Mowing What can I do ??

[ILUVOZ]

I have a TD 70 D and am trying to slash and clear ground that hasn't been touched in 15 years , so the bracken and Tobacco weed and all the other crap is taller than my tractor ! ( thank heavens for the enclosed cab! )
am I asking too much of the unit for this work ?? should I get someone with a dozer in to clear it all before I slash ?? ( its a pretty good slasher ! mind you )
I do scare myself when pushing through bush that totally coves the windscreen adn I have NO visibility forward.. but what the heck.. I Plow on anyway..
Comments??

 

[kebo]

Naturally, this just my opinion, but as long as you don't exceed the cutting limits of your mower, and you keep the grill cleared off sufficiently (to avoid overheating), and you don't mind the tractor paint getting scratched up, then I think you are ok, providing you go slow. No visibility can raise the pucker factor some, but if it gets too bad, then you could always try mowing in reverse and let the mower knock everything down first. That would give you a little extra visibility. Normally you would like to walk the property first to check for hidden metal objects, hidden ditches/holes/stumps/etc, but it doesn't look possible in your case. That's some tall, thick brush you are dealing with!! Another picture with the tractor in place against the brush you are mowing would help give the audience a better perspective of just how tall it is. Good luck.

 

[breadtrk]

I'm doing the same thing on an 18 yr field. I put the bucket at about knee height, go slow until I hit one of the trees too big to knock down, back up go around. If I can knock it over, my 5ft Fred Cain cutter will chop it up.

Some of the bigger stuff gets knocked down too if I work at it. I've been knocking the over and using the bucket and momentum to get the root ball out then push it a a pile in the middle or to the side and come back to move it when I have made more room.

I've already snapped one work light off my brand new machine...... Mirrors are not very happy either. I'm going to remove them this morning.

 

[streamin]

I agree, no problem. I was amazed at what my brush hog would cut.

 

[TripleR]

As mentioned, hard to say without a bit more perspective, but my sons and I have cut a lot of brush that looks similar to that over the years, so it can be done. However the last time we did a big field, we rented a tracked skid loader with an enclosed cab to do a lot of it along with our M8540 and Woods DS1260.

The brush was over our tractor and certainly over the skid loader, so we scouted a lot of it before hand and as we progressed, I still almost lost the tractor in a washout and had to use the FEL to get back out, it would have swallowed the loader, so go slow and be careful.

 

[Ed of all trades]

I have cut trees with a bush hog that were the size of a soft ball with a 35 hp ford. Had to be careful to run over the one at a time so they did not lift the tractor off the ground. I am not joking. I would try to keep working edges and corners, so you can keep tractor repairs down.

 

[brin]

You might want to take a look at a topographical map and if possible talk to folks who know the lay of the land...you don't want to drive off a cliff or into a deep gully....Go very slow...Good Luck

 

[ILUVOZ]

Buckett??? LOL// oops.. Np Bucket!

 

[Ed of all trades]

You might want to take a look at a topographical map and if possible talk to folks who know the lay of the land...you don't want to drive off a cliff or into a deep gully....Go very slow...Good Luck

Or even a stump or big rock.

 

[ILUVOZ]

Or even a stump or big rock.

The shots I have added are the before and after shots of where I have been crashing through the brush..
I am going very slowly and trying very hard to avoid the nasty drops and big rocks!

 

[breadtrk]

I have to park my XR3037 in front of what I'm tackling..... you have a pasture compared to this. Many of the pasture, field reclaiming pictures i've seen here are tame compared to mine. Maybe I'm taking too big a bite at mine and should get some heavy equipment. I'll get some picks in the morning. Here is the only one I have and it doesn't really display the scale. This goes back another 5 acres or so.... lol

 

[TripleR]

I have to park my XR3037 in front of what I'm tackling..... you have a pasture compared to this. Many of the pasture, field reclaiming pictures i've seen here are tame compared to mine. Maybe I'm taking too big a bite at mine and should get some heavy equipment. I'll get some picks in the morning. Here is the only one I have and it doesn't really display the scale. This goes back another 5 acres or so.... lol


View attachment 376913

Ours was pretty much like that and decided to save our equipment by renting the skid loader. We still used the tractors in some of the areas. We had thirty acres or more and some of it is going to need chainsaws.

 

[breadtrk]

This should bring it into scale, I don't have extended periods to continuously work on it so renting isn't really an option. I have thought about hiring one of those mulcher crews that have the brush and tree chewing attachments for a bobcat. Then I would have to wade through it all and mark what I want to keep, I'm kind of deciding as I go...

 

[Gary Fowler]

This should bring it into scale, I don't have extended periods to continuously work on it so renting isn't really an option. I have thought about hiring one of those mulcher crews that have the brush and tree chewing attachments for a bobcat. Then I would have to wade through it all and mark what I want to keep, I'm kind of deciding as I go...

View attachment 378583

I would take out all or nearly all of those sweet gum trees and any left, keep an eye out for sprouts. They are really invasive what with the sweet gum balls everywhere and the roots sprouting up runners everywhere. That thicket reminds me of my place when I got it. Sweetgum saplings so thick around my creek that you really couldn't walk in it what with them and the saw briars. I thinned them with bush hog and later got into the thicket with my TLB and opened it up so I could run my 7 foot BH between the trees. I only left a few of the larger ones and then only if they had sufficient distance between them to drive my LS P7010C.
Thorn trees are a pain also and if you don't get every root, they will continue to sent up sprouts for years to come.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I do think that for the OP who doesn't have an FEL, backing thru that thicker brush would be the way to go. Perhaps a pain in the neck to do so, but you wont be damaging your tractor by running up on a large rock or other obstacle.

 

[ILUVOZ]

OK.. Its all becoming clear to me now..

Apparently .. going into scrub and bush that's older than the pyramids can cause damage to a tractor.! My hood is deformed.. and looks like it wats to be at 45 deg to the flat look it had before , and my exhaust is bent backwards like a 30 deg change to the vertical..

I think I can sort out the exhaust problem , but what do i do with a bonnet that wants to warp itself very strangely >> I know I shouldnt have done the things I did .. but It seemed such an adventure at the start!

so now I have a tractor that looks like Quasimodo , and a wife that thinks I am mad! .... not to mention a business partner that doesnt care a **** about what i have done as she didnt contribute a penny to the tractor!

Ohh me... Ohh My!! I am in such deep Doo Doo!


HELP!!!