nice looking brush rake, does it cut the roots? or just get underneath them. How many arces did you clear? And what is your crawler?
Out here we custom build most of the brush rakes that we use for land clearing. That particular set up I use for heavier trees like Almond trees. The piece of plate starts digging the tree up before the rake even touches the tree. It is designed to drive straight down a row of an orchard and dig trees up without having to stop or back up. Once the tree is dug out it will lay over to the left side of the tractor. We can dig out 30 acres of trees a day. That plate that is in the picture is welded to a ripper shank that pins to the front of the rake. After were done digging the trees we drop that attachment and push all the dug out trees into brush piles for grinding or burning. I will try to get some pics of my vineyard plow. The tractor is a D8k. D8k's are pretty much the standard out here in Central California. The only reason I can think of is that they are a great tractor and they dont cost as much to own and operate. However D8k's like to run hot when the temp outside is over 100 degrees. We haven't figured out a way to make it run cooler in the summer.
Very interesting. The US was always a great place of innovation and I see it still is!
Yes...An interesting Blade & root plow attachment .Well done Mccahilldozing:thumbsup
Not to ask a silly question, but why are you removing an entire row of trees? Or vines?
I know there is a generating facility out in the Central Valley that buys up the old wood ripped out of the orchards and burns it to generate electricity. A biomass energy producer. Very cool. They also can do that with old tires and other waste products. Is that what happens with the trees that you rip out of the almond orchards?
I thot burning wood in california was illegal!?, I'd sure like to see how that ''shoe'' on the left side of that brush rake works, I can't help but think it'd be in my way but on a D8 i guess it just keeps going........I spend equal amount of time in reverse it seems.
It's only illegal at certain times and places. As a matter of fact, California's Central Valley has some of the worst air pollution in the country, because all the emissions get trapped between the Sierras and the Coastal Range. In any event, the electricity generating facilities have high tech emissions controls that block the wood smoke from going into the atmosphere. It's a very green operation, which they just love in tree huggin' California.
Yeah out here they are really particular about buring brush or trees. Now we are still allowed to burn vineyards but that is mostly because of the wire that is grown into the vines. About 95% or the trees that I dig out will be ground up and hauled to a co-generation plant. At the plant they burn the chips to create electricity. The power plants generally pay about $25 a ton out here for the chips which then helps to offset the cost of the orchard removal. I am going to be doing some work on my brush rake in the next few weeks. I will post more photos as I do the work.