Dougherty Turbo Saw Review

[Cataclysm]

I was looking for a cost effective way to reclaim some old pasture with tons and tons of cedars. The goal is to be able to cut hay off the pasture. Here is a representative shot of the cedars.



After reading everything I could find a tree saw looked like the best option so I picked up this Dougherty Turbo Saw this afternoon.



I asked and the sales guy wasn't sure if it was quick hitch compatible. The I will say that the saw didn't just clip on and go. I will post my findings and you can decide if it is QH compatible or not.

First issue was the top hook couldn't reach the top pin that did appear to be a QH attachment point. A few minutes with the grinder and the hook reached the top pin with room to spare.



Next up is the lower links. Dougherty did provide pins and a Cat1 and Cat2 capability. However the pin they chose wouldn't allow the lower QH hooks to engage. I pulled the large nut off and ground down the threads sothe lower collar would slip on. the lower links hooked up just fine then.



Now the QH easily clipped onto the saw. I hooked up the driveshaft and noticed it looked a bit too short. It had 7" of overlap on the shafts. I don't know if that's enough or not. The directions called for 1/2 the length of the shaft overlap and no less that 1/3 the length of the shaft overlap under any circumstances. The small part of the shaft measured 21" so technically it should work. I didn't feel comfortable risking the shaft coming apart or even wearing out sooner than it should so I removed my QH and hooked it up old school.

 

[Cataclysm]

Next up was trying out the saw. The electronic PTO on the tractor started it up just like a brush hog. The saw ran smooth with no vibration at PTO speed.

I tried a few cedars slowly and immediately learned this saw is very powerful! Soon enough I was making my way through the cedars like Godzilla through Tokyo!! The HST on the tractor was ready made to feed this saw into the trees at the proper speed.

Here is a before shot. These pictures were taken 13 minutes apart.



And after.



Here is one very important safety point that I didn't see mentioned in other readings about these type saws. If you have an open cab be warned that when you cut a tree then re-cut that stump a little closer to the ground the chips will discharge from the blade at a very high speed and they are headed right for your face!! That first load of chips hit my window so fast and unexpectedly it was over before I knew it was happening!! Just be warned!

 

[Cataclysm]

Over all I ran the saw about 5hrs and cut a ton of cedars. I stalled it out twice trying it on some larger trees. The trees just leaned towards the tractor and caught the blade. Both times I restarted the tractor and easily pulled forward to release the saw. The slip clutch work perfectly letting the tractor wind down smoothly.

This saw cuts better than my highest expectations. With the HST its fast. I'm not sure a second tractor just stacking cedars could keep up. The saw doesn't load the tractor much so fuel economy was great and the tractor didn't show any temp rise until the radiator would get clogged up. That was about every 2 hours which is about the same running the rotary cutter.

The saw feels light on my 6500 lb tractor and lifts plenty high to get around the pasture with out hanging up.

So far the only thing I don't like about the saw is the plastic plug in the back side of the gear box. When I was looking over the saw in the dealers lot I pointed out the plastic part to the salesman. He thought it was metal until I tapped on it with my knife. I was concerned that pushing into trees would damage the plastic plug. The salesman said they hadn't had any issues with the plastic plug getting damaged. Sure enough though it was poked by a limb and was damaged. I will get some pic's of the part and post up. I am going to make a metal shield to protect it from further damage.

I took some video of the evenings run and will post it up.

 

[CincyFlyer]

Pretty wild machinery. I've actually seen one in action, clearing the junk from a former Christmas tree farm!
What are you going to do with the stumps? Did you consider "bulldozing" the trees or using a tree puller so that no secondary work would be needed? Or can you just leave them at ground level for a hay field (though they may become holes in a few years.)

 

[newbury]

Thanks for the review!

 

[lostcreekranch]

Cat, I've started looking at the TurboSaws myself recently then I saw the picture you posted over on the Wicked Grapple thread.

I've got an LS XL4046HC so, slightly less HP than your tractor.

We have a lot of cedars I want to get rid of here and this looks like a good solution. I have grapples on both tractors so, I think the TS with push bar will work well for me.

About how far below surface can you cut down the stumps?

Did you buy yours from the place in Guthrie? I saw them on the TractorHouse site this morning.

