What is the best way to clean off logging road without taking the road with it?

[Asphalt Rehab Solutions]

The loggers did a good job of piling up slash but left enough bare limbs alongside the road that I don稚 feel comfortable driving a truck around without popping a tire, and I need to be able to drive a golf cart around smoothly and quietly. I just want the small limbs off the trails, I have about 1.5 miles of 10 trail and a few acres of food plot to do as quick and inexpensive as possible. I have a skid steer to work with and I can rent any attachment, so what would you do?

Thank you for reading!

 

[oosik]

A Land Scape rake.

 

[CADplans]

Some of my slash was close to 10 inches in diameter,, I wanted my trails, but did not want to loose a tractor part or tractor tire,,
so,,,
I hired a guy with a 100+ HP excavator, and I told him to make the trails nice,,

For less than the cost of fixing my tractor, the trails all became drive-able,,

The excavator with a thumb,, and a skilled operator, cleaned the trails in a few hours,,
I could not have done as well even if I had purchased a 953 CAT,, which I considered, and shopped for,,

 

[Industrial Toys]

I used this home made Rake on my Steiner to clean up where the loggers had made a big mess loading their trucks of pine.

A bigger version whould work well.

 

[oosik]

IT - that's very fancy. You are pushing forward with the land scape rake. Did you have any problems with the tines catching on unmovable stuff?? Normal LS rake is drug and would hop over the unmovable.

 

[Industrial Toys]

I can make the tines arrested or float individually on bushings, attached to a shaft. I don't recall having a problem with the individual tines getting caught up. If I get too aggessive and not careful enough in the height, it can dig in, and I should put in some spacer to prevent the tines from coming up so high, if that makes any sense.

 

[oosik]

OK - I understand. It must be nice to have the unit up front where you can see what is happening.

 

[Industrial Toys]

You can't use a tool well, if you are just guessing what it's doing. I learn that more and more with aging eyesight.

 

[Asphalt Rehab Solutions]

Yes there are a few logs around too, I was thinking a dozer blade with teeth. Can稚 find it..

 

[bcp]

A reversed rear blade does most of the work cleaning up fallen limbs on my roads. Good enough to not be worth switching to the rake if the blade is already on.

The rake will sometimes cut into the road. The reversed blade doesn't.

Sometimes it gets something under and dumps a load, but is still really useful. I clean up the occasional pile with the FEL.

Bruce

 

[Industrial Toys]

I'm guessing a rotating broom would be the cats meow.

 

[Ford850]

I think a rented grapple, broom, or rake for your skid steer would be fine.

 

[Asphalt Rehab Solutions]

Thank you all for your input which led me to a grapple rake. BESt of both worlds!

 

[hkbirdman]

You could also buy an SSQA 3 pt. adapter to use on the loader. Then mount a landscape rake on that. I used this set-up to clean up logging slash on mine and my neighbor's woods trails (appx. 60 acres total), Worked like a charm!

 

[Asphalt Rehab Solutions]

The fingers must be stronger than they appear to be... what’s the biggest diameter limb you moved with it?

 

[shooterdon]

You could also buy an SSQA 3 pt. adapter to use on the loader. Then mount a landscape rake on that. I used this set-up to clean up logging slash on mine and my neighbor's woods trails (appx. 60 acres total), Worked like a charm!

Exactly what I have. Not perfect but does a good job and I can see what is happening. In fact, this year I will try raking leaves with it as I have almost 2 acres of lawn in the middle of a forest plus two dozen large tress in the lawn area.

First I would use a grapple to pick up the larger stuff. I have the MTL and it was only $1000. I bought it to handle firewood logs so I already have it.

 

[airbiscuit]

 

[hkbirdman]

The fingers must be stronger than they appear to be... what痴 the biggest diameter limb you moved with it?

Probably 6" diameter.

 

[EddieWalker]

Depending on your budget and what you have, my first attempt would be to just push what I can off of the road with the front bucket on the tractor. That's what I would have done before I bought my grapple. Now that I have a grapple, I would use that to pick up all the debris and carry them to my burn pile. I had a rake and I found it to be almost useless. I found that it quickly filled up with branches and then they all fell out of the sides, so I had to make all sorts of small piles that had to be picked up by hand, or with the bucket, or later on in life, with my grapple. It was just a wasted step that didn't accomplish anything when compared to how useful the grapple is at cleaning up debris.

 

[JPRambo]

I made this to push slash with. but it is too heavy for my b7100