I'm new at this and have searched forum trying to find a answer with no luck so here it is. I'm clearing several acres of shrub brush 1/2" to 5" sized and it doesn't seem to be cutting correctly I already flipped the blade sections around bc they looked like a roll of quarters so I thought that was the issue and it helped quite a bit but didn't eliminate it completely. Think it could be the blade pitch but not 100%. I know experience is the main ingredient for success but cutting a 2" thick brush stalk in hard ground should not be difficult with a fresh cutting edge. Any suggestions are appreciated.
Yair . . . Dunno Yeller963 The concept of trying (or expecting) to shear two inch brush stalks with a standard dozer blade seems very odd to me. Having the blade pitched back as far as possible and using an angle blade technique will be the best configuration for getting some amount of shear. Over here the preferred method is to take such stuff out roots and all and stuff that breaks off can be dealt with later with a cutter bar or ripper. . . a D5 should be ideal for the task. Cheers.
Got to take the roots out BTW posting the same question in three sections is not the way to go, it takes time for folks to see your question
Most are but its not biting enough it leaves a trail like a lawn mower with a dull blade. I'm pitching it forward more here in about 5 min. Didn't know how to post in multiple forums or if everyone could see it. The FAQ has nothing I seen on the matter. I apologize
Yair . . . Gotcha Yeller96J I got your handle right this time . . . sorry 'bout that. (big grin) I suspect your expectations may be a little high as to what a blade can do in a single pass. As always, if you could post some pictures of the job it would help folks who are familiar with the type of vegetation give you some advise . . . not so much with me as our conditions and vegetation are completely different. Cheers.
The problem comes from somebody reading the discussion in one place, perhaps posting a reply, then later, finding one of the other threads of the same title and wondering where the discussion they'd replied to went. No problem. I removed the other two that hadn't been replied to yet. It's not in the FAQ because it's kinda standard "netiquette."
The solution a Vermonter would use is do it in January. On frozen ground, with frozen stems, It's like something else........I can't remember what it's like.......?.... Oh I know!! Shaving. I don't, but some do. In Texas I guess you can't take advantage of that phenomenon. Willie
Yair . . . Wow! Never thought of that Willie B Can you actually get frozen ground with out a lot of snow to contend with? Cheers.
Like Scrub Puller suggested you are expecting a little more out of what standard blade is made for . With good cutting edge will shear off some & ride over as well in small bush . My advice is take your time & drop the blade a little more if you want the tree/bush out on the first pass . Ya got to break a few egg's when baking a cake . Or use a K/G blade . HeavyEquipmentForums
Some years we get snow. This year, ski areas at usually 4,000 feet elevation get a small snowfall that melts eventually. At lower elevation we've got very little snow. I got out a farm tractor with back blade once to plow the neighbor's paved drive, but only because they are very unsteady of foot. I don't want them falling. We've rarely seen white on the ground this winter. Last year, we had some snow, but never too much to push. The ground froze 7' (2.something meters) deep. Water lines everywhere froze, mine under the paved road. The fix used to involve a welder, A low bid contractor replaced the main line 20 years ago with plastic, grafting galvanized steel drop lines with K copper sections. They coupled with rubber clamped devices. A welder burns off the coupling, leaving the copper cold. These days you jack hammer down to pipe, then use a 30 LB propane cylinder fitted with fill cover, hose fitting, and Schrader valve. Compressed air pushes warm water through 100' of hard plastic PEX tubing. You push slowly as the warm water melts the ice in the pipe. Excavation took 6 hours, plumbing took 15 minutes, and thawing took 20 minutes. Ground will not freeze very deep under snow. The other side of the mountain, where all the snow is deposited, seldom gets frozen ground. As a child we had a fishing cabin at 3000 feet elevation. It was walk in only. We would bury a closed bucket full of canned goods in fall. It never froze. Willie
There's an old post somewhere here with me shaving brush for shooting lanes with my D2. Frozen ground can be your friend when shearing brush. It makes for clean trails with out breaking up the sod for the most part. Snow cover does not matter as long as it gets cold and freezes the ground before the snow cover comes. The snow just pushes with the brush. We had a late wet fall here this year and early snow. Our ground has no frost at all this year in the timber where it is not plowed open. It has been a nightmare year for the loggers that depend on frost to access low ground timber. Drove the stumpage price out of site as everyone is buying summer accessable wood this winter.
Yair . . . Willie B and old-iron-habit . Thanks for explanations. I find such information really interesting as it is so foreign to anything that I have ever known. Cheers.
I find your posts explaining the way things are done there interesting as well. It's always cool to learn how somebody else threads a worm on the hook. The internet has made us all smarter for sure.
All we know of "Down Under" came from MAD MAX, or CROCODILE DUNDEE. Your world is fascinating to me. Frozen ground is something you learn of, and understand in an hour. A land suffering from drought, and sweltering temperatures while we are at a standstill because the world is frozen is intriguing. Global warming was downplayed for decades by those who prepare our news. The 30 year trend is alarming in the speed we see warming. In the 1950s my uncle told of starting the two D7s he and my father ran. He threw firewood under, and diesel fuel, and lit it. Dad, more careful, and caring couldn't do it, his was newer, setting fire offended him. In 1993 we saw -39 degrees F, in the late 70s we had 40 days below zero. Recent years have offered no extremes of cold weather. Here we use cold for access where machines can't go in warm, or repairs.
Yellar, You could try working back and forth, advancing half a blade width at a time so you are hitting your bushes once from either direction. Works most times with our poplar box suckers, which have a pretty good grip on the ground, although they do tend to tear off. Best Mad Max movie was the first one, don't think I'll bother with the latest one.
If you are going to clear , dirt will be involved . Unless you have some magic apparatus I have never seen . Good luck !
In the sixties I discovered my dream property. It was three miles from home, I was barely a teenager. The National Forest was then more open. I could drive my Jeep anywhere log skidders had been. This property was on the other side of the forest. I didn't need a drivers license. By the early seventies, late teens for me, my mother was a realtor. My job was to show land to buyers. The land sold. The seller, and buyer had a dispute, the seller refunded the buyer. The land went off the market. Years later, I got involved with a girl, I married her. A few years later her father offered to sell us a piece of land. The meadows, fresh cleared in the sixties were overgrown my 1987. VT doesn't have jungle. This was as close as it could be. Cherry stumps had sprouted ten per stump. They laid four feet on the ground before going sort of vertical. They averaged 4" diameter. Between all this was a mass of grape vine, and junk my father always called Honey Suckle. You couldn't see three feet in this mass!. I bought an old tractor I still have, and an old bush hog I also still use. I never got a whole day in without a broken hog. Over 6 weeks I cleared it. I had meadows!!! I've mowed them a couple times a year, but it is getting worse, as the rotting out stumps leave holes. Bush Hogging is rough! Every few feet the tractor wheels drop into another hole. My dream property has become more of a nightmare. I hope to change that with the dozer. I'll shear off the top, pile it a year or two, and spread it back out. I plan a deer feed mix, but found last fall when we plowed a couple acres the grass came back in a couple weeks without seed. I'll let you know how it works out.