Grapple project/tree clearing

thunderworks · Oct 13, 2007

I have a 5 to 6 acre field adjacent to my pond that is overgrown by hedge trees (osage orange). They are fairly mature trees, many in the 8 to 10" trunk diameter size - way to big to mow, and there are several hundred of them. I hired a guy who has a Bobcat with a saw mounted on an 10' boom (he made the implement himself-it's cool) to cut the trees down and I'm following up behind him with my grapple moving tree tops to the burn/brush pile. The saw is quite unbelievable. He can turn it vertically to limb the trees, then rotate it parallel to the ground to cut the trunks off at ground level.

We started yesterday, and in 6 hours cleared almost 1/3rd of the ground. He can cut faster than I can move the huge quantity of tree top brush, but we really got a lot done. I sorted the trunk material into fence post and firewood piles and piled all the brushy tops for burning in the winter. I'm using my L5030 with a 66" Bodozer grapple. Works great.

I forgot to take pictures, but if you guys are interested, I'll try to get a picture of the Bobcat with the saw mounted next time he's here. It probably won't be for a month or so . . . I need to finish cleaning up the current mess so he can work efficiently, and I want to spend some time saving as much firewood and fence post material as possible from the piles.

kennyd · Oct 13, 2007

Sounds NEAT!
Of course we want pictures!

Tororider · Oct 14, 2007

Ditto! The more pictures the better, and pictures of your brush piles and the remaining trees so we have an idea what you did. Sounds like fun.

diyDave · Oct 14, 2007

If you can get 7-8' of straight trunk out of the trees, you'll have fence posts that will last 50-75 years, longer than any on the market! I hate to see good wood go to waste. Even as seasoned firewood, osage orange is second only to coal as far as BTU's per lb of wood!

thunderworks · Oct 16, 2007

Here are some pictures of the trees and the start of the clearing. I'll get some pictures of the Bobcat with the homemade tree saw when the guy returns for round 2. I'll take pics of my L5030 with the Bodozer grapple then as well. There are already 3 different burn piles and piles of trees which I've sorted out to cut fence posts and firewood from. Hopefully these pictures give you a sense of the project.

thunderworks · Oct 16, 2007

BTW, the "looking back" picture in my previous post shows how the area cleans up once the trees are cut and I've moved the brush. The field will be nice - it's next to my smaller pond (about 3.4 acre). I'm going to leave a few trees around the pond (not on the dam however) to give the deer and other animals cover.

Texas Dodge · Oct 16, 2007

Looking good

thunderworks · Dec 1, 2007

Follow up to original post: We spent two more days this week finishing what we started in mid-October. The guy with the Bobcat and saw finished dropping all the hedge trees and this time around, we decided it might be more efficient to spread the trees and debris around so that I could more easily get to and salvage the fence posts and firewood before I consolidated the remainder into burn piles. There is really a lot of good wood that I don't want to waste. Here are a few pictures of the saw. I'll try to get some more pictures of the ground in the next few days.

diyDave · Dec 1, 2007

Thunderworks-Nice looking job. That guy looks like he put a lot of thought into that saw. If you want those trees to stay dead, paint the stumps with a 50/50 mixture of roundup and water (Final % of roundup a.i. 20%).

thunderworks · Dec 2, 2007

Thanks diyDave. I've been using a product called Tordan RTU. It's hard to find all the stumps since there are literally hundreds . . .Next Spring when the ones I've missed start growing again, the guy with the saw told me I can score the stump with a chainsaw and treat with Tordan at that time. I'm sure the Roundup mix would work as well.