I need some help before I bend my rams. There is a thread on this forum with a pic of somebody bending lift rams with the bucket raised while pushing over trees. My idea would be to connect a chain from the bucket to the lower front of the machine at the correct length to tension at full bucket lift. This would hopefully give extra support to the bucket and rams so that it doesn't push up and backwards and bend things. What about the geometry; full height on bucket, bucket level/up/down, chain on leading edge or back of bucket? Would a vertical lift be more susceptable to damage with their extra linkage, or is this not a factor at full lift? Experience anybody? Oh, just another point to clarify; I may be new here, but my member is definetely not junior.
Buddy use a chainsaw to cut the trees down and a grapple on your skid to clean up. If your are near a major center and the trees aren't in a nasty spot post an ad for cut your own firewood and let someone do it for you. i don't see how a skid would be good for this task. Good luck.
When I do trees with the skid I use my grapple and try to rip the roots around the tree some then hook the grapple under the tree and rotate the tree against itself and it goes down. Hope that made sense and there is a limit to how big of trees the skid can handle...
Good advice. I only have a few trees to knock down to make a road, and they are about 6" pine, so will look carefully at the job and maybe just hire in a backhoe to push them down and then handle the logs from there. Unfortunately, leaving the stumps in isn't going to be acceptable.
lesson learned , if you cant get under it and lift it out dont use your machine as a 10,000 hammer . I would guess that the Case is not going to warrenty those shafts.......
I have taken trees like that down with a case 1840 without any problems. You may need to dig around the base of the tree first and then push it over. When I do this I do not raise the bucket any higher than the top of the rops. John
I would be embarrassed to even ask. "Here's your Sign"!
I agree , I work on all my own stuff just because of flat rate wrench guys dont care what they dont put back in correctly . Something as simple as a broken clip may cause a line to rub threw in the future.
I use a product called the Brush Shark for anything 6" or under, but be careful to have the teeth together when using it to ram or push or the teeth will bend. You can go a little below the surface and hit the button to activate...it's like an oversized hedge trimmer but will do some larger stuff as well.
ah. i would say these skid steers are getting too much power for their own good. ah the neighbor just broke his rams in half on his 1845. actually i have only seen this on case machines. i have looked at those lift cylinders before and thought man those things r damn long...
:IMOYou are better off if they are only 6" dia, to have a cutter notch the trees and fell them, move the log material with the machine, then dig out the stumps or grind them. Once you grind them there is nothing left, and the hole is filled with the material. The reason why the neighbor broke his rams is he is doing too much with the machine. All machines have limitations. You can use the wood or chip it, but the stump is junk material. My two cents, good luck either way
A 6" pine is not undoable with a skid steer. First of all don't fell it with a saw and then try to dig the stump out, that's twice as much work for everyone involved. Use the leverage of the tree to take it out intact, stump and all. First make a few cuts around 3 sides of the tree, cutting any roots you find. Leave one side virgin ground that you will be pushing from. Make your cuts and then push the tree to find any resistance. If you are lucky, the tree gives way and it goes down. If it's stubborn, repeat your cuts around the tree and try again. Repeat until the tree is down. The weight and corresponding inertia of the tree is your friend to get the tree and stump out at one time. Pines have a deeper tap root and they can be very inconsistent in how easy or hard they are to get down. Of course exercise patience and caution when doing this type of work. Have a plan of where you want the tree to fall before you push it down. If you take your time and use the machine within it's limits you can take any good size tree down without any damage to the machine or more importantly to yourself.:cool2
as stated dig three side of the tree maybe even a little of the 4th, take the spoil from digging , make a raised area , 6" ,a foot what ever material you have made. FLAT not a ramp... the higher you can get equals more leverage, LEAVE the tree intact, cut after you push it over. No ramming just a bunch of pushing It also depends on the soil the trees are in.. I've pushed a bunch of one foot dia. over that were in sand with a 247 Cat.. Not the best tool for the job , but when it's all they will send you and tell you to do it.. It was about a week of pushing that could have been done in a day with a hoe..
Don't use your skid for that. Chainsaw and rented stumpgrinder. Done!
I've just finished clearing the trees off my road allowance, and didn't break anything! First tree was about 6", so I put on the forks and dug around the base of the tree and broke the roots. Then lifted the forks and pushed it over, actually quite easy. The second tree was quite a bit bigger, about 14" , so I tried to dig around the base a bit with the forks, and the roots were really big. About 3 minutes into the process, I quit and drove over to hire a backhoe to dig out the rest. He spent 4 hrs., dug out about 25 trees, some almost 24" big, and I just moved them around with the forks. Don't cut them down first if you want to get the roots out; the backhoe operator said another guy did just that and he had to spend over an hour per stump trying to get them out. Much easier with the tree standing to get out the roots. Anyway, thanks for all the responses, and there's no substitute for the right machine for a big job.