OK to push trees over with a box blade?

[beppington]

Back into a tree with the box blade, push on the tree & lift the 3PH at the same time to lift the root ball up & out of the ground.

What do you think? OK to do?

 

[sandman2234]

Probably not a good idea. Price the arms that you will probably end up bending and see if you still think it is worth the chance of bending them. Backing into stuff has been discussed on this board many times, and while many get away with it for years, some don't. Adding the llifting stress to the backing up only increases the chances of bending the arms.I bought a set of lift arms for my 7710 and they weren't cheap.
David from jax

Size of tree versus size of tractor will help determine size of $$$$damage bill...

 

[teg]

The arms are for pulling, not pushing. I've seen them bend...

On the other hand, you get to straighten them out and weld more metal on them so they will not bend (of course, something else might break.)

Why not use the FEL?

 

[beppington]

Probably not a good idea. Price the arms that you will probably end up bending and see if you still think it is worth the chance of bending them. Backing into stuff has been discussed on this board many times, and while many get away with it for years, some don't. Adding the llifting stress to the backing up only increases the chances of bending the arms.I bought a set of lift arms for my 7710 and they weren't cheap.
David from jax

I'm in the "some don't" category as of last night at ~9 pm. Crud. I wish it was only the arm(s) that bent ... snapped the cast housing pin holding piece right off. I didn't notice the arm was bending.

Anybody care to see pics?

Why do box blades have a blade on the back?

Dang - I hate this kind of "live & learn" lesson.

 

[schmism]

ive pushed with my box blade but I always keep in the back of my mind that i risk bending an arm like 3RRL did.

But specifically for the job at hand (pushing a tree over) id pick my FEL before my boxblade.

 

[TripleR]

I'm in the "some don't" category as of last night at ~9 pm. Crud. I wish it was only the arm(s) that bent ... snapped the cast housing pin holding piece right off. I didn't notice the arm was bending.

Anybody care to see pics?

Why do box blades have a blade on the back?

Dang - I hate this kind of "live & learn" lesson.

Maybe the pics would be good to see.

I use my box blade sometimes to push brush and often use it to push dirt etc., but as you have discovered, it must be done judiciously. Sorry to hear about the damage.

 

[beenthere]

It's a good lesson for others to learn from.
Others may differ, but I'm thinking the blade on the rear of the BB is for smoothing out dirt and not for bulldozing.

Would be helpful to see the pics to get the message across. Some learn the hard way that pushing snow in reverse can catch an immovable object and bend the arms (or more serious damage).

 

[DAY]

Some trees are easy, some not so much. And tractor 'size' will determine how big a tree can be attacked.
As others have said, use the FEL. First give the tree a push, to loosen things up a bit, then throw a chain around the tree a couple of turns, hook it to the bucket, and use the curl, not the lift, to pop it out, roots and all. With one person driving and another chaining, we cleared about a dozen 6" saplings in ten minutes.

The 3 pt hitch is for lifting/lowering implements, and then pulling them, NOT pushing.

 

[Perplexed]

With one person driving and another chaining, we cleared about a dozen 6" saplings in ten minutes.

A 6"-diameter tree is a sapling? :shocked: I wonder how big you think a non-sapling tree is

 

[jake98]

I got lucky and just bent the BB linkage all to crap when I did it. Sorry about that casting.