Need opinions on project

Taylortractornut · Apr 7, 2002

For my tines Id use car axle shafts most junkyards have several laying around for little or nothing, Ive had little luck with rebar. The axles are already heat treated and pretty stout. Oltimers here showed me how to use them for a manut fork bucket. Since then ive built several things with them.

Wingnut · Apr 8, 2002

I'm can't even spell "injuneer" so all I can offer is opinion. I'd be afraid of causing damage to the loader arms - based on my experience. I had a loader on the front of my 450 IHC back in Alberta and I did a huge amount of damage to one cylinder (had to get it rebuilt) and one arm (had to cut, reweld and strengthen) when my foot slipped on the clutch while digging in a rock pile. The forward force of the tractor and the immovability of the rock pile caused the whole loader assembly to bend to one side.
I would be worried that the same thing could happen if you were pushing your tooth assembly underground in front of you ... catch a good solid root structure and what's going to give first?

My stepdad was a heck of an inventor and tinkerer before his death ... he built an FEL for his 8N, as well as a snowblade and wing and an entire backhoe assembly (which he finished the week before he passed away ... never got to use it). Anyway ... his experience with clearing his farm from wilderness in northern Alberta (with horses and later, his 8N) led him to drag rather than push. He dragged chains and other stuff to clear roots out. And for the really tough roots, he built my stepbrother (who has an old 'bota) a ripper tooth that fits on the 3ph. When he needs to yank a root, he puts the tooth down, snags the root, and then uses the top cylinder to lift it out.

Good luck ! and have fun ...

PitbullMidwest · Apr 8, 2002

<font color=blue>My stepdad was a heck of an inventor and tinkerer ... he built my stepbrother </font color=blue>

I for one am impressed. /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Anyway, this weekend I was pulling hedgeposts and locust trees with my brother-in-law's JD3020. 70HP lots of 3point lift ability. There was one very stubborn tree that refused to let go of mother earth. I look over and HEY! there are his hay forks, I could just slide them under the tree and pop that sucker right out of the ground. Well not exactly.

Even though the ground is fairly wet and everything else had popped out easily, when I lifted the hayforks there was a sudden "pop" but it wasn't the root, it was the hay forks that twisted under the force. One fork now points downward at about a 15 degree angle from the other.

I think Wingnut is right, considering the damage I did to the forks (and it happened very quickly) you might do considerably more damage to you FEL if you were to catch hold of a stubborn root

BTW, when I told my brother-in-law what I had done, all he said was "You did what?!" I know he's mad but he hasn't said so yet.

BB_TX · Apr 9, 2002

The idea is OK but for what you want to use it for, I think this would be better as a 3 point implement to pull rather than something to push. Pushing it will naturally try to drive it deeper and I think it will be difficult to control. Also, I think the scarifiers will need to be much more substantial to run 3"-4" deep and pull roots. Probably rectangular bars with hardened points. My 2 cents.

Wingnut · Apr 9, 2002

I had to go back and reread my post to see how you got that out of my comments and got a good chuckle. I always seem to use brackets to show the asides - and likely end up with far too many of these potential kneeslappers.
Good one!

tjack75 · Sep 18, 2009

Interesting idea. In my area, I can see this thing digging into a hidden rock or massive root with a sudden stop! Consider flipping the teeth slightly backwards and pulling it backwards. At the end of a pull, you could raise the loader and pull your rear blade or boxblade forward and clean up or smoothe out your pull.
(Your computer drawings are awesome!)
Good job!