Trying out a Brush Grubber

[nikdfish]

It can be slow going, one sapling at a time, but if you keep chipping away it starts to add up. I've got so many small piles of trees spread around now, I'm going to need some pallet forks to collect them into a burn pile!


Hmmmm. May be time for some strap on bucket forks....



Nick

 

[KenKubota]

I hope this doesn't ruin it for those who have already bought the original brush grubber. I got a new model that clamps to your bucket or mounts to a 2" receiver out back. It has a rope that allows one to release the jaws and "cock" them for the next stem. All from the comfort of my seat, thus eliminating the number one drawback of the original (IMO)
BrushGrubber | Skid Loader Heavy Duty Brush Grubber

 

[gerard]

I have one and it works well but as stated, if you have a lot to do, it's a LOT quicker with a ground person to hook/unhook. Smaller stuff I attach the chain to the bucket and just raise the bucket. You can pull out some pretty heavy stuff that way if not too heavily rooted.

 

[Haywire]

I watched this video, but I don't see any indication of impact on the ATV when it hits those 4" trunks. Maybe the trees that grow on my property are a little abnormal, but I don't see how a fixed blade can cut through a trunk that thick without some impact. Are ATVs heavy enough to overcome that much resistance?

If you look, they aren't fixed. They turn as the tree goes through them. It's got 3 pairs of cutters, each closer together than the last. It's almost like it pinches them off in 3 stages.

Ian

 

[Small farm guy]

I am a bit late on the thread, but I got one of these last year. My place is 11 acres that was last bush hogged around 20 years ago. The grubber works great on patches that are a bit too big to hog, but small enough to bend over easily. If you have help, it is a bit faster than wrapping a chain, but you have to take off slow and steady instead of snatching it out fast with a chain. If you start to fast, the grubber will slide right off a tree.

I used it for a while this fall, with my wife pulling with the tractor and me slinging it around. I eventually took it off because I could chain several small trees and snatch them out at once. A good tool, but I wouldn't spend the money to buy another if I broke it.

I usually just bend the small trees over and pop the roots out by curling the bucket, but snatching them is a lot less messy on the dirt.

Joel

 

[jake98]

I'll have to break down & get a drawbar installed at some point (they are optional on the "E" series). They aren't that pricey, I just haven't gotten around to it yet.


Nick

Don't you have a mount for the drawbar that you could just connect a clevis to?

 

[SandburRanch]

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/land-clearing/190062-pulling-trees-saplings.html

Cut them off and pull several stumps at once. The number only depends on how many short chains you have and how long the main chain is. Once the knot is tied, slip it off keeping it's integrity and place it over the next stump. Beats wrapping a chain which is labor intensive and that's what we're trying to avoid.

 

[k0ua]

One advantage I can see for the grubber, (now that I think about it) over just wrapping the chain around the sapling several times, it when you get the sapling pulled out. you have to unwrap it and that is kind of a pain sometimes to lift up the tree and unwrap the chain. I can see how the grubber would be a lot quicker to take off.
James K0UA

 

[Zebrafive]

It can be slow going, one sapling at a time, but if you keep chipping away it starts to add up. I've got so many small piles of trees spread around now, I'm going to need some pallet forks to collect them into a burn pile!


Hmmmm. May be time for some strap on bucket forks....



Nick

I had a lot of Autumn Olive bushes to pull. I used two chains hooked together. I made one wrap around each bush until I came to the end of the chain, then two wraps and hook back on the chain. I would 8-12 bushes each time. It was a lot of work to pull the chain around each bush, but beat getting on and off thractor for each bush. I found a lot of the first pulled bushes in the line twisted out of the chain as the rest pulled so unchaining was less work than chaining. I would pull several hundred each session.

A helper would be my prefered way to do this, but sometimes you have to work alone.

I would consider a grapple before forks

 

[Gio]

For what it's worth BAC makes awesome skidding tongs. TSC carries them