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Tree Shear

Started by 421Altered, November 20, 2022, 12:43:08 PM

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421Altered

I may be in wrong board, so please excuse me if I am!  Does anyone have any experience with tree shears that are mounted on skid steers.  I have a John Deere 323 E that I use around my farm.  I'm looking at tree shears to thin several acres of pines and my head is spinning after looking on line at all the different name brands produced.  I'm going to be thinning 5 year old pines with an average diameter of 4-5 inches.  I cut about 5 rows with my trusty Stihl 024 chainsaw, unfortunately that left me down in my back for 2 weeks, so, I've got to do it differently!  I know that they probably don't make shears as small as my trees, but, something in the range of 12-14 inches that won't break the bank would work well I think.

DDW_OR

how about a Stump Bucket For Skid Steer Quick Attach
under $1,000

take out the tree and its root
"let the machines do the work"

beenthere

I have been thinning out Norway spruce trees the past several years. Do not have a skidsteer, but neighbor had a shear on his ss and wanted me to try it. Was designed to rotate so cutting off the tree at the ground and then snipping it into short lengths is what I did. Worked for me, but left a lot of trees to remove.
Also tried digging up the trees using the tractor FEL forks. That worked okay but left a hole and side roots to take care of some way before it would be fit for mowing.
What has worked the best is the TurboSaw. Flat to the ground, carbide teeth, quick, and saves the back. 



 

TurboSaw - Google Search
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

DDW_OR

i have a turbosaw for my bobcat 331, 8,000 pound excavator
works good
now have to rotate the carbide teeth
they are held in place with a bolt that is an allen head
wish they where torx head
"let the machines do the work"

Ron Scott

One of my contract loggers used a Skid Steer with a shear head to thin a pole size red pine plantation. With a skilled operator, it worked well cutting the marked trees down and between the rows. 
~Ron

YellowHammer

I've got a skid steer stump bucket and it works well, but does pop out the root ball, and leaves a mess.  

Without doubt, the best and fastest way to clean acres of small trees is with a mulcher head of some sort on your skid steer.  There are several types, and I have a hybrid disk mulcher cutter, and it is like a bomb going off when vaporizing trees.  I have seen them at rental agencies or can be leased.  There is nothing left of the trees but chips and short stumps.  It eats 4 and 5 inch trees for lunch, and I once brushed too close to a 12" diameter pine and "whack!" I cut it off before I could back up.  I can trim acres, or just pick out individual trees and take them down.      


Here is a video of it.
Bradco Paladin Ground Shark Extreme Duty Brush Cutter - Skid Steer - YouTube

 
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

Walnut Beast

YH is exactly right. Back in the day shears and saws were popular but everything changes. What many guys do with a disc mulcher is what YH says and if they are really big trees then you cut them with the disc and another guy grappling and making a big burn pile or mulching 

Tom K

If you don't want to break the bank than any type of mulcher would be out of the question. I think a tree shear would work just fine for what you want to do. A tree puller would be a good option if you had any other trees that you were worried about sprouting after they are cut.

421Altered

Thanks to all that have replied to my post.  I really like the idea of the brush cutter the best.  I can use it more often, and on more acreages than a shear.  But, I've got a couple of questions for Yellowhammer.  Your video was really helpful, so thanks for doing it.  First question is do you need a forestry door?  And second question, what happens if you hit a lightered stump?  I have an old Bush Hog behind my tractor, and it has a stump jumper.  But, I've not seen a stump jumper on any of the brush cutters that I've seen on line.  

customsawyer

I have a mower similar to YH's. I don't have the forestry door or forestry glass on mine but you have to be extra careful using it. I have the JD 333 track skidsteer and the 6' mower is a decent load on it. For your size machine you will want to get one of the smaller ones that they make. I actually wish I would have went with a smaller one as you hardly ever are mowing the full width of the mower anyway. I don't know it your skidsteer has high flow hyd. but most of these mowers perform better with it. I have seen a few places that will rent larger skidsteers with the mowers. Something you might check into.
Two LT70s, Nyle L200 kiln, 4 head Pinheiro planer, 30" double surface Cantek planer, Lucas dedicated slabber, Slabmizer, and enough rolling stock and chainsaws to keep it all running.
www.thecustomsawyer.com

DDW_OR

Quote from: customsawyer on November 26, 2022, 07:10:06 PM.........I have seen a few places that will rent larger skidsteers with the mowers. Something you might check into.
I AGREE
try it before you buy it.
that is what i did with excavators
"let the machines do the work"

421Altered

Customsawyer, thanks for that info, exactly the type of info I'm looking for. I was thinking that one would want a brush cutter the width of their machine, however you say you wish you had one narrower than your machine.  I was thinking that if I had one 60" wide that would mean that my tracks would be pushing down 6 inches of growth that the brush cutter could not get to moving straight ahead.  Is this a problem in actual use?  I have a jd323E and it has a 26gpm flow.  I've run a 333G in the past for a couple of hours, and it is definitely a much stronger, heavier machine than mine.  Do you have the mulching teeth on yours?  Do you use them much?

customsawyer

Mine has the 4 main blades plus some carbide teeth mounted to the stump jumper plate. I was like you thinking that I wanted one to cut close to the width of my machine. Well when you are cutting trees and such you end up going in and out a lot to let the head get back up to speed. Obviously you can move over to either side while doing this.
Two LT70s, Nyle L200 kiln, 4 head Pinheiro planer, 30" double surface Cantek planer, Lucas dedicated slabber, Slabmizer, and enough rolling stock and chainsaws to keep it all running.
www.thecustomsawyer.com

421Altered

Thank you customsawyer, that makes a lot more sense to me now!  Would I be out of line if I asked what name brand of brush cutter everyone is using, and if they are happy with it and the customer service that they got from the seller?  I'm about to buy one, some of them are on sale until the end of the month, so, I would like to know what brands are working out well for our forum members.

