Best tool to maintain trails

[mike_belben]

A zero turn with a bush hog style rotary cutter deck would be really nice. I'd want a fully enclosed cab though.

Thats the plan.  33" loaded ag rubber, toro ZTR fairway chassis, car engine power and a mad max cab.  Like a bell and a fecon made the love. 

[Crusarius]

I have a 4.0ho straight 6 I can donate to the cause

[mike_belben]

Speak of the devil.  I actually have a cracked head in my 99 XJ trail rig.  Been sittin up north a long while now. 

[btulloh]

Go for it!

[Hilltop366]

Altoz TRX - Go Where Others Can't - YouTube

[livemusic]

Altoz TRX - Go Where Others Can't - YouTube

I saw that awhile back. I don't think I posted it. Cuz I think it's, like, $20,000.

[moodnacreek]

I am a big fan of side [mid] mount sickle bars. This because they reach out and get under things. There is a lot of maintenance. I do ledger plates and wear plates all the time. Today you can get extra heavy, bolted knife assemblies that last in small brush. Of course I have a brush hog to do the first season.

[thecfarm]

We had a sickle on the 1954 NAA Ford. That was mid mount mower. Took almost a day to put it on and all the tools you owned and 2 floor jacks. ;D But all you had to do was look to the right and it was there. It could also be used in any position. So you could run it straight up and mow the limbs beside the woods road. But with only about 8 inches of clearance,not something to head out in the woods with.

[gspren]

David Bradley, Gravely, and others made walk behind tractors that had sickle mowers as an available attachment. The Gravely also had a heavy duty front rotary mower available, they are rugged.

[mike_belben]

The gravely unit is just a stiff blade, not even a bush hog setup.  DR Power makes a walk behind too.  

20k will get you a D4 and a rootrake and thatll make all the trail you want. 

[Hilltop366]

Altoz TRX - Go Where Others Can't - YouTube

I saw that awhile back. I don't think I posted it. Cuz I think it's, like, $20,000.

Looks like they start at $12000, Yup I only posted because a zero turn bush hog was mentioned and I thought they were kinda cool. 

[YellowHammer]

In order of massiveness of destruction for our farm.
True bushhog Bush Hog.  Massive.  Advertised by our dealer, "if your tractor can run over it, this will cut it."

Herbicides - I use this a lot.  I have a boomless sprayer, mounts to a tractor.  The boomless sprayer will shoot out a 55 foot fan, and can be set to spray everything from about 5 feet up in either side and down, just a large arc of poison.  Works great.  Fill up the tank and drive on.  They make them for ATV's also.  Definately the least amount of sweat involved.    

Zero Turn Mower - actually works pretty good, as long as there isn't much poison ivy.  Very fast.

I'm looking at the Lane Shark, I asked my dealer to make a few calls and we will see what he says from other dealerships who rent or support them.  

[mike_belben]

Speaking of, whats the best poison for poison oak ivy and sumac?  Bonus points for cheap and on the co-op shelf. 

[Crusarius]

I just used roundup for the poison ivy. spray the leaves once and in 2 weeks it was all dead. Has not come back since that was 3 years ago/.

[thecfarm]

I use Gordon's. Buy it at Tractor supply on sale. No idea about co-op prices. If the poison ivy is out in the open,I can kill it. Brought back some of the farm and had a stone wall that was covered in it. Kept that wall barren for 2-3 years,just to be sure. If it was green I sprayed it.But I have some on the edge of the field,it growing in the woods. Can't seem to kill that. My father fought it for his lifetime and so am I. I can think I have it gone,but than I can see it coming back again.

[g_man]

We have all kinds of trails and woods roads and lots of rough ground. For maintenance I use a 4 Wheeler, chain saw, loppers, pole saw w/rope lopper, and a heavy duty Fuerst 42" BushHog. Works good for me. Too bad Fuerst went out of business. I don't believe Swisher or DR equipment would last long around our place - to rough.



