I've seen the professionally built fire-plows, towed and mounted, but I'm wondering if anyone has built a homegrown version for a compact tractor.
There are the single gang discs, but I would like to build one out of a middle buster and old plow discs that a 30-40hp tractor could pull at a decent speed. It doesn't have to be huge, just throw a 3-4' furrow.
I'm considering an old sickle-bar mower dolly as the basis, but curious as to what anyone else has come up with.
I have done a lot of searching for the same thing that would be scaled down to about a 24" wide furrow, based on the Michigan fireline plow design. They used to have small plows that hooked to 1-1/4 ton military trucks with a water tank and a small middle buster plow on the back.
The basic "fire plow" is a big "pizza cutter" in front of the middle buster to cut the roots and vines, etc., the middle buster, and then two rolling coulters to throw the dirt out of the trench.
There is the solid hitch design like in the lake states, and then the heavy duty sulky type plow in the southern states that takes a D-4 or bigger to pull it.
I have considered a regular plow from everything attachments, but then it does not work with a "quick hitch" setup.
If somone could take the compact tractor "potato plow" or "middle buster", weld a setup for a pizza cutter in front of the plow and two small discs behind, that would be ideal for all of us sub-compact utility tractor owners who just need a 2 foot fireline for light grass and hardwood leaves. The small firebreak would need to be "burned out" to be effective.
Right now, I clean a trail of logs, brush and rocks, then maintain a "green break" through the woods and pasture with a riding lawn tractor with lug tires and hi-lift blades. It cuts the grass, and blows the grass and leaves off the trail. This works great for bre-burn fire trails, but to quickly plow out a fire, I would want something else. Of course, there are fast moving fires where you do not want to get in front of, and that comes from years of training and tractor plow experience to know when and where to plow, verses "backing off". This is why I also really like my pre-existing fire breaks that are mowed and sprayed for brush 6-12 feet wide.
For a SCUT fire plow, however, I think that one could be built around an existing SCUT middle buster plow, to look like the photo.
Existing fire plow makers are Fesco, Mathis, and one other that I do not recall. Too bad they do not make a mini fire plow for compact utility tractors.
Did you ever come up with anything, yet?
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