Skid Steer Tree Shear

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Depending on the size of the tree, they can be hard to move to make room for the next tree that needs shearing if they are close together. Fairly large top heavy trees also make the skidsteer fairly unstable on rough/sloped ground. Sharing them is pretty much a 2 man job if you plan on doing many. It's faster then a chainsaw but just as slow at clearing the area. One advantage is you can sheer at or just below ground level.
 
Dun, my objective is to clear about 7 acres of lowland that surrounds a creek bottom. Relatively flat. I want to leave all the trees 15" or bigger and get rid of the smaller undesirable brush and trees. Dozier would be easiest and fastest, I just don't want to kill my big trees by destroying the roots. I guess I could maintain a buffer around the root zone of the larger trees and then finish it by hand in order to be less invasive.
 
They work good for that. I have a guy that brings one out and sheers big huisatche for me. Its perfects for that. The vast majority he can pluck roots and all. I disked about 20ac after he did it and only hit 3 stumps. I also rent one some times and you can hang underbrush with and rip most of it out. I use it for making it pretty under oak trees.
 
Brute 23":2yshvyav said:
They work good for that. I have a guy that brings one out and sheers big huisatche for me. Its perfects for that. The vast majority he can pluck roots and all. I disked about 20ac after he did it and only hit 3 stumps. I also rent one some times and you can hang underbrush with and rip most of it out. I use it for making it pretty under oak trees.

Brute my other thought was to take an excavator with a thumb and simply pull up the smaller stuff and drop it around. Do you think the skid steer is the better option?
 
We used one last winter on Autumn Olive bushes up to about 6" worked great. There are several options and different companys that makes them. When ur done there is nothing to clean up.
 
kenny thomas":2ufoayuh said:
We used one last winter on Autumn Olive bushes up to about 6" worked great. There are several options and different companys that makes them. When ur done there is nothing to clean up.

Kenny what's a good estimate on how many acres they can cover in a day? I know there are a lot of variables that affect this.
 
JMJ Farms":hgccef8a said:
Brute 23":hgccef8a said:
They work good for that. I have a guy that brings one out and sheers big huisatche for me. Its perfects for that. The vast majority he can pluck roots and all. I disked about 20ac after he did it and only hit 3 stumps. I also rent one some times and you can hang underbrush with and rip most of it out. I use it for making it pretty under oak trees.

Brute my other thought was to take an excavator with a thumb and simply pull up the smaller stuff and drop it around. Do you think the skid steer is the better option?

Is there any way you could snap a pic of what your are looking at doing?

Excavators work really well and you can cover a lot of ground. They generally cost a little more to rent and truck to you. If its a one or two day job a lot of times you can go get a skid steer on a trailer you have around the farm. An excavator will have to be trucked out but if its a week long project or more it may be worth it. There are pros and cons to all of them. A backhoe you can pluck brush, push piles, and back drag the area back out smooth.

If its some thing that has a good base like a huisatche or some thing you can grab the sheer is nice because you can pluck it or sheer it. If you start getting in to a bunch of viney, little stuff the bucket of an excavator or a backhoe is nice.
 
Shears are pretty popular here for clearing cedar. But are rapidly losing popularity. Just to many situations where they don't work well.

I will take a excavator over the shear every time
 
Brute 23":147gxo9i said:
JMJ Farms":147gxo9i said:
Brute 23":147gxo9i said:
They work good for that. I have a guy that brings one out and sheers big huisatche for me. Its perfects for that. The vast majority he can pluck roots and all. I disked about 20ac after he did it and only hit 3 stumps. I also rent one some times and you can hang underbrush with and rip most of it out. I use it for making it pretty under oak trees.

Brute my other thought was to take an excavator with a thumb and simply pull up the smaller stuff and drop it around. Do you think the skid steer is the better option?

Is there any way you could snap a pic of what your are looking at doing?

