Help with sapling puller?

[schmism]

ive gotten to be quite the expert at sappling removal as thats all ive done around my property for the last 2 months.

In my "soft" IL dirt, anything under about 1.5" i have gotten handy enough with the FEL without! a toothbar to pop those out (im shure it would be a lot easyer with a toothbar) stuff up to about 3" comes out fairly easly with a chain about a 1' above the stump (hooked to the FEL)

above 3" is when it starts getting tough. biggest ive managed to yank out is 6" maple with out any other prep. Bigger than that i and i have to do hand work with a tile spade and axe to help free it up. ( i just dont have enough HP )

for the money a chain and a helper cant be beat!

note, depending on your bucket setup, ive beat the top edge of mine up fairly good to the point that any further work is going to require me to take some time and straighen it back out and weld on some reinforcement!

 

[kossetx]

I'm guessing here, but I don't think those tongs are made for grubing. A 6-9" diamiter tree would take more than that to pull it out. Pull it when it's out, sure. I'd be interested to know if anyone uses one.

A 3" mesquite will stop my tractor dead in it's tracks.

 

[ns_in_tex]

So far, I've been wrapping a chain around them a few times and pulling them out individually, but getting on and off the tractor gets old fast. What I am trying to see how to build is some kind of attachment for my loader that I could just guide onto the tree trunk and have it somehow grab on so I can pull the thing out, and then somehow release afterward. I am trying to avoid the expense of hydraulics, so I would like a purely mechanical device. Maybe something that would wedge itself around the trunk when I backed up, but could be released afterward.

Anyway, that's my idea, and if anyone can help me picture how to build such a thing I would be very grateful.

Tom

We built something that does what you are asking for. I think it is similar to the brush brute, someone mentioned.

My material was 1/2" & is not sharpened. Probably would be better if 5/8" or at least, run the braces closer to the point than we did.

This thread shows several action pictures.

link to thread

 

[TMcD_in_MI]

Wow, I thought this thread was dead, but it looks like it has been revived. Neal, I read your post in July, but I don't think I had seen your tree-getter. Thanks for the link. You did a super job building that. I am amazed by the pictures of your really deep tree roots. Here in MI, the roots almost always spread out instead of going deep like that. Different trees, different soil, I guess.

Tom

 

[Farwell]

Tom,
I live about 25 miles north of Mount Pleasant, MI and had a bunch of Red Pine on my place before they got bark beetle that killed most of them. I tried to dig out the roots system on one of them and found a tap root that looked like a telephone pole. I have never seen a tree that had a tap root like that.
My soil is sand covered with approximately a foot of top soil.
Farwell

 

[kossetx]

Neal, Are you saying you bent one of those .5" points? Mark

 

[kossetx]

Neal and Guidster, I'm torn between building a fel mounted grubber or a 3pt mounted one, or both. Since you all are in tx I wonder if you could tell me how they do on my 4 worst invaders. Cedar, mequite, youpon and winged elm. Thanks, Mark

 

[IslandTractor]

If you have a QA adapter and an extra hydraulic line for your loader, this device looks interesting and, at $500, quite cheap compared to most skid steer attachments:

eBay: TREE / FENCE POST PULLER SKID STEER BOBCAT SKIDSTEER (item 200039919186 end time Nov-02-06 09:11:54 PST)

 

[srjones]

Neal and Guidster, I'm torn between building a fel mounted grubber or a 3pt mounted one, or both.

If you have a FEL-3PH adapter, this would seem to be the perfect tool for both. The FEL would have the advantage of maneuverablity, whereas the 3PH has the adavntage of brute force.

 

[ns_in_tex]

Neal, Are you saying you bent one of those .5" points? Mark

Yes, I have bent or broken 2 or 3 of them past where I stopped the brace on top. Now keep in mind, I do use it to pull fence post or take down up to 8" trees & have tried larger. I use it to dig roots with on the larger ones, then stick it into the tree as I try to push it over.

I think running the brace to within 1/2" of the end would probably work fine.