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Self-Propelled Tree Chopper
Cedar trees with trunks up to 4-in. dia. are no match for Larry Estes and his self-propelled tree chopper. He has chewed his way through as many as 4,000 shoulder-high trees in less than four hours, clearing 480 acres of pasture.
"It'll throw chunks of a tree 30 to 40 ft.," says Estes. "I just drive right up and
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Self-Propelled Tree Chopper WOODLOT EQUIPMENT Miscellaneous 30-3-26 Cedar trees with trunks up to 4-in. dia. are no match for Larry Estes and his self-propelled tree chopper. He has chewed his way through as many as 4,000 shoulder-high trees in less than four hours, clearing 480 acres of pasture.
"It'll throw chunks of a tree 30 to 40 ft.," says Estes. "I just drive right up and shove the tree over and start cutting. If it's too big to shove over, it's too big to cut with this rig."
Estes got the idea from a friend who owns a welding shop. Ronny Fiorelli's dad had built something similar 25 years earlier. With Fiorelli's help, Estes put his together from spare parts and elbow grease.
An Owatonna 265 windrower provides the power. After taking off the header, Estes changed the drive shaft to a pto shaft. A 7700 New Holland corn chopper provided the cutting mechanism and a gearbox off a 140 IH stalk cutter transfers power from the swather pto to the belt-driven cutter box.
"I picked the Owatonna because it has hydrostat motors right on the wheels instead of chain drives," says Estes. "It can turn without tearing up the ground, and it feels comfortable because it's long and wide."
Estes brought the parts into Fiorelli's shop, and in two afternoons, they put it together. They built a frame for the cutter box out of 2 by 2-in. steel tubing. Skid plates underneath keep it from digging too deep into the ground. The knife head is angled toward the ground so that the knives cut down about 5 in. below the skid plates.
"It throws a lot of dirt this way, but if you don't get the bottom branches of the cedar tree, it really takes off growing again," explains Estes. "When I finish, the tree is in pieces from 3 ft. long to 2 in. All the branches and bark will be cleaned off at least one side of the trunk. They rot fast and won't blow."
To mount the chopper head frame to the swather, Estes rescued a 3-pt. hitch from an anhydrous applicator. He just cut the tongue off and bolted it into place underneath the swather with 12 bolts. For a top link, Estes hooked chains from the cutter box frame to the swather frame.
"The 3-pt. lets me lower the cutter box over a tree, while the chains let it float over rough ground," he explains.
The gearbox mounts over the chopper head, bolted to a steel plate that can be loosened to tightened the drive belt.
The one modification that Estes made after he started using the chopper was to mount a combine cab on the swather. "I ran it half a day with dirt and chips flying before I went to work and put the cab on," he recalls.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Larry Estes, HC-69 Box 110, Anselmo, Neb. 68813 (ph 308 872-5592; Estesfam cornhusker.net).
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