Bent the dipper arm

[ovrszd]

The same type of forces can be applied with a Grapple.

Anything that allows a bucket to "clamp" onto an object is capable of doing this.

I'm very considerate of these forces when using my FEL Grapple and/or my mechanical thumb on the TLB rear hoe bucket.

To quote an old TV show Lost In Space, "Danger Will Robinson!!!"

 

[fried1765]

Yet we see so many on these forums wanting a backhoe for tree removal.....I just don稚 understand how they cant see the potential danger to equipment.

Thanks for sharing, a lesson for us all.

I apply a healthy dose of common sense, and I can successfully remove relatively large trees with my Kubota L48 TLB.
I am not at all concerned about "potential danger" to my machine.

 

[ovrszd]

I apply a healthy dose of common sense, and I can successfully remove relatively large trees with my Kubota L48 TLB.
I am not at all concerned about "potential danger" to my machine.

Sounds like the type of trees being removed might have contributed to this scene. I'm not familiar with mesquite trees. In my World it's Hedge trees that give the most problems with how the root system spreads under ground.

 

[Cat_Driver]

I apply a healthy dose of common sense, and I can successfully remove relatively large trees with my Kubota L48 TLB.
I am not at all concerned about "potential danger" to my machine.

This has nothing to do with "common sense". I've been using common sense with equipment for 40 years. The issue was with this ONE TREE - period. Of the dozens of trees that I successfully removed using "common sense" This one bit me.

The Mesquite tree is a brittle dry tree in the desert that grows along the ground with large roots.

it's a hardwood great for grilling steaks as the wood burns a long time. You can either cut them away using up hundreds of chain saw blades, or bend them with equipment till they break, actually snap in half.

This one tree bent, and bent, and bent and then snapped back with an inexorable force enough to cause the damage.

Chit happens no matter how much "common sense" you apply.

If common sense was infallible we wouldn't need insurance companies now, would we?

Lastly, any man that says "I am not at all concerned about "potential danger" to my machine". Is either a liar of in denial. Every mechanical machine including your wife's blender on her kitchen table has "potential danger".

 

[Industrial Toys]

Sorry. That's unfortunate. I had a long pine come through the side glass of my cab. Trees and timber are so unpredictable.

All the excavator guys I hired pretty much just pushed trees over with their boom,stick and bucket extended almost fully just pushing away with the bucket teeth.

 

[Cat_Driver]

Here's an example of the brush. Not like a typical tree we're all used to.

I had a closed cab save my life by slowing down a limb coming through the front windshield.
Before I got the closed cab Kubota I had an open cab Kubota, I grow date palm trees that have 4" thorns on the palm leaves. I was in and around them cleaning up and as I turned my head there was a thorn on a palm leaf about 2" from my eye.

I got rid of that open cab tractor that week and got a closed cab Kubota with AC and the works.

 

[Industrial Toys]

It's why BIG is so often just better.

 

[4570Man]

I apply a healthy dose of common sense, and I can successfully remove relatively large trees with my Kubota L48 TLB.
I am not at all concerned about "potential danger" to my machine.

I can remove trees with my M59 but it’s hard on it. My full size 310 was much more rugged built and a lot more capable of taking the abuse of digging stumps. IMO a full size industrial hoe is the smallest machine fit for repeated stump digging. The last lot I cleared I used an 80 case trackhoe which is way better then the M59. Even a bigger trackhoe than that wouldn’t be bad.

 

[Cat_Driver]

She's back up and running. It's been weeks waiting for parts, then lifting that new dipper arm in place.
You bet you last dollar I'm staying out of the trees and brush with this thing.

 

[ovrszd]

Glad to hear it. Thanks for the update.

I think adding any type of clamping device multiplies the stresses many times over .