Trail making with a Ford 8N

Video of my Ford 8N making trails in the woods. It isn't the fastest, but it really does the job. It was hard to hold the camera steady, so it is a little shakey.
Trail Making

You'll definitely get the safety comments LOL, well with good reason.

Now I want to say "that aint no trail making" there's already a road in there LOL !

Reason I say this is, I've used a similar size tractor, an 850 ford with a wagner loader, most times a 6' rotary cutter on the back to clear areas where a dozer and a brush cage would be much more appropriate and a heck of a lot safer, though branches and limbs can still poke through a brush cage unless the screening is really small. I've pushed through places where the brush, thorn bushes are so thick or tall you can't see ahead, pushed small trees down, cleared logs away from the path and so on.

The experiences of clearing with a tractor like one of these or similar is a 2 edge sword. On one hand they can get into and under things with you in the seat while ducking, enough power to push most things, and you can maintain a narrow path through areas you have cleared, and around here as of late, theres always fallen trees and chainsaw work, vs strictly pushing with a loader. The tractor, with no vertical exhaust, does fit in the most confined spaces and you can be quite productive, but it comes at a dangerous risk if you are not extremely careful, and even then its just not safe, like many other things we do with tractors.


What I find is that in thick overgrown areas with lots of smaller hedge or similar 4"-6" trees is that all kinds of things are waiting to get you. Every time I do this work, something always wants to poke in at me, yesterday I cleared a path to do some minor logging, and I'm good with a loader, and I'll tell you what, I'm lucky I did not get impaled, had a perfect size one poke in, I'm also good at deflecting, stopping, repositioning to clear half fallen smaller trees that are perfect for poking into things. Its just incredible how many times, something slaps at you, spring loaded branch, something pokes up towards you, the tractor tire rides up onto something, or a small tree somehow wraps up, connects to the rear tire, I had one that was perfect last week, came right up over and would have batted me into the steering wheel, had it been the other way, it could have cleared me off the tractor. I kind of go real slow, and stop often, was interesting to see how perfectly aligned things are in the woods that could cause injury or death quickly.

It just seems every time I go in and do this kind of work, there is a gauntlet of every conceivable kind of situation, trees and brush can throw at you. And you have to look up and check to see what could be lurking above, high winds change things, sometimes you can miss things that could fall on you.

I've pushed the limits, carefully but just the same, for anyone else attempting it, I don't recommend it. I tried to clear an area where the '08 ice storm laid down a bunch of 6"-8" trees, many black cherry, birch, maple etc. I fished my way through the rounded, bent over ones with the tops now at face level, but could not connect with both sides, one tree that was down, a little bigger, I could push it a little, but mostly bending it, so it could literally come up the loader arms and catapult you off the tractor. This tree had so much spring to it, that I could hook into it with the bucket, push the tree down hill, (its on the ground anyway but with roots attached) and it would literally push this tractor back up hill. If I foolishly persisted, there is no doubt the tree would have won and the amount of power built up as you pushed on it, incredible, then it has a path towards your head up the loader arms.

The only reason I post this is to warn of the dangers, these tractors fit nicely in the tightest of places and have enough power/traction to be dangerous. I find that even the slowest and most careful operator can still get into trouble, I think the reason I was able to clear the perimeters at this place by doing the above was a combination of knowing when to stop, never being in a hurry and using the saw when needed, (not being lazy). Every time I have done this kind of work, I can think back to at lease one incident where something bad or an injury could have easily occurred. I tend to use low throttle, creep along and be real attentive, most times you see whats trying to get you, or know not to push a certain way, but its that one you miss, or don't see. I try to avoid fooling in the woods clearing, the tractor does make short work of most of it, but boy it can be nasty in some conditions, and theres always thigs like white faced hornets nests, strings of prickers, vines, (don't mess with vines) and a bunch more, couple with the fact you have no overhead protection. It can be done, but you really have to watch out and know the limits, not for a novice. I spent a lot of time on crawlers in the past, clearing and so on, know the ropes, but it sure is different on an open station tractor. I did not even mention exhaust, wires and hydraulic, coolant hoses, radiators, tires etc. getting caught on or poked by things, had a stick come up and nail my distributor cap once, rotor broke into pieces once. Luckily, with all that I have cleared, only pulled a hydraulic return line off the reservoir tank, one time, as dangerous as the work is, the darned tractor I have sure don't mind the work, just the operator needs to be very attentive LOL !!!!

You are right of course. This was an area I had opened up a few years ago. Danger in the woods is always there. I have worked in the woods for many years, cutting firewood and making trails and luckly have not had any injuries. Hard hats, eye protection and safty equipment are required, but using your head for more tha a place to put your hard hat is also needed.

You definitely know about the dark side of this work ! LOL ! I ought to take some photos where I have worked around here, I try to avoid this work when possible, the path I cleared yesterday was not bad, but that one stick could have got me. I like to shred up the tops of small trees, bushes and so on with the mower raised up high, so I like the mower on, but only drawback is turning around, or bumping a tree that could top off or drop something, I'll admit, I've gotten away with a lot doing this, thankfully it was mostly a 1 time thing. I can walk or use an ATV, carry a saw before using the tractor, the initial clearing of perimeters sure was fun though.

A while back I had my old D7 caterpillar running, which has no brush cage, ROPS etc., and I took it down an overgrown path, a slope, which I thought I had cut everything back and so on. Well some piece of a tree I had cut up was still attached to vines or something and the darned thing ended up whacking me directly in the side of the head, enough it could have been a concussion, the darn thing came out of nowhere too and I was creeping along. There is no doubt about the dangers of working in these conditions, and respecting trees, brush, vines and so on LOL !

I have been using my TO20 Ferguson for the past few years to maintain my walking trails thru the woods. Bill NY is sure right about paying attention to the fact that what wasn"t there yesterday can be your biggest mistake today! These little tractors do, however, work great to keep the weeds, young sprouts, and smaller fallen limbs cleaned up.

I guess it is like everything else in life. We have to compare risks versus rewards every day of our lives.

Ha!
Fun video. Thanks.
It looks like some of the areas I cut.
But I don't have a loader on my tractor so I have to be real careful not to mash the nose.

really nice video!!!!

BillNY;

I've run into, no pun intended, a lot of the things you talk about. I have to keep an eye out for grape vines that could lift you off the seat or dead branches that might impale. I'm clearing a path for a fence along the road. Some trees need to be cut and moved out of the way. Also need to be aware of the torque of a small tractor on stumps, etc.

Larry

always wear my hardhat when working mine. Had it knocked off several times from stuff I didn't see coming. Its taken several awful whacks.