Tree Shear

[ovrszd]

They look pricey,,,,,,, what do they run?

I asked my Brother yesterday and he said $6,800. Tougher than a boot and will last for many, many years. If ya had a commercial use it would be cheap. To use a couple times a year for personal use makes it very pricey.

 

[mmorisoli]

Well I am going to try an experiment this weekend. I found a local bobcat dealer that sells and rents a 12 tree shear that is a bit heavier than the Power Axe which is fairly light at (900 lbs). I did some more research and the pressure and flow of the L3940 is at the low end of the spec but still within specs. Life of 1,540 lbs at the center of the bucket, pressure of 2,200 PSI at a flow of 9.8 GMP.

So for the cost of hauling the tractor up to the dealer/rental yard I can at least try to connect it, lift it and operate it on flat ground. If that goes well I will take it back to the ranch this weekend and see what kind of trouble I can get into.

Absolutely understand the concerns about the tree falling, etc. These are all cedar tress which here in Austin Texas tend to be bushy and wide, not so tall. I have spent the last 4 years cutting down well over a thousand of these buggers with chainsaws. The average tree takes 72 cuts to get one on the ground with all the darn branches. Sometimes it take 10 cuts to make a path to the center of the tree so you can start cutting. They are a pain in the butt and I am trying to find a more effect way of removing them from my life.

My thinking is that it will take a fair amount of drive in pressure just to get to the center of the tree, that should help pre-load the falling away from me. Using that, proper alignment, gravity, etc, I hope to keep them out of my lap and my tractor rubber side down!

Will report back how it goes either way. Complete defeat or raging success.

The PowerAx is not bad at $4,390.00

p.s. I love my Duramax and Maxey dump trailer for hauling the Kubota around. What a great set of guy toys!

 

[Baby Grand]

I just cannot imagine being attached to a 12 inch tree like that. Around here that's at least a 40 footer, maybe more. And they rarely grow dead nuts vertical. Even if they do, there's usually a weight mbalance due to storm damage. Don't even get me started about upper limbs dropping off - seen enough of that with the chainsaw & the black birches. Definitely would want that full forestry cage before even thinking about doing it.

 

[mmorisoli]

The majority of the cedar trees are much less than a 12 trunk, most are 4 to 10? Cedar trees here are overgrown juniper bushes really. They are low and squatty, perhaps 10 high with some going to 18? but I can use discretion and not shear those.

Here is a typical view of some pasture land that has been overrun with cedars. These are on the smaller side, but you can see, nothing here will hurt me.

Mike

 

[sandman2234]

Cedars are cedars, and people are people. If there are 12" trees that will hurt you and your tractor, and you have excelent luck with the 10" ones, then the next thing will be the 12" one that did hurt. Not sure just how you would do it, but I would seriously consider some sort of push cylinder to allow pressure to be put between the tractor and the tree. Putting pressure on the tree as it is cut at the base will give you some sort of a better chance at not getting hurt. All this AFTER the cage is attached!
David from jax

 

[Baby Grand]

The majority of the cedar trees are much less than a 12 trunk, most are 4 to 10? Cedar trees here are overgrown juniper bushes really. They are low and squatty, perhaps 10 high with some going to 18? but I can use discretion and not shear those.

Here is a typical view of some pasture land that has been overrun with cedars. These are on the smaller side, but you can see, nothing here will hurt me.

Mike

Now I can see why you can't just walk up with a chainsaw and drop 'em. I guess if that's all you're going to snip, I could see it. But I'd still want a full wrap cage before I tried it. Just make sure you sell the thing when you finish with the cedars - to avoid temptation (like sandman describes).

Almost looks like a boom (or FEL) mounted flail like the hwy dept uses would be useful for sepatating the brances from the poles. You could have a nice stack of fence posts and a few piles of mulch when you're all done.

 

[greasemonkeyok]

I have not used one, but a Limb Hog looks interesting:
LIMBHOG.com
You would have to learn to finesse it just like a regular chain saw.

Something a little heavier is the tree saw for 3-point:
http://www.turbo-saw.com/

 

[mmorisoli]

Well without taking anything away from my little Kubota is L3940 is no match for a large tree shear built for skid steers. I towed the tractor to the bobcat dealer who also sells and rents the tree shear. Very quickly it was obvious the Kubota is no match for this industrial piece of equipment. While the Kubota could lift it, there was no way near enough flow from the third function to even begin to operate it.

The skid steers are truly optimized for this type of work.

So we never got out of the parking lot with the shear. I spent the next two days chain saws in hand felling trees and then climbing back onto the Kubota to use the grapple bucket which has worked so well in the past. Seems to me the only option now is to continue as I have in the past dropping with the chain saw, relocating to burn piles with the Kubota or from time to time splurging and renting a bobcat with the tree shear for about 350 a day. Hard to swallow when I have several chain saws in stock and lots of hours to spend LOL

 

[sandman2234]

It appears the Kubota is older and wiser than you, LOL...as it KNEW what you only suspected, but hoped you could get away with (and thereby save some time/money!)
Glad the Kubota decided to show you at the yard, rather than after you took it home, as that was probably a lot cheaper to deal with than what I was thinking, if you tackled a tree just a little bigger that the tractor wanted to handle.
When it comes down to it, compared to a tractor, chainsaws are cheap!
David from jax

 

[Steve Marshall]

Have you every thought about trying the Brushshark tree shear? It's designed for regrowth up to 8" and while heavy duty, is light enough to work on the FEL of a tractor. www.brushshark.com