Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Product sources Trailcutter/Brush Hog

Okay acreage owners - here's my situation.

I want to cut some trails on my land to enable easier access to the pond. I have tons of Sumac and other brush about 1-4" diameter I would like to clear a path through, but don't want to do it all with a chainsaw. I thought about a Stihl Brush cutter but not sure that's a lot faster than using a my chain saw. Any ideas here on clearing woody brush?

I have 44 acres of little bluestem and brome mainly and I'd like to keep the grass mowed around the trees I'll be planting this Spring.

I don't have a tractor, utv or atv - and I think that probably is going to cause problems for me. Am I going to have to purchase one in order to efficiently clear brush and also mow with the same implement? I ideally I'd like one tool to perform two functions.

Thanks in advance for your direction!

I think you will be limited without a tractor.

We have a bush hog that uses a tire to turn the blades instead of a gear box. If you can run over it with the tractor the bush hog will cut it. With the tire you don't have to worry about breaking anything.

Are there any rental places near you that carry larger equipment? With the economy the way that is, maybe talk to your local farm equipment dealer (JD, Case, New Holland, Cat) and see if they know of anyone that'd do the work for you. It might save you some time not having to learn how to use the equipment. Then once it's knocked down, use something to keep the grass mowed.

I've seen larger tractors that have an arm that sticks out to one side with a pretty good sized cutter on it. They'll even angle it 90° to the ground to trim branches in trees.

What do you guys think of the walk behind brush cutters? Any experience?

My neighbor has one of those DR mowers that has the 2 wheels in the back, and rolls on a ball or something at the center of the string pivot in the front. It doesn't like anything over 1" dia or so. Great on grass & tall weeds.

Without a UTV/ATV this will be an option. It is much less than a DR, and is a tough dude. Not for the meek.
http://www.amazon.com/Swisher-WB11524-Predator-Self-Propelled-Compliant/dp/B0007VTNTQ

I have one, now have bought a tractor with bush hog, but this goes places that a tractor wont go. You will have to replace the rubber grips with some good bicycle grips, though.

Here is another option if you have a truck that can get to where you want to pull it.http://www.amazon.com/Swisher-RTB12544-Trailcutter-Non-CARB-Compliant/dp/B000JCL0TO

My crystal ball tells me you will tire of tinkering with gas engines and get a low hr., but old, re-conditioned Yanmar 25 hp rice field tractor with pto pasture cutter.http://www.compact-tractors.com/yanmar2010.htm

Four inch trees are too big for most equipment that you are going to want to purchase to make a single trail. This sounds like dozer work, or chainsaw work cutting really close to the ground (which can be hard on the chain). Even with the industrial strength commercial brush cutters, you'll be left with sharp stumps that could take years to rot. As far as mowing, you need to figure out how many acres you will be mowing in a session, how much time you want to spend doing it, and how groomed you want the paths to be. I have a compact utilty tractor with a rotary brush cutter and a finish mower, a BCS walk behind tractor with a 30" brush cutter, and a 36" walk behind Scag finish mower. They all get used regularly.

4" trees are going to limit you to chainsaw or commercial brush cutters they use to clear powerlines and such. I don't even want to think about how expensive one of those bad boys would cost. I clear about 4 miles of trails a year and maintain our two food plots we have on our land using our DR Field and Brush mower. We've had it for 4 years now. Other than changing the oil twice and the blade once, we've had zero problems with it and little maintenance. It will easily cut through soft wood trees up to 2" and hardwood trees up to 1.5". If you're going to be cutting wide open acreage, a tractor would probably better suit you. We got a DR as a lot of our trails are steep mountain trails where a tractor would struggle. The walk behind feature of the DR gives more control and gets places a tractor won't go. Not many mountains in NE though... HAHA We also got a Kubota tractor 2 years ago and will probably invest in a brush cutting attachment for it this year. It will greatly cut down on the cutting time in our larger food plots where tight space isn't an issue.





After renovating the food plot using the DR, via Game Camera:

A dozer may be the best answer to clear the trail initially. This would remove trees, stumps and all leaving clean ground to work with. Plant it in a pasture or clover mix and and then just maintain with any mower you already own. Plus the clover with attract deer and turkeys

Tj, I have a 44" Swisher Trailcutter that I tow behind a Polarius Ranger. I've been very happy with the performance with the lone exception of tires deflating. I've owned the trail cutter for 4 years and each year (I only cut the field grass once per year at the end of the rainy season) it starts right up. It will obliterate any thing up to about 2 to 2.5 inches. So far I've found that if I can run over it with the Ranger then the Trail Cutter will puree it into bite sized pieces which is very helpful for preparation of Baba ghanoush. (I have no idea what Baba ghanoush is, I googled puree to find the correct spelling and then found Baba ghanoush, jeez that's a fun word to say, go ahead try it, right now, no one's looking at you, say it...Baba ghanoush, fun ain't it?).

IMHO you will need to get a UTV sooner or later. They are very handy for hauling items to remote locations on your property and hauling cut brush, etc.

If you do go the UTV route (I have a rhino) take a look at the Kunz Engineering rough cut mower. I have run it for 3 years with no problems. Again if you can pull the mower over the brush/trees it will cut it. THe nice thing about the Kunz is that it does a decent finish cut and is the only mower I have at the farm. Plus it is hard to bough it down. I cut 16" to 18" tall food plots to 6" tall at 5 MPH

I agree with JHAP about the Swisher and the need for an ATV/UTV. I've got a Swisher finish mower, but thought it was the trailcutter and used it like the trailcutter. It has done some great work for me. Like Jeff said, it will pretty readily handle larger brush, but 4" is definitely out of its league, even if it was the actual trailcutter and not a mower. In spite of its being designed for mowing, this thing has actually done a really nice job cutting some pretty good trails for me, though it does tend to eat the stupid belts that drive the blades when I abuse it beyond its design limitations! Once you've got an open trail, though, even the finish mower does a great job of keeping it clear.

Those DR walk behinds and other similar units look pretty nice, too. A really ultra cheap option would be a commercial grade weed eater (I've got a Stihl FS90R) with a steel 3 point blade on it that will go through 4 inch trees pretty nicely. The whole setup is right around $300. You have to sort of tap the trunk repeatedly as opposed to just using it like you would use a chainsaw, but that bad boy goes through pretty much anything. The smaller stuff cuts so easily you can just sweep and walk with this setup and it's been great for walking hills and making very basic trails without a ton of effort.

Let us know what you end up doing.

I cleared an area that was roughly 1/2 to 3/4 ac with a small chainsaw for a foodplot. It had a LOT of sumac that was up to 3" dia, and some larger Oak and Maple trees. It took the better part of 3 weekends to get it all cut down and piled up ready to burn. At that time I had 0 equipment other than a garden tractor and the chainsaw.

That's a serious effort!

teehjaeh57, I've been through all this and I spent a lot of time debating the best approach and trying things out when I first started. I maintain several miles of trails, several food plots totaling several acres, haul and burn fire wood all winter, and do a lot of dirt moving for new buildings and trails. When it all is said and done I've decided that the perfect affordable set of equipment is a small 4x4 utility tractor (25 to 30 hp diesel), and a medium to large skid loader. For the tractor my main accessories for normal acreage work are a hydraulic dump trailer, bush hog, seed and fertilizer spreader, 60" tiller, drag harrow, and a finish mower. For the skid loader I have a bucket and a set of forks (for picking up downed trees). My goal when I started managing acreage was to find one machine that would do it all. If possible you only want to maintain one machine with one engine. Who needs all the hassle of multiple machines all with separate motors. I did not find one machine that did everything because small tractors (even medium sized 50 hp machines) just don't have enough umph and strength with a bucket to dig dirt so I settled for two machines (tractor and skid loader). The small tractor with a category 1 hitch is perfect for running any number of utility attachments such as bush hogs and finish mowers. The 4x4 tractor with a small dump trailer allows you to completely forget about having to own an ATV or UTV. My tractor and trailer will do everything those machines do and go places where they will not (unless you get something with tracks). When it comes to moving dirt or anything else I dig and scoop with the skid steer and haul with the tractor and trailer. It's hard to load dirt into a trailr with a tractor bucket and then haul the dirt with the same tractor. For me at least, this has turned out to be the perfect combination. Now, I also own a small dozer. I agree with others that I might use the dozer to clear a trail with anything over 3 inches but only if I did it in the summer. I have made many trails with my skid loader by doing it in the winter. First take a 4 inch grinder and sharpen the bucket edge really sharp. Then I just run the skid steer, with chains on the tires, through the woods with the bucket pressed to the ground. The key here is solid frozen ground and a sharp bucket edge. If you can do it when there is no snow that is the best scenario. Then you can create a trail as fast as you can move. It will virtually sheer off anything up to 3 or 4 inch trees right at gound level. I actually prefer this over the dozer because you don't end up pulling everything out by the roots and creating all kinds of holes that have to be filled later. Anthing too big for this method just gets the chain saw. I try to avoid larger trees. This results in trails that tend to wander around a bit but I think that adds character. You could simply rent a skid loader for a day as long as they don't mind you sharpening the edge for them. This method will do a lot of trails in a day. Once everything is cut off level, you can use a bush hog or even finish mower to keep it cleaned up as things try to grow back. This is how I attempt to do all my trails and I think it's about one fourth the effort as doing any other way. I use the dump tailer for hauling anything you'd hall in any machine that has a bed plus my trailer while still small and maneuverable at 4 by 8 feet will haul 4000 pounds. I have lots of friends who have many machines with one for every job and I woudn't trade my two machines for them all. I think by the time you buy several other machines you can own a good tractor with lots of attachments and a used skid steer ($20K will get the whole setup if you buy right or rent only when needed). My 2 cents from 12 years of turning a wild 80 acre parcel into a retirement heaven. Of course having said all this, if I had unlimited money I'd have big machines and one for every job. That's why I do rent large dozers and excavators for the really big jobs.

