Tree / Post Puller Type & Manufacturer?

[TreeRipper]

Our units are looking good on your machines. Glad they are working well for you all.
Thanks for the positive feedback!!!

Galen
Minnesota Implement
Koeckeritz Iron & Steel

 

[ArmyDoc]

I have a lot of brush and sweetgum that springs up rediculously fast along side of my property. It rapidly gets tall enough that I am uncomfortable driving tractor over it to bush-hog it. (I know, stay on it and it won't be a problem, but it's a non-productive part of the property I don't see much so I tend to hit it once a year or so)

Anyhow, I was looking at getting a front end cutter of some type, when I came across this thread. It seems like pulling it would deal with the roots too. How do you feel the intimidator or notch tree puller would work with a LOT of brush and volunteer sweetgum? Am I better getting this or a FEL brush cutter? The are about the same price.

 

[TreeRipper]

I have a lot of brush and sweetgum that springs up rediculously fast along side of my property. It rapidly gets tall enough that I am uncomfortable driving tractor over it to bush-hog it. (I know, stay on it and it won't be a problem, but it's a non-productive part of the property I don't see much so I tend to hit it once a year or so)

Anyhow, I was looking at getting a front end cutter of some type, when I came across this thread. It seems like pulling it would deal with the roots too. How do you feel the intimidator or notch tree puller would work with a LOT of brush and volunteer sweetgum? Am I better getting this or a FEL brush cutter? The are about the same price.

This is a video of our unit in action.

Minnesota implement Buckthorn Puller display video - YouTube

The Minnesota Implement tree puller is a different design than most other tree pullers. Most pullers use a scissor action on their jaw. We build our unit with a sliding jaw traveling on a lineal rail. The sliding Jaw allows you to grab smaller trees without shearing them off, and gives you great strength when pulling large trees. It also puts the tree very close to the face-plate of the machine, giving you the maximum lifting force and stability.

You can clear a-lot of land in a very short time with these units. In general, if you mow the trees down, they do tend to come back within a few months, often covering even a larger area due to the new stringers that form from the roots, but if you pull them out, you usually get about 70 to 80% of the root with them, so much less returning trees are seen. In general, you get about 3 years out of pulling them rather than a few months from cutting them....

We offer many different designs of unit, to fit many different needs and machine type.
Hope we are able to help you out.
Galen
Minnesotaimplement.com

 

[ArmyDoc]

This is a video of our unit in action.

Minnesota implement Buckthorn Puller display video - YouTube

The Minnesota Implement tree puller is a different design than most other tree pullers. Most pullers use a scissor action on their jaw. We build our unit with a sliding jaw traveling on a lineal rail. The sliding Jaw allows you to grab smaller trees without shearing them off, and gives you great strength when pulling large trees. It also puts the tree very close to the face-plate of the machine, giving you the maximum lifting force and stability.

You can clear a-lot of land in a very short time with these units. In general, if you mow the trees down, they do tend to come back within a few months, often covering even a larger area due to the new stringers that form from the roots, but if you pull them out, you usually get about 70 to 80% of the root with them, so much less returning trees are seen. In general, you get about 3 years out of pulling them rather than a few months from cutting them....

We offer many different designs of unit, to fit many different needs and machine type.
Hope we are able to help you out.
Galen
Minnesotaimplement.com

Biggest thing I worry about is that in most of these videos, they are using a skidsteer or CTL, not a tractor front end loader.

 

[Dadnatron]

ArmyDoc,

I have a Danuser on a 5100 FEL and have no issues. I am sure if there is a lifting/breakout issue, that could be a problem, but I don't think it an inherent problem. It is further out, but while that will necessarily decrease leverage, I haven't found it to be substantial, and I've only had one tree _14"_ that I couldn't remove with some push and pull.

The Minnesota Implement's system is unique in my experience, and would decrease the leverage even more.

I ESPECIALLY like that floating snowplow design.

 

[TreeRipper]

Biggest thing I worry about is that in most of these videos, they are using a skidsteer or CTL, not a tractor front end loader.

Skid loader attachments account for about 80% of our attachment sales. They are by far much more common, but over the past 5 years the utility tractors have become MUCH more common, and the tractors themselves have become MUCH more user friendly and capable. Ten years ago, we only sold maybe 3 to 4 units for utility tractors each year, and now they are a fair chunk of our sales.

When it comes to operation of a tree puller, the skid loader is MUCH faster and easier to use than a utility tractor. With the skid steer, you are sitting only about 3 to 4 feet from the jaws of the unit, and have a direct line of sight on the jaws. Getting lined up on a tree is really easy, and if you are off by a few inches, you can just slide the machine sideways a bit to get on the tree. Skid loaders also have the face-plate of the machine VERY close to the front tires, with the engine in the rear, so pulling stability is greatly in their favor..... For any kind of Commercial or contractor use a skid loader is by far going to be much more efficient.

