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Has Anybody Used a Lane Shark or Similar?

Started by YellowHammer, August 11, 2021, 10:53:42 AM

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YellowHammer

I've got constant trimming duties with over 3.5 miles of fence line, cutting back branches, brush, etc thats my bush hog won't reach.  I've thought about renting a boom mulcher, but would have to do it every few years so don't really want to start that.  I'm going to throw out my pole saws and other back breaking tools, I cant even begin to keep up.

Has anybody used a Lane Shark, or one of the similar items available from other brands, for tractor front end loader mowing both vertically and horizontally?  I have a 100 hp News Holland tractor and front end loader with cab.

Any feedback is appreciated.

 
YellowHammerisms:

Take steps to save steps.

If it won't roll, its not a log; it's still a tree.  Sawmills cut logs, not trees.

Kiln drying wood: When the cookies are burned, they're burned, and you can't fix them.

Sawing is fun for the first couple million boards.

Be smarter than the sawdust

Southside

At first I thought you asked if anybody had used a "Loan Shark" and wondered what you were buying now.  :D
Franklin buncher and skidder
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White Oak Meadows

btulloh

Been there. I already sold my pole saw. I haven't solved my problem though. It's somewhat different than yours but the basics are the same. I'm curious about this lane shark, but I'd have to go to the loan shark to get into that. 

Other places I've seen clear the other side of the fence completely making a 6-10 ft bush hoggable lane. Generally the spray right under the fence with a long lasting herbicide. Certainly a big project initially, more typically the fence was built leaving the cleared lane on the outside. But then the branches still need to be trimmed back every two or three years. None of that is simple easy or cheap. Especially 3.5 miles of it. The old school approach was to run a sickle more vertically and whack off the small stuff. Not very effective or comprehensive though. 

I understand the problem you're facing and sympathize, and I hope to see a reply with a good solution. 

The people that clear along power line ROW here use a saw on a long boom to do lot of that kind of work. Not cheap equipment, but I'm sure they can be hired -  for a small fortune. 
HM126

red

YouTube channel Arms Family Homestead made a 12 minute video April 18 , 2019 called . . The Lane Shark !  This might be the Best Front Loader Attachment Ever . . he was very impressed 
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K-Guy

Quote from: YellowHammer on August 11, 2021, 10:53:42 AMHas anybody used a Lane Shark


I heard of a Land Shark on SNL years ago??smiley_whacko
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YellowHammer

I've been dealing with this for years and keep putting off a real solution. Last year I did as Btulloh mentions and sprayed everywhere, including the overhanging branches.  Hosed everything down. Tank after tank of spray.  The leaves wilted but the branches didn't die and this year they came back with a vengeance, worse than ever.  I talked to one of the road crews last year and they were doing a good job but were slow.  They did the side of my driveway the power lines are on, but it took them a full day. I wouldn't want to pay them to do the whole property. We have cross fencing as well so I need to get both sides. The main issue is overhanging branches.  I can't even drive some of my field roads anymore without branches scraping my tractor cab.  

I've seen some of the Lane Shark videos and it looks effective but I distrust "sponsored" videos.  There are about 3 different brands of this type of front end side mower and also a couple front end suitable mulchers.  I've also looked at hydraulic tree shears and limb shears but they seem slow.  Maybe good for trimming back a couple trees, but not a couple thousand.
YellowHammerisms:

Take steps to save steps.

If it won't roll, its not a log; it's still a tree.  Sawmills cut logs, not trees.

Kiln drying wood: When the cookies are burned, they're burned, and you can't fix them.

Sawing is fun for the first couple million boards.

Be smarter than the sawdust

Hilltop366

I have looked at these before but have not bought one, things that I thought were interesting were you shouldn't need a loan shark to get one, light weight, requires little hyd power and flow, can fab a mount to extend reach.

https://www.cutthat.com 

stavebuyer

I have one farm that has an "old county road" long ago abandoned as its only access. Its now a deeded ROW but the landowner it crosses would prefer that it wasn't and won't allow spraying or bringing in a dozer to fix it. Fenced on both sides and eroded 10' deep into the hillside in places. Its a 1.5 miles and real pain to keep cut back. I looked real hard at the Lane Shark. I have used the brush mower on the front of a Cat tracked skid steer raised up which gets quite a bit but doesn't get to the sides unless you turn 90 to the direction of travel.

