How to drag brush piles up a steep hill

[Bernard Murphy]

We had a firebreak cleared around our place a couple of years ago. The folks who did the clearing left most of the brush piles on hillside below, varying from 10-15' below the closest road/track to probably ~100' below - and I'd like to clear that brush. The hill slopes in these cases are 30 degrees plus - OK for a heavy cat with tracks in dry weather, but well beyond my skidsteer. I do have a pretty good root grapple, but I can't use this to drag brush out of even the close piles, because they sit below the lowest effective reach of the grapple when I'm sitting on the road above the pile.

I've been thinking about trying to find some kind of industrial grappling hook - attached to the back of the skid steer with chain or cable and use that to drag brush up the hill. But I can't find anything relevant on-line except for lightweight stuff used for climbing.

Ideas welcome!

Thanks

Bernard

 

[coydog]

you may have to sort the piles out by hand, getting a choker sling around as much as possible at a time and using your equipment to drag it up with a heavy duty rope or long chain. sounds like work...

 

[SRT-Tech]

can you pile it and burn it, rather than hauling it uphill?

 

[smokechase II]

burning can be done safely

Make a good tight pile away from what you do not want to burn.

Go through your local burn permit process.

Cover at least part of each pile with plastic.

Light when it is wet out and more wet weather predicted.

"Chunk" the piles as they burn down with a pitchfork.

Relax a bit with the safer environment you've created.

Be sensible and cautious.

 

[Mkarlson]

Interesting enough I have what you need but I wouldnt want to part with it. I have a grapple that was made for an emergency tractor trailer recovery many years ago. Its made out of solid bar stock welded and braced attached to a 1 inch steel cable. The bars stock is over an inch in diameter never measured it though.

A tractor trailer loaded with industrial acid core batteries rolled down a hill into the river below. Tow companies had nothing to pull it out with. Someone had the idea to make this huge treble hook and send it down and attach to the rear axles and use couple wreckers to pull it out. It worked and saved the river.

Thats the story I was told when we found this hook on a clean up job in a basement of an old hardware store next to the battery factory. I kept it thinking that it would be great to collect brush and such but I have never used it. Might have to dig it out and get a picture. Its been a great conversation piece in the past.

 

[Mkarlson]

Well I hadnt seen it in a long time but searching through the shed I found it piled under all kinds of things that I had been looking for . I took the picture on top of one of my corn hole boards so it wouldnt sink into the 2 feet of snow we just got. For refferance the corn hole board is 2'x4' and the hole in it has a 6" diameter. The hook on the right is bent quite a bit, assuming it was the one on the trailer axle.

 

[elmnut]

If you have standing trees at the bottom of the bank you can use some easy rigging. Place a line in the top of a tree(as high or higher than the road)tie up your piles with a sling or a running bowline, attach to a pulley on the line, pull the line taut with your skid steer. The brush will be lifted up and on to the road. Hope this helps.

 

[Munkee feet]

If you have standing trees at the bottom of the bank you can use some easy rigging. Place a line in the top of a tree(as high or higher than the road)tie up your piles with a sling or a running bowline, attach to a pulley on the line, pull the line taut with your skid steer. The brush will be lifted up and on to the road. Hope this helps.

exactly what I was going to say..lol Munkee feet