Clearing project

[Knute]

Hi all, I've been reading many many many (did I say many?) pages of posts and still have a question, or rather would like to get some opinions.

I live in Western Washington, we've got about 15 acres that was clear cut around 25 years ago and left wild. Today we live there and had roughly 1/4-1/2 an acre cleared with a dozer. I'd like to open it up more, leaving as many trees as possible - anything over 3", limb them to around 8'-9' up and clear out the underbrush which is a nasty mixture of blackberry, salmon berry, devils club and other woody nasty thorny stuff. I'm thinking of clearing out roughly another 3/4 acre.

I've basically decided on a B7500 with FEL and backhoe for this and numerous other tasks / projects that my wife and I want to do. My question is what implements/attachments would be best for this kind of clearing? A brush hog that could replace the bucket on the FEL sounds ideal, but I've never seen something like that. Would just using the FEL work, just drive over it with a brush hog behind the tractor? Drag a box blade?

I've only done this kind of clearing before using a DR Field and Brush Mower type tool, or a by hand so I really don't know what would work best (I'm sure all of those would work) for the task.

Thanks for your input.

John

 

[Bird]

John, I'd look for a 4' brush hog (rotary cutter). You can drive over the stuff that small enough to bend and pass under the tractor, but you can also back slowly over even larger stuff, either with or without raising the mower with the 3-point. On the largest stuff you want to cut, you can raise the mower, back slowly over it, then slowly lower the mower onto it.

 

[Knute]

Thanks Bird, I've been thinking that might be the most efficient way, likely doing it in several passes. Set the brush hog fairly high, FEL lower than the BH and make a pass to see what's hiding under the brush, then additional passes setting the equipment lower once I know what's there.

 

[BubbaJr]

Hello Knute,
Something for you to keep in mind if you are going to drive over trees, brush, and other things and cut them up with the bush hog. After you bend them over with the FEL, they will spring back up under the tractor, and pull out pins, rings, and knock linkages loose. If you check under the tractor often, you may be allright. But if possible you might be better off backing over the trees.

 

[icat]

Might want to make sure you have the tires filled with "Slime" or other puncture resistant liquid. Some of those thorns you mentioned will surely spoil your day if you get a flat. When I flatten a tree with my FEL I make sure to keep it "pinned" down with the tires as I roll forward. Then the Bush Hog takes care of the rest. But you have to be careful, otherwise all kinds of things can get knocked off - just as Bubba Jr. said! /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[Knute]

Knocking things off and getting a flat back in the brush isn't something I want to happen! I don't have a long enough tow rope to haul it out with the truck if that happens. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

A assume going with ag tires and filling them with superflex (I think that's the stuff) is also the best route? That should seal up the size of hole a thorn could make, right? My current yard, such as it is, is wild grass that I've mown down with a Toro, I'm not really worried about tearing it up with the tractor while doing all these other chores.

John

 

[B7500]

Bird,
I'm kinda in the same situation. The trouble is I also have stumps of various sizes. I know the big ones I'd take out with my Backhoe but would a brushhog "chip" the smaller ones?
-Terry

 

[Bird]

Terry, I don't know what size stuff you're talking about, and of course, they make light, medium, and heavy duty brush hogs, so it would partially depend on which brush hog you're talking about and of course a brush hog is basically a mower so you won't get right down to the ground. With tractors of the B7500 size you're probably going to use a light duty brush hog rated for up to 1" thick stuff. You can actually cut brush twice that thick if you go slow, but they really aren't a stump grinder.

 

[icat]

I have R4's on my "baby grand" and they're loaded with 10 gallons of sealant. I've had several tell me that the 10 gallons was overkill, but I've pulled catus, Huisache thorns (2" thorns no less), and some stuff that I don't even know what it was out of the tires. Even had to use gloves on some of it. So far - no flats, no leaks, no errors -and I'm one happy camper. The dealer charged me just under $160 to load all four - I think it was money well spent. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

You can save some bucks doing it yourself, but when I added up the cost of the 10 gallons, my time was worth a lot more than the $20 the tire place made off of the process. I suppose you could put less in the tires and lower the cost as well. Don't know how that would work, but I do know that 10 gallons on my size tires works VERY well. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[icat]

Terry - I have a Bush Hog Squeeler 600 on my L3130. It's 5 foot wide and is generally considered a light duty unit. The factory rating is for 1" brush, but I've cut several 2" diameter stalks without any major trouble (and some larger). The bigger the stalk the slower you have to go. When I'm going for one of the larger stalks I push the tree over with the FEL, then slowly drive over the tree pinning the branches and main stalk down with the tires. As the Bush Hog passes over I watch the PTO RPM's carefully, If they start to drop significantly I simply raise the cutter a bit and/or stop for a second until it gets through chewing. Makes a bit of a racket, but it chomps them down real good! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

On the 3" and larger trees I just "pop" them out with the FEL and drag them to a brush pile for burning. If the tree is stubbron then I use the FEL to scrape off as much of the stalk as I can. Several passes over the stalk tends to turn the 3" tree into a 2" tree - and then the cutter does the rest. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

As for the 1" trees - I don't even slow down! /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif