Brush Cutter

[bmac]

Hello again, all. This past weekend we were enjoying some sunny skies and temps in the upper 50's. So, we decided to check out some property that is for sale (13 acres, gentle slopes, wooded, stream at the rear boundary - beautuful). As we were walking the property, I was thinking that I could probably spend alot of time cleaning out the undergrowth and thinning out the trees while waiting to build a home here.

The tool of choice for clearing out the sapplings and small trees (< 3 in) might be one of these brush cutters (a circular blade thingy on the buisness end of a string trimmer gizmo). Being one who looks for ways to conserve energy (I don't like to think of it as being lazy) I started to think about the PT again.

I thought I recalled a discussion here where someone mentioned rigging a string trimmer to the PT to help cut along fence lines, although a search of this forum did not yield any results (may have been in another section). In any event, I can't help but think that one of you PT wizards hasn't brought up the possibility of engineering such an attachment. Kind of like the stump grinder, only with the blade oriented horizontally. Give it some side-to side hydraulic action and you'd be in buisness to fly through the woods buzzing down everything that gets in your way.

So, how crazy is this idea?

 

[MossRoad]

As I recall, the old PT stump cutter was able to be rotated 90 degrees to make it horizontal, like you suggest. I read it here, somewhere.

Also, I believe it was Charlie that was working on the string trimmer.

Have you seen the thread on the PT400 series brush hog? If not, click here . There are some photos and videos if you go down the list.

 

[bmac]

Certainly, the brush mower would be good for some of the undergrowth (briars, pine saplings, etc). But most of the clearing I had in mind includes small hardwoods that are a little bigger than I would imagine a brush mower would handle safely. In any event, I am neither an an inventor nor a fabricator so I guess this idea will probably fade into the sunset.

As an aside, as I continue to salivate over the prospect of some day actually owing a PT, should I have my sights set on something bigger than a 425 if I end up with this 13 acre parcel? I'm thinking that as most of the the land will remain wooded (I'll clear 2-3 acres for homesite and yard), the 425 will probably be more than adequate.

 

[MossRoad]

Currently, I have 1 acre of grass that I mow... completely flat... takes 18 minutes and I help maintain a little league park occasionally.

I trailer my PT425 to some property that we own. It is rolling sandy hills(20 acres) that is mostly wooded, reforested or getting wild. We hope to build there within the next 5 years. Mowing a small lawn weekly, maintaining two or three miles of hiking and cross country ski trails, maintaining 400' driveway, maintaining three to four acres of meadow and hauling logs out of the woods for firewood and hopefully some lumber(I plan to take up woodworking if I live to retirement age). It will be the perfect size tractor for our needs. Not too big, not too hard on the land, but still powerfull enough to get the jobs done in reasonable time. I don't plan on mowing any steep slopes, as our soil is what is called "Tyner A,B,C and D" (sandy and flat to steep). We want to keep the vegitation on those slopes and keep the tractor ruts off of them.

As for the brush hog, it handles anything up to 2 inches very well. Anything bigger will meet my chainsaw one time, then have its stump doused with herbicide. It should never return, but if it tries the PT will dig out the stump in our sandy soil very easily.

 

[waterglyn]

I had put tubes in my brush cutters tires attempting to fix the problem with flats. This worked for a while but I had another flat this weekend. Could you tell me where and what type of solid tires that you purchased for yours?

 

[MossRoad]

I took my old tires, rims and axle to a local shop that sells casters and wheels for industrial applications, like hand carts and dollies. They had some that were the exact same size except for the bearing was too large and the rim was 1/4" too narrow. So they just popped in a tube spacer sleeve bearing to match the existing axle and I used some large washers for spacers on each side. So far, after about 2 hours, so good. I think it ended up being about $70.00 total.

 

[Charlie_Iliff]

BMAC
The string trimmer project was/is mine. I cut a bunch of iron and assembled most of the pieces to try it during the heat of last summer, then shelved it due to lack of energy. Now, I've robbed it of its hydraulic cylinder for the prototype Bubenberg boom (See grapple thread).
Somewhere, I have a 36" horizontal circular saw for the front of the old Gravely walk behind. Once chain saws got light and reliable, we haven't used anything else. To mount on the PT, there are hydraulic chain saws available for skid steers in forestry use, but you'd have to have a lot of stuff to cut to justify the price. Maybe you could put an attach plate on the back of a DR string trimmer, with Beaver Blade, and use it's engine instead of hydraulics. It would save a little walking and be fun to try, but a day walking through the place with a light chain saw will destroy an awful lot of small trees. Then you can use the PT to haul them to your 10-year compost windrows.

 

[bmac]

OK, not to beat a dead horse, but what you y'all think about this for whacking small trees? Would the PT be able to handle it? The attachment shows a photo and below is a link to the company web site. I pirated this off of the Attachments Forum here at TBN, so many of you may have seen it before.

Hy-Reach Clipper

 

[Charlie_Iliff]

BMAC - The PT shouldn't have any problem handling the clipper if you don't mount it on a long boom. It weighs 350 lb without mounting hardware. The 422/425 lift 800 in the bucket, so figure 850 total capability at a foot or so ahead of the attach plate - plenty to handle the machine if it is used to take trees off down low. It might handle it with a couple of feet of boom, which would get to branches 5-6 feet up, but longer than that will get in PT pucker range.

 

[wasabi]

Have not seen it before....like it a lot. Is it pricey?