bz, I think you nailed it. The only thing that I think would help in some situations is to have a set of tracks that you could pop on the bobcat when the ground gets soft.

What do you use behind the tractor to place the food plot seed at the proper depth? That's my biggest problem, I have some seeds that are supposed to be over an inch deep, and others that are supposed to be 1/8" below the surface.

esshup, you got it there, I've always wanted a set of tracks on the bobcat. I have already determined that in a few years I'm going to get a newer machine and it will be a tracked machine.

Regarding the seed, since I can't justify buying a row planter I broadcast my seed either by hand or with the spreader. Believe it or not for anything smaller than an acre I just boardcast by hand. It's not as hard as it sounds. For small seed that should only be buried up to 1/4 inch I just rake it in with a harro. For deeper sead like soy bean and corn I use the tiller. I set it to till 2 inches deep and go over the whole thing at full speed. I know these methods are far from perfect so to account for some seed going too shallow or too deep I use about 50% more seed than required. You wouldn't need that much extra, maybe only 25% more but I like my food plots thick from the get go. I know that's supposed to be a no-no with most crops but I find it works well. I've used these methods to plant clover, chicory, beans, corn, peas, rye, oats, wheat, rape, turnips, etc.. This is getting me all pumped up for planting food plots, can't wait until spring. I'm doing the largest chicory plot I've ever done this year, about 1/2 acre. I've found that chicory is my best late fall attractor for both turkey and deer. I currently only have one chicory patch about 100' by 150' deep in the woods. It sees more action than anything I've got. I also have about 5 acres that I plant part in corn and part in beans each year, about 3 acres of alfalfa, 1/4 acre of clover, and a few smaller patches of other stuff. This year I'm going to plant some berry shrubs for the turkey.

Not to hijack this thread further (ya right) I plant my small seeds (clover, alfalfa, brassicas, etc) by tilling the ground, cultipacking, hand broadcasting, and cultipacking again. No need to cover them, just need seed to soil contact. For beans and corn I till, hand broadcast, harrow, and cultipack. These methods have worked great for me.

I'm going to start another thread over in Pond Boss. See you there!

Guys,

Thanks to everyone for you advice...it seems that a atv/utv or tractor is hard to avoid in this formula-as I suspected. Good news is it seems a brushcutter will address my needs. Looks like for now it may be chainsaw and commercial trimmer with brush blade. Thanks again - great stuff here!

I use a Stihl FS 450, a FS 90 is a toy compared to it. I have all the blades, grass, brush and scratcher. Use the double comfort harness and a hardhat, ear protection visor combo. I use a old Shindiawa 680 for anything to big for it. I really don't like using a chainsaw for brushcutting. Wrong tool for the job. When I am serious clearing I run through with the Stihl and waste everything, that is not a tree. Then I comeback with the chainsaw. I just have too much terrain for a tractor/dozer or anything but what I use.

TJ, for about 20 years I got along nicely with a 50 year old Ford 8N tractor, a brush hog and pasture mower. I didn't really use it all that often so delayed getting more expensive stuff until I convinced myself that my back need a FEL.

Anyway, for around $3K, you can be in business.

No doubt the FS90 is small compared to a 450. It's been a great setup for me, though, and given that my use, and presumably TJ's, is not as frequent as yours (being a professional manager), it may well be overkill. But, I am also a fan of buying more than you think you'll need in virtually everything that I buy - stuff works a little easier and lasts longer because it's not working at max capacity all the time.

Todd, I do things differently. I always try to buy something that is a bit stouter than I think I'll ever need. And, I usually surprise myself by wishing I had bought even a little bit stouter.