Popping out bushes?

old and tired · Apr 11, 2024

TripleS said:
I've never seen anyone put a hoe on a dozer. Pretty slick!!

It was a wee bit bigger than the dozer should have had. 1199A Long backhoe...

Bansil · Apr 11, 2024

How is that little dozer been for you? How old is that model?

old and tired said:
Found a photo of removing the "massive" boxwood stumps... and right before the bolts stripped out of the back of the Nortac dozer!

old and tired · Apr 12, 2024

About 2005-ish... helped with road building and paths into the woods. Mainly light duty work but work, none the less. Right now it needs a steering clutch on the right side...

It's a friends' dozer but I was offered it, for free - just need to fix the right side steering clutch (I declined the offer!)

sd455dan · Apr 12, 2024

We had a 1960's CASE Terratrac 750? with a hoe and a clamshell bucket. It was a very handy machine.

Good Luck to the OP on the Boxwood removal, tight spaces complicate things for sure.

Williy · Apr 14, 2024

If you can get a hose you can loosen up the dirt
around the trunk with the pressure should be able
to get low by the roots??? dynamite??

willy

danyjames_ · Apr 20, 2024

Blue Mule said:
MIL has about a dozen (maybe a little more) bushes that were injured by severe cold last winter and then finished off by more severe cold this winter. Now that it’s spring she wants me to help her pull them up so she can replace them. These are mostly your typical boxwood type residential bushes that you commonly see in front of people’s houses in the eastern part of the country. My experience with them is that the smaller/younger ones aren’t too much of a fight to pull up, but established ones can have extensive root systems. So, I plan to haul my compact tractor to her house in a couple of weeks to hopefully make the job easier.

Speed Test
What would you guys do? Use the 3-point hitch to pop them up out of the ground, or use the loader with a chain on the bolt on hooks that I added to the bucket to pull them up? I’m considering just using the 3-point because then I’ll have more leverage and less likely to get the tractor tipsy. Also, no strain on the front axle. On the other hand, the 3-point has limited range of motion and it’s harder to cinch the chain up tight and then have the range to pull the bush totally free. Hmmm….

A farmer jack (high lift jack) would probably do the job without damaging the lawn, depending on the size that would be my go too.

Little Red Tractor · Apr 22, 2024

A friend did the job the "hard" way. He cut all around the base of the shrubs with a recipricating saw and a stout blade, then yanked them out with his truck. It worked for him.

WinterDeere · Apr 22, 2024

I've pulled several boxwoods, and the method I've found that works well is:

1. Trim up from bottom to make some clear working space under them. This can be done in about 30 seconds with a gas trimmer, you're not trying to make it pretty.
2. Choker chain around the bush to chain hook on tractor bucket.
3. Lift. If it's young, it'll come out easy. If it's mature, this will just provide some pressure so you can start digging around the thing to find the major root(s).
4. Stomp-cut major roots with shovel, the rest will pop right out.

My 3033R (1600 lb. lift) can pull most out with no digging. My 855 (< 1000 lb. lift) usually needed some digging around to get a mature boxwood free. Contact pressure / ground damage is proportional to force required to pull the bush, obviously, but usually not enough to even worry about. It'll heave back out with the next frost, or roll back out over the course of a mowing season.

I've also on some occasions flooded the area with a garden hose. It makes for some messy boots, but usually helps ease the bush out of dry soil with less or no digging, by irrigating the dirt away from the roots.

kenbgbill · Apr 22, 2024

Blue Mule said:
MIL has about a dozen (maybe a little more) bushes that were injured by severe cold last winter and then finished off by more severe cold this winter. Now that it’s spring she wants me to help her pull them up so she can replace them. These are mostly your typical boxwood type residential bushes that you commonly see in front of people’s houses in the eastern part of the country. My experience with them is that the smaller/younger ones aren’t too much of a fight to pull up, but established ones can have extensive root systems. So, I plan to haul my compact tractor to her house in a couple of weeks to hopefully make the job easier.

What would you guys do? Use the 3-point hitch to pop them up out of the ground, or use the loader with a chain on the bolt on hooks that I added to the bucket to pull them up? I’m considering just using the 3-point because then I’ll have more leverage and less likely to get the tractor tipsy. Also, no strain on the front axle. On the other hand, the 3-point has limited range of motion and it’s harder to cinch the chain up tight and then have the range to pull the bush totally free. Hmmm….

If they’re close enough to a hose bib, saturate the ground with water and hook a tow strap to a bumper…..they should pop right out. Push the hose into the ground a foot or two. Get them really wet down deep.

Blue Mule · Apr 22, 2024

So just to update, the job went better than expected. Wife ended up claiming the seat of the tractor, so actually all I had to do was handle rigging the chain to the bushes. That sped things up. Ended up pulling 15 to 20 bushes total. Some smaller and some larger but all of them had been in the ground for a couple of decades. I wrapped one end of the chain around the base and cinched on a link as tight as I could to "choke" it. Then hooked the clevis of the other end of the chain onto a link near the base also. This gave me a large loop of open chain that I then could connect to the two bolt on hooks I put on the tractor bucket as needed, which made the force even across the frame of the loader (imagine the chain making a "V" shape coming from two points on the loader to one point at the bush). The Workmaster 40 at idle had enough power and flow to pull up all the bushes without much fight. There was only one bush that fought us a bit, and on that one we just rocked the bush back and forth (hydro trans is awesome for work like this) until the roots let go and up it came.

For about half of the bushes there were access issues, so I connected the tractor end of the chain to the draw bar, ran the full length of chain plus a fabric tow strap to the bushes, had the wife drop her down into low range, and pulled horizontally. To my surprise the tractor ripped even the largest bushes in the yard right out like that. One in particular was such a large bush that it alone filled up the entire bed of my F-250 pickup. On that one I had to rig the strap up about half way on the trunk of the bush for leverage, then the Workmaster pulled it out.

