Looks great Nickel. I'm sure you arenanxious to use it. Mounting is a chore let us know how you do.
I played hooky today and got almost 8 hrs of seat time as well as an oil change! Would have been a perfect day of ripper enhanced tree slaughter except that U did finally manage to poke a branch through my grill guard. Cosmetic damage only.
I've now got about 16-20 hours on the ripper. Bottim line is that the thing is fantastic especially with trees in the 4-12 inch size trunk.
It takes only about one minute to get trees under six inches as I only need to cut two sides and can use the ripper/BH to uproot/push over the tree without repositioning the tractor. I rip both sides then put the ripper closebtobthe trunk and slip the ripper behind the root ball and curl. Once I see the tree start to move I stop and bring the ripper to the front of the tree and push at about six or eight feet off the ground. Usually goes right over. Sometimes needs a bit more ripping. In dense areas I can rip up three or four just by pivoting the BH before moving the tractor around to collect the spoils with the grapple. Very satisfying.
For trees in the 7-12 inch range I rip all four sides then usually push with the grapple. Takes 5-10 minutes as it is a little harderbto judge when you have cut all the big roots. Instead of a quick pass or two on each side with the small trees, tge bigger trees end up with four or five passes with the ripper on each side. I usually start with the hoe fully extended and make a two foot arc with the ripper then come a bit closer with each subsequent curl arc. I put the ripper inti tge soil point down then curl and simultaneously retract the dipper a bit. The ripper cuts right through four inch roots. Bigger roots require either picking at with the ripper or pivoting away from the tree six ortwelve inches and ripping again. Pretty fast once you get the gang if it.
So far I have only pulled one tree on top of the tractor. A spindley four or five inch trunk that just tipped right over me when I was curling with the ripper close to the rootball. No harm done but it was a good lesson. I now waych closely for tree movement while ripping and if I see it I try to push it over before attempting any more ripping.
I have now dropped about 60-70 trees, most 5-6 inchers. I clean up the area and use the grapple to transport the trees 300-400 yards where we cut them up. Using the ripper and grapple seems about three or four times as efficient as grapple, BH bycket and chainsaw. I've cut down only one three trunk tree with a chainsaw since mounting the ripper. The combined rootmass on that was about six feet in diameter and the trees were about fourty feet so I did not want to risk it with the ripper on a windy day.
Needless to say, i am thrilled with the ripper and BH90x combo. Five stars.
Still no suggestions for improvements to the rupper itself. I may need to armor the hydraulic hoses on the dipper though as they scrape on branches a lot and the fitting has leaked twice.