Failed Project - Homemade Blackberry Rake

woodlandfarms · Sep 3, 2007

JohninCT said:
So if a Power Trac knuckle boom is out of the question... maybe what you could do is build something similar. Get yourself a hydraulic motor and attach a large circular saw blade and mount it on your boom. If you made the bracket for the cutter head able to turn, then the blade could be used vertical or horizontal depending on your situation.

I made something similar a few years ago to attach to my backhoe using a cutter blade and hyd motor purchased from Power Trac.

Could you give me more info on this build? WHat kind of motor and where did you get the blade? It is quite interesting to me to build something like this... Beats ordering a 2K stump grinder.....

Carl

JohninCT · Sep 3, 2007

I bought the hyd motor and cutter from Power Trac as spare parts for their stump grinder for the PT 425. Here is a link to the original discussion thread about the grinder.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/24974-stump-grinder.html

I did this because I really wanted the stump grinder cutter wheel and figured that I would just buy from them the motor that went with it. You could just get a hyd motor from Surplus Center and adapt a large circular saw blade from Home Depot to it.

Check out this site for some design ideas

Brush cutters by "SLASHBUSTER"®

sandman2234 · Sep 3, 2007

There are questions I have about the blade shown in the picture, which makes me wonder if this would work in your situation. Then I think about my stump grinder and wonder if I am not trying to over engineer a design.
Will the blackberry bushes wrap themselves around the spindle of the blade? Are the teeth spaced correctly to be able to cut without causing a major bouncing problem. Just how much of a bite is the blade going to take as it catches the blackberry bushes? Faster speeds with less agressive teeth might make it better but anyone who saw my stump grinder would realize that it was way down that path in the other direction. However it wasn't cutting anything but dirt and roots and the roots were held in place while being cut. Your bushes are going to move once cut.
I still don't understand why a front mounted bush hog wouldn't work, just mow into a pile of brush, and then back up to check to see what is underneath the area where you just mowed. Mowing 5 feet at a time is a pain, but it beats spending the time and money to build something else to do the same job, that once done won't be needed anymore.
Is there a reason it can't be mow/backup/look/mow/backup/look a little at a time? Is there too much overhead that the mower won't push it down, or the mower can't be raised high enough to take a bite?
Just wondering,
David from jax

woodlandfarms · Sep 4, 2007

Blackberries are the rub... Because my tractor has higher hydraulic displacement than the others in the PT line (18GPM@3000PSI) I am thinking about building my own Stump remover, using a bit larger and heavier blade and a stronger motor, and having it so I can disconnect it and reconnect it from Horizontal to Vertical... But blackberry vines are like rope... Not sure of the end result wit this rig but it would take down the alders (my second bane).

As for the mowing technique, that kinda works, but when the blackberries get over 6 ft tall (most are around 10 to 15' tall with 30 ft runners) everything gets tangled up... Also, my mower is 90" wide which is hard to manuever and finally it provides no help when you get stuck..

I am using lots of different methods.. None particularly better than the other (mowing, grapple and pull, just drive over, back hoe pull). Each has a failing in the concept and I know I will not find the ideal...

Also, one reason I am looking to make this rake is to get down into ravines. I can mow to the edges, but the BB are 10 feet high and only a couple feet down the ravine so they still present a wall of berries...

Carl