Okay, I spent a few hours yesterday testing out some approaches to these little trees. :thumbsup: Some came out easy, some did not. Size to trouble ratio was surprising to say the least. The smallest ones gave me the most trouble.
I used the draw bar and a 5/16 chain with tow hooks as that was the most appropriate equipment I have on hand. I tried to find a ring to attach to the chain to make it a choker, but had no luck finding anything I felt would survive a pull.
It rained a couple days ago and the open ground was still moist, but firm enough to drive on without leaving tracks. Under the tree canopy, however it was still bone dry. I did not have any problem with chain slippage, the links bit into the trunks well and held very nicely. I found wrapping higher on the trunks (4-5') worked better than lower. The low wrapped trees would not budge, but when wrapped higher came out with a minimum of fuss.
My tractor is an HST, so I stayed in low range, 4wheel drive and a few times had to hold the differential lock to keep from slipping the tires too much. Only a couple trees had to be subjected to a little pushing with the fel to loosen the up for the pulling. I found digging on the roots to be useless. The fel could not dig underneath them due to their spreadout nature and the roots were too thick/slippery for the fel to cut through in the hard dry clay dirt around here. I could only penetrate 4-5 inches and slide along the top of the roots. I can see how a backhoe would be more useful in digging these roots up, but I don't have one of those nor the budget to buy one right now.
I worked on one larger trunk, 8-10 inches it turned out, that I thought was a cluster of trees until the one I was pulling brought the rest of the trunk up out of the ground. I had a wide open area in front of it to work with, so I pulled and let the tractor arc about 60 degrees in front and "wiggled" it out by continously pulling as the tractor swung back in forth in a semi circle. I just turned my steering a bit to give some sideways traction on the front while the rear wheels pulled and this made the tractor "drift" along the arc with the chain as a tether point. It pulled that large trunk out in only 4 swings taking about 3 minutes altogether. I wish I had room to use that tactic on some of these other trees. Pulling straight leave wheel divots I have to fill in later.
I tried lifting a really small sapling by chaining it to the fel and trying to curl it out. :shocked: It roots outweighed me and the tractor. The rear end came three feet on the ground and the sapling giggled. Maybe the 3pt would have had better results, but I did not think to try it as it was empty and strapped out of the was to prevent damage from the chain on the drawbar in case something did not go as predicted.
I have a boom pole for the 3pt, but did not think it would help pull anything up since it would magnify the front end lifting similar to the fel effect on the rear. Am I right in my thought process there, or would the extra leverage on the 3pt actually help pull straight up?
In any case, it was a lot of fun ripping those cutter blocking undesireables out so that my larger trees can have more room to become beautiful.
