Scrub crusher .

[Iron Horse]

Well i have now seen all the mulchers and slashers that are available to clear vegatation , none of them will process the amount of material i would feel comfortable to hold my hand out for payment . I have been thinking of a road roller with steel chopper feet all round . It would push over the scrub and chop it up into 8" pieces and leave it to either rot down or allow a cool fire to run through it . The vibrating front drum would cut through , maybe an 8" trunk . I had a search on Google for something that could be converted and found that Bomag do a modified roller for crushing rock in situ . If they can crush rock with one , theres no reason it could not chop scrub with a drum with chopper blades fitted front and rear . I would consider a machine that could process a 7' wide strip at 1.5 kilometres (1500 yards) per hour , productive . If need be i could use my extraction grab on the excavator to remove the bigger stuff . Mulchers are good at making an area look like a parkland , but for clearing big areas quickly , say to contain a fire thier finess is not required . It would have chopper blades like the trailed one pictured , and may even tow one like the one pictured . What are your thoughts ?

[Squizzy246B]

Hmm.. I dunno IH....but those rollers costa Motza....especially Bomags

and I'm not too sure how much better that would be in real terms than just running the scrub down with a D6

[stumpjumper83]

i think that you would be better off pulling the chopping drum with a crawler rather than using a modified roller. Here is why.

Roller have rubber tires, and your making a punji stick path for it to drive on all the time. Spin the tires just a little, and they could become a pin cushion for sharp stick pieces.

Besides, ever seen an old car or piece of equipment hiding in the bush, that could wrap around the drum and be even worse on tires.

With a crawler, you have a blade/bucket with witch to do the exploring, and will be alot easier to push small trees down with that rather than using the roller itself or the bar across the front.

If you were using a trackloader w/ 4n1 to pull the drum, if you came to a large chunck of scrap metal you couldpush it outa the way, or just grab it with the bucket and keep moving. Rear motor trackloaders prolly have the best full frontal visibility of any of the track machines. Dozers arn't bad, but the big ones have a blind spot in front of the blade.

With tracks your going to get more hp to the ground so instead of covering 7' you might be able to cover 2x that if your on reasonably flat ground.

[Iron Horse]

I have been thinking of a road roller with steel chopper feet "all round" .

The one i was looking at has steel roller wheels on the back also . It would only require the chopper blades to be welded onto them . It also had a blade on the front for leveling dirt , it would be ideal for pushing scrub over and shifting logs out of the way .

[Cmark]

The one i was looking at has steel roller wheels on the back also . It would only require the chopper blades to be welded onto them . It also had a blade on the front for leveling dirt , it would be ideal for pushing scrub over and shifting logs out of the way .

Mate, you've just described a landfill compactor.

[Iron Horse]

You are dead right there , i even asked around if anyone had used one for running down scrub , they just said , HUH .

This is a chopper roller in action , i just thought it would be good to convert a vibrating roller . It would be easier to cart around and would be move manouverable in the scrub . And having a front drum , you could drive right up to trees , fences and boulders where the dozer/skidder would get in the way .

I could not find the Triple drum roller with the front blade , but this gives an idea .

[RocksnRoses]

Iron Horse. I don't reckon you would have enough weight in the vibrating roller to chop up scrub. The cockies here use ribbed stone rollers to break up limestone country and they weigh between twenty to thirty five tonnes, full of water. A pretty decent tractor is needed to pull them, too. They pulverise light scrub but you would need something pretty savage to chop up stuff a bit thicker.

Rn'R.

[Steve Frazier]

I've noticed you Aussie's make a lot of posts on land clearing equipment and techniques, many of which I haven't seen here in the States. I'm a bit curious about this. Is land clearing something that is done periodically, the same land gets cleared more than once? Or is the land being cleared for specific reasons? It seems as often as it is mentioned that there must be a lot of it going on.

[RocksnRoses]

I've noticed you Aussie's make a lot of posts on land clearing equipment and techniques, many of which I haven't seen here in the States. I'm a bit curious about this. Is land clearing something that is done periodically, the same land gets cleared more than once? Or is the land being cleared for specific reasons? It seems as often as it is mentioned that there must be a lot of it going on.

In South Australia, land clearing has been stopped completely, except for fencelines and maybe building develpoment. On Yorke Peninsula, where I live, the land is quite productive, but there is also a lot of land with limestone out crops. All of the best land was cleared first and as time went on, more of the stoney country was cleared. In the early years the rock was picked by hand and then later, by machine and this rock is the foundation of our business. These days, the rock that is brought up through cultivation and the solid limestone reefs or outcrops, are broken down with ribbed rollers like the one in the photos. The limestone, being softer, crushes up fairly easy. Up until clearing was stopped, the same rollers were used for rolling re-growth scrub, that had been chained earlier, they smashed the scrub up and then it could be burnt.

Rn'R.

[Iron Horse]

I've noticed you Aussie's make a lot of posts on land clearing equipment and techniques, many of which I haven't seen here in the States. I'm a bit curious about this. Is land clearing something that is done periodically, the same land gets cleared more than once? Or is the land being cleared for specific reasons? It seems as often as it is mentioned that there must be a lot of it going on.

G'day Steve , we have a real battle on our hands to keep regrowth down over here . Grazing land can become totally overgrown within two years , especially if a fire has gone through the land . Wattle , Eucalypt and woody weed regrowth will grow that thick in two years , you cannot walk through it .

Wild fires , like the ones in Victoria are a constant threat . We try many different methods to keep land clear but there are so many facets to the job . In one area you may be clearing suckers which can be slashed/bush hogged . Another area you may be in Wattle regrowth that needs to be Chopper Rolled or chained as it is too tough for a mulcher to productively proccess . Then you will be in rocky ground that we still don't really have an answer for . I'm going to try the disc mulcher on the excavator for this type of area , but i know it will be hard on the mulcher and on the excavator under carriage . I was thinking the vibrating roller may be able to run through a lot of this type of ground but as RnR has said it may not be heavy enough . Thinking on it now , any sideways undulation or hollows , the roller would miss a lot of material .

I have just sent an email to the ACME company to see if i can purchase one of those ray guns that the Kioti disintergrates those Cactus with when he misses the Road Runner .:D

[Timark80]

You are dead right there , i even asked around if anyone had used one for running down scrub , they just said , HUH .

This is a chopper roller in action , i just thought it would be good to convert a vibrating roller . It would be easier to cart around and would be move manouverable in the scrub . And having a front drum , you could drive right up to trees , fences and boulders where the dozer/skidder would get in the way .

I could not find the Triple drum roller with the front blade , but this gives an idea .

The big 4x4 tractor(we had a Case 1470) with chopper is what we used to clear land with here in Fl.
It works great for clearing palmetto brush,small trees, and just about anything else within reason.Our choppers,made by Marden had 2 drum choppers at an angle to each other,so whatever the first one missed the second one got it.
We cleared 1000's of acres at a military bombing range in central Fl.

[Iron Horse]

Do you have any pictures of the clearing that you did ? How well did the choppers work ?

[Wolfcsm]

This might be the sort of thing you are looking for: http://www.mackenziechamber.bc.ca/pdf/G175LeTourneauTreeCrusher.pdf

The LeTourneau G 175 Tree Crusher.

Hal

[Timark80]

Do you have any pictures of the clearing that you did ? How well did the choppers work ?
I might be able to dig up some old pics from 29 years ago,1980.
It seems like just a few years ago.
The choppers worked very well,low maintenance.

[Iron Horse]

This might be the sort of thing you are looking for: http://www.mackenziechamber.bc.ca/pdf/G175LeTourneauTreeCrusher.pdf

The LeTourneau G 175 Tree Crusher.

Hal

That'll do Wolf , all i need then is a bigger trailer .:D

Timark80 , i'd love to see them if you can find them .

[matt.clardy]

Check out Marden Industries. They make the best roller choppers. I have a few of them, never any problems. I might sell one , if interested let me know. Check them out , you wont be disapointed.

