Tree pushers.

[ryanbeasley]

cabed in d8r all taking down trees and stumps this is the home of kg blades

[ryanbeasley]

we try to get at least 20acres aweek

[td9clyde]

well we use a D7 G with a KG blade and then we rake with 2 82-30 terex dozers or sometimes we clear with the 82-30 B and rake with the FA Terex 82-30 or we use the ol C-6 with the cable blade to rake and we also use a TD9 H with a finish rake on it ....we just have sweeps and rops on all our tractors no mesh or extravogant extra stuff on our machines and this is how we have done it for over 35 years close to 40 now i'm the 3rd generation so i will probly do it the same .... we have many for retrun buisness and when we are done they can farm or build on what was done with out roots and all the garbage sticking up ....and yes here in Indiana the ground does get hard and we have taken out big trees pin oak trees are the worst

[Scrub Puller]

Yair . . . fellers, any chance of a picture of a KG blade?

Cheers.

[sondaflex]

wow good topic!

[hvy 1ton]

http://www.romeplow.com/KG%20and%20VEE%20Blades.htm

The whole blade is sharpened to shear smaller trees and the left hand corner is a stump splitter.

[td9clyde]

yea that looks identical to the blade on the D7 g except the stinger or splitter is a lil short but other than that its the same

[td25c]

The rome K/G blades are awesome for clearing.I had a road job last week,customer had an atv trail through the woods and decided they wanted a driveway.We droppped the simi-u of the 16-B and installed the K/G blade to clear 50 foot wide right-of-way for the road.I sharpen it 3 or 4 times a day with an air grinder I keep on the dozer.Also works good for piling & stacking timber.I can see times where a "tree pusher" in the middle of the dozer blade would be very handy on some clearing jobs.

[nutwood]

I'm fascinated to know that tree pushers aren't a universal piece of equipment. I've a tree pusher on an AD7 (70hp Fiat) and I'd be lost without it. Only time it's a hassle is if you're working in a tight situation with vertical scenery. Then the increase in effective length can be annoying, but it's a pretty rare situation. I've a single ripper on one side in order to do a quick circle around larger trees and then over they go. Only trick is to be a bit slippery with reverse when it goes over because the root ball coming up under the machine can result in an embarrassing situation! Pushing with the blade only can't push anything big enough to cause this problem.

[firetrack]

That looks an interesting tool to have and I imagine the top bar pretensions the tree to assist with the cutting blade getting into and under the root ball. It wouldn't work in the hardwoods where I operate but I can definately see the benefits in the right country.
firetrack

[AU.CASE]

Only trick is to be a bit slippery with reverse when it goes over because the root ball coming up under the machine can result in an embarrassing situation! Pushing with the blade only can't push anything big enough to cause this problem.

Absolutely right, the eucalypts in Australia are very well anchored and the pusher is essential, for fire fighting it is a life saver to get dozers' and operators' out of trouble.

This is one I made in about eight days for my 1150D, it contacts at about 10' 3" and can roll most trees in a single push, as you say still need to avoid a blade catch on the roots or else!

Detaching the tree pusher is a one man job, it is designed to balance just forward of the the mounting which is the shared pin for the angle cylinders (on any CASE).

There is a pair of knock out blocks at the back of each clevis which is held by a HT bolt (5/8"), these are removed to allow the pusher to slide forward slightly with a bar, once it is there just raise the rear by hand and it falls forward against a tree for example at ground level.

Elevate the pusher on the blade and fit two props with clamps around the 4" body of the pusher, rear of centre balance, lower to ground and back out.

Fitting is the reverse, except that the operator positions the pins to have outer clearance for the clevis on the tree pusher and walks into it so that it is square over each side and it gently balances onto the angle cylinder guards and slides back into position for the the knock out blocks and bolts.

The final tip to protect a pusher this long is to always lower the blade at contact with a tree, because as they fall it will bend the beak and lift the rear of the dozer, once that happens the tree pusher doesn't work as well and will flex or skip up trees instead of biting in, plus it looks horrid.

This pusher has done about six hundred hours recently and is still straight, but light enough for the machine category not to cause imbalance or idler wear.