time restraint on burning. I used to think it meant I had to have the fire dead out by that time. I was wrong. Our time limit is for STARTING any new fires. That really extended my burning time.
If it's feasable and legal in your area, you might look a using a drip torch.
Cheers!

 

[Renze]

Somebody mentioned "real" hogs to clear undergrowth in bushes..

What about horses ?
My neighbor was ordered to take his herd of Haflinger ponies out of his pinewoods by the environmental inspection, because they were biting the shells of the trees, causing many trees to die... The fluid streams of a tree run through the outer part, so when it is bitten off the tree has a serious problem to withstand summer heat /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Apple growers, for that same reason, cut 3/4 of the circumference of apple tree shell off near the base, this causes the sugars indirectly obtained from the sun through photosynthesis, to be used for fruit growth instead of root growth.

 

[wfontjr]

i use my box blade to clear light brush and tree unders 4" or so, hit them as high up as you can, they push over, then run the blade low to push the root ball out of the ground, i then use my blade similar to your FEL to push a pile together, its a littler harder on the neck looking backwards, even harder when the tree does not give and the tractor has that sudden stop

 

[Highbeam]

This description is how you use a bulldozer except your neck doesn't hurt. I find myself using the same method with the loader and wonder if I learned the method from my dozer days.

 

[miltrade]

Update to first clearing project over the weekend:

Didn't go as well as planned. I just don't think I have the right tools. I decided to go ahead and venture into the brush (will post photos tomorrow) with a chainsaw and take down trees under about 6-8in in diameter at about 4 feet, then pull out the trunk and roots using chain and tractor. Then I tried to just topple everything else with the FEL, although I have no teeth on it. My JD 4200 seems to struggle pulling the larger ones out, and I ran into one section that had a multiple stump system of five 6inch diameter trees that would not budge, so I had to cut it real low and will have to grind it later. The chain-hook attached to my drawbar even started to bend out after awhile.

Some of the trees were too far gone leaning toward the fence and a couple fell on the fence. I cut them really high, and they weren't all that large, so no major breaks, but one top-rail cracked and popped off. The fact that these trees are so close to the outside of the fence makes me think that the previous owner was an idiot.

The tractor rake I bought was ok, but I bent one tine on a root.

Also wouldn't recommend this undertaking with turf-tires, which is what I inherited on my tractor when I bought the property (came with tractor and gator). Tractor has only 400 hours after one full year of my own use.

The Virginia burn regulations this time of year really cause problems also. You can't burn anything until after 4pm, which means you really only get two hours before it is dark.

The biggest problem I encountered is this:

I would cut down the trees, then pull out the remaining stumps about ten-fifteen feet down the fenceline. This left me with root systems of the biggest trees, tons of tanglefoot and other plants, dead logs, fallen branches, and other debris. It seemed to be too much for the tractor rake, but impossible to pick up with the FEL. Short of hiring some commercial company to come in and tear everything down, I have to completely rethink whether selectively clearing multiple acres of everything but the large trees may be too difficult.

To top off the "perfect day", I decided to go into the pasture and take down an 80 foot, 12 inch diameter non-hardwood tree (I am slowly trying to clear trees inside my pastures as well). Well, even though I notched it and cut a perfect hinge cut on the back, sucker fell the exact opposite direction of what I intended and the very top of it took out one fence top-rail. Great.

Any more suggestions?

 

[Jagmandave]

Only one, a tooth bar will make a huge difference in the effectiveness of your FEL, and they're not expensive. Under $200 for a 4ft one from Markham. They build to order, but mine came in like 3 days......

Oops, I see Soundguy already suggested this.....sorry.......

 

[miltrade]

I need to get the tooth bar, that is for sure.

 

[Highbeam]

Take smaller bites. You described going in too far biting with the rake and then trying to pull that mess through a ton of debris. Next time, only back in a short ways and then pull that out. There is no quick way to clean the brush out, lots of trips and good seat time. I don't usually run out of power so much as the pile of junk starts jambing up between the implement and the rear tires. Still smaller bites.

I am always amazed at the tremendous amount of debris that a small area makes. It burns quickly though.

 

[SnoFalls]

I'll reiterate the "smaller bites" ... venture in about 20' at a time, clear that out for easier access to the rest, repeat ... getting a good skid row is very helpful as you get further in.

Getting it all done at once isn't realistic with a CUT, but getting _some_ done a bit at a time gains experience and satisfaction (rather than disappointment).

Oh, and you will not regret a toothbar! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[rox]

Would the work go easier if you had a partner out there working with you? Sometimes, 2 people can accomplish 4 times the amount that one person can.

Stick with it, you only need to get some headway done, to get an area done and then you will start to feel some satisfaction that will drive you to keep at it. Please be careful, especially cutting down trees. Aways have an escape route planned for each tree you are cutting down.

Also are you working with branch loppers (or is is loopers?, lopers??)? Lopping off some of the branches will leave you with bigger sized trunks and large branches. If you lop you should be able to pull things around easier.