Brush Grubber

[2manyrocks]

When the soil is still wet in the Spring, sometimes you can pull most of the root without taking much soil. Also easiest pull…unlike dry conditions where the root wants to stay put.

 

[5030]

Of course I'd rather use my stump grinder but the weed trees I need to remove are located in the midst of my spruce trees so getting to them becomes an issue which is why I bought the Grubber in the first place. That and the fact that if I were to grind them off, they would just resprout anyway so I need to remove them entirely. I could probably use the pipe and chain method bit the Grubber wasn't all that expensive to begin with and we will see how well it works. I'm a bit miffed about the fact it was made in China as I don't cotton to Chinese made stuff in general. Made in China but packaged and sold by a domestic outfit.... The American Way, I guess.

 

[arrow]

The Brush Grubber costs substantially less for starters

That’s one reason. But if l had a lot of this type of removal, it would be worth it to me to avoid getting on and off the tractor if working as a single.

 

[5030]

My wife will do the hooking for me...lol

 

[arrow]

Maybe there isn't enough room to get the tractor in the area and you don't want to disturb surrounding trees?

Possibly. But the examples of use for the chain method in regard to disturbance, seems mitigated by how small the sapling root system is.

 

[Shady oak]

View attachment 2994026
Hard to beat a chain and piece of pipe. Often use pipes on both ends of chain. Pipe bites the tree. If small trees are close, can pull several at a time. Easy to undo after pulling. Tried a grabber but didn’t work as well for me.

Spring cleaning around pastures and roads now before leafing out. Pulling encroachment trees, breaking off overhanging limbs and hauling off with Danuser Intimdator is pretty much hands free. A few trees and limbs will need to be polesaw cut.

I made one of these also. Foolproof, cheap, and easy to make!

 

[arrow]

Just pulling the small trees roots instead of digging an unnecessary larger hole, easy to carry pipe and chain, no risk to loader arms

These root systems of this type of flora seem so tiny to me that it isn’t so much of hole being dug as much as it is a sweep with the bucket down just a bit to dislodge the sapling.
Smoothing over any land disturbance seems easier to me than getting on and off the tractor unless one uses 5030’s idea or similar.
I just point to these things and my boxer yanks them out.

 

[hhydro]

Seems as though I have a ton of weed tree saplings that are too small for the chainsaw but large enough to yank out so I ordered the 'Brush grubber.. Anyone use one? Do they hold up? Gonna use it behind one of my M9's on the drawbar to yank them out. Got the 'heavy duty' model. Is it heavy duty enough for my 8K pound, 90 horse FWA Kubota or will I destroy it?

I saw a great video on YouTube of a guy pulling out stumps with a foundry hook. I bought a couple on Ebay but haven't tried it. He had a heavy chain and was pulling with a small cat (D4 or D2).

Here is what I bought on Ebay

 

[herefromthere]

Bought one of the HD Brush Grabbers, and I have to rate it as "meh." Found that I was on & off the tractor for positioning...and lots of re-positioning, as it tends to slip easily and often.

I have a Kubota L3200 with filled rear tires, and I'm also not-so-pleasantly surprised at just how tenacious small saplings can be. This is just physics, not the fault of the tool. Doesn't take much of a stump, and the tractor tires are spinning. When available, I'll use other trees as anchor points, and I'll use the HD come along to pull instead of the tractor. At another location where I didn't have my tractor, I was using a 5,500# truck as an anchor for pulling with the come along, and I was occasionally sliding the truck before pulling the sapling root ball.

In summary, it's been handy sometimes and frustrating at other times.

 

[ruffdog]

My wife will do the hooking for me...lol

When I was young, I did the hooking for my dad. Some of hid grubbing hooks used old frayed cable that poked holes in my hands...not fun.

 

[BubbaSam]

View attachment 2994026
Hard to beat a chain and piece of pipe. Often use pipes on both ends of chain. Pipe bites the tree. If small trees are close, can pull several at a time. Easy to undo after pulling. Tried a grabber but didn’t work as well for me.

Spring cleaning around pastures and roads now before leafing out. Pulling encroachment trees, breaking off overhanging limbs and hauling off with Danuser Intimdator is pretty much hands free. A few trees and limbs will need to be polesaw cut.

Do you use this on your FEL, Backhoe or 3pt? What works best to use the chain/pipe? Great idea!

 

[ngzcaz]

View attachment 2994026
Hard to beat a chain and piece of pipe. Often use pipes on both ends of chain. Pipe bites the tree. If small trees are close, can pull several at a time. Easy to undo after pulling. Tried a grabber but didn’t work as well for me.

Spring cleaning around pastures and roads now before leafing out. Pulling encroachment trees, breaking off overhanging limbs and hauling off with Danuser Intimdator is pretty much hands free. A few trees and limbs will need to be polesaw cut.

