How to tackle this new project. Clearing land. Any opinions???

[Cord]

You and I are not far from each other. Not that long ago, I took on a similar project and I wanted to share some of my lessons with you. It's best to not cut this stuff out. You'll spend too much time trying to process branches and then trying to rip out stumps. It's very difficult to pull out a stump. Instead, just rip the whole bush or tree out. I found that with leverage that I was able to rip out a whole 12" boxelder, 6" briars and any buckthorn out there so long as it wasn't cut off. This was using a Gehl 6635 skid steer which isn't a monster machine. When possible use the slope to your advantage by pushing or pulling downhill.

For the small brush I really liked using a 1/2" logging cable with a choker. She'd wrap the cable around a clump of brush and then hook it on the machine. I'd then just back out and bring a knot of sticks with me. This method works awesome on honeysuckle which is very poorly rooted. Pulling the brush is also a sure way to kill the whole plant. Otherwise you'll have to come back several times and spray the suckers.

After pulling, we'd spread out the brush in an open area and then the area was full we'd push the brush up into a pile. You can burn small piles, but I actually like the better control of using a grapple to feed the brush into a fire. It's not practical to try and chip this stuff; it's just too knotted. I was not able to find anybody to tub grind for an affordable number. The tooth bar worked ok for back dragging small sticks, but it can't pop stuff out. The branches would just lay over and strip off the foliage. For grubbing I was using a Faver 314 grapple and it worked awesome. You could get under larger trees and break the roots yet you could carry a tight pile of brush to the fire. It'll work on a clump of honeysuckle, but buckthorn just slips through it. Again, choke and rip is your best option. A larger grapple would be faster at moving brush, but then you can't dig with it.

The bigger stuff I'll just take out with a grapple and then just put it right on the pile.

 

[gixxergary]

Yes, Richfield is not to far at all. Raced in that area few times. Thank you for the advice on this project. I ordered a piranha tooth bar, ( will be here tomorrow), to see if I can push these things out whole. If that doesnt work, I will try the cable method. I spent some time thinking about burning vs chipping. Im going to go with burning. First, no expense on the equipment, and most importantly, my wife doesnt want a pile of chips as big as the house to contend with later. So, Im going to build a small pit, and burn it over time.

Thanks again for the input,

 

[Cord]

I like to stock pile the material while I wait for a calm day. My recommendation is to have her man the fire with a garden hose. It only takes a little mist to keep the flames down. I'd also recommend having a contingency plan in place should things go wrong. I have a sprayer for the back of our atv. I kept it full of water and had several buckets of water available. We had to use the backup plan twice. Once when the well pump failed and another time when a guest of wind blew some embers into the brush that was waiting to be burned. Both times, I attacked the issue aggressivly and just put everything out. You'll also need to let the brush dry for a few months or it won't burn hot. Hot fire = less smoke. I typically found that placing materials on a pile of ashes would result in a flare up. Even a month later the coals were still smoldering! Use your bucket and rip up the ash pile every couple of days so the coals will get some oxygen. Just be quick so you don't damage your equipment from the heat.

For starting the fire, I'm a fan of waste oil, cardboard and a plumbing torch. Be sure to start at the botton (fire burns up) on the leeward side. This forces the fire to burn into any wind which will slow it's progress.

Here is the cable I used: Pre-Made Fse Choker 3/8"X12' (5 Lbs) | Chokers | Chains, Cables & Grapplers | www.baileysonline.com
Cable in use: http://youtu.be/07fwsykeMzc http://youtu.be/f9k97xLUFEw As you can see, the cable could be longer, but I was pulling some pretty good sized stuff here.
We also tried the brush tuggers, but I liked the cable better. You can take out larger trees with the cable and choke knots of the smaller stuff so you are pulling out several at one time. Besides, the choker is more durable and cheaper too. http://youtu.be/mjSvAZiQGMw
In the videos she's dropping the cable into a chain hook: Weld-On Grab Hook I have a pair of 3/8" hooks welded to my bucket. For just pulling brush, I'd suggest having a hook in the center so it applies the forces evenly. I like to pull with my bucket down on the ground and curled flat. This keeps the back end of the machine from lifting. Notice also that she is hooking the cable at a height above the ground. This gives you the leverage needed to flip the tree on it's side and rip half the roots out. Now it's just a matter of finishing off the remaining roots but they'll strip out easy. Big briars are the worst because they have a tap root. Because of the tap, I wasn't able to take anything bigger than a 4" briar.

 

[Piston]

If you have a limited budget (who doesn't) and want to have some fun clearing your own land with your own tractor (who doesn't) then I think a smart idea would be to save the money you were planning on buying a chipper with, and use it towards buying a front end loader grapple and hydraulics to run it.

A bucket and toothbar (or ratchet rake) are helpful if that's all you have, but anyone with a grapple will agree with me that your clearing work would be exponentially faster, more efficient, and not to mention a whole lot more fun.

Just think of all the piles of brush/saplings you will inevitably end up with. They aren't easy to move with a bucket. With the grapple, you can pick up entire piles and move them around.

I've done a lot of sapling/tree clearing with the grapple, and I could not stress enough how much more effective it is when compared to a bucket.

 

[gixxergary]

One question, how did you manage to get your wife to do all the foot work here!!!!!! LOL So you got to play on a nice piece of equipment, when you wife was digging in the dirt, handling steel cables, getting poked and scratched from the trees!! Nicely done!!!! I will definitely get one of those choke cables.

Thanks,

 

[Cord]

Lol. Well, she has a choice: either run the equipment or run around. She's not comfortable being on the equipment so she opts for the latter.

If you want to come over and test drive my grapple, just let me know. We'll be burning the last of our brush in a few weeks so there is still some material to test it on.

I'm going to blow my own horn here, but this is our project: http://youtu.be/dKzsRc3CIAs The front end of the video shows what we started with, after that it really doesn't apply to the conversation.

 

[xzcVAbc5]

If you're interested in a tooth bar you might check out the BXpanded PTB threads. You can probably click on my name and search posts to see the one I put on my BX. The standard tooth bar is missing a couple teeth so you can purchase some pallet forks later from them and they'll sit in the slot. I already have Kubota forks to replace the bucket so I asked them to put all of the teeth on it when they built it.

 

[Parkanzky]

If you don't have a brushhog yet, consider a flail mower. They will easily mulch saplings up to a couple inches in diameter and they leave a nice scattering of chips that you don't have to clean up.

It won't help you with roots, but I prefer it to the rotary mower.

 

[gixxergary]

Thoroughly enjoyed the barn restoration video!!! Thank you.

There is hardly any under brush in these areas, so the brush hog is out. If I had to venture a guess, I would say there are several hundred honesuckly about 10 foot tall, and maybe 50 buckthorn. The rest will stay. Bought the pirahna tooth bar, and it will be here today. But with rain all day today, and possibly the next two, this is on hold for a week or so.

 

[fishheadbob]

You are probably going to become a big fan of glyphosate (Roundup) too. That's a lot of land to get clean, some of the species you're attacking just need a little root left in the ground to come back with a vengeance but TSC has 2 1/2 gallons of glyphosate on sale for $51; that's enough concentrate to make 150 or 200 gallons. Another $110 for a spot sprayer and you could get it looking like a park.