Thanks!

 

[sinisterbiker]

Very nice

 

[rd_macgregor]

I am waffling between a tree shear and some sort of saw, like a TS or Marshall saw to reclaim some old fields and push back some field boundaries that are getting grown in. It sounds like the TS might be the fastest, but that speed has some drawbacks...the potential for damage to the saw is greater and, of course, debris gets flung out, as you mentioned.

 

[Cataclysm]

Pretty wild machinery. I've actually seen one in action, clearing the junk from a former Christmas tree farm!
What are you going to do with the stumps? Did you consider "bulldozing" the trees or using a tree puller so that no secondary work would be needed? Or can you just leave them at ground level for a hay field (though they may become holes in a few years.)

We are just going to leave them there since we are going to do hay. We did consider a dozer and I own a nice backhoe. Cost/time wise we felt the TS was the better solution.

Thanks for the review!

Your welcome! Just trying to give back to the site!

Cat, I've started looking at the TurboSaws myself recently then I saw the picture you posted over on the Wicked Grapple thread.

I've got an LS XL4046HC so, slightly less HP than your tractor.

We have a lot of cedars I want to get rid of here and this looks like a good solution. I have grapples on both tractors so, I think the TS with push bar will work well for me.

About how far below surface can you cut down the stumps?

Did you buy yours from the place in Guthrie? I saw them on the TractorHouse site this morning.

Thanks!

You won't have any trouble with power, there is a lot of inertia in that big blade. It will cut an 8" cedar and barely change sounds. This evening I laid it into some big cedars that required multiple cuts. I did feed it into those stumps slowly by rocking it in with the HST. Seemed to keep the rpm up and not load the tractor much.

I also cut right through some 8" locust tree's this evening with just a small change in rpm. There was no difference between that and the cedars.

I went with the push bar for the same reason and saved the 1k difference.

It cuts about 1/2" below surface with everything adjusted properly. The ground is bare about 1' from the stump after the cut depending on what the skids ride up on. A disc mower isn't going to hit them unless your plowing with it.

Yes, Beck's. I spoke to Bryan. They had 8 or 10 of the push bar types and only one of the grapple types when I picked mine up Monday.

Very nice

Thank you!

I am waffling between a tree shear and some sort of saw, like a TS or Marshall saw to reclaim some old fields and push back some field boundaries that are getting grown in. It sounds like the TS might be the fastest, but that speed has some drawbacks...the potential for damage to the saw is greater and, of course, debris gets flung out, as you mentioned.

I was in the same boat. The biggest reason I went with the TS was I just felt that the TS was the more powerful tool when used on a tractor. I don't think there is any way a tractor mounted shear could even begin to cut as many trees per hour as the TS.

I've also seen several skid steer sheared fields that didn't impress me at all. Stumps were left too high and there was a lot of stumps that had big snags on them.

The TS is heavy built. I really don't think you could hurt it short of abuse. Eventually the teeth will need replacing and I think Bryan said around $30 per tooth and there are 10 of them on the saw I have. The manual states to rotate the teeth every 100 hours and replace them every 400 hours. That's a lot of saw time!

Debris is going to be a serious issue especially with an open station. So far the field I am working has no rocks at all. There are some area's on the property that do. I see a spot on the TS that I can mount some fine expanded metal and stop the debris from hitting my window. I am pretty sure a thrown rock will break my window. I think a 18"x12" framed piece would stop all the dangerous debris coming off the blade.

 

[Cataclysm]

Here's the plastic plug on back I was talking about. It's hard to tell from the pic but it's pushed in pretty good now. I put another 4 hrs on the Turbo Saw this evening and laid a tons of cedars over!!





a couple of things to point out about my use for the TS. Most all the cedars and thorn trees I am after are 8" to 12" in diameter at the cut. If you have great big trees this may not be the right tool. The other thing is the locust trees are much taller. I already dropped one on top of my tractor even though I was watching it and trying to get out of the way. Not damage done as it was a smaller tree.

Something I am probably going to do is build a roll bar onto my TS similar to the Brown tree saw. I probably won't put the screen in except in one small place. I don't want to be looking through that screen when I'm trying to line up on a cedar.