Tree spade

[J_J]

Here is mine. something I built myself. The really cool ones are the skid steer versions with the hydraulic arms. Problem is they weigh too much for anything but maybe the 1445 or 1460 You need at least 3000lbs worth of lift. - 1500 lbs for the device, another 1500 for the tree and dirt.

My bucket works OK, In the summer the ground is too hard, in the winter, the ground is too heavy with water. Not the worst implement, but does not meet my expectations.

Carl, Did you make those bends in your tree spade, or have someone do it for you . Those guys at the metal fabrication shop can cut or bend or roll that metal in no time. All you do is give them the design and pay. Most of the time, you don't have to touch the metal until it is in your truck all cut and bent. I have a shop press, but can only bend small stuff. Straight cuts work better for me. . Just tack and weld.

On the 425 capability, I think if you down size the tree spade it will do a credible job. A sharp pointed spade might slip to the side of a root. whereas a concave one might cut through the root. 1/4 in thick might work. The spade that I just purchased is designed for a skidsteer, and weighs about 275 lbs. 3/8 steel.

 

[woodlandfarms]

Oh, yeah. I had it bent. I have NO skill with metal. Still learning. I took my plans to the metal shop, said I wanted to practice welding. They looked at the plans and asked why I had the bucket being made in multiple peices and not one peice bent. I asked how much, I think they said another $20 or so...

I do want to get a plasma cutter, and a mig (I have stick which is fine for ugly stuff).

Carl

 

[SpringHollow]

David,
The mini-hoe for the PT is an 8 inch bucket with teeth and my experience is that it can be used in my areas of the clay/shale soils on my property but that it really can toss the 3500 lb 1845 around. I also find that it is not usable when I get into some of the harder shale areas on my property.

I just dug 9 post holes 4' deep through shale and clay layers, mainly shale using the 12" bucket on my Lackender 6' minihoe with my PT1850. The land had been previously scraped down to shale. I was quite impressed with how well it did. I had to make the holes longer than i would have liked in order to get through the shale but it only took 45 minutes per hole which i thought was quite reasonable given the conditions. By hand, it would have been a day per hole easy.

Ken

 

[kthompson]

Have you seen this machine? It looks neat. Has me wondering for I am expecting to need a method in a few years to dig trees.

Know a little about the TP rig and my thought may be way off, if you could come up with a vibrating action to the tree spade would it not cut the roots better? So how to get that vibration? I know there are trenchers used to put down cables that have such and wondered today if there is any other option to operate a home made blade like on this unit. Can you buy vibration attachments or would you have to make such? Realize this is very crude but even wonder if you added a hyd motor with a out of round weight to the cutter if that would help. To operate a blade like this thought about hyd impact wrench. I have never used one but would assume it gives blows as does an air impact wrench. Hey mounting a hyd motor to the cutter with an unbalanced weight and it's normally shaking action from that might give a bucket enough action to help slice through the roots.


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[MossRoad]

Wow! That looks like a very specialized and expensive piece of equipment. The digger moves left right, up down, in out and the tracks even move wider or narrower and the whole unit weight shifts forward and backward on the tracks. I'll bet it's 50K or higher!

As for a tree spade on a PT, remember, the 400 series can only lift 800 pounds at the quick attach plate. You hang a 300 pound attachment out there a few feet in front of the quick attach plate and you will only be lifting root balls that are 2' across and a foot deep MAYBE in wet or heavy soil. The larger units have more lift, of course.

I think a tree spade on it's own wheels that is just transported, positioned and powered by the PT would be a better choice for small units. Something like the Vermeer TS-44A comes to mind. Find something like this with a blown engine and you are set to go.
Vermeer TS-44A

 

[SnowRidge]

Wow! That looks like a very specialized and expensive piece of equipment. The digger moves left right, up down, in out and the tracks even move wider or narrower and the whole unit weight shifts forward and backward on the tracks. I'll bet it's 50K or higher!

As for a tree spade on a PT, remember, the 400 series can only lift 800 pounds at the quick attach plate. You hang a 300 pound attachment out there a few feet in front of the quick attach plate and you will only be lifting root balls that are 2' across and a foot deep MAYBE in wet or heavy soil. The larger units have more lift, of course.

I think a tree spade on it's own wheels that is just transported, positioned and powered by the PT would be a better choice for small units. Something like the Vermeer TS-44A comes to mind. Find something like this with a blown engine and you are set to go.
Vermeer TS-44A

Moss, that Vermeer weighs 5390 lbs. A 400 series machine could not tow or position it properly, certainly not safely, even on level ground. It will extract an 1100 plus lb tree from the ground. I hate to think what could happen with the tongue end held down by only a 1400 lb or less PT, even with the moment arm advantage.

I think another solution is in order.

 

[ponytug]

I would second your comments. MR the vermer is a neat attachment, but probably not up to even the red tractors. I had some sphincter moments moving a vermer powered chipper around on an incline, where it started pushing the PT.

Sometimes you have to learn to live within the limits. The PT spade is never going to dig up 1T balls, but it is probably OK to dig up bushes.

All the best,

Peter

Moss, that Vermeer weighs 5390 lbs. A 400 series machine could not tow or position it properly, certainly not safely, even on level ground. It will extract an 1100 plus lb tree from the ground. I hate to think what could happen with the tongue end held down by only a 1400 lb or less PT, even with the moment arm advantage.

I think another solution is in order.

 

[KentT]

I would second your comments. MR the vermer is a neat attachment, but probably not up to even the red tractors. I had some sphincter moments moving a vermer powered chipper around on an incline, where it started pushing the PT.

Sometimes you have to learn to live within the limits. The PT spade is never going to dig up 1T balls, but it is probably OK to dig up bushes.

All the best,

Peter

I think you also must consider soil conditions. In "sand-country" where JJ lives, for example, a tree-spade may work OK. However in hills of East Tennessee, you typically are dealing with issues like clay soil, perhaps slate rock or limestone underneath it, or if you have good, loamy topsoil, it often has glacial, rounded, "mountain stone" mixed throughout...

In a nutshell, based on my experience in using the minihoe with a 9" bucket, I question how deep a light-weight PT can push any kind of cutting blade into the ground... it's all too easy to lift the front of the PT off the ground just trying to push the 9" bucket into the ground -- it must be done with curl most of the time, and not with down-pressure.

I think a tree-spade would have very limited value for me, though I am considering cutting down my now-unused HD rock bucket to make more of a "grubbing bucket shape" for use in making/clearing ditches faster than I can with the mini-hoe. I have no illusions of being able to use it as a tree-spade however, unless the soil conditions (dampness, compaction, etc.) are almost perfect...

 

[J_J]

In reference to post # 2.

I see no reason why you can not build one similar to the ones in the pictures shown, on a cut down version. We are only talking about the depth of tree roots. The cost is not that much to build, I am sure that you have a bucket, and they make a tree spade or digger that bolts on the front of the bucket.

No matter what the situation, you may run into obstacles, the goal is to get the job done using whatever is available. If you run into rocks, and you can not go around, bust them up, dig them out, or whatever it takes. I would say go ahead and build it, use it, and report back on it's usefulness. There are several ways to do things, the right way, your way, and whatever.

 

[MossRoad]

Yeah, I didn't look at the weights and all, but you guys understand the theory behind it at least. A small PT can only lift 800 pounds. A small root ball can weigh that much. But if you had some sort of attachment that could get it out of the ground and support the weight, the PT could move it around. Smaller attachments for smaller tractors, bigger for bigger, etc..