Rake Can a Root Rake be used to Clear Land?

[murphy1244]

This is what I use Error

 

[murphy1244]

Here's some more, notice the mesh on the rear of the grapple. This was made at Michigan Iron.

 

[rd_macgregor]

You probably have twice the horsepower of my Kioti DK45, but I suspect that traction will be the limiting factor, especially with 84" engaged.
I have an old field grown up in spruces and have been picking away at it for the last few years. Most of these trees are now just over the size I feel comfortable mowing with the brush cutter, 3"-6"dia, but they uproot fairly easily. I've recently thought about just cutting them all off flush and letting the stumps rot away (only takes a few years here). I intend to mow the field, but don't have plans to cultivate it, so might be able to get away with this approach (and it would leave the ground a bit smoother than uprooting all the trees).
What use did you intend for your land once it is cleared?

 

[Xfaxman]

The advantage of a stump bucket is it puts all of the pushing force on one tree.

Cut some roots.


Pushed it over.


An 84" root rake might work if the pine trees aren't too close together

 

[Gary Fowler]

I would think the design the OP posted would work great. With the curvature, it looks like the tines would be digging in and the top pushing over at the same time, a great combination.

 

[Deerherd]

The extra 24" on the bigger grapple doesn't make much of a difference in my experience. I had the same grapple that Murphy has and it was nice on my DK, but I can tear up more by accident on my current tractor than I could on purpose with the Kioti. With AG tires and almost three times the weight and horsepower, it's a huge difference. The Kioti was nice though......

 

[AaronS]

Txdon has a grapple from the same company with the same teeth design. The OP might want to send him a message to ask about his experiences.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I can tear up more by accident on my current tractor than I could on purpose with the Kioti. With AG tires and almost three times the weight and horsepower, it's a huge difference.
View attachment 391890

I can attest to that BTDT a lot. I hooked on to a 10-12" diameter pine tree with my disk once when moving forward to pick up some limbs and pulled the whole tree down. Bent the axle on my disk but never even strained the engine on the LS and I was just idling forward at direction of my ground man.

 

[Poopdeck Pappy]

I agree that 84" is a lot of width to push with. Having something that wide and pushing with one side of it runs the risk of exerting too much twisting force on the loader arms and bending or breaking something on the loader.

Since you have the backhoe, how about digging up some of the roots on a few trees and then going in with a root grapple and pushing them over and hauling them off? That's what I'm doing on my place. I use the little Kubota backhoe with a ripper tooth to cut through the roots, which makes it easier to push them over with my stump grapple. And I then haul them off with the grapple.

 

[Green Acres Homestead]

What about tractor protection? A solid back would help roots and branches going through the rad