That being said, the drawbacks of the utility tractor are, the long hood between the operator and the unit, the fact that you have to steer into the tree, (which may require you to back up and re-align) and the distance of the face-plate from the front tires, with the engine over the front axle. There can also be a "tipping" on the front axle if the rear tires lift off the ground due to the pivot that utility reactors have on their front axle. All of these factors do slow down your speed of operation, and also limit the size of the tree you can pull. Typically, a skid steer with a 2000 lb break away lift can pull about a 5 to 6 inch tree, but due to the loss of stability due to the weight distribution of the tractor, a tractor with the same 2000 lb lift ability can only pull a 3 to 4 inch tree. We do address the line of sight problem on our units by putting a protective bridge over our hydraulics, so that if you do miss the tree, you don't damage the unit. We also build many units that can be put on the 3 point on the rear of the machine, which gives you both stability and the strength of the pull, as most rear lifts on these tractors are substantially stronger than the front end loaders ability. We can build many units to fit both the front and rear of the machine, and you can always add a blast weight box to the rear of the machine to help keep the rear of the machine on the ground. All of these tings do make the unit function very well on a utility tractor, But by nature, it still will never match the speed of a skid loader. A puller unit fit on a utility tractor is still a great choice for a homeowner or farmer who is clearing their own property, and not using it in a for hire situation.
Hope this helps address some of your questions.
Galen
Minnesota Implement
Treeripper.com

 

[Dadnatron]

Galen, not to jump ship, but the snow plow you have on your site is a different design than the one in your latest (8mo ago) video. Very different design. Is it shown elsewhere?

 

[TreeRipper]

Galen, not to jump ship, but the snow plow you have on your site is a different design than the one in your latest (8mo ago) video. Very different design. Is it shown elsewhere?

The heavy duty cross draw plow is new to our product line as of last year. last year was also a very slow year for us, so we only got a chance to build a few of them, hence pictures and videos are few and far between. I will be adding them to our website for this season, but have not had a chance to do so yet. I do not think I am allowed to put my advertising flyer on this forum, but feel free to ping me an e-mail request, and I will send one to you.

Thanks
Galen

Galen@minnesotaimplement.com

This is the link you were referring to I would assume
Minnesota implements new floating snow plow. - YouTube

 

[mark02tj]

Galen - thanks for stopping by and posting your videos.

I looked and thought about and looked some more and thought some more about what kind of tree puller to buy for my property. I considered yours and almost pulled the trigger on it. There's another member here that has one of yours and he's very happy with it. I ended up with the Notch and, overall, I'm pretty happy with it. The two main reasons I went with the Notch was that the pull area was much more centered than yours. I liked that aspect of it as I was worried about potentially twisting my loader arms. The other thing I liked about the Notch is the "fingers" allow me to get into areas to pull honeysuckle that grows super close to trees that I want to keep. Your design wouldn't allow for that.

The negatives of the Notch is that it's a lot of weight for my loader (300CX on a Deere 3520). Also, the "teeth" on the Notch do tend to dig in more to the material than your design does. That means that I occasionally have to get off the tractor to remove the debris. But, overall, I'm super happy with it and it's saved me a TON of time pulling material instead of using a BrushGrubber and a chain.

On the positive side for your design, I like that you will make them to fit both front and back on the same unit. That was almost the deal breaker for me.

Can you post the approximate weights of your units? I'm curious to compare the weight to the Notch.

 

[TreeRipper]

Galen - thanks for stopping by and posting your videos.

I looked and thought about and looked some more and thought some more about what kind of tree puller to buy for my property. I considered yours and almost pulled the trigger on it. There's another member here that has one of yours and he's very happy with it. I ended up with the Notch and, overall, I'm pretty happy with it. The two main reasons I went with the Notch was that the pull area was much more centered than yours. I liked that aspect of it as I was worried about potentially twisting my loader arms. The other thing I liked about the Notch is the "fingers" allow me to get into areas to pull honeysuckle that grows super close to trees that I want to keep. Your design wouldn't allow for that.

The negatives of the Notch is that it's a lot of weight for my loader (300CX on a Deere 3520). Also, the "teeth" on the Notch do tend to dig in more to the material than your design does. That means that I occasionally have to get off the tractor to remove the debris. But, overall, I'm super happy with it and it's saved me a TON of time pulling material instead of using a BrushGrubber and a chain.

On the positive side for your design, I like that you will make them to fit both front and back on the same unit. That was almost the deal breaker for me.

Can you post the approximate weights of your units? I'm curious to compare the weight to the Notch.

The jaw being off center a bit is probably one of the most common concerns I hear on my units. I have built a few custom units with the jaw directly in the center, and they work out well. The reason I do not do that on my "standard" product line is that then the cylinder sticks out the side of the unit by about 6 inches, which makes for a much less compact unit, and also sacrifices some strength, as the cylinder no longer attaches to the base unit, so we have to add more steel and more weight to it to compensate. On a skid steer, the jaw being slightly off center makes no difference, but yes, on smaller utility tractors it can affect stability a bit due to the pivoting front axle. We would be happy to build a custom unit to fit your needs, and may even consider modifying the utility tractor version to be centered in the future.

As for approximate weight of the units:

our "standard product line" with skid steer mount

Standard duty for up to 40hp machines, 250 lbs
Heavy duty for 40 to 80 hp machines, 300 lbs
Super duty for 80 HP and larger machines, 350 lbs

Utility Tractor Standard dutyfor machines up to 80hp, 275lbs

Dingo Puller for walk behind units, 150lbs

Thanks for the questions and feedback.
Galen
Minnesota Implement