The Lane Shark is Hydro driven which is a plus. Your tractor has the weight to handle it.

The down sides I saw to Lane shark is that it operates in a vertical plane and doesn't have much side reach. Also not much in the way of guarding.

Something else I looked at was basically a circle saw attachment that works on the same principle. Cooks might even make a version it. I actually saw a Lane Shark mounted on small John Deere this week and was tempted to follow the guy into the gas station to ask about it.

Watching the power line ROW machines I think the circle saw version is the safer way to go. I am uncomfortable with a bush hog type mower over the top of my head with no guards.


barbender

Not that it will do you guys any good, but I clear the edges of roads for our trucks all the time with the forwarder, just snap the limbs with the grapple.
Too many irons in the fire

YellowHammer

I've ripped some decent sized limb off trees by hooking them with my grapple and driving off, but wow, does it make a mess of the trees, sometimes ripping the whole side off.

I also welded a tooth to my grapple and it will shear through some nice sized limbs but it's pretty slow. My grapple has a pretty good bite force, it'll break concrete off fence posts, and I've been doing this for awhile.  The typical scenario is that I'll be driving driving down a fence line and when a limb slaps my $600 side window, I get mad, turn back, rip the limb off with the loader bucket, or cut the limb off with the grapple tooth, or even just push the tree over.  The pushing the tree over works best, but I've got one fenceline where I've now got a bunch of pushed over trees messing things up, with root balls sitting up out of the ground and it looks bad, like Godzilla had gone for a stroll.

Here's a picture of the tooth on my grapple.


 

I've looked at the Cook's brush saw, but its over $13K last I checked, and for that I'd start leaning torward a mini excavator and mulch head for about another $15 K more.  

 
YellowHammerisms:

Take steps to save steps.

If it won't roll, its not a log; it's still a tree.  Sawmills cut logs, not trees.

Kiln drying wood: When the cookies are burned, they're burned, and you can't fix them.

Sawing is fun for the first couple million boards.

Be smarter than the sawdust

beenthere

Saw this mini-ex with mulch head the other day. 
Mulching Around The Farm - YouTube

Thought of your thread when I saw it.
south central Wisconsin
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charles mann

A guy i did some land clearing for says his county barn use them in tight locations they cant get the boom mulcher/shredder in and it works great for them. 
Temple, Tx
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farmfromkansas

Saline county just uses their excavator to rip the limbs off trees.  I would not mind having one for a time.  Neighbor has a rubber tire excavator, Case, that looks tempting, but not so sure it would get around like one with tracks.  Have a neighbor who has a big excavator, he just grabs trees and jerks them out of the ground.  Can pull good sized trees, maybe not 36" diameter, but at least 24".  He would be kind of expensive if you hired him for a week.
Most everything I enjoy doing turns out to be work

farmfromkansas

Guys in the neighborhood have tree saws, and some can be turned up vertical, made for skidsteers.  A new neighbor has a prototype he said could be tried out, very heavy built.  I have a Wichita shear, with a pivot so it will sideline trees, won't go real high up.  I hate to drop big chunks of tree on my skidsteer.  Nothing harder on a skid steer than tree work.                                                       Looked at that Lane Shark, it is a bush hog mower with hydraulic drive, if you get one, make sure you have a dump for the hydraulic hose oil return, running all that oil through your outlet will over heat your hydraulic fluid.
Most everything I enjoy doing turns out to be work

metalspinner

I do what the little voices in my wife's head tell me to do.

YellowHammer

I talked to my dealer, he says New Holland has a case drain for the hydraulics to dump into the tank.  

He says people have given him good reviews on the Lane Shark but he's never run one.

I like the helicopter method, but it might be a tad expensive.
YellowHammerisms:

Take steps to save steps.

If it won't roll, its not a log; it's still a tree.  Sawmills cut logs, not trees.

