Dozer-Mounted Spear Also Digs Roots

Dozer-Mounted Spear Also Digs Roots MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT Earth Movers Mike Belben designed and built a combination tree spear root rake and grapple that attaches to the 9-ft wide 6-way blade on his Komatsu D31P-18 dozer “I built this attachment because I don’t have a skid steer and wanted my dozer to have the same grappling ability that many skid steer attachments have ” Belben says “I wanted it to work while I was moving forward backward and turning either direction sideways ” The 5-ft wide attachment has a thick horizontal steel bar at the base with six rake blade teeth 12 in long made of 1-in by 4-in steel plate They’re welded to 3 1/2-in by 3/8-in square tubing with reinforcing spacers The uprights and crossbar frame which form the top portion of the grapple are made of the same tubing The frame attaches to the top of the dozer blade with u-shaped brackets and 1-in pins A 10-ft long vertical spear made of 4-in tubing extends up and away from the frame anchored by diagonal braces The spear and grapple are raised and lowered by a hydraulic cylinder plumbed into the dozer blade tilt valve Belben says he learned through trial and error that a dozer attachment needs to be really strong “I was able to lift out big roots and push over small trees but I broke some of the welds trying to push and lift a large root ball so it’s coming back to the shop for repairs and reinforcements ” Belben says the attachment works just like he intended when building it “I’m able to dig out tree roots and stumps and comb the dirt off before piling them where I can push them to the burn pile I can also use the spear to grab logs I’ve cut and move them to a pile The fork works like a grapple when I activate the cylinder that pulls it toward the dozer blade and the grapple securely holds the material ” Belben adds “Over the years I’ve dragged a lot of metal junk home from scrapyards then cut it apart and made stuff I can use This way I don’t have to spend a lot of money buying new equipment that’s expensive and sometimes doesn’t work because it’s not exactly built for what I need ” Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Michael Belben mike_belben@yahoo com

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.