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I've had to deal with those type of conditions, have new 4 ply firestones field and road, loaded tires, which are not as tough as the 8 ply's that were on this tractor before, and I've expected to puncture them when I cleared our overgrown fields perimiters, has not happened ( knocking on wood !) The saving grace is that I use the loader to bend these trees over or push em out, usually just bends em over, then with the mower up high, it de-limbs them and sometimes shortens the trunk, depends on how it hits the blades, sometimes you can make another pass on the next round going the SAME way, other times you can't, for fear of those stubs and what they could do to the tires or other things. I've run over a lot of brush and short stumps, stubs mostly, and you can get thin stringy pieces of wood jammed in between the tire bead, which if not seen and removed, I've often wondered if would be a problem for tires. Most of the brush and vegetation here bends or gives, not like those giant thorns or other less forgiving brush/vegetation, even the thorn trees here don't seem to bother the tires, always a first time though ;) If that 640 has no loader on it, that is going to be some hard mowing, bending trees over with the front axle, many times I use my bucket to glide over small trees, mash em down so the mower does not take a direct hit, and nothing comes up to get me in the seat, mower takes more of a glancing blow. I usually try to avoid all saplings when possible, unless under a 1-2" with the 850 and 6' mower, I'd imagine a heavier built mower would work fine on these, but you need more than a 45 HP tractor to do it. It sounds interesting, but if you are in conditions that are puncturing those old tires already, I'd think the same would happen if they were used like you suggest, what's stopping those stubs from puncturing both. I'd painstakingly cut them with a small light limbing size chainsaw, cleanest job you'll get, doing sections at a time, with a few helpers similarly equipped or rent a mid sized to large dozer with a rear mounted ripper, scarifier, or a front root rake to tear the roots underneath if it has to be done quickly. There is equipment out there that will handle this size brush, rental or additional costs, or hired done, That is a tall order with a 640 and brush hog, each time you hit one of those trees with the mower it's a heavy shock load, 40 acres worth, whole lot of abuse to that tractor, no way my 850 would deal with it unless the trees were soft like sumac, we have white birch, cherry and others from 1" to 8" in our old fields and the 1" ones still sound like you hit a landmine when you mow over one with it up high. My opinion, next least expensive option, if faced with the same task here, I'd be up to the rental house looking for a dozer for the week, hopefully having time left over to dress the site up after clearing, and even if quickly done, once knocked over, it will still be a bumpy and risky ride with the 640, but eventually if you keep at it, the vegetation can be kept in check and those stumps and chunks of wood will rot, though if you are getting punctures now, could happen then next time. Do use lots of care, I keep mentioning on here, the guy nearby who got bumped off his 600 ford and ended up under the mower, while reclaiming some overgrown land, this can get ugly real quick.
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