LAND CLEARING METHOD

Abstract: A method of land clearing forest areas by means of a tractor (1) which straddles the rows of trees (5-6-7) and pulls a plurality of V-shaped cutting blades (2) with overlapping wings (4) and a central support leg (3) to cut the tree roots, after which the trees or stumps (8-9) are formed into a common pile (11) by a raking device (10) made up of a number of sequentially positioned overlapping pin wheels which lift the stumps from the ground prior to piling them.

Description: IAND CLEARING METHOD This invention relates to a method of land clearing particularly where the-land to be cle'ared is wooded. The specific problem to which this invention is directed - • _. * . is the problem of clearing trees from land, in a most 5. effective and economical way. In a typical example, trees are growing on land to an average height of 15 to 18 feet and having trunk diameters in the vicinity of 4 to 5 inches. The trees are spaced apart only sufficient to 10. allow for modest growth and while there can be a random distribution of such trees in rows,-a typical distance apart can be three to four feet. The conventional technique for clearing such land in a country such as the United States of America is to take a powerful tractor 15. having caterpillar type tracks and with a front transverse blade firstly pass through the wooded land pushing the stems or trunks of the trees down to such an extent as to either break the trunk in the vicinity of the ground or to some extent dislodge in conjunction with 20. breaking the trunk, the roots by which the stump of the tree is held. Subsequent to a first pass, the same device must then return and with the sequence of backward and forward movements work the trunks together with what stumps can be 25. dislodged in this manner from the earth eventually pushing such stumps as have been pushed from the earth together with trunks into a collective heap. Such a heap is normally extended in a continuous alignment so that it becomes a row of heaped foliage, 30. trunks of trees, roots and significant earth. Attempts are then made to burn such foliage and timber as appropriate considering the dryness of the foliage and timber and the degree to which this is left uncovered from earth within the mixture. 5. Such a technique as has been described is a conventional technique presently used extensively clearing trees from land or clearing of stumps from timber harvested areas. The object of this invention is to provide a 10. method of land clearing which will enable very significant reductions in the total cost of such clearing. The invention can be said to reside in a method of land clearing which method includes the steps of cutting the roots of timbers to be cleared by passing 15. a blade, while being drawn beneath the ground through said roots and then effecting a collecting of the separated timbers by raking. It is implicit in this statement that the blade shall be continuously drawn through the ground and -- • it is expected would fully pass beneath the timber so as to fully sever all or at least most of the supporting roots. It has been found that in preference, timbers which have been grown to an approximate height of 25. about 6 meters can be directly cleared by using this technique. It is implicit however that timbers of greater height can be felled in which case the stumps of the timbers are left substantially protuding above the ground level. In previous methods of attempting to clear timbers from felled sights, the technique in using large bull¬ dozers caused significant difficulty in that by pushing stumps from the ground without severing of their roots, 5. this has the effect of lifting significant dirt and at the same time, because of the row alignment in many instances of forests, the bulldozer is either not easily directed outside a straight alignment or if it is, it is very much less preferred so rarely 10- pursued by drivers effecting such clearing operations. Once there is significant dirt load within any gathered timber debris, it becomes extremely difficult to shift by any means although bulldozers with front can of course effect such a result. 15. The problem that has been previously discussed is the resultant cost of such clearing techniques. A further aspect of such clearing techniques relates to the difficulty of any traction device such as a caterpillar tractor traversing across a felled 20. timber areas in which there are stumps remaining which do not have their roots cut. With the conventional clearing technique, for instance if using blades on the front of a bulldozer tract vehicle, it is essential that in order to gather 25. all of the material, that the vehicle will have to ride over stumps within the ground. This is both very uncomfortable to the operator and can be extremely wearing to the mechanical parts of the vehicle. Further, of course, the gathering includes significant proportions of dirt so that even with the substantial effort, the result is not particularly satisfactory and of course the expense is substantial. 5. Further however because of the necessary toing and froing essential in this conventional clearing technique, the same vehicle must pass across the difficult areas at least several times so considerably worsening the effect. 10. In preