Clearing small trees

[dsaw]

I just purchased a lightly used Kubota L3940 with FEL and a 54" Howes rototiller, 60" Woods brush cutter, and a 6' box blade. Eventually I'll need to clear more, but my initial project is to clear about an acre of what was once pasture 20-30 years ago (maybe less time, don't know for sure). It's now fairly clear, but has some mainly 1-1.5" diameter trees growing in it. Maybe a handful of 2" diameter trees. I'd like to till it up grow grains on it again, but I'm wondering on what is the best route to remove the trees. I don't know if it's possible, but the best case scenario would be to cut everything off with the brush cutter, then grind what's left up with the rototiller. I have zero experience with a tractor mounted rototiller, so I have no idea of this is realistic. In searching the forums, I couldn't find much advice on this topic, but I did find one post where someone suggested setting a box blade tines to their lowest setting to use them to rip out some of the roots. While I'm game to try that, on further investigation with the box blade I got, they won't go much more then about 2-3" below the box; so I question how much good they'll do.

So, my question is, can a rototiller/and or box blade handle the small root balls, or do I need to pull them individually? I'm sure the best answer is to pull them individually, but my land is about 1:20 from home, and time at it is at a premium (lots of short two legged creatures roaming the house), so if it's a question of breaking a few tines ($) vs. actual time, I'll opt for the $.

 

[schmism]

Id brush hog it with an HD cutter (will handle 2" trees fine) then rip with BB teeth.

Id pass on the rototilling.

 

[Dingeryote]

You'll be fighting a nightmare of bound up tines, and a smoking PTO clutch. Tillers suck at chewing up green wood, and get stuff stuck in the tines with maddening regularity in poorly cleared ground. Keep a set of short handled loppers, and a folding pocket saw handy for the first couple times, you till up new ground.

Get a set of teeth for the FEL, and grub out the rootballs, or drop a plow and turn them out, and rake them up.
Old two bottoms can be had for a couple hundred bucks, if you can't borrow one.

 

[DKCDKC]

Tillers are not chippers. Simplest thing is to get the trees and roots out of the ground, piled and burned. Your L3940 is heavy and powerful enough to pull most out of the ground. My smaller JD pulls up such trees with my ratchet-rake when the ground is not bone dry. I have literally made a run through small saplings and pulled almost all of them up. You can make other passes at those left, or hitch a chain around them and pull them up that way. If you get the trees us, you can then till fairly easily.

 

[msch2112]

Brush hog cut it, then dig roots out. Then go rent a chipper

 

[jeff9366]

Wait until after a good rain before going after the roots.

I recommend a Ratchet Rake for your bucket for pulling out the roots. A great tool for $300. Available from T-B-N store and most Tractor Supply stores.

Softwood roots will likely come out of moist soil easily.
Hardwoods, especially oaks, may be difficult by the time they reach 2", but you can spray the hardwood roots with Roundup/Glycophosphate 2-3 times, with a week between applications, then drag them out with a Ratchet Rake after a couple of months. When dead, root clumps "release" in a couple months, at least in Florida.

An L3940 is about the ideal weight tractor for a $400 bucket spade to function optimally, however I think a Ratchet Rake will handle your tasks.....in moist soil.

I would recommend against using your tiller. Not the correct tool.

I have a Ratchet Rake and a heavy rollover box blade. For what you want to do the Ratchet Rake will be effective, the box blade marginal. For an acre it would be worthwhile to buy the RR. A Ratchet Rake will also pile up your roots for burning.

LINK:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/266341-trees-removed-roots-using-fel.html

 

[deezler]

Don't brush hog it first! Leave the trees intact as leverage for popping out all the root balls.

A ratchet rake or tooth bar for the loader edge is going to be the most effective way to quickly get the trees AND their roots out of the ground. As everyone else has mentioned, you don't want to try to till your way through root balls. So, you need to get the roots out. If you simply brush hog and cut off the trees, it will just make it harder to get the roots out. So leave the trees intact, and drive forward, push them over, get the ratchet rake or toothbar hooked on the tree trunk or some low branches, and it will drag the roots out.

 

[DeereRack]

Bush hog it, and set your teeth on your bb down all the way and shorten your top link on your 3 pt all the way so your blade doesn't even touch ground. That should rip the roots out.

 

[Missouri Pioneer]

You might want to consider a BrushGrubber | Home. I have a middle sized one and a big one. Works best with a helper to take it on and off while you remain in the tractor seat.

My experience with my RatchetRake is that it works better smoothing out dirt and gravel than it does removing small trees and bushes.

 

[Xfaxman]

You might want to consider a BrushGrubber | Home. I have a middle sized one and a big one. Works best with a helper to take it on and off while you remain in the tractor seat.

I also have the big Xtreme Plus, 35 pound one, it is stronger than I am! :laughing: It works great on roots or short stumps that are hard to get a chain on.

Right click the pictures to open in a new tab.


