Did some clearing on the back of a pond dam today. Along with a lot of smaller trees I took out a cottonwood that was about 30"....biggest one I've ever done. Cut the roots around it as best I could and then built up a ramp on the high side so I could push up higher. Probably no big deal for you experts, but I was being real careful since it started out leaning a little toward the dozer and the low side was a bit of a drop off. Ended up it went over nice and slow and gave me time to back away from the root ball.
Yeah, looks like that could have gotten sporty if you dropped off in the stump hole. That tree makes your dozer look small. Did you have any trouble moving it after you got it over.
Good deal. I am always a bit on edge pushing trees. I bet that took you a bit to get down and out of the hole.
Yair . . . D6c10k That picture is an excellent demonstration as to another reason to build a tree pusher . . . it puts the tractor back a bit away from the root ball and you have much more leverage . . . also it's safer with more control over the tree. Darn good effort I reckon for a bare azzed tractor without any hooks! (big grin) . . . .I would be really leery though of climbing off in that situation just to take a picky. Cheers.
Took a little bit to get it out of the hole....I can move it but probably will saw the log before pushing to to the pile since it's up hill a little ways. I was clearing it so I could fix a washout in the dam (temporary fix).....I hope to clean out the pond sometime this summer or fall if the weather permits. It an old pond and doesn't have a pipe through the dam, just a spillway, which causes erosion. There is a pipe for a stock tank but last year we weren't able to get it to flow.
If I were pushing trees like this very often I'd be making a pusher.......as you say, it would be much easier & safer.
Nice work. If the inlet is plugged you can always siphon over the top of the bank to get yourself out of a tight spot. Cheers, Greg
How are the steering clutches working now D6C10K? We checked availability of parts from our local Cat dealer (availability is good) & are poised to tear ours apart late April, as we will not need the machine for a month or so, plus it will be warmer by then. Did you have any problems locating parts? Too much frost in the ground up here yet to push trees out.
Clutches seem to be working ok....still a little drag when cold but I'm guessing that's fairly normal. Parts seem to be no problem for a 6c....Haven't run into anything that wasn't still available from Cat and there are lots of aftermarket parts available too. If I get to cleaning out this pond I'm thinking of setting up a time lapse camera to video the project. (Of course it would also show my inexperience and probably me getting stuck a couple of times)
I cleaned out some virgin timber last summer along a fenceline that had some really large hackberry's in it that required me to dig all the way around several stumps as deep as the cab to get them broke loose.. luckily it was in a real dry area.
Elm & Mulberry seem to be pretty tough to push out too. Fortunately cedar and hedge (osage orange) push out easy.....they've just about taken over this part of the country.