[Iron Horse]

I'm sorry i did'nt reply to you , i have just come across your post . I will check them out to see what they look like , but postage to OZ will be a bugger .:tong

[mcnamararichard]

If Matt Cardy could contact me i am interested in the Marden Crushers

[matt.clardy]

I found you looking on another forum too. call me 678 682 3477 Thanks Matt

[Alan]

We cleared 1000's of acres at a military bombing range in central Fl.

I know this is a wiseguy remark, but why do you need to clear a bombing range? That was probably Avon Lake?

[Timark80]

I know this is a wiseguy remark, but why do you need to clear a bombing range? That was probably Avon Lake?

It is named Avon Park Bombing Range in Avon Park FL.
Haha,I guess you would think the bombs could clear everything themselves.
Only thing was they mostly used practice bombs that had a small blackpowder charge to make a puff of smoke when they hit the ground.Some were 2 ft some were 12ft long.
Now the A-10 warthogs,F-16's,Apache helicoptors and Cessna Skymasters did use live 20mm ammo and small rockets when strafing old tanks and trucks.That was really cool to see from a distance.We only worked on the ranges that were not "hot" that day.
I wanted to take pics but they kinda frowned on bringing cameras in if ya know what I mean. We got a free airshow almost daily!

[Taylortractornu]

Iron horse look at the Misc. Equipment Page, I have a pic of the old 518 Cat feller buncher we converted into a compactor for or landfill I run. It was a skidder chassis that Cat sent out and had the cab turned around and then a shear head added. We bought it and made compactor wheels from a set of front roller drums. We used the front wheels because they were split so 2 sets made 4 wheels. A frienddid the conversion and he cut the wheel centers out of the drums then the beads off the skidder wheels. We put a blade off a 290 M Clarks scraper on the front where the shear went. We have a mixture of rubbish so we Foun some pics of a Dressta and Volvo loader with a set of blunt spikes on the front and paddles on the back. We had a buffer zone over an old Cell of pine and poplar trees up to 8 inches down to briars and 1 inch stuff.
My D5B was down for the day and Dad had asked me to remove the scrub for a so we could rob the soil there for cover and to make a water diversion channel. Im was kinda curious and have always seen choppers and Letourneau Jungle crushers at work. I raiseed the blade and went to work rolling and er about 2 passes I was able to lightly scrape off the the chops with a light blading. The six inch pines the front spikes crushed them a bit and broke several but the back paddles reallychopped them to peices. The briars and sapplings really went away. This thing mauls the ground where it travels. The blade with the 6 foot lift height really helped a bunch on the poplar by walking them over. If you cant find the pics I can repost them.

[Taylortractornu]

Heres a pic of the 518 turnaround compactor we built. Wished I had a better shot of the material we crush. So much rain that its grinds it up and mixes in all the mud.

[Deeretime]

The Le Tourneau G175 Tree Crusher, similar in principle to a steamroller, was fabricated in Louisiana, USA in 1960. On November 9, 1964, the machine arrived at Kennedy Siding on six flat cars. It required four days to unload and assemble.

From November 21, 1964, to December 9, 1964, an attempt was made to drive the machine across country to the work area, which was approximately four miles away. Various problems were encountered: the machine got stuck a number of times; one hill had to be cut before the machine could climb it; the weather took a turn for the worse, and the rollers iced up stopping all further activity. The machine was left for the winter about two and one-half miles in from the assembly site.

During the first part of the summer of 1965, the machine was plagued with troubles. It became stuck a number of times, and mechanical failures were common. A total of 340 acres were downed from mid-May to the end of July.

During the latter part of the summer, production was increased and the whole operation began to function more smoothly. From August 1, 1965, to November 17, 1965, the Tree Crusher downed 2,250 acres. The Tree Crusher operation was shut down for the winter at Cut Thumb Creek on November 17, 1965. And now you know the rest of the story!

[ridegreen]

haha i thought my Vermeer BC 2000XL was a beast...look at that thing!!! By the way it's a 2004 with 1200 hours that im trying to sell for 30K