Removing saplings up to 2" in diameter

[PILOON]

I once made a last minute device that worked just great.

It is basically one long tooth that clamps onto my FEL.
Very much like clamp on trailer pulls.

Th 'tooth' is about 12 inches long and the 'clamp' 5" or so wide and I used 2 ea 1/2" tapered bolts to provide the clamping action.

The work method was to have the bucket at an angle and drive/push the oversized tooth under the root ball and then curl back the bucket with the heel resting on the ground.
That dang contraption popped all kinds of cedars. pine and spruce as easy as anything and they were growing in a compacted unused drive.
The beauty was the roots came out clean and free of soil.
We must have pulled 60-70 or so in about 2 hrs.
I'm talking of 5-8 ft saplings.
Smaller hard wood saplings were a bit more difficult to pull but with persistance we won.

 

[ericm979]

Heavy-Duty Post And Tree Puller For Skid Steers, Universal Landscape Tool

sell it for a few $hundred less when you're done with it.

 

[shooterdon]

I did the same AS Pine I went to Harbour Freight got some 1/4鋳 and 5/16 cable with ferrals and made up 8 or 10 chokers so they would choke down tight AS u pull them tighter , one trip off the tractor and you can pop 8or 10 out on one pull but dont CUT the saplings first pop them out whole roots and all , takes a little trial and error but very cheap once you Get the hang of IT ,I think I maybe spent 50 bucks . I didnt have 900 extra $ ,Nor Cal Dan

That is an inexpensive solution that greatly minimizes trips on and off the tractor. Using the draw bar utilizes the pulling strength of a tractor too. And for tight areas, I can use a long main chain and add the chokers at the links near the end. The downside is still needing to bend over a few hundred times but I see using this method in a few places I cannot easily get the tractor to.

 

[shooterdon]

Heavy-Duty Post And Tree Puller For Skid Steers, Universal Landscape Tool

sell it for a few $hundred less when you're done with it.

I am leaning towards making the investment in the puller. The Dunn grapple is nice but was shocked when GRTkub shared the price of his a few years ago.

Both the puller and grapple have the advantages of being able to do the work without leaving the tractor, as well as carrying and stacking trees.

The multiple choker idea will work in spots I cannot easily get to with the tractor. It seems cheap and effective.

Love the experience and knowledge shared on this site.

 

[Fuddy1952]

$850+(I assume) shipping.
Once trees are all out would you still need it? If you had a helper, using chain or cable you could remove one every 5 minutes or so.
Just food for thought. Here with gloves I can pull trees by hand , ones less than an inch. Once you get it clear it's not hard keeping it nice.

 

[newbury]

I had moderate success with saplings, and great success with brambles using clamp on pallet forks on my M4700 in clay and loam. I'd angle the forks down slightly, drive the forks under the plant, roll the bucket back, rip the plant out by the roots. Main force was with the bucket roll.
DID NOT WORK WITH BAMBOO!!
Probably wouldn't work as well in rocky soil.
And best done when the soil is soft, like after a rain.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

I am in the exact same situation as you. I have 14 acres of small trees, brush and privet mixed into a hardwood bottomland forest. I rented a bobcat with a Xtreme duty brush cutter a few weeks ago and it did a pretty great although messy job clearing 4 or 5 of those acres. By messy I mean, chunks of trees and stubs sticking up. But overall it is a great start to my clearing endeavor. I can at least get in there and assess what to do next. I am mostly concerned about getting out the 2-6 inch garbage trees intermixed with my nice hardwoods. I am leaning towards a stump bucket. Push the 2 and 3 inchers straight over, I think my 4000+ pound Branson can handle that. The bigger ones that won't push over straight away I think will with a couple quick cuts with the stump bucket. Once those trees are gone I can come back with the bush hog and clear the little stuff. I think it will be WAY easier than getting on and off the tractor hooking up chains. MTL has a pretty nice stump bucket for $469. It is a couple hours from me so I will save the $149 delivery by going to pick it up. Here is a look at the stump bucket.

Same price and considerably more heavy duty than the Titan one. At ~350# I don't think it is too heavy for my FEL rated at 2200# That is the route I am going, think it is the right one for me. And maybe it will prompt me to get a grapple to clean the mess I make.

 

[civilian]

MTL has a pretty nice stump bucket for $469.
View attachment 600612
...

Do ypou have a link to the MTL stump bucket? Thanks, Jon

 

[HawkinsHollow]

Do ypou have a link to the MTL stump bucket? Thanks, Jon

I found that one on Ebay by searching "stump bucket". The $469 DOES NOT include shipping. Shipping is $149 extra. Might not be a great deal if you have to pay shipping. I live 2 hours north of their headquarters, so I am going to go pick it up and save $100. You can look at all of their attachments on Ebay of their website.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

I once made a last minute device that worked just great.

It is basically one long tooth that clamps onto my FEL.
Very much like clamp on trailer pulls.

Th 'tooth' is about 12 inches long and the 'clamp' 5" or so wide and I used 2 ea 1/2" tapered bolts to provide the clamping action.

The work method was to have the bucket at an angle and drive/push the oversized tooth under the root ball and then curl back the bucket with the heel resting on the ground.
That dang contraption popped all kinds of cedars. pine and spruce as easy as anything and they were growing in a compacted unused drive.
The beauty was the roots came out clean and free of soil.
We must have pulled 60-70 or so in about 2 hrs.
I'm talking of 5-8 ft saplings.
Smaller hard wood saplings were a bit more difficult to pull but with persistance we won.

