I am very new to the tractor game. I am considering purchasing a Kubota bx 2200 and want to make walking trails in the woods of my 5 acre property. Is the boxscrapper on compact tractors capble of clearing under brush and leveling trails. Input please.
Box scrapper
- Thread starter nwjohn
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theboman
Veteran Member
Use a rotary cutter (bush hog) and either a box blade or rear blade.
The brush needs cut and a mower deck won't do the job. A walking trail needs maintained too and the both will be hand for that too.
The brush needs cut and a mower deck won't do the job. A walking trail needs maintained too and the both will be hand for that too.
BB_TX
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I'm with Bo. Use a rotary cutter to clear your paths. That way you leave whatever vegetation in on the ground and the ground remains firm for walking. The box would take up some of the smaller brush, but it would leave the ground bare and soft and prone to being pretty messy when it rains. If there are areas that need leveling, then use a box to move the soil where you need it. Once it is leveled, you should never have to do that again unless you have areas that wash. You can just periodically run the cutter thru the area to keep the paths cleared.
Casimir
Gold Member
I agree that the brush cutter is necessary if you have underbrush to clear. The only problem I have with it is that even on the lowest setting, the brush cutter leaves small diameter "stumps," which I tend to trip over. My bifocals may have something to do with that /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif. Also, since my wife rides horses on the trails, I am concerned about the possibility of a horse stepping on one. Puncture wounds in horses' feet can get expensive /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif.
If the stumps are small enough, the box blade may clear them, but it is amazing how strongly those roots can hold on and bring a tractor to a sudden halt. If anyone has any suggestions for removing the stumps, other than allowing a couple years for them to rot, I would like to hear them. A pulaski or grub hoe works, but I bought the tractor to reduce the manual labor/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif.
If the stumps are small enough, the box blade may clear them, but it is amazing how strongly those roots can hold on and bring a tractor to a sudden halt. If anyone has any suggestions for removing the stumps, other than allowing a couple years for them to rot, I would like to hear them. A pulaski or grub hoe works, but I bought the tractor to reduce the manual labor/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif.
JJT
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If you have lots of small stumps from brush, a tiller does a nice job of chopping them up.
Casimir
Gold Member
I'm afraid if I bought a tiller, my wife would want to plant a garden. I don't mind mowing the pasture and using the diesel wheelbarrow to help clean stalls and pens, but I don't want to be a farmer. Good suggestion, though, Thanks.
John_Mc
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Somewhere on here someone posted an attatchment used to pull small trees out, rather than cut them. It was a series of teeth mounted on a bar. It went on the 3 pt hitch. you backed up to the saplings and they wedged into the "V" gaps between the teeth. You raised the hitch and yanked the trees out... no stumps. I've always wanted to try one of these, but my welding skills are non-existent (some day I'll learn). Hopefully someone here can point you to the thread with the pictures.
John Mc
John Mc
Buck
Platinum Member
nwjohn,
I would have agreed with the others that a brush hog would be most valuable for clearing underbrush, but the fact that you also need to level the trails suggests that your intuition is right. I am doing the same kind of thing on my property and I own a scraper, brush hog and a tiller. It is my opinion that the scraper beats all of these for this task. Clearly, first, if possible, cut the vegetation down using a brush hog -- if you don't have one, use the scraper for two or three passes with the blades down. This will unroot grasses and weeds of diameter up to about 1/3 in.
The key to making a smooth path is to keep the trail clean of vegetation so that vegetation clumps don't develop.
Therefore, after scaping, use the FEL to take the dirt/vegetation combination to a separate pile. Let the vegetation rot for a year in the pile. Then use it as top soil somewhere else. If water along the trail is a problem, you might have to bring soil in from somewhere else. I have found that keeping a big pile of dirt for occasions such as these is very valuable and if you agree this may be a great place to start.
The problem I've had with my tiller in this application area is that the vegetation gets overly mixed up with the dirt requiring a greater proportion of dirt removal.
P.S. Is it "scraping" or "scapping"? I really don't know.
Buck
I would have agreed with the others that a brush hog would be most valuable for clearing underbrush, but the fact that you also need to level the trails suggests that your intuition is right. I am doing the same kind of thing on my property and I own a scraper, brush hog and a tiller. It is my opinion that the scraper beats all of these for this task. Clearly, first, if possible, cut the vegetation down using a brush hog -- if you don't have one, use the scraper for two or three passes with the blades down. This will unroot grasses and weeds of diameter up to about 1/3 in.
The key to making a smooth path is to keep the trail clean of vegetation so that vegetation clumps don't develop.
Therefore, after scaping, use the FEL to take the dirt/vegetation combination to a separate pile. Let the vegetation rot for a year in the pile. Then use it as top soil somewhere else. If water along the trail is a problem, you might have to bring soil in from somewhere else. I have found that keeping a big pile of dirt for occasions such as these is very valuable and if you agree this may be a great place to start.
The problem I've had with my tiller in this application area is that the vegetation gets overly mixed up with the dirt requiring a greater proportion of dirt removal.
P.S. Is it "scraping" or "scapping"? I really don't know.
Buck
BB_TX
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John - Here is a link to one of the threads. <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.tractorbynet.com/cgi-bin/compact/showthreaded.pl?Cat=&Board=implement&Number=138660&page=&view=&sb=&o=&vc=1#Post138660>tree getter</A>. There was another one very similar except with more teeth, but I couldn't find it.
Buck, or anybody else, what will the box scraper do on small tree stumps? I was thinking like willow that is pretty easy to cut, but then wants to come back twice as thick as before. Will the box scraper rip the roots out?