These larger compact tractors are beasts. I figure with the FEL, box blade on the rear for ballast, fluid in the tires, etc. it probably sits at around 5,000 lbs. curb weight and in 4WD low range it seemed like it would pull anything I hooked to it. What a back saver!!

If there was any issue at all with the job, and I expected this, it was that the tractor left depressions in the lawn. So next trip to her house I'll take my lawn roller and smooth it all back out for her.

Bobrown14 · Apr 22, 2024

One tip for using a chain attached to hooks on your bucket. Wrap the chain around the trunk 2x that reduces the slip it will tighten as soon as you start pulling or lifting.

Boxwoods I'd probably hook the chain a 30K or higher clevis attached to my draw bar. Pulling like that can get sketchy af tho. Pulling up with a loader is safer but that might not work well on older boxwoods. Man I hate boxwoods. We have 1 its up past the 2nd floor window.

EddieWalker · Apr 23, 2024

Good job. Sounds like you and your wife are a good team!!!!!

2manyrocks · Apr 23, 2024

Your tractor looks to have been exactly the right size to get the job done in the available space without totally wrecking the yard.

Doz · Apr 24, 2024

Blue Mule said:
New development... I checked with her again on which bushes she wants out. Half of them are in an area of the yard that I cannot access with a machine due to a handicap walkway that was built between the house and detached garage and a lilac tree. I guess that makes the decision simple. So, I will have no choice but to use a long chain and pull them out using the drawbar of the tractor from a distance of about 30 feet.

The other half of them are accessible and are around her deck behind the house so I'm thinking on those I'll just use the loader and try to pull up vertically. Should be interesting.

My only concern as somebody mentioned is possibly leaving small ruts in the lawn. This tractor is about 5k with the FEL and box blade both attached and the small little R4 tires put a lot of contact pressure on the soil. But, she wants to replant in the same areas so I can't just saw them off and leave the stumps. Need to get them out of the ground. So it is what it is.

Make sure you know if there’s a septic tank and drain Feild and you don’t drive on them could be a mess

OldPaint · Apr 24, 2024

Blue Mule said:
So just to update, the job went better than expected. Wife ended up claiming the seat of the tractor, so actually all I had to do was handle rigging the chain to the bushes. That sped things up. Ended up pulling 15 to 20 bushes total. Some smaller and some larger but all of them had been in the ground for a couple of decades. I wrapped one end of the chain around the base and cinched on a link as tight as I could to "choke" it. Then hooked the clevis of the other end of the chain onto a link near the base also. This gave me a large loop of open chain that I then could connect to the two bolt on hooks I put on the tractor bucket as needed, which made the force even across the frame of the loader (imagine the chain making a "V" shape coming from two points on the loader to one point at the bush). The Workmaster 40 at idle had enough power and flow to pull up all the bushes without much fight. There was only one bush that fought us a bit, and on that one we just rocked the bush back and forth (hydro trans is awesome for work like this) until the roots let go and up it came.

For about half of the bushes there were access issues, so I connected the tractor end of the chain to the draw bar, ran the full length of chain plus a fabric tow strap to the bushes, had the wife drop her down into low range, and pulled horizontally. To my surprise the tractor ripped even the largest bushes in the yard right out like that. One in particular was such a large bush that it alone filled up the entire bed of my F-250 pickup. On that one I had to rig the strap up about half way on the trunk of the bush for leverage, then the Workmaster pulled it out.

These larger compact tractors are beasts. I figure with the FEL, box blade on the rear for ballast, fluid in the tires, etc. it probably sits at around 5,000 lbs. curb weight and in 4WD low range it seemed like it would pull anything I hooked to it. What a back saver!!

If there was any issue at all with the job, and I expected this, it was that the tractor left depressions in the lawn. So next trip to her house I'll take my lawn roller and smooth it all back out for her.

View attachment 863719

For future reference, since you already have hooks on the top of your bucket, you can do something very similar to the 'tire/wheel' method. Just roll the bucket forward with the edge on the ground and choker chain/strap the bushes as close as possible, then roll the bucket back. It gives the same mechanical advantage with no risk of rolling the tractor or harming the FEL boom by using the bucket curl cylinders for the force and the bucket for a lever. Another method is with forks if you have them. Curl them down so that they're pointed back toward the tractor, chain the shrub to the back stop, then curl up while applying a little reverse with they hydrostatic trans. The longer the lever, the easier to get 'em out, but the levers start getting heavy when they're built to handle the forces.

I made a pulling Tee with a 4x4 and some scrap 2 x 4's for gussets/braces. I used some 1/2 x 1 bar stock to put a crown on the 'bottom' end (which is actually the top when in use) and notched the end of the post to keep the chain from splitting it. I pull a lot of small scrub and underbrush out with it. I cut most of it off just below knee high and chip the tops, then pile the stumps to rot. For the more stubborn stuff, I've got a relatively cheap stump bucket to dig around them and loosen them up. Not quite as fast as an excavator, but still a lot faster than a shovel. I've seen a lotta bad reviews about the particular stump bucket I have, but most of them have been from folks with monster tractors that can easily rip the stump bucket to shreds.

oosik · Apr 26, 2024

Two days ago I was down my mile long driveway - troweling out my one mud hole with my LPGS. It gently rolling and smooth as a pool table now.

Anyhow - on the way back home - I use the grapple to pull/rip out a few of the Buck brush clumps that insists on encroaching on the driveway shoulders.

The stuff grows in clumps and that's how I remove it. One clump at a time. I don't like poisons and the chainsaw doesn't kill the brush either.