I almost thought about making something like this with a piece of 1/2 plate I have laying around. But I have a few more projects that a stump bucket will be handy for so I think I will spend the money and go that route. Also, I was planning on clamping to the pre drilled tooth holes on my bucket, but I was worried about bending my bucket.

 

[Freep]

I hate to mention a non-tractor-related solution (because I assume buying new stuff for your tractor is half the attraction here), but... I have a simple suggestion.

While all the above ideas sound useful (especially the Farm Show contraption), it seems to me a decent brush cutter (i.e., big weed eater) with a sacrificial blade may be the best way to proceed: Clear around the tree a bit, then cut it off at/below ground level to avoid creating 'jillpokes' (apparently this is the word for a sharp spear that has been created by cutting a sapling). This is how I accomplish the same due to sheer efficiency. I can clear the dirt around a sapling in 30 seconds or so, then once I've cleared 20 or 30 I fire up the brush cutter and lop them all off, then clear them up and repeat as needed.

If you have a flail mower that can be set very low to the ground, you can just cut the saplings and then run your flail mower over the resulting stumps. It won't be as close to the ground as the previous method, but it produces relatively minor stubble.

The chainsaw suggestion is good, but sharpening chains takes longer (for me, because I do it by hand). I'd be cautious with any digging near trees that you want to keep, as you could dig or injure up a non-trivial root. It will depend on your trees and soil and etc, but I messed up the side of a tree by damaging a big root that was just a few inches under the surface a good 20' from the trunk. I am always very careful about my trees to the extent that I sometimes imagine fellow posters rolling their eyes at me.

 

[John_Mc]

One of the regulars on here 7 or 8 years ago posted pictures of his "TreeGetter". I saved the info, but unfortunately, I've lost track of who it was that made it. He welded it up to fit the 3-point hitch on his compact tractor. I believe he got the idea from a design made to go on the front-end loader of a much larger tractor. He went with the 3-point hitch mount, since his tractor did not have enough lifting power to do much good mounted on the front end loader.

In operation, he just backed up to a bunch of saplings with the hitch down low. Once the saplings were wedged in, he lifted the hitch and pulled them out, roots and all... leaving none of the stubble left by brush hogging. He also said he had success pulling out up to 2.5 or 3 diameter trees with this, depending on the tree species.

The pictures below are of an incomplete version of the equipment. Eventually, he added teeth across the entire bar, so he didn't have to aim at each specific sapling. I've since seen another version that I thought looked better: It had diagonal braces running from the horizontal bar (near where the lower 3-point hitch arms attach) up to the vertical arm near where the upper link attaches, forming a triangle of braces. This seems like a much stronger construction to me. It would better resist bending of the horizontal bar when pulling up a sapling that was off-center. (Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of that unit). I've always thought this concept was an interesting one, however. One of these days I'll try it out myself.

Some info from the original builder:

The crossbar and the upright for the top link are made from 2 X 3 X 1/2 wall tubing.

The fingers are 15 inches total length (that leaves 12 inches sticking out from under the crossbar) and are made of 1/2 X 3 flat bar.

I left 1/2 inch in the center of each finger and tapered them back 11 inches. Each finger has a piece of 3/8X2 flat bar welded edge ways and welded to the crossbar to prevent the fingers from bending.

 

[ns_in_tex]

This is what we did years ago.
See "Cleaning the fence row is fun now"

https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums...-fence-row-fun-now.html?highlight=tree+getter

 

[shooterdon]

Neal,

That is a great build. I have sandy soil so pulling up trees will not be very difficult and my FEL has 4000 lbs of break out force so plenty for the task.

Regretably I have no metal working skills but if I did I would construct one. I may contact a local welder to see what it would cost to build one. Andy thing you would do differently now that you have used it for a few years?

 

[Michael In Tennessee]

...
While all the above ideas sound useful (especially the Farm Show contraption), it seems to me a decent brush cutter (i.e., big weed eater) with a sacrificial blade may be the best way to proceed: Clear around the tree a bit, then cut it off at/below ground level to avoid creating 'jillpokes' (apparently this is the word for a sharp spear that has been created by cutting a sapling). This is how I accomplish the same due to sheer efficiency. I can clear the dirt around a sapling in 30 seconds or so, then once I've cleared 20 or 30 I fire up the brush cutter and lop them all off, then clear them up and repeat as needed.

.

This is what I'm doing in my pasture. Using a brush blade on the weed whacker. I figure I'll mowing any regrowth before it's too tall for the mower and the roots will eventually die off. Costs about $30.

 

[civilian]

This is what I'm doing in my pasture. Using a brush blade on the weed whacker. I figure I'll mowing any regrowth before it's too tall for the mower and the roots will eventually die off. Costs about $30.

The problem with this is when striping top soil off for a garage build, then the stubble is in it. Pulling stumps with the roots would make spreading the top soil later. Jon

 

[Smokeydog]

Danuser Intimidator. None better

 

[Tshot]

Has anyone used a tree/post puller??? I am considering the unit that MTL Attachments makes. Looks like a pretty decent price - $850. I too have a crap load of 1 - 4 inch trees with shallow roots in very rocky soil conditions. Thought this would be a fast was to thin them.

 

[ns_in_tex]

The only thing I can think of, would be to make one tooth spacing (best if dead center), larger for when you want to take up a larger tree. Most of the time when we are doing that, we will try to break a few roots first, then push up high and uproot one side, then you can normally get under the bottom & finish pushing it out.

This is what we did years ago.
See "Cleaning the fence row is fun now"

https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums...-fence-row-fun-now.html?highlight=tree+getter

 

[Stomper]

check out post #86.

What have you made for you tractor - Page 9 - OrangeTractorTalks - Everything Kubota