Push over trees with a small compact?

[5030]

Waiting for Hay Dude to chime in and talk about his really large units...lol My M9's both have rops that stay up all the time. In the case of the cab unit, the ROPS is built into the cab structure. The open station has a canopy attached to the ROPS. Only reason I removed the ROPS entirely on the mower was because even in the folded position, it was snagging low tree limbs when mowing under trees. If I don't fit, it won't fit either and I really don't have any off camber or hills to deal with anyway. It's all flat mowing. I don't even engage the (in the case of the F series mower) the rear wheel drive unit. It stays in front wheel drive all the time. If I could have purchased a front wheel drive unit, I would have. It's a mower, not a tractor. IMO, it a heck of a mower at that. No belts, drive shaft operated. The only belt is the fan belt on the motor and a multi rib belt on the mower deck that drives the outer spindles and it's completely enclosed under shields on the deck itself and in typical Kubota fashion, everything is greaseable without any disassembly. The mower, like my tractors are 'festooned' with grease fittings everywhere.

Always got a kick out of his disparaging comments about my 'small Kubota tractors'. They are perfectly sized for what I do. I don't need bigger units and certainly not smaller ones either. Took me about 10 tractors bought and traded in to get to what is ideal for me, hence my screen name '5030' as that came about when I owned (and traded in) a 5030 HSTC cab tractor as it was too small to be an efficient unit for what I do. Was a nice tractor but the hydrostat wasn't ideal for me and neither was the overall weight of the unit. The 5030 never had sufficient pto power to run the disc mower, let alone the round bailer. I was always coming up short in the power department.

 

[5030]

I like the urinal comment.... At my age, it's easier to sit on the commode than stand in front of a urinal... Besides, most all public commodes have doors so there is no embarrassment over the size of the hose either...lol I get a kick out out of the 'unisex' bathrooms... One size fits all...

 

[Torvy]

Two guys peeing off the bridge, one says that water is cold, the other says it's deep too...

-Richard Pryor (RIP)

 

[Squirrel's242]

I've seen some videos where people say that they use their compact or scut tractor to push over trees. The base of trees can hop up as they fall, so I'm wondering about peoples experiences with doing this with a smaller tractor.

For an 8 or 10 inch diameter tree, maybe 60 feet or more tall,
Would it be safe to:
- notch the tree in the direction that I want it to fall
- start a back cut
- then use the front end loader to encourage the tree to fall in the desired direction

No, the proper tool is the chainsaw. Not worth putting more expensive equipment in the mix when proper cuts with the chainsaw is all you need.

Use the tractor for cleanup after.

 

[5030]

Tiny trtactors and trees don't get along well.

 

[Straightgrain3016]

I use mechanical "help" any time I'm cutting near power lines, property boundary, or a structure.

Ladder (at least 1/3 of the height), run a cable in a dog-leg to a snatch block, then to the tractor....99.9% more safe than pushing a tree down with a tractor.

Barbur Chairs can destroy a tractor.

I have fun with slinging large eye bolt, tied to para cord...go up, and over a limb, then fishing-up the winch cable. On some trees, I use a wrist rocket with a zebco reel that has 65LB braided line...I shoot a 1 oz sinker, then fish the para cord, then the cable.

My .02

 

[not2old]

There was an 80' fir tree next door, about 14" in diameter, that swayed a lot in the wind disturbing my satellite reception and I was concerned that it might come down on my house is a windstorm. I used a 40' ladder to loop a 3/8x60' chain around it, anchored to a larger tree base with a 2000 lb. come-along. I tracked down the owner of the vacant lot and got permission to remove it at my risk. I had planned to cut it with a chain saw, but when I started putting serious pressure on it I noticed the ground swelling on the back side. I kept pulling until it was laying on the ground. There were other large trees near by that made me comfortable knowing it could only go sideways so far.

 

[DK35vince]

Waiting for Hay Dude to chime in and talk about his really large units...lol
Always got a kick out of his disparaging comments about my 'small Kubota tractors'. They are perfectly sized for what I do. I don't need bigger units department.

OH spare me !!
You do exactly the same thing to CUT and SCUT owners ALL the time !!
Disparaging comments about there "small tractors" yet they also bought the perfect sized tractor to fit their needs

 

[CalG]

Just to add flavor to the thread.....

I was once clearing a home site with a couple others. The son of my next door neighbor was building just down the road. One member of our group was the builder, and he had the plan, and a small track bucket dozer. ;-) I was just a cutter.

I had boxed a 70-80 foot tall maple in the way I was comfortable felling, with just a few taps of a hammer on some wedges. Well, the fellow on the bucket dozer pulls up close and with the bucket high, comes to bear against the maple stem. Well, I guess he came in a little hot and broke the hinge! Pushed the stem off the stump and back onto the ground!

Damn! We all yelled and looked skyward before the several of us ran helter-skelter, none of us with a clue where that hinge-less tree was going to go. The dozer guy threw up his arms to shield his head in anticipation of the worst! Fortunately, the butt stuck in the forest ground, the bucket dozer kept some forward motion, and that maple fell just about where the fall line was laied.

The dozer guy then yelled at me, "Don't box 'em so deep!"

Don't do that!

 

[CalG]

In addition..

Don't think you are going to "pull down" or even direct the fall of any real tree with a typical hardware store come-along. They don't have the reach to do much more than take the slack out of the line.

A pair of those devices and good use of Prusiks can do the job. Much better is a cable "Cable Pull" or the like, as there is no spool capacity limit.