Tree spade?

[RobS]

We had a tree moved at our old house for an addition. The guy had a tandem axle tree spade truck and it was still a lot of work. He had me soak the ground ahead of time (more for the tree I think). His truck had a water tank which sprayed water onto the spades. Even with serious hydraulic pressure he had to work each spade up and down several times to penetrate deep enough. It was a lot of fun to watch.

The smaller tree toads probably work OK but I cannot imagine pounding the spades in on the larger models. And yes, that's twice per tree unless you're digging to pot them for sale /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Glenn9643]

Doug,
I've never used a tree spade, but moved a few oaks last year using my FEL pallet forks pushed together to form a wide "shovel". Set the forks at an angle to drive them down in and under the tree and dug all around it and then lifted it out and moved it to its new home. It worked very well, but probably wouldn't if the ground was really dry. With care you can retain most of the dirt around the root ball.