Removing Small Trees & Shrubs with a Tractor

[astrohip]

We have one slightly larger at the family farm where my recently deceased father in law (age 90) grew up and he told me it looked much the same to him as it did when he was a kid.

Would love to see a picture if you have a chance.

There are at least three of us from the same area posting in this thread. We should have a meetup. Wildflower season is *always* a great excuse to get together! I'd be happy to host.

 

[bamboozled]

I built a gizmo to do this task. I need to take a picture of it but I'll try to explain it.

I also built a 3pt trailer mover, my gizmo slides into the receiver. Basically its a 4 foot long piece of 2x2x.25 square steel, that I welded some .25x2 angle iron onto the back of and use two of my box blade rippers (one on each side of the 2x2) through bolted, to rip out bushes. The angle iron is there to keep the rippers from rotating. I also added a piece of angle to the rear of the 2x2 to act as a 'plow' through the bushes to get the rippers on the far side of the bush, then I lower the 3pt, let them dig in under the bush a little bit and yank it out. Works great, and with the length it keeps me out of most bushes.

I was trying to back a brush hog over things but ripping them out and burning them has been a better solution.

 

[astrohip]

I built a gizmo to do this task. I need to take a picture of it but I'll try to explain it.

I also built a 3pt trailer mover, my gizmo slides into the receiver. Basically its a 4 foot long piece of 2x2x.25 square steel, that I welded some .25x2 angle iron onto the back of and use two of my box blade rippers (one on each side of the 2x2) through bolted, to rip out bushes. The angle iron is there to keep the rippers from rotating. I also added a piece of angle to the rear of the 2x2 to act as a 'plow' through the bushes to get the rippers on the far side of the bush, then I lower the 3pt, let them dig in under the bush a little bit and yank it out. Works great, and with the length it keeps me out of most bushes.

I was trying to back a brush hog over things but ripping them out and burning them has been a better solution.

Would love to see a pic. Have a welder that loves to play with projects like this.

 

[rd_macgregor]

Another, similar approach is in posts 13 and 19 of this thread:
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/346775-3ph-root-ripper-build.html

My local fabrication shop wanted about $400 (well, Canadian dollars) to put together a blade like the one in post 13 of the cited thread...I'm still thinking about it!

 

[bamboozled]

Here is my gizmo:

 

[Lawnranger]

Nice set up Bamboozled. I have mounted my three point ripper backwards before, then hung the brush grubber off the top link and done pretty well with lifting and pulling some decent scrub trees. Nothing more than three inches wide. Once the grubber holds, it keeps the ripper from floating up and usually I can back out the tap root. I like your set up with the two teeth and the extra distance from the tractor. It looks like it will pull the roots right up. You should sell it!

 

[aarolar]

 

[astrohip]

Nice! I agree, you could sell those!

 

[bamboozled]

Thanks.

It works pretty good so far, I've been ripping out some sort of clumpy bushes, like a bunch of tree saplings grouped together, at some property my mom owns. I was trying to ram the brush hog over them but they were so tall and thick it would just push them over and ride over top of them. So I came up with that instead. Yank out the clump, then turn around and pick them up with my bucket/forks and put them in the fire.

The rippers need a little cant to the outside, junk gets built up between them but it's more of an annoyance, it doesn't really effect function. I bought a torch this week so I can cut and bend some steel for rippers and put the ones in the pics back into the box blade.

 

[Thall303]

Would love to see a picture if you have a chance.

There are at least three of us from the same area posting in this thread. We should have a meetup. Wildflower season is *always* a great excuse to get together! I'd be happy to host.

Will get picture when we go to the farm, hopefully next week.

Will also measure the circumference of the tree in the hope someone here can estimate the age.

 

[90cummins]

I have pulled small trees & concrete posts buy wrapping a chain around the tree and connecting the chain to the 3pt hitch close to the tractor. This gives maximum lift force then I slowly rock the tractor back & forth to loosen & pull the object out.
The rear 3pt hitch has much more lift force and can take the stress better than a loader.
90cummins

 

[Zerk]

Haven't used it yet, but I bought a chain with a choker. Basically the end is a C, and you make noise with it. Loggers use them. Went with small chain, in case it were to break. Draggong or liffting with PTO.

No experience, but I would guess anything that is to small to be grabbed with the choker would be to small to grab with some big stuff. Either way it was cheap, and I think it will come in handy.




Now if you could just get the missus do all the hooking, so you don't have to get on and off the tractor.

 

[aarolar]

Haven't used it yet, but I bought a chain with a choker. Basically the end is a C, and you make noise with it. Loggers use them. Went with small chain, in case it were to break. Draggong or liffting with PTO.

No experience, but I would guess anything that is to small to be grabbed with the choker would be to small to grab with some big stuff. Either way it was cheap, and I think it will come in handy.




Now if you could just get the missus do all the hooking, so you don't have to get on and off the tractor.

You got that backwards Mr. you do all the hooking while she drives. That's how we do it.

 

[Zerk]

I am not so sure about that.