YellowHammer

Quote from: 421Altered on November 26, 2022, 06:30:01 PMFirst question is do you need a forestry door?  And second question, what happens if you hit a lightered stump?  I have an old Bush Hog behind my tractor, and it has a stump jumper.  But, I've not seen a stump jumper on any of the brush cutters that I've seen on line.  
I am using a Paladin/Bradco GroundShark Extreme Duty 72".  It would be considered a heavy duty hybrid cutter, with both blades and carbides.  It is a good compromise of grass and brush mower and tree mulcher  The next level up is the Virnig style Brush Mulchers with fixed carbides, which don't mow as well, but are even better eating trees.

A forestry door is recommended, but I don't have one.  They cost about $1300 which isn't bad, but the key is to not ever have the deck or cutter at an angle where debris can hit the windshield.  The one I have has more safety features than others which is one reason I bought it, a Paladin, and has chains in the front, a retractable blade shield, and other stuff.
 
This doesn't need a stump jumper, it will eat the stump, I've done some over 2 feet diameter.  The outer blades on mine pivot so if I hit something big, as long as I'm going slow, there is no damage to the cutter at all.  At that point, back off, slowly attack the stump, grind it to the ground and it's gone.  It's hard to describe how destructive these types of cutters are, I've used bushhogs of all types, and these are next level bomb going off.

The cool thing is they are also fairly surgical, much more so than a bush hog, since these are on the front of the skid steer.  They can be jogged a little left, a little right, high, low, etc and can be used to cut generally only what you want to cut.  On the other hand, I was cleaning some grape vines off the side of about a 12" thick pine tree I wanted to save and I went a little bit too far forward and WHAM! I cut it in half before I could react.  OOPS.

The thing that really makes them special is that whatever tree goes under the cutter get vaporized.  There is very little residue left, just chips.  So unlike a hydraulic shear where you have to go up to each tree, set up on it, cut it, then tote off the stem and remainder, with these you just come down over the tree, cut it, suck it in, and then grind the stem to the ground.  All the video shots were filmed real speed, there was no "creative editing" those 25 and 30 foot tall trees were disappearing at real speed.  These weren't pine either, but pretty mean sweet gum and oak.
 
There are a couple styles and sizes these types of rotary cutters, and each has it's advantageous.  All crush a conventional bushhog.   
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

customsawyer

Mine is a Brush Monster. It does pretty good but I didn't like the amount of pine straw and other debris that gather on the skidsteer while mowing. If you get to watching videos on YouTube you can find several where the machines have burned down. I also find the amount of vibrations seem to shorten the life of the pins and bushings on the skidsteer. The folks that do this type of work for a living are getting new skidsteers every couple of years due to how this work is hard on them. This is another advantage of the smaller mower as it shouldn't be as hard on the skidsteer.
Two LT70s, Nyle L200 kiln, 4 head Pinheiro planer, 30" double surface Cantek planer, Lucas dedicated slabber, Slabmizer, and enough rolling stock and chainsaws to keep it all running.
www.thecustomsawyer.com

YellowHammer

One thing I've noticed is that all my experience with bush hogs and other cutters that my time estimates of completing jobs with it is way off.  What used to take a day with a different implement takes an hour with this one. The tree line in the video couldn't even be done with my 8 foot heavy duty rotary cutter, I ruined the blades the year before on it and gave up.  I assumed even with the Paladin it would take me a week or even two, but in 2 afternoons, I was done.

About a month ago I removed the 4 pivoting cutters blades and balanced them by grinding them all to the same weight.  They are pretty heavy, and one was really bad, and over a pound off from the others.  It took a lot of grinding, but I got them all within about an ounce of each other, and the cutter is reasonably smooth now.

The disk on the inside is exceptionally dense and heavy metal, and there are two of them, one on either side of the pivoting cutters and its amazing what all that energy can do.  

Some of the inertial cutters like the Virnig are machined and balanced, and I would think run very smooth.  
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

barbender

My time estimates are always off, too. Not in the same direction though🤔
Too many irons in the fire

421Altered

Thanks to all of you who responded to my post.  And special thanks to Yellowhammer and CustomSawyer!  I pulled the trigger this afternoon on a Mega Mower X.  I wanted a 60" but, they didn't make that model in that size, the next closest size was 66" , but, I chose the 72" instead.  It was only 110#'s heavier and $410.00 more.  Of all my online research that model had the most things I wanted. I saw on some brush cutter's to remove the blades the nut has to be cut off.  On this model the blades are held on with a castellated nut, with a roll pin driven into the hole. It even has 4 wire catching hooks, that look like teeth, welded on top of the blade holder to shield it from wire.  Hopefully that will help with vines.   And it has a 10" diameter cutting capacity.  I don't plan on cutting anything that big with it, but, I can if need be.  I got the Black Friday sale and free shipping too.  I saved about $2400.00 over regular price and the cost of shipping.  Again, a great big thank you to everyone that posted.  I learned a lot about these things that I didn't know from you all, and that helped me make my decision.

customsawyer

I'm glad you found a good deal. Let us know how it works.
Two LT70s, Nyle L200 kiln, 4 head Pinheiro planer, 30" double surface Cantek planer, Lucas dedicated slabber, Slabmizer, and enough rolling stock and chainsaws to keep it all running.
www.thecustomsawyer.com

421Altered

It won't be delivered until mid January, but, I'll be sure to let everyone know.

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