Tree plucking good time

ZehnX

Member
Today I learned that I can pluck these honeysuckle bushes and buckthorn trees right out of the ground with my 841. I wrap a trucker chain around the bush base and link up a long web strap and pull it in third gear.

Currently, I have a Dearborn 10-80 plow on the back and my rear tires have liquid in them, probably calcium carbonate.

Here's the question: if I take the plow off, will the results be better or worse?
Plow on suggests more momentum, plow off suggests more speed before everything gets taut.

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The shorter the length of your chain and/or strap the better. It's also safer to get the chain and/or strap taught first and then pull using the strength of the tractor rather than start with things limp and rely on speed and/or momentum to jerk them out of the ground. At some point the strap or chain is going to fail and then you will have serious safety concerns with either of those whipping at the back of your head at high speed.
 
Agree with Sean that slow is best. I use a HD grader blade,
with a big chain on it for this type of work. I often am lifting
the tree/brush out as much as pulling it. Just be careful, as
the front of the tractor can get very light. One big
advantage of the grader blade is that as soon as you are
done removing the roots, you can quickly go back over, and
smooth the area.
 
(quoted from post at 14:11:30 05/05/22) Today I learned that I can pluck these honeysuckle bushes and buckthorn trees right out of the ground with my 841. I wrap a trucker chain around the bush base and link up a long web strap and pull it in third gear.

Currently, I have a Dearborn 10-80 plow on the back and my rear tires have liquid in them, probably calcium carbonate.

Here's the question: if I take the plow off, will the results be better or worse?
Plow on suggests more momentum, plow off suggests more speed before everything gets taut.

mvphoto91766.jpg


mvphoto91767.jpg
When I was using our 8n on these 7 years ago, I just rapped the chain as close as I could and pulled. In four different spots and it came out.
 
One of our neighbors was killed using that setup. Pin broke and clevis snapped back on end of strap, hit him in the chest. He was on a stuck tractor with his son on the pulling tractor.
 
No jerking. The strap may lessen the shock. I used to do it like that with a chain until I broke teeth off the ring gear in my 641. I use a choker chain and my trailer mover with clevis hooks on it. Pick up with the lift, pull forward if need be watching the front end.
 

Well I didn't want to hear this as I'm so used to believing that in a break the chain is low and heavy enough to just drop and the strap is just not that elastic. I've pulled down and dragged lots of dead ash trees with these straps, reinforcing a bad habit, probably.

Having outed my resistance, I really appreciate what y'all have said, maybe you saved my life. Thank you.

Slow pull, no yanking, shorter connection between tractor and tree. (The long link in this situation is because I'm avoiding other dugout holes)
Use a back blade- interesting idea. Lifting with 3 point, sounds interesting but not very effective. I will try that with a chain and drawbar. Previously, I tried using my loader on one and the web strap just went up the bush.

My questions are many:
If slow is good, would reverse work the same? What is the optimal gear here?
Is the plow on the back helping me? Sounds like yes if yanking is avoided.
A choker chain is that thing made for this kind of tree/bush grabbing, where you feed the chain through a loop at the end of the chain, right?

God bless your Friday, brothers!
 
(quoted from post at 09:16:02 05/06/22) Are you hooking a chain to a strap? Big Bozo no-no! Strap will propel that chain right at you.
ith a cable and hook even, that is why winch trucks have a big guard across back of cab & rear window.In last 560 years, been hit a few times....glad for the guard and even with it small part of hook got thru to window.
 
Lately I've been snatching stumps out at the lot trying to make an access road. Using 5 snatch blocks so the force seen by the tractor is 1/10 of the force seen by the stump. Does two things: Force multiplier so the stump mostly just rolls out of the ground with the tractor just crawling along (unless it's a hickory with that giant tap root), and since the tension on the cable is 1/10 total seen by stump, chance of breaking the cable/clevis/chain is essentially 0. Even if it did, not enough tension to whip the cable. I even (out of desperation) used a really small clevis with the last little piece of chain to get the distance I needed. Everything survived. 5/16 clevis, good for 1500# I doubt I had half that on it. All my other clevis' in this rig are 9000#. 5/8 cable. 3/8 and 7/16 chain. Put the weakest part at the back of the tractor and then if something breaks, the 'whip' goes the other way. Physics is your friend. Currently getting 100' of cable so I can add more snatch blocks.
 
Best comment yet. Have 2 blocks, hadn't even considered using them. Now to find something to anchor to!
 
Besides the potential of your strap snapping, sending the
whole assembly towards the operator, think about the tractor.
You are momentarily pulling many more times what the tractor
is rated for, and that causes things to break. Also, a fast pull
on something that may or may not give, if something goes
wrong, your reaction time is shortened and the risk of
injury/death becomes greater.

Treat your tractor with respect.
 
The honeysuckle will come out easily, if you had a loader bucket, very easy. Buckthorn is harder to uproot, but those trees
take forever to grow and I actually have many that I have kept as they kind of make a good landscape tree. They won't get
established unless you just let an area go for too long without cutting or similar. I won't chime in too much on safety,
pulling with a tractor that has no ROPS or seatbelt, is certainly very risky, lost a friend to this practice. You can drape a
chain, strap or wire rope with a heavy blanket to dampen a line failure. Honeysuckle will usually give, but its the unknowns
that get ya, never rush and think about what you are doing. Likely you'll be fine, but all it takes is pulling on something too
resistant and say hooking to a multi-hole drawbar on the lift arms instead of the drawbar below the axle line and it can go
wrong so quickly you cannot escape.
 

The previous land owner left what was a bare hay field to grow wild for 30 years, everything is about the same age and size. We're clearing for gardens and fruit trees. Looking for snatch block anchor points is tricky, especially because I've mostly cut down the many dead ash trees.
I do have a loader bucket, yet another avenue to try.

Thanks to everyone for your thoughts and wisdom!
 

You weren't kidding!

https://youtu.be/PNAah0yEdHE

I'm going to try some of the other recommended methods in the future, this was the easiest to set up.

Thanks y'all!
 

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