I am looking at some nice property which has some fields that have Mesquite and Huisache that have been mismanaged by repeated shredding. In some areas root plowing may be the treatment of choice. I am thinking a 650J size machine with a 5'-6' root plow attached to into the shank spaces of a ripper might be the trick as the plants are scattered. Your thoughts are appreciated.
Never pulled a root plow but seems like a lot of work for a 650
This would be for sculpting as a much larger machine would clear the heavy infested areas. A smaller machine would be to work among the Live Oaks. Chemical treatment is not an option as the Oaks can be very easily damaged. Any more comments?
Not sure about your soil type but I'm running a 10' root rake on a 850G Case in black land and it will load it up pretty quick. If you plan on burying it in the ground and moving very fast I would want a bigger machine. I believe the 850 Case and 650 Deere are roughly the same size.
850 J , it is a horse .
Yair . . . Rootrake? rootplow? What are we talking about here . . . one of these? . . . . Cheers
That is what I would consider a straight blade root plow. I have seen some with a v shape. They are pulled between 8"-12" below the surface to sever the roots from the crown. I have seen some narrow ones (2'-4') that attach to the front of a machine. After a root plow procedure a heavy rake is typically attached to a dozer to clean up and stack the debris to burn.
I have made a single tyne ripper into a cutterbar or root plow by welding wings onto a ripper. It is about 1200mm wide and is mounted onto a Komatsu D31-20 dozer, about 75hp and 7 ton. That's about all she'll pull to, it's not hp that stops me, it's traction, when buried to deep it's just spins the tracks. That's with brand new grouser as well. But having said that it was cheap to make and works very well for the scattered trees I am chasing. Obviously it is way to small for large runs of big trees.
I pull a 7 ft v shaped root plow behind my 650j in south Texas, it isn't the fastest but it will pull everything out unless you have very large mesquites or large clumps of huisache. Depending on how large the stumps are under the ground they may have to be grubbed out with the blade, I often run into that cleaning up other operators work or brush that has been repeatedly shredded. A narrower plow will pull easier but you will be pulling on loose dirt, with my XLT machine my 7 foot plow is 3 inches wider than my tracks on each side so I can pull on solid ground and get better traction.
TxDozer, How do you like that 650J? How did you attach the plow? Can you send a picture? Thank you for the info everyone.
Yea I think a 650j will do it but you'll burn through some fuel and have to make several passes slowly getting deeper depending on how thick tree bases are, if everything stem wise is less than 5 inches oughta be alright.
Legdoc, The 650J is a good small machine, I personally like it a little more than the d5k, and d5k2 I've run, even nicer are the newer K Deere tractors. The root plow is a candy cane style that comes over the top of the ripper bar and pins in the outside two pockets from the top.