ideas for clearing grown in trails

[musselmark]

Looks good but would not help in my situation. The trees along the side of these trails are 8+" in diameter, I just want to trim back the branches that are growing out into the trail, these branches are 3'-6' off the ground and less than 1" in diameter. I could do it by hand but it would take too long.

 

[musselmark]

Just for the heck of it I am going to try and make one of those cutters hung by the helicopter someone posted in this thread a while back. Ideas or criticism welcome. I am thinking a 6' length of 2 x 4 rectangle tubing, evenly spaced 2 bolt cast flanged bearing on both sides with a 5/8" bolt going through a 10" saw blade (table/miter saw) then bearing then tubing then bearing then hub/weld on sprocket. Have these spaced so each blade just clears the next by 1/8" and rotating opposite to the one next to it. Then have the chain weave around each one then around an idler sprocket and back to sprocket on hydraulic motor. I would gear the sprockets/motor to achieve 5000 RPM blade speed. Mount it 2' out from the side of my bucket . I currently have a weed-eater with a 7 1/4" circular saw blade on it and it slices through 3/4" alders etc instantly. I should be able to build this for $200.00 or so . I would have the chain and sprockets covered. Is there any reason this would not work.

 

[Capricious]

"...Just for the heck of it I am going to try and make one of those cutters hung by the helicopter..."




Making the cutter is the easy part.

It is building the helicopter that is hard...

 

[bcp]

Making the cutter is the easy part.

It is building the helicopter that is hard...

Don't build it, just wait for the attachment to show up on Craigslist.



Bruce

 

[SPYDERLK]

Looks good but would not help in my situation. The trees along the side of these trails are 8+" in diameter, I just want to trim back the branches that are growing out into the trail, these branches are 3'-6' off the ground and less than 1" in diameter. I could do it by hand but it would take too long.

The Samurai cutter can be oriented vertically. Thats how I use it. It cuts branches up to an inch quite well.
larry

 

[Sodo]

Just for the heck of it I am going to try and make one of those cutters hung by the helicopter someone posted in this thread a while back. Ideas or criticism welcome.

Try a straight-shaft weed-eater with a carbide sawblade.

Here's a Youtube showing how easily it cuts a 2" branch. Also consider how far you can reach off-trail with a string trimmer. You can cut brush off flush with the ground, and 8 feet overhead, very easily. You can also trim all the branches off a treetrunk thats about 4 feet off the trailside, and flushcut them at the treetrunk so they grow over.

The Youtube video above shows a 10" carbide blade that is readily available on Amazon. These work OK, but they are heavy, you can hear it spinning up in the Youtube. It takes awhile to spin down too, it has a lot of momentum. I have used the 10" blades, it gets a little sketchy cutting overhead; I prefer to use 7 1/4" skilsaw blades. They are so much easier for the weedeater to spin up, and if you trip & fall you can just jam it into the dirt and stop the blade. And you can cut a 2" branch, just a little slower. The 10" blade gave me "the willies", working all alone out in the woods.

Plus you can use up all your old skilsaw blades. To use a skilsaw blad you have to grind or file a diamond shape onto the mandrel of your weedeater. I used a drywall knife to scratch the diamond shape, then a hacksaw, then a file. It's pretty easy to do, just buy the spare part and modify it to fit the diamond knockout of the blade. My buddy has modified his Stihl for 7 1/4" blades and I have an Echo. Echo parts (the mandrel and a reverse-thread nut) were about $13 on ebay. For the Stihl it was easier, just needed the mandrel.

This method (string trimmer with carbide blade) is at least 10x faster than a chainsaw type polesaw, because the blade teeth go so fast, you can even trim twigs with it, or even grass & weeds. Where the chainsaw just "vibrates" a flexible branch, the carbide blade goes "TING!" and it drops. Really worth a try.

