Tree pullers for removing privet

[Poopdeck Pappy]

To remove cedar trees, I'm using a Wildkat stump grapple. Mine is similar to the one shown on this page. Mine is not the "extreme" version but is very solid and well built:

http://www.wildkatattachments.com/grapple.html

It works fairly well, with the main problem being that you can't see the front of the grapple from the tractor seat. So you have to work by feel. I've gotten better at feeling what I'm doing and having more success.

For the really big ones, I use a Kubota BX23 backhoe with a ripper tooth in place of the bucket to dig the lateral roots enough so I can push the tree over with my bigger tractor.

Also, something like the Extreme Root Rake Grapple shown in that same link might work. It has no support bar between the teeth that would keep them from digging in. It's $2,100, but that's a lot less than those tree pullers you're looking at, and it would have other uses once the privet is gone, unlike the tree pullers.

 

[newbury]

I'd be concerned about bending the FEL arms by "bashing" into relatively immovable objects. It's a Front End Loader, not a bulldozer.

Can you wrap a chain around them and PULL? Then once they are "loosened" go at them with the grapple.

 

[Xfaxman]

I think you are right about the view issue, and I have also looked at the Buckthorn extended puller. I worry that the hydraulics on my tractor (especially the curl) may not be robust enough to handle the extra torque of the longer extension. Have you found that to be a problem? I couldn't tell what machine you have your puller attached to, but it looks pretty beefy to me.

I have never had problems with viewing using the grapple, but do when using the bucket. I even thought about trying one of the cheap TV cameras I have left over from another project, but have not yet got around to that.

If it's handling your grapple, I don't think the puller would hurt it and the puller just weighs 284 pounds.

One advantage of the long arm puller is you can clamp on the trunk and curl down as you drive forward, breaking the roots out just like your pictures. Then just pull them up and put them on the pile.

My machine is a Bobcat V417. Here is a link to the biggest cedar tree that it has pulled: http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/277824-tree-puller.html#post3444397

 

[FarmerCharlie]

I'd be concerned about bending the FEL arms by "bashing" into relatively immovable objects. It's a Front End Loader, not a bulldozer.

Can you wrap a chain around them and PULL? Then once they are "loosened" go at them with the grapple.

Maybe my word "crash" was a little too strong a word for my method, but i confess that I am pretty hard on my equipment. Usually my first push on large privet is pretty high up, so it tends to bend a good bit. But "crash" is probably the right word for when I had my first skirmishes of the great Privet War back twenty years ago--armed only with the box blade on my old JD 1020. The blade would only rise maybe two feet, and sometimes it was a pretty good jolt when backing into a big privet. Back then I did use the chain on the box blade a lot, but I was young enough that I didn't mind so much jumping up and down on and off the tractor. I do still use a chain on privets growing up close to fences, but I wait to do those until I have a helper.

 

[FarmerCharlie]

[...]My machine is a Bobcat V417. Here is a link to the biggest cedar tree that it has pulled: http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/277824-tree-puller.html#post3444397

View attachment 389416 View attachment 389417 View attachment 389418

Now I remember where I read about the Buckthorn puller; it was on your very informative thread. I decided that my machine just doesn't have near the power as yours, and might not be able to exert enough torque with the long arm. If I had that Bobcat of yours, maybe I could get the Great Privet War won while I was still young enough to remember why I even started it.

 

[Xfaxman]

Now I remember where I read about the Buckthorn puller; it was on your very informative thread. I decided that my machine just doesn't have near the power as yours, and might not be able to exert enough torque with the long arm. If I had that Bobcat of yours, maybe I could get the Great Privet War won while I was still young enough to remember why I even started it.

Well our machines have the same horsepower rating at 75. :thumbsup:

Most of the time it doesn't take much hydraulic power, if I can't lift it straight up, I drive forward and pull them out.

 

[FarmerCharlie]

Well our machines have the same horsepower rating at 75.

That might be true at the engine, but not at the hydraulic pump. Watching the videos of machines similar to yours actually shaking the dirt off the root balls blew my mind. I have to just stack 'em on the burn pile dirt and all, and hope mother nature will wash some of the dirt away before I get around to burning. And I'll bet that extendable boom lets you build a pretty impressive burn pile too. But "slow and easy" probably matches my mindset better and helps keep me from getting too far ahead of my brain.

 

[Xfaxman]

------------------------------ And I'll bet that extendable boom lets you build a pretty impressive burn pile too. ---------------

Kinda.