Kiln drying wood: When the cookies are burned, they're burned, and you can't fix them.

Sawing is fun for the first couple million boards.

Be smarter than the sawdust

dogone

    I have a Saber samurai. Clamps on side of bucket and cuts vertical and horizontal. Cuts up to about inch and a half . Would work well on a hydro drive tractor. You have infinitely variable forward speed.
     After the first trimming, cutting large and small branch's you will go faster just cutting smaller regrowth next passes. 
      After six years and miles of trimming mine is just due for new knives. About 1800$ Canadian. They have a US distributer I think.

Walnut Beast

 

 Is this what your looking for. 23 ft boom. The model 100 is standard and the 200 rotates

Walnut Beast

Riley is the name around 17k for the standard and 19k for angle

Walnut Beast

 

 

 Chopzilla is the unit it's made by Supertrak in Florida 

Walnut Beast

Just noticed your price points. These ones I posted are definitely out of your budget 

YellowHammer

The Samuri, it looks nice, I'm surprised it'll cut 1.5 inches, thats most of what I have, some bigger some smaller.  What happens if I get into a limb that it won't cut, will it bend if I don't stop the tractor fast enough?  Thats one of the scenarios I'm really looking at, the sure to happen, "Oops that limb is too big" kind of thing.  

My tractor is hydraulic clutch, shuttle shift, but its not a hydrostatic variable drive.  So every time I have to go from forward to reverse, I have too clutch, although with the shuttle shift its not too bad.  I just don't want to have to do it 10,000 times in a day.

I'm stay in the $5K range, because since I don't know if any of these contraptions work, I don't want to spend a lot of money on a waste of time.  Also, with the mods to my tractor, that's probably another $500 to $1,000 itself.  My tractor comes with every kind of hydraulic system known to man, except.....direct drain to the reservoir.  I'll need two more hoses run to the loader, clips, clamps, fittings, disconnects, etc.  That stuff adds up real fast.

I have also been looking at a "Limb Beaver." They seem pretty good, and I'm seeing some of them on auction sites, but they look kind of "stale" like they aren't a very active company and not a lot of products sold, so it may haver some issues.

Limb Beaver Ultimate Brush Cutter & Tree Trimmer[3525-Limb%20Beaver%20T1%20Tractor%20Model]/0/

There are some things about the Lane Shark I don't like, one is that it doesn't haver a stump jumper disk, its just got a piece of channel to hold the blades.  Some of the copy cat models do have stump jumpers, but are also made extremely heavy, more for ground work than side trimming work.  It also doesn't have hydraulic angle shift which would be very easy to do with my tractor, as I already haver third function plumbed in.

I haven't seen any under $5K smallish side mount mulching heads, I think that would be best for all sizes of vertical trimming and wouldn't throw debris as far.  

I'm still looking and searching, but the Lane Shark seems to have both good and bad.  I'm also trying to balance strength vs light weight.
YellowHammerisms:

Take steps to save steps.

If it won't roll, its not a log; it's still a tree.  Sawmills cut logs, not trees.

Kiln drying wood: When the cookies are burned, they're burned, and you can't fix them.

Sawing is fun for the first couple million boards.

Be smarter than the sawdust

farmfromkansas

I added a hydraulic dump valve to my JD 4450, had a plug you could remove and put a nipple and a hydraulic connector to it.
Most everything I enjoy doing turns out to be work

stavebuyer

For encroaching limbs only; this deal looks pretty bullet proof

Stout Trail Blazer. Self contained gas running circle saw blades.

STOUT DESIGNS, LLC – TRAILBLAZER TB-2021 – OVERHANGING LIMB AND BRUSH CUTTER (stoutdesignsllc.com)



GRANITEstateMP

YellowHammer,

A buddy of mine just had to reclaim 3 old hay field / pastures. He was able to rent a small Bobcat excavator for a long weekend that had a small cutter head on it. he used it to get both sides of his fence line.  It wasn't cheap, BUT, he did a neighbors long driveway while he had the unit and that paid for half the rental!!!
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