Be sure to carry a prybar to get it off the root, notice how far the teeth are sunk in.

 

[horse7]

Around here 2" would mean 10-15 years-- if you had enough horizon, I'd bush hog for a few years so the old sapling roots die off and rot, takes less (human) time that way. You sort of imply there is more acreage, perhaps bush hog the other acreage and do the extra work on the 1 acre you want to plant on.

If you want to use the 1 acre this year, you probably need to get as much root system up as possible. I'd try an FEL/toothbar to get up what I could, then something like a brushgrubber (which I use), the chain one works well on bushes particularly if you don't mind crawling through the dirt to get to the bottom of the bush (these are 12' and higher bushes that rabbits like to live under); small trees up to 3" I've never been stopped by, but over that even with a 4' lever arm (tree cut off 4' up) sometimes the tree just won't come out unless I can try multiple directions. Seems like trees always have a weaker direction to yank them out. PITA though for one person, that brush grubber Xtreme seems to gain weight almighty fast as the day wears on as does all that logging chain.

 

[the old grind]

Big +1 on the brush grubber for 1"-2" trees. Too thin a trunk can slip between it's teeth and just strip bark. Bushes with several big limbs can be loosened a bit with BH stinger or corner of FEL bucket and yanked from there grabbing one that fits the jaw opening. (#^#% autumn olive) I pull most with a short chain on frt bucket and grab hook shackled to the tool. Jiggle-jerk the stick a little coming up and some dirt will shake off the root ball. All gone & small hole left to ignore. (depends on soil type, too) Use the drawbar & longer chain to pull the biggest ones but watch for where the trunk tips when they come loose.

I can get a 10yr old to rock a foot pedal & steer the HST CUT while I select and rig up. Productivity is unmatched if your stuff is in the right size-range for this. Dry overnight & toss right on the burn pile. btw: I let someone else explain why not to brush-hog hardwood saplings when I helped him r&r a tire he'd punctured doing it. Ratchet Rake should scratch up any too small for the 'grubber'. IMO, the pair could pay for themselves in a week or so with time/effort saved.

 

[Egon]

First off what kind of trees and what kind of soil. Both make a difference.

If the soil is not solid clay and the trees are mostly shallower rooted try the loader.

One acre is not very large an area. Your tractor should have lots of loader ability. Use the loader to dig out the whole tree and make a pile out of the way. Most times just moving the downed trees will get rid of attached soil. Try and keep it as level as possible. Easy to say. Much harder to do. Then take out the rotatiller. Make sure the back flap is fully open. It lets junk out the back rather than rolling round and round. Keep tilling and levelling till you are satisfied.

Note: dig down with the loader and then use the curl to lift out the tree. Just a straight cutting edge will work but the toothed attachment would be better. My Kubota B71100 HST cleared a few acres this way. Some of the trees were bigger.

Big tractor and big disk would be the easiest but they may be hard to come by.

 

[dsaw]

I got out there today and got some area cleared. What I ended up doing was using the brush cutter for small stuff, 1/2"-3/4" in diameter. I'm not sure what most of the trees were, they are a hardwood scrub tree that has a very shallow root system of 1-2 roots that could run for 15+ ft a few inches deep. Most die off when they get to about 1-2" in diameter. A toothbar should be perfect for clearing these. Anything over 1" I wrapped a chain around and my wife was on the tractor to yank it out. We also took out several ceders and one maple; up to 3" in diameter. I can see now that a brush grubber will be added to the tool kit very soon. I've come across a toothbar, but need to drill the holes to mount it to the bucket. I didn't get as much cleared as I wanted, maybe 1/2 acre; but it's a start. The rototiller never hit anything that triggered the slip clutch or seemed to give it any problems. I think the ground was a bit too wet because it was balling up on me. I did have to clean the mud/roots out a few times. Next time I'm out (which won't be for a few weeks due to some travel plans), I need to see if the box blade can get deep enough to grab the shallow root systems.

 

[newbury]

<snip> I didn't get as much cleared as I wanted, maybe 1/2 acre; but it's a start. <snip>.

Well if you've done half of the job why get additional equipment?

If you are going to get more I'd recommend either a tooth bar or Piranha bar.

However IF you know you'll eventually want pallet forks they can be used effectively in digging up roots

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/276088-brush-removal-strategy.html#post3262947

 

[yankeerider]

Maybe your recent experience says you're good to go. Otherwise, haveyou considered renting a mini-ex for a day? You likely could completely extract most of those in one curl of its bucket. For a couple hundred bucks, you'd have them out in no time, andeven a few bigger ones if there.

Sent from my iPad using TractorByNet

 

[Bogi]

This has worked for me in the past. Agreeing with deezler don't cut em short, you need that to pull on. Second, three point lifting combined with forward and backward movement. Creative chaining and you will find what you need for your ground. I had to build a 3pt. ripper for all the one's I cut short before I learned.

 

[fredflintstone]

what about root grapple or a rock bucket