Today I walked 2 miles of trail clearing tree branches for snowmobile season. Every time I use that tool I can't believe there aren't commercially available adapters for skilsaw blades. All you hear is TING! TING! TING! and branches drop. You can even chop a bush into 1 foot sections and it all lays on the ground, you don't have to drag it away.

 

[musselmark]

This is the same as what a geared up already, the only difference in mine is that instead of the using the diamond shaped arbor I had a friend make up a small bushing on a lathe and the blades mount the same way the proper bush blades mount. It works so good this is why I think my other idea will work.

 

[John_Mc]

I started out trimming back branches on my trails. After a couple of years, I ended up just making the trails wider. A whole lot less upkeep required on the trails.

It can also be better for wildlife diversity, by creating more "edge" type habitat along the sides of a trail where you'd otherwise have unbroken canopy. Narrow trails tend not to get enough sunlight down to the forest floor to create this type of habitat.

This ran counter to my initial goals of disturbing the forest as little as possible for my trails, but I've learned that sometimes a little disturbance is a good thing - both for wildlife and for human use. It's certainly been the case in my situation, where we have a lot of even-aged forest stands. Most of my trails are wide, and I let the edges grow back in with seedlings, raspberries, etc. When it starts to encroach on the traveled portion of the trail, I just brush hog it back to the original edge. Usually, I'll alternate: mow one side of the trail to open things up, then the next time hit the other side of the trail. The system provides food, cover and habitat for animals that favor early-successional forest. If I let things progess to the sapling stage, it provides winter browse for deer (downside of letting it go that far is that the horse riders need to be sure to stay out of the mowed edges, because stepping on a cut sapling stump can damage the underside of a horse's hoof).

 

[musselmark]

Re: ideas for clearing grown in trails: Completed

After I started this thread and was ready to build something I broke my arm in an ATV accident so was laid up for a while. Anyway last week I built it and it works great. Here are some pictures. My only problem is the chain, it gets pretty warm and then gets stiff, I tried soaking in oil, and periodically oiling, I think I either need to gear up some sort of automatic oiler or maybe go to an o-ring chain, apparently they last 10-20 times longer.I can travel approx 3-4 km/h depending on how thick the brush is

 

[Sodo]

Re: ideas for clearing grown in trails: Completed

Well heres to healing ! Breaking bones certainly will put a cramp on shop time!

========

That's a wicked machine Mark! Let me start by saying I'm duly impressed by your bold creation. :thumbsup:
O-ring chain will last much longer but cost is high. Motorcycle chain costs about $100 for ~120 links of 520 size (5/8?) but motorcycle chain has a liability factor that increases the price to cover mfrs for liability. O-ring chain that's not classified "motorcycle" will cost a bit less.

A note about chains. I would wild-guess that chain is large enough for the horsepower needs. But you say the chain's getting hot. Chain heat comes from the amount of the bend, and the tension while bending, and the time that the chain travels (in air or the coolant) until the next bend. Tension & speed is horsepower.

You are alternately bending it one way, then the other way several times along the idlers. Your need for lubrication, for this usage, is high. Can you move your idlers (or use smaller idlers) to reduce the wrap on each sawblade pinion? I wonder if each sawblade requires that many teeth engagement. When you think about a 1.5HP tablesaw running one of those blades, maybe just a gentle bend engaging 3 teeth is enough. Maybe larger pinions for less chain bend and less tension but run the motor faster?

Might be a good time to purchase an infrared thermometer.

Another idea: If you can reverse the direction of that chain such that the 180degree wrap is at the lowest tension (the return) and the initial 45 degree bend is at highest tension off the motor, you will reduce the friction loading on that chain some because at the end, you are bending the chain the most while under the highest tension.

It looks like it was originally designed to be run the other way (not pulling on the tensioner), did you reverse the direction for some reason? To throw the sticks into the bush rather than under the tractor?

Or maybe it suits your needs as is. In any case I enjoyed seeing your creation, I'd like to see a video of it working.