 



 

gg

[livemusic]

Holy cow, look at this! Never seen one of these backpack chainsaws, wonder are they selling wherever they are available? Europe, Canada? Built for thinning forests. This looks awesome for trailbuilding. Hmmm, probably not available in USA due to no demand? I doubt there is much thinning here. But for me... might want one!

Would be interesting to see how it fares versus a brushcutter clearing saw. This backpack chainsaw gizmo looks to cost $1,500 to $2,000 USD? Of course, a top of line Stihl clearing saw costs $1,300 or so. Anyone know about this thing?

Backpack Chainsaw - new opportunities for forest spacing - YouTube

[livemusic]

And here is a battery powered backpack chainsaw! At about the 2:30 mark, he is, basically, doing what I do when clearing a trail. Of course, there might be larger stems as well as vines.

Skogsmagasinet testar fossilfri röjning - YouTube

I got the Milwaukee kit in; I bought the pole saw kit and was lucky that I kept 'surfing' online, as I found a place that had a deal where you get a free attachment with the purchase of a kit. The kit is one of the attachments, the motor part, battery and charger. I chose the pole saw kit and my free choice was the articulating hedger. Both work great! The pole saw has an extension and the whole pole saw is pretty long with the extension. It has a simple harness; you put your head and right arm through and it offers some support. It's still pretty heavy even with that. But wow, does it cut! I didn't even realize it has a low speed and high speed and heck, I was impressed with low speed and then I found the high speed button! It cuts great.

The articulating hedger trimmer gizmo works great for clearing new trails of small saplings and maintaining the trails. I think it said it could cut up to 3/4 inch? Not if it's oak, I tell ya. Oak and a few other hardwoods have really tough saplings. I'd say maybe 5/8 inch. And some saplings are just uber tough. But for most, it will get them. When "mowing" a trail after it's been built, I just wave it back and forth in front of me and it gets pretty much everything clean as can be.

But... the Milwaukee kit (and other brands would be the same challenge) is pretty hard on your back because these things are not light and are a bit unwieldy.

I got a big battery and it lasts longer than my back, I guarantee. Real good run time length, actually, it's impressive.

[Hilltop366]

Another option, requires very little power to run but does not mulch.

https://www.cutthat.com/product/sabre-samurai-cutter-2/

[dustintheblood]

Well after couch-viewing all this talk about bush trail work, the mrs and I hopped in the tractor for a midnight toodle through the woods to see the fireflies at night.  Well didn't I spend more time lookin at all the work to be done brushing and popping out rocks.

Loading up in a couple of days to do the annual work.  Hoping for some wet weather to loosen up the stones and make them easier to get out.

This round's going to be using the box scraper a bit more to really make things purdy  8) 8) 8)
Already did a couple of passes with the ripper teeth set way down low. Now it's a no teeth pass, and some good old fashioned shovel work. 

Have a fresh new blade on the big Stihl trimmer - ready to go.

Now all I need is temps below 100F and a few million less bugs ---- then stand back and watch me go!!!!

[livemusic]

I hired a guy to help install a water line and he does yard work, so, he did a little trimming around my trees. He has an Echo PAS 225 2-stroke. It's only 21cc powerhead. I just looked it up and it looks like it's a combo device; you can put on different attachments. Anyway, he was just using the string trimmer with .095 line. Hmmm... I was surprised what he got done with that trimmer line. There were wiry little saplings, small, yes, but wiry. Oak and privet, cat briars, etc. He went right through it and cleaned it up to the ground. These little saplings are probably 1/8" or less but tough. It seems you could find some uber tough line, maybe from Europe, or some kind of plastic blades that would cut even tougher stuff. Point is, it could be that my 45cc Husqvarna 345FR brush cutter clearing saw, which came with a trimmer attachment, could suffice for trail maintenance of small growth. If so, that's a solution unless I get way more trails. With a lot more trails, that brings me back to previous talk about something one could ride, like a riding lawnmower or something to pull behind the ATV.

One thing interesting about his little trimmer was it was light enough he could use it with one hand. Light enough, he didn't even have a harness.