Brush Clearing
by John Feltmate May 2010
Recently I had to do some clearing on my property. It is a task I have known that was coming for a long time and something I was not looking forward to doing. My experience here might be useful to others facing similar problems.
Let me give you a little background. A number of years ago (1982 I think) I had a backhoe operator push over some trees and do some minor leveling. After that I used a lawn mower to keep nature in check. The one thing about nature is it is relentless in its quest to recapture the land. I found that one pass of the mower once a year or every second year kept things in check. That was fine until the mower gave up about 10 years ago. After that half hearted attempts with a brush cutter were used. The result was the area was becoming overgrown and unmanageable. Now I had to get serious if I wanted to recapture the land.
One of the issues I had with the brush cutter was being able to see the ground when cutting. The problem was the foliage obscured the ground and rocks. You will appreciate that rocks and cutting blades do not mix well. Now I have thicker brush and more obscurity. I concluded that this work needed to be done in the early Spring or late Fall, when the leaves were gone. Well last Fall I could not get my act together so I vowed to do it this Spring. The weather this year has been so good that we are several weeks ahead of season for the leaves. A quick check of the growth around the cottage told me that if I did not get it done before May 1st I might be out of luck until the Fall.
Elgin Equipment Rentals has a walk behind self propelled brush cutter and they assured me it would make short work of what I had to do. I went into town to have a look. I was very skeptical of any claim that would do the job easily. The unit was an ugly beast and something you would not want to have an argument with. It looked like it might do the job. I agreed to rent it for the day.
This unit sits on a steel frame powered by a 16 hp 4 stroke engine with a cutter blade about 24 inches in diameter. There is a ground feeler that keeps the blade about 2 inches off the ground. A steel fence surrounds the blade limiting the size of brush that will go into the blade and protecting it against rocks. The weight and size of the unit means it would be impossible to put it in the trunk of a car or the back of a van easily and difficult for a regular boat. What I did was get a person with a pick-up truck and used a pontoon boat to move it to the island.
The first test for the unit came with a clump of sumac. They were about an inch to inch and a half in diameter 6 to 8 feet tall. The cutter went through them at walking speed without slowing down. My skepticism was fading quickly. The only problem was trying to stay out of the way of the falling vegetation. I did have some help who moved the debris out of the way so I did not have to stop. The cutter was very efficient and well worth the expense. I will be using it again.
If you do decide to rent it here are a few suggestions.
Rent for the full day this way you can pick it up at the end of a day and return it before the end of the next.
If you don’t have a lot of work for the unit share the cost of rental with some of your neighbours and each of you be the others helper.
Know precisely where you want to cut. It will save you time.
Have a gas can filled ready to refuel the unit. It drinks at a rate of about 4 liters in 3 to 4 hours. It is also your obligation to return the unit full or you will be charged extra for the fuel.
I did have some problems. When I was cutting some brush a branch looped under the drive belt and popped it off the pulley. I should have been more careful. It is a relatively simple job to put it back on but it was a job I did not want to tackle myself. No one was available to come and put it on so I was out of business. I think if the second person was at the rental office they would have come immediately to do the fix. That’s the bad news. The good news is I had already finished the primary area that I wanted to do. It failed while working on area that I had just incase I wrapped up what I needed to do early. I had thought it would take 4 to 6 hours to do the primary area. In fact it was done in a little over 2 hours. Elgin Equipment Rentals as a “make good” offered to allow me to take the unit out again. I will take them up on that offer latter this summer.
The unit rented in April for $40.00 for 4 hours and $75.00 or $70.00 for 8 hours. The 8 hour rate allows you to take the unit over night.
I hope you find this information useful.
At the time I was doing the work I did not have my camera with me so I went back to the rental location to take a picture of the unit. While I was doing this I happen to spot a lighter duty unit that might be a little more practical for some Islanders. It is less cumbersome than its bigger cousin and might fit in a trunk of a car, with help, and likely would travel by conventional boat.
All this to say if your want to beat mother nature back the job might not be as daunting as you might have thought.
