Root plow--homemade....

[Bill -- Banquete TX]

Hi y'all. I have taken on a job of pulling some huisache stumps for a neighbor. I've been using a single middlebuster with a chisel plow sweep on the end of it to get most of the small ones. The bigger ones are 4-5 inches diameter and I'm pulling out 3 feet of tap root on some of them. Pretty good size critters. Problem I'm having is that even with the wide chisel plow sweep the plow is wanting to slide off the stumps and slip past 'em, making each one a 5-10 minute job not to mention the side shear on the 3 pt, which may not hurt but can't be doing it any good.

Anyone got a 2 ft or so root plow who could snap some pics and give me a little guidance on it? I don't really have to get any deeper than about 6-9 inches, and a couple feet wide would make it plenty easy to hit each one. I don't have to do the field wall-to-wall, but I do have about 40-50 more of them to pull up.

I was thinking about two shanks vertical, with something welded across between them on about the same angle as a buster point, whatever that would be.... like about 30 degrees? A piece of inch by 4 inch, beveled or "sharpened" on the front... will that dig enough to keep it in the ground?

Two things need to happen: I need it to dig, so it'll stay in the ground, and I need it strong enough to not bend when it grabs ahold of a root. When I've hit the few I've hit square on enough to pull out with one pass, it's not enough resistance to lug the 3010LP down at all.

Thanks, and if there's anything I missed mentioning, tell me and I'll add on tomorrow morning.

Bill

 

[Don in Texas]

My brother made a root plow using a maintainer cutter blade and a drawbar. He made it 30" wide. A local contractor who builds roads had the blade that was removed from a maintainer . I have used it and at a foot deep it does a good job on small bushes

 

[johns48jdb]

whats a maintainer? i think you mean a road grader. those replacement blades on those things will break. i had one welded on my back hoe since the orginal owners had used it on something real rough and broke most of the orgianl blade off the front bucket. the road grader blade lasted a long time, but it did break. i took a sub moisture plow arm and mad my own holder for it to use on some small acreage, gardens and such. i did put a break away feature on it like the orginal had, which is just a bolt that will shear if you hit something real hard. i don't know if you would spend a bunch of money on bolts if you made one to pull roots with, but i don't think putting something on the back of your tractor to pull things like yur doing is safe or not without some type of safety break away device. i'd hate to see you snatch the rear end out of your tractor. old oliver and jd new ground mule drawn plows had a knife that ran in front of the plow point to cut roots so the plow wouldn't jurk on the old mule or tear up the plow. i've seen them on wooden beam plows even. you might want to consider building that into your plow.

 

[Bill -- Banquete TX]

Good point, John, but I want the dang things out not cut half in two. Down here there's nothing big to hit underground, the land was in row-crop production until about ten years ago, when it was abandoned from an ag viewpoint. The new owner wants to graze critters on it, and is one of these who has a 'real job' too and doesn't mind paying someone to make it pretty. That's where I come in.

Don, how'd he make it out of a drawbar? You mean drawbar pull or is it 3 pt mounted? The whole maintainer blade or just the cutting edge? Guess a picture is really worth a thousand words <g> Where are you? Can I borrow it? hehe

Maybe I'm making it more complicated in my mind than it has to be....

Bill

 

[woodbutcher]

A maintainer is the 6-wheel machine used to maintain county roads in Texas. They're probably used in other places, but called by the wrong name.
Butch

 

[wilamayb]

The proper name for the item you are describing is a "motor grader" many folks call them " road grader" or "grader" and some older gents do call them a "maintainer" I would not go so far as to say that they call them by the wrong name.

 

[johns48jdb]

different strokes for diferent fokes comes to mind. thanks for reply. it would be nice if there was a glossary that contained pictures and all the names that different implements are called in this site. lots of times i read questions and have no idea of newbie farmers are talking about. that would actaully be an interesting project i'd like to see in green magazine or two cylinder. nobody disputes the name that any body else in an other part of the country calls anything i wouldn't think, but just be nice if everybody had a place to go and see what others are talking about.

 

[woodbutcher]

You're right. The reason different items got their names would be very interesting.
Butch

 

[Mike M]

sounds like you may want a sub-soiler ?