Box Blade or Toothbar?

[Cdash]

I need to do some light clearing for trails on my property. I am actually widening existing trails. Most of the clearing is brush, all under 2" and most under 1" diameter.

I have been able to knock it down and pull some of it out by multiple passes of my 6' pull behind disk, but the heavier areas don't get pulled out, the disk just rides over. So I need to get into the ground with something to pull the brush out by the roots.

Now my question is which would be a better purchase if I can only get one at this time? At this point, I am looking at what will help this job the most and not as much looking at future/other uses.

I see the rippers of a box blade doing what I need in multiple passes, but also see the toothbar doing the same but less penetration, which seems like a positive/negative thing. I am tempted to go with the toothbar, but don't want to buy it and not be able to get my job done.

What do you all think?

 

[Glenn9643]

Craig,
Sounds to me like a toothbar would do better than a boxblade for your project. As you said, the toothbar will probably get the brush out with less penetration. I've had good results tearing saplings and brush out with the toothbar, and then use it as a "rake", backdragging through the area to clear heavy grass, etc. The toothbar will probably cost less too if that's a factor.

 

[JerryG]

You could use a chain.

 

[theboman]

Neither. You need a rotary cutter....bush hog the stuff.

 

[SCB]

Cdash,
The toothbar will do a great job of removing brush. I have been clearing three acres of land and have used the toothbar for a big majority of it. On the lighter weeds and grass I have also found that my landscape rake set it the float mode on my 3ph does a fair job also. However, the rake won't get the bigger roots of larger brush. I have a boxblade also. I have found that it will clear brush as well but will pull alot of the dirt with it. So given a choice of only one implement, my vote would be for the toothbar. As already stated. You can rip up the brush and roots with it and then use it to rake the brush out of the soil that will come out with it. One thing I have found is that raking the brush works better for me in the forward position. I feather the loader to keep the teeth just contacting the ground. This takes some practice on uneven soil, but backdragging doesn't give much control over seperating brush from dirt. Hope this helps.

 

[Cdash]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Neither. You need a rotary cutter....bush hog the stuff. )</font>

I thought of that, but it leaves sapling stubble/stumps, and since I am making walking trails, stubble is no good. The way I see it, if I have to pull the stubble, may as well pull the whole sapling and cut out a step.

Sounds like a toothbar is the way to go, as I thought, but other opinions are always good.

Now which one........???

Thanks to all for your advice!

 

[theboman]

Hmmm.
I still think the rotary cutter.
With a BB or toothbar seems like a awful amount of work in getting rid of the sapplings and then the stumps, etc. With a BB you'll find there's roots from the bigger trees in the area will stop a tractor dead in its tracks.
A rotarty cutter and a grub hoe will do the trick.

 

[VAChesterfield]

Cdash, I am doing the same thing on my 10 acres. I have cleared a 200' pathway from my home site to the area I will be clearing for horse pasture. Like you I do not want stumps, even small ones, in my roadway or pasture. So far I have used a combination of FEL w/toothbar and a landscape rake, and will finish with the box blade on the pathway.

My first pass through was with the FEL / toothbar grubbing up the small trees (3" dia max) and large brush. Followed that up with the rake set to a sharp angle to remove the root mat along with most small brush. Finally, I will be using the BB this weekend to smooth out the pathway eliminating high and low spots and getting rid of the dead-ender small brush that survived the rake.

I have a Loflin toothbar installed by my dealer. Loflin Toothbars