Right on the money about the pipe biting in.. If you have a bit of extra chain, you can just slip a plain piece of chain thru the pipe without the hook, weld a couple links on the side of the pipe and you're done. Make it as long as you think you need. No need to screw around cutting out a section of the pipe. There have been several mods on the original but this is the simplest, quickest and laziest way I can think of. If you have grab hooks on your loader bucket you don't even need a hook on the other end.. just a plain piece of chain welded on the side of a pipe.

 

[5030]

Again, not a wise idea pulling weed trees using the grab hooks on a bucket because you can make your lift arms wonky with an uneven pull. Grab hooks on a bucket are fine for vertical lifting but not fine for pulling with. What the rear mounted drawbar is for.

 

[sunandsand]

You can post 'China' on here without fear of retribution....lol
<snipped>

Interesting side note.. When they refurbished the Big Boy steam locomotive, the feedwater pumps were shot and they had to buy them from China of all places. Probably rolling on Chinese made roller bearings too.

I read that someplace was reviving a historical railroad and the only complete, running steam engine they could buy came from China, brand new, nobody else makes them any more.

 

[ning]

I pull little **** with the grab hooks on the bucket - stuff like scotch broom or blackberry knots, or t-posts; probably 200-300# pulling force at the most.
Medium stuff I go through the loop in the middle of the bucket; really tough stuff I bring the A-frame out and either pull that with a chain to the tractor draw bar or I use my truck winch, with the truck anchored to a tree (it really doesn't take much to skid an unanchored truck!).

WTB 4-wheel parking brake; I guess putting the truck in 4wd gets you 3+....

 

[whitehair]

The BG-20 is the one I had, worked great on tree roots:

View attachment 2994953
View attachment 2994954
View attachment 2994955

And small stumps chained to the front SSQA:

View attachment 2994956
View attachment 2994957
View attachment 2994958

Nice photos, many thanks

 

[jmc]

Maybe there isn't enough room to get the tractor in the area and you don't want to disturb surrounding trees?

Also, most of my problem saplings/brush have grown up because they're too close to nice trees to bush hog. Their roots are entwined with the good tree's roots. Pulling them out by their trunks is my best option.

 

[ritcheyvs]

Seems as though I have a ton of weed tree saplings that are too small for the chainsaw but large enough to yank out so I ordered the 'Brush grubber.. Anyone use one? Do they hold up? Gonna use it behind one of my M9's on the drawbar to yank them out. Got the 'heavy duty' model. Is it heavy duty enough for my 8K pound, 90 horse FWA Kubota or will I destroy it?

Original Brush Grubber did not work for me. It just slid up the tree while skinning the bark.
A 1/4 inch chain worked very well, basically by tying it to the tree using a clove hitch and pulling with tractor. The downside was climbing up and down to attach/detach chain from trees.
Now I use a tree/post puller (see Old Grind's photo). It is fast and easy and I can stack pulled trees for later removal; I just "curl" down until pulled tree is horizontal over the pile and drop. The limitation is the tractor weight, i.e. rear wheels lifting off ground even with ballast. This is mainly an issue with trees like sweet gums (even smaller ones) with a common root system.

 

[5030]

I pull little **** with the grab hooks on the bucket - stuff like scotch broom or blackberry knots, or t-posts; probably 200-300# pulling force at the most.
Medium stuff I go through the loop in the middle of the bucket; really tough stuff I bring the A-frame out and either pull that with a chain to the tractor draw bar or I use my truck winch, with the truck anchored to a tree (it really doesn't take much to skid an unanchored truck!).

WTB 4-wheel parking brake; I guess putting the truck in 4wd gets you 3+....

Unless you have lockers on the front and rear axles, 4 wheel drive is a misnomer. It's still 2 wheel drive but one in the front and one in the rear.

In my case, my F350 has a Detroit Tru-Track locker in the back and an ARB air locker in the front and with both axles locked, you can really only drive in a straight line.

 

[JLinOK]

Seems as though I have a ton of weed tree saplings that are too small for the chainsaw but large enough to yank out so I ordered the 'Brush grubber.. Anyone use one? Do they hold up? Gonna use it behind one of my M9's on the drawbar to yank them out. Got the 'heavy duty' model. Is it heavy duty enough for my 8K pound, 90 horse FWA Kubota or will I destroy it?

I used the FEL on my JD Loader on a JD 5310 (62 hp). Now 10 hears after I bought it and 25 years after it was made I need to rebuild my cylinders on the FEL. That is probably abuse but I would think anything under 3" would be fodders for 90hp? It wouldn't bother me to back over them with a box blade. Note that I am no expert. I used a chain on the FEL to pull T-Posts. The on and off was not fun. Occasionally, the chain slipped off but practice with the wrap technique helped.