Excavators work really well and you can cover a lot of ground. They generally cost a little more to rent and truck to you. If its a one or two day job a lot of times you can go get a skid steer on a trailer you have around the farm. An excavator will have to be trucked out but if its a week long project or more it may be worth it. There are pros and cons to all of them. A backhoe you can pluck brush, push piles, and back drag the area back out smooth.

If its some thing that has a good base like a huisatche or some thing you can grab the sheer is nice because you can pluck it or sheer it. If you start getting in to a bunch of viney, little stuff the bucket of an excavator or a backhoe is nice.

I can take a pic Brute but I'm not sure I can take one that will give you a clear idea. I understand what you're saying and I'm thinking an excavator may work better overall. My best guess after reading posts from all of you is that the ideal situation would be to have both. Is it more cost efficient to rent an excavator or pay someone $130/hr?
 
ga.prime":3cp6x5lh said:
JMJ Farms":3cp6x5lh said:
Anybody got one? Used one? Reccomendations? Pros? Cons? Best brand?
I've got one you can borrow. Fits a Case 1845.

That's mighty generous and I appreciate it. May take you up on it but I'd be glad to rent it. I have limited experience with skid steers. I assume it will only fit a Case 1845?
 
callmefence":raz0urnq said:
Shears are pretty popular here for clearing cedar. But are rapidly losing popularity. Just to many situations where they don't work well.

I will take a excavator over the shear every time

Fence we've got a JD350 dozer. Small and kinda slow but runs like a top and it will work. May end up using it because it would be my cheapest method probably. But also the slowest. My father is looking at a bigger dozer. I think it is a JD650. If he buys it then I guess that would speed it up some but I'd still rather have an excavator. For what I'm doing I don't mind the shear and just leave the stumps to rot out. Probably end up using a dozer. If I live long enough I'm gonna buy an excavator just to play with. I could tear up more in 2 hours than I could fix in two years!
 
JMJ Farms":5fiyvo8w said:
Brute 23":5fiyvo8w said:
JMJ Farms":5fiyvo8w said:
Brute my other thought was to take an excavator with a thumb and simply pull up the smaller stuff and drop it around. Do you think the skid steer is the better option?

Is there any way you could snap a pic of what your are looking at doing?

Excavators work really well and you can cover a lot of ground. They generally cost a little more to rent and truck to you. If its a one or two day job a lot of times you can go get a skid steer on a trailer you have around the farm. An excavator will have to be trucked out but if its a week long project or more it may be worth it. There are pros and cons to all of them. A backhoe you can pluck brush, push piles, and back drag the area back out smooth.

If its some thing that has a good base like a huisatche or some thing you can grab the sheer is nice because you can pluck it or sheer it. If you start getting in to a bunch of viney, little stuff the bucket of an excavator or a backhoe is nice.

I can take a pic Brute but I'm not sure I can take one that will give you a clear idea. I understand what you're saying and I'm thinking an excavator may work better overall. My best guess after reading posts from all of you is that the ideal situation would be to have both. Is it more cost efficient to rent an excavator or pay someone $130/hr?

My thoughts are on that is, one, don't rent some thing if you can't afford to fix it. If you slash a tire or break a hydraulic line you will get the bill. After that if you just want it cleared and functional I would hire it out. If you want it "pretty" and to your liking... rent and do it yourself.
 

this is what mine looks like and I think it would do what you are wanting to do with no problems. Once you get a spot started you just push the brush back over where you cut and come back later with a grapple and clean it out. It does work better with the tracks on the loader. It may not be as fast as my dozer, I have a JD 650G, but the skid loader does not tear up the ground as bad. If you are in a bottom land is there a problem with erosion if you tear up the ground with a dozer or by up rooting them with a track hoe, if so I would shear them.
 
My buddy has a LandShark on a skid steer. It is basically a hydraulic bush hog on a mixture of meth/steroids/crack. It will pulverize anything less than 6 or 7 inches. I think he paid almost 13K for it, takes high flow hydraulics to run it, and the skid steer has to have a special windshield.
 

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