Scrub crusher .

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 ?

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

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 said:

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

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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 .

Iron Horse said:

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 .

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Mate, you've just described a landfill compactor.

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 .

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.

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.

Steve Frazier said:

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.

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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.

Steve Frazier said:

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.

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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 .

Iron Horse said:

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 .

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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.

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

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

Iron Horse said:

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

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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.

Wolfcsm said:

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

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

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

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.

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

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

Marden choppers

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

Timark80 said:

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

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