Reclaiming overgrown land

[searcyfarms]

jk96 I wish I had found this sooner, I being from dekalb county mo just east of you am oh so familiar with the terrain, soils, and the menacing locust/hedge - ugh......bite my tongue -

We have been through many flats over the years and I too went the route of land clearing vs tractors - did that back in 99 however we didn't have the nice implements for SS now that we have available.

I have found for me rubber flat proof tires work great on dry soil conditions when working n this stuff and then when I have mud and snow I put on the over the tire tracks, my cousin has a rubber tracked machine and I have used it a time or two and it was frustrating to me when it wasn't dry as I like getting leverage/traction but when its dry I would rather run a tracked machine hands down - there is no perfect machine - I don't have a nice one like yours with AC etc.....as for your OP - there is no better way to clear then with a fecon type drum mulcher - I have used that and the latest rotary mowers that are out like a Vail unit - will cut up to 10" trees on regular flow don't need high flow - honestly I like the drum style better, why..............they are not as jerky!!! as the rotation of the blades on the rotary mower slows it jerks you from side to side due to the rotation where as the drum style pulls/pushes, its not that noticeable on smaller stuff but when you try chewing on big things - hold on!!!!! my machine is about 1500lbs less thn yours and non high flow - so maybe your extra 1500lbs will help but still its a ride for sure!!! -

I got sick of all the flats on the SS too so went with the solid rubber tires only drawback is they add a lot of weight and strain on the drive motors turning in soft dirt.

we got tired of tearing up our tractors and flats long ago and your nice case/farmall tractor is way too nice to be ratting around I the timber with too.

The mowing/grinding/mulching/reclaiming is much easier/quicker with what you are doing as you have already discovered I am sure - no to much left over crap to deal with either - have fun on that new machine, I know I enjoy mine and the work I do - we use that SS for everything, now sure how I would ever be w/out one now so I am like you with both!!!

great looking place - have fun in that ravine!

 

[jk96]

The 3 week lead time on my CID cutter turned into 8 weeks but it's finally here. I've only run it a few hours but extremely impressed so far. It has a huge carrier with 3 blades so there is a lot of inertia when it's up to speed and spinning. With the high flow option it maintains speed through some pretty thick brush so there is no time waiting for the motor to catch back up unless your taking down some larger trees.

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Here's a before and after of one area I've started on. Getting rid of all of the overgrowth and uncovering some nice oak trees.

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Rating for this cutter is for up to 7" trees. I don't plan to cut much close to this size but did take video of cutting an large honeylocust just to get a idea of this cutters ability. This tree had an 8" trunk and was 10"+ at the base.

Click on pic to get to video link
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[searcyfarms]

that's great stuff, looks like you have a nice combination of the cutter and machine with high flow to compliment each other, I have not ran one with high flow but I can tell from the video that your experience with being able to maintain high speed rotation cuts way down on vibration reducing machine and user fatigue. I like you was amazed at that speed these advanced cutters make quick work of things - it also appears your track machine is much more stable than a wheeled machine - nice stuff you have there enjoy it much!!! some folks are not as blessed ;-) this is the one I rented and used - I like the teeth version of yours not sure how that would function different but yours seems to have much higher speed than the one I ran Vail Brush Cutter - Vail X Series Land Clearing Attachments

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Wow, that's a serious implement for the job. I'm guessing those are big carbide teeth on the finger cutters pointing down. Does that thing shake you around much in the cab?

 

[jk96]

Wow, that's a serious implement for the job. I'm guessing those are big carbide teeth on the finger cutters pointing down. Does that thing shake you around much in the cab?

Yes on the carbide teeth. They seem to really help in processing the material into finer pieces.

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It will go through material up to 3" like cutting grass. Don't even know it's there. Even the larger material doesn't cause much vibration. Not sure what the blade speed is. The high and low flow connections are plumbed together on my unit with a T connection so you can run low flow through the high flow connections. There is a huge difference in blade speed when switching to high flow. I'm running 37 gpm in high flow. I think the high flow blade speed probably make a big difference.

Here's a couple of videos processing some 4" to 6" trees. I've got my cell phone taped to the inside cab glass. You can see how smooth it runs in the videos even on this larger stuff.

Click picture for video link
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Click picture for video link
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[searcyfarms]

that has a lot of blade speed, the units I have rented/ran were much slower on my 21gpm machine and it shook a lot when it would slow down on larger items - my maching is about 1000 to 1500lbs lighter and wheeled vs tracked so that would be a lot of different I imagine but I think the slower speed would even equate to more vibration/rocking as it spins down against the larger trees/brush - you can process tons more material in a short amount of time with that hi flow there is no doubt thanks for sharing

 

[EddieWalker]

That's impressive!!! Will you plant grass in the open areas or just see what happens? My neighbor has had some areas thinned on his land without a plan on what to do to keep it open and in almost no time at all, everything grew back thicker then it was before.

 

[jk96]

That's impressive!!! Will you plant grass in the open areas or just see what happens? My neighbor has had some areas thinned on his land without a plan on what to do to keep it open and in almost no time at all, everything grew back thicker then it was before.

I plan to brush hog a few times a year. Native grass should eventually take over. At some point I'm planning a large pond so getting the run-off areas cleared and grasses coming in is step one. I'm hitting the honey locust stumps with tordon to make sure they don't come back as well. You are correct about coming back thicker if it's just cut and left to regrow. One area I'm working on shortly is an old food plot that I cleared and neglected. It's completely full of locust and thorns now. Also need to push back my field edges as we are slowly loosing more and more area to honey locust around it as well.

 

[Wakey]

Those videos are really fun to watch. When it is cleaned up it will be an even better place to hike through, such a nice landscape.

I have 2 acres of old growth woods to clean up this winter. I'll have to use a brushcutter and chainsaw then haul and burn but I should get it done before spring. Hopefully the canopy will hold back what I remove but if not I'll just spray it.

 

[lt190b]

This thread came to an quick halt last year when work took over and hasn't let up since. I'm finally getting ready to start cleaning things up around here again. I've been looking for a track loader and finally found the unit I was looking for with the options I wanted, Case TR340. Number one option was high flow hydraulics. There are a lot of used ones on the market but very few with the high flow option which I wanted for running a heavy duty brush cutter. I found this one used about 4 hours from me and picked up last week. It's a 2016 model with 1,100 hours but seems to have had a pretty easy life so far. It also has a factory warranty on the machine until November of 2019 and all emissions related items until 2021 which takes some of the worry out of purchasing used. Just ordered the brush cutter today. Unfortunately it looks like about 3 weeks until they can get it built and delivered. I'll start updated pics and progress again once I get the cutter in and get started.

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jk96, does your loader have a demolition/forestry door on it? If so what brand is it? Are they necessary?