Recently I had to do some clearing on my property. It is a task I have known that was coming for a long time and something I was not looking forward to doing. My experience here might be useful to others facing similar problems.
Let me give you a little background. A number of years ago (1982 I think) I had a backhoe operator push over some trees and do some minor leveling. After that I used a lawn mower to keep nature in check. The one thing about nature is it is relentless in its quest to recapture the land. I found that one pass of the mower once a year or every second year kept things in check. That was fine until the mower gave up about 10 years ago. After that half hearted attempts with a brush cutter were used. The result was the area was becoming overgrown and unmanageable. Now I had to get serious if I wanted to recapture the land.
One of the issues I had with the brush cutter was being able to see the ground when cutting. The problem was the foliage obscured the ground and rocks. You will appreciate that rocks and cutting blades do not mix well. Now I have thicker brush and more obscurity. I concluded that this work needed to be done in the early Spring or late Fall, when the leaves were gone. Well last Fall I could not get my act together so I vowed to do it this Spring. The weather this year has been so good that we are several weeks ahead of season for the leaves. A quick check of the growth around the cottage told me that if I did not get it done before May 1st I might be out of luck until the Fall.
Elgin Equipment Rentals has a walk behind self propelled brush cutter and they assured me it would make short work of what I had to do. I went into town to have a look. I was very skeptical of any claim that would do the job easily. The unit was an ugly beast and something you would not want to have an argument with. It looked like it might do the job. I agreed to rent it for the day.
This unit sits on a steel frame powered by a 16 hp 4 stroke engine with a cutter blade about 24 inches in diameter. There is a ground feeler that keeps the blade about 2 inches off the ground. A steel fence surrounds the blade limiting the size of brush that will go into the blade and protecting it against rocks. The weight and size of the unit means it would be impossible to put it in the trunk of a car or the back of a van easily and difficult for a regular boat. What I did was get a person with a pick-up truck and used a pontoon boat to move it to the island.
The first test for the unit came with a clump of sumac. They were about an inch to inch and a half in diameter 6 to 8 feet tall. The cutter went through them at walking speed without slowing down. My skepticism was fading quickly. The only problem was trying to stay out of the way of the falling vegetation. I did have some help who moved the debris out of the way so I did not have to stop. The cutter was very efficient and well worth the expense. I will be using it again.
If you do decide to rent it here are a few suggestions.
Rent for the full day this way you can pick it up at the end of a day and return it before the end of the next.
If you don’t have a lot of work for the unit share the cost of rental with some of your neighbours and each of you be the others helper.
Know precisely where you want to cut. It will save you time.
Have a gas can filled ready to refuel the unit. It drinks at a rate of about 4 liters in 3 to 4 hours. It is also your obligation to return the unit full or you will be charged extra for the fuel.
I did have some problems. When I was cutting some brush a branch looped under the drive belt and popped it off the pulley. I should have been more careful. It is a relatively simple job to put it back on but it was a job I did not want to tackle myself. No one was available to come and put it on so I was out of business. I think if the second person was at the rental office they would have come immediately to do the fix. That’s the bad news. The good news is I had already finished the primary area that I wanted to do. It failed while working on area that I had just incase I wrapped up what I needed to do early. I had thought it would take 4 to 6 hours to do the primary area. In fact it was done in a little over 2 hours. Elgin Equipment Rentals as a “make good” offered to allow me to take the unit out again. I will take them up on that offer latter this summer.
The unit rented in April for $40.00 for 4 hours and $75.00 or $70.00 for 8 hours. The 8 hour rate allows you to take the unit over night.
I hope you find this information useful.
At the time I was doing the work I did not have my camera with me so I went back to the rental location to take a picture of the unit. While I was doing this I happen to spot a lighter duty unit that might be a little more practical for some Islanders. It is less cumbersome than its bigger cousin and might fit in a trunk of a car, with help, and likely would travel by conventional boat.
All this to say if your want to beat mother nature back the job might not be as daunting as you might have thought.