Clearing out woods

[jester7891]

I have a Kubota B7610 with a front-end loader. We just built a new house on 27 acres, mostly scrub forest. To keep the farmland and forestry tax assessment, I have to clean out the forest of all of vines, sticker bushes, dead trees etc and eventually plant new hardwood trees indigenous to the area. I need to do an acre per year for the the DEP. There is open grassland where I have been dragging out the bushes and dead trees by hand. I plan on having someone come and chip the wood after I have finished each acre. It will obviously been much cheaper for them to chip from one place only and not have to clean the forest. The farther I get into an acre, the more difficult it is to drag out the brush and dead trees to the open area. I'm looking for some kind of implement that can help me drag out the bushes etc. The forest is flat and hilly and it is difficult to maneuver around the trees. The best idea that I have been able to come up with is some form of trailer but this may be difficult to maneuver. I'm not sure if some form of (york) rake would work also. Any suggestions? Thank you.

 

[MrJimi]

Welcome to the forum and there is a few members that have just the tool you need, it will mulch trees where they stand! impressive units
They will chime In soon, one's name is Rutwad, he is good and I just cant think of the other ones name right now
Jim

 

[Timber]

You have the right tractor for maneuvering around in the woods. I would think you will be better off with a grapple like the one Island tractor has for your machine. Personally I prefer to burn brush than chip it. Chipping a lot of time replants vine and Berry's. I think the Grapple is in the $600 range. or you can mount a grapple on to your loader but a root grapple would be better for the task. I also have a very overgrown forest with vines and nasty thorny stuff. I use a tooth bar and use a push roll crush technique to uproot. I do not have a grapple myself but sure would like one.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/attachments/70385d1171645659-piranha-root-grapple-millonzi-48ld-grapple-up-close.jpg
I don't think Island tractor will mind
http://www.preseeder.com/attachments/GK-4866.jpg

 

[tawilson]

I've had a lot of luck with a set of homemade forks/spears that I put on my front end loader. I use that to load my dumptrailer.

 

[Egon]

I would get a set of forks for your tractor bucket. They should do the job nicely.

I just bolt some old truck springs to a reinforced area on the bottom of the bucket.

 

[Glenn9643]

I have a toothbar on my 6' bucket, and also have a set of pallet forks for the FEL.
Clearing undergrowth and brush as you describe is something I've done quite a bit of around our place and the toothbar is a big help in that. After I've cleared a bit I usually can pile the brush and push that pile with the bucket at ground level without moving much soil or losing much brush, and use this method to consolidate the brush in an open area for burning.
For larger trees you may have to cut them in sections small enough to go through your other trees, and for some forks will work better than the bucket for moving.
As stated earlier, I also prefer burning to chipping.

 

[gb19711]

I cleared part of my property (1/2 acre) this past fall using a King Kutter 6' back blade. The property has large trees and the ground was covered with sticker bushes, vines, etc. The blade worked great. I was able to get close to and steer around the trees. After I completed a pull I just circled around and pushed and piled it up with my FEL. I planted grass seed in my area to extend my yard and make it more usable.

 

[jdgreg]

Sounds like you need a skidder of sorts, or a 3ph grapple to get the trees out of the woods. I believe Northern Tools has a nice 3ph grapple on their web site, seen them a little cheaper on ebay occasionally. Or you might be better served with a 48" grapple bucket (like Millonzi), and pull the trees out backwards thru the woods, until you get to a clearing. Also check out ATI for a grapple bolt on to your existing bucket. This is what I have and it works great.

I would also suggest burning (check your local laws first) rather than chipping. I went thru the same thing, and chipping was too expensive. Best of luck!

 

[jmc]

jester7891,

A lot of your answer depends on how much maneuvering room you have to get it out of there, the size of brush and trees that have to be removed, and if you can clear small processing areas within the acre.

My first thought is that the chipper guy is going to have to disassemble your giant rat's nests and feed it into the chipper once piece at a time. That would have to be expensive. Would you be better off buying your own PTO driven chipper and chip as you cut it down, so you don't have to transport it? Then sell the chipper later. It would also be better to have the mulch distributed all over your land rather than in one spot. You can read threads about chippers here on TNB until...

Then, if your own personal chipper is out of the question, you're still probably going to need a bush hog for other things with that much land. You can grind up the smaller stuff without cutting it off first, or cut it off and stack it right, then drive over it with the BH. That leaves the smaller trees, which you can cut off, lay down, and run the BH over them to remove many of the branches. At that point, you have a lot less stuff to pack out and the denuded trunks are more manageable than full trees. All this mutilated brush isn't going to look like a park at first but it disappears pretty fast.

If your paths are narrow, you have to cut the long stuff up to carry it crosswise in your FEL or to push it out. Instead, I like to stack the long stuff carefully so that the butts are all flush, wrap a chain around them and drag them out. Usually the chain just catches several outside logs but the inside logs stay with them if you take it easy.

Its always risky to answer a post like this without seeing what you're actually up against. I can't help but visualized your property as like mine and, if not, this may not be appropriate.

John

 

[Rowdius]

Well, if it is just smaller brush and vines, I'd say a rake and a cutter _could_ get you by. Once you get the stuff down where you can cut it, keep cutting it several times a year and the vines will go away.

I started with this:

Using a walk behind brush cutter (before I got my tractor)

Up to this point I had cleared this acre by hand. On other parts of the property I had used a JD450 dozer with a brush rake, but I didn't want to disturb what little topsoil/leaf litter this area had

Then I brought in the goats. They keep the briars and oak brush trimmed for me.

I don't have any of the new photos on the computer yet. I have been using my yard rake to rake out the briar, dead branches, etc between the bigger trees. Since I am in sand I can use my tiny YM1500D to pull out some of the smaller trees that are too big from my cutter. Once I have the big stuff raked out I come back and use the cutter on the smaller stuff. For the bigger stuff, I dig around the base, cut the roots, then pull it out. Personally, I burn my brush.

Here pretty soon I will plant grass in the "pasture" I am clearing.