Grubbing tongs

[Glenn McBride]

OK, I'll bite. You hook these on a tree and start pulling. I did that once with a straight chain and later went duh when I pulled the tree on top of me, luckily it was only a 2" sapling. Do you just use a longer chain? Hook to the bucket and lift? Attach at the base or up higher? How big a tree will they pull out?

[MChalkley]

Glenn - Being the most qualified to speak on this subject (since I cracked my canopy in just the manner you described by miscalculating the appropriate length of said chain [img]/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif[/img]), I'll take first crack at responding.

What I do, when I'm thinking, is just use a longer chain. As for where to hook the tongs, the rule of thumb I use is, the bigger the tree the higher you grab it. This accomplishes two things: 1) It reduces the length of the chain you need (or the damage to you or your tractor if you mess up) and 2) It puts leverage and gravity in your favor, so you can pull over bigger stuff.

The size of the tree you can pull varies greatly with how dry the soil is, how packed it is, what kind of soil, the root system on the tree, etc. But I've found I can pull 4" most of just about any type just about anywhere. Bigger ones can be pulled a lot of the time, depending on the variables mentioned.

Mark

[Anonymous Poster]

Mark thanks for the interesting and high quality picture of your modification. Looks good and I have already decided to make one for mine
Thanks again
Greg

[Anonymous Poster]

Gordon, I hope the 4310 wont hurt them. They are actually pretty heavy duty. If one is careful they should last a long time
Greg

[jgh]

8/10

Hey Mark,

Nice tongs, may I suggest you paint them black like your 609 [img]/w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif[/img].

Maybe I missed this on another of the similar threads, but why did you choose the flat kind over the round, pointy-ended ones that grip like ice [img]/w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif[/img] tongs?

Also, is it safe to grip higher up the tree? Doesn't that make a "snapback", in the event of something abruptly coming loose or breaking, more dangerous?

One technique I used the other day was to knock the freaking tree down first with my bucket, held fairly high. Kind of like laying down artillery before the footsoldiers go in [img]/w3tcompact/icons/mad.gif[/img].

Jim