School me on root rakes

1-tonmudder

1-tonmudder

Doin my part to stir the pot.
Joined
Apr 17, 2005
Location
Greeneville TN
After living here for 20 years I finally was able to buy the adjoining property,roughly 9.3 acres.Previous owner stopped payin the taxes on it and I bought it at the tax sale two weeks ago.The property had some old equipment on it and they removed it before the sale leaving hell'va mess.Several 6/8 inch diameter trees pushed up in piles and lots of small cedars,briars and 2/3 inch diameter trees/brush not to mention the small trees that have just been broken over by the 953 Cat they were using. My plan is rent a skid steer w a root rake to clean as much up as possible.Will a rake push out the smaller diameter trees/brush or do I need to cut m and use the rake to get the rest out of the ground?? I dont care to cut em just trying to have a plan in place before the machine gets here so I can utilize my time the best.
 
I've never used a root rake on a skid steer, only on a Komastu track loader so that''s not comparable. If it were me I would be more inclined to have a 4 in 1 bucket with teeth so you can grub and grab and move stuff. Hopefully someone has used a root rack on a skid steer and can better answer your question.
 
What is you end goal? No brush? Pasture? A manicured yard?
 
I have a root grapple. It will definitely push the trees as long as the machine has the power. The smaller stuff can be aggravating to get with it though. Probably have the best luck running around with a root rake and windrow everything, then come back with a ruckus rake or something similar to get all the small root and tree debris.
 
And for the record, I didn't want to spend the money to rent a ruckus rake on mine, so we walked around with buckets collecting all the rocks and root debris. So that's an option if you're on a budget.
 
jeepinmatt said:
What is you end goal? No brush? Pasture? A manicured yard?
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A manageable area I can mow selected areas of and bush hog the rest.This mostly gonna be used to park trucks/trailers on.Basically declutter the yard and hide everything.
 
Quite a bit of this type of stuff
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You really can’t root rake very well with a skidsteer because it will dip and dig in too easily if the roots are very sizable. But you can take a toothed bucket and let it float at ground level tilted slightly forward, and make a yard good enough for what you’re wanting. You can also set the bucket nearly vertical and backdrag with it.

But also that stuff doesn’t look too bad, and you could probably get most of it with a 4n1 bucket and just pushing it into a pile. Don’t cut anything, try to push it out first. It’s way easier to push a tree over at 6ft up than try to get the stump out with no leverage.
 
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Im gonna get a toothed bucket too.I ran a tracked loader for a while many years ago and understand the leverage thing but im not sure how much of this will come out versus bend over.
 
83oldyoda4x4 said:
A big enough skidsteer and a tooth bucket would do all you need for that type brush/trash
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Don't remember the size now but a 10 hr rental on a skid steer was $400.Just tryin to get the stuff I can w the tractor first.
 
If it were an acre, no so bad. Nearly ten acres, you gonna need a couple-few weeks.
 
jeepinmatt said:
If it were an acre, no so bad. Nearly ten acres, you gonna need a couple-few weeks.
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That's my thoughts. A skid will do it alright. But even if it's only 5 acres of brush it'll take a week.
 
jeepinmatt said:
If it were an acre, no so bad. Nearly ten acres, you gonna need a couple-few weeks.
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JSJJ388 said:
That's my thoughts. A skid will do it alright. But even if it's only 5 acres of brush it'll take a week.
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In TN the PO has a year to reclaim property from a tax sale so Im not working on but about 1.5/2 acres of it until then and some of that is already clear.Sorry,I didnt mean to imply I was doing the whole 9 acres.My main goal (for now) is to get all the old lumber out of the building so I can get our trailers in and clear off a place to park my parts trucks.I know at some point I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and pay somebody to do most of it.
 
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1-tonmudder said:
In TN the PO has a year to reclaim property from a tax sale so Im not working on but about 1.5/2 acres of it until then and some of that is already clear.Sorry,I didnt mean to imply I was doing the whole 9 acres.My main goal (for now) is to get all the old lumber out of the building so I can get our trailers in and clear off a place to park my parts trucks.I know at some point I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and pay somebody to do most of it.
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Then yea, hit it hard for a weekend with a grapple and a toothed bucket.
 
Wes said:
Big ass forest mulcher and let the earth reclaim it all.
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That'll be covered in saplings in a month or two though. But that is the fastest way with the least secondary work (no hauloff/chipping/burning).
 
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