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

Another, similar approach is in posts 13 and 19 of this thread:
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/346775-3ph-root-ripper-build.html

My local fabrication shop wanted about $400 (well, Canadian dollars) to put together a blade like the one in post 13 of the cited thread...I'm still thinking about it!

I'm happy to take more pictures if you'd like. Not sure how bad/good the exchange rate is but $400 US would be way too much.

 

[rd_macgregor]

I'm happy to take more pictures if you'd like. Not sure how bad/good the exchange rate is but $400 US would be way too much.

At current exchange rate, that's actually a bit below $300 US...which still seems a bit on the high side for what is essentially just a big chunk of steel (the fabrication is much of the cost, I guess).

 

[lennyzx11]

Thanks.

It works pretty good so far, I've been ripping out some sort of clumpy bushes, like a bunch of tree saplings grouped together, at some property my mom owns. I was trying to ram the brush hog over them but they were so tall and thick it would just push them over and ride over top of them. So I came up with that instead. Yank out the clump, then turn around and pick them up with my bucket/forks and put them in the fire.

The rippers need a little cant to the outside, junk gets built up between them but it's more of an annoyance, it doesn't really effect function. I bought a torch this week so I can cut and bend some steel for rippers and put the ones in the pics back into the box blade.

Bamboozled, I picked up a 6 ft piece of 2x2 to start making one of these tonight. My intent is to use it to cut stump roots on each side prior to pulling them out. I wanted the longer distance away from the rear of the tractor if it will work better than a subsoiler.
I plan on getting a scarifier tooth at TSC for it as my land pride box blade has the teeth that have notches in them instead of bolt holes.

Would you do anything different in Revision 2.0?
This is on a Kubota L3301/HST.

My idea is to back up on the stump, cut roots on each side, then turn around and try to work it out with either a piranha tooth bar or the grapple. I have about 20 that are from 4" to 8" diameter cedar and hardwoods that I cut about 3 ft tall.

 

[Cord]

I have a brush grubber and have mixed feelings on it. It opens and sets pretty quickly, but the models with the handles are much easier to grasp. I've had a fair number of slip-offs and the grubber simply doesn't work on the smaller stuff. It also won't fit on the larger branches. It's a nice tool, but in the end I found us using a choker cable more often. The cable will grab any size tree, but again doesn't like the small stuff. We solved this by choking a dozen small trees at the same time and then ripping out the whole clump at once. Shot a couple of videos for your enjoyment

Pulling out small briar with Northern Tool brush grubber - YouTube
Pulling out Choke Cherry with skid steer - YouTube

Notice how she choked the tree up high. This flips it over so we break the roots on the far side. Now I'm just trying to rip out the other half. Also notice how the branches are slapping the cab. I was fully enclosed, but this could be dangerous on a open tractor. I'm using the "cat choker" style. Bought a pair of them so I can skid one tree while she sets the next one.

Pre-Made Fse Choker 3/8"X12' (5 Lbs) | Logging & Skidding Chokers | Logging Chokers & Winchlines | www.www.baileysonline.com.com

Mowing is quicker, however it doesn't kill the brush. Pulling removes the whole root system so the brush is now dead. Because you already mowed, you'll need to repeat this for the next couple of years until the brush dies. The other option is to let it sucker up and then spray the young growth with a fence line killer.

 

[Xfaxman]

-------- I picked up a 6 ft piece of 2x2 to start making one of these tonight. My intent is to use it to cut stump roots on each side prior to pulling them out. I wanted the longer distance away from the rear of the tractor if it will work better than a subsoiler.
I plan on getting a scarifier tooth at TSC for it as my land pride box blade has the teeth that have notches in them instead of bolt holes.

---------------------

This might work for you.

I drilled a hole at the top and used square u-bolts to fasten them on the boom.

 

[bamboozled]

Bamboozled, I picked up a 6 ft piece of 2x2 to start making one of these tonight. My intent is to use it to cut stump roots on each side prior to pulling them out. I wanted the longer distance away from the rear of the tractor if it will work better than a subsoiler.
I plan on getting a scarifier tooth at TSC for it as my land pride box blade has the teeth that have notches in them instead of bolt holes.

Would you do anything different in Revision 2.0?
This is on a Kubota L3301/HST.

My idea is to back up on the stump, cut roots on each side, then turn around and try to work it out with either a piranha tooth bar or the grapple. I have about 20 that are from 4" to 8" diameter cedar and hardwoods that I cut about 3 ft tall.

If you are just using one ripper, my suggestion would be to mount it through the tubing to center it up. You could notch out the end of the tubing, then drill a mounting hole and slide the ripper into the end.

My other suggestion, if you are going to try to cut roots, would be to knife edge the ripper shank. Either by grinding it or adding some flat stock and building it up with weld, then grinding it. I did this to my subsoiler awhile back but I haven't had a chance to test it yet. I need to do something similar, try to cut/rip about 50 small stumps out of the ground, from 2-6 inches in diameter but I plan to use my subsoiler as mine are all cut at ground level.

When I did my subsoiler, I welded a piece of 1"x.25" flat stock in the center on the front of the down shank. Then built up the weld until I had enough to grind into a knife edge. That baby is sharp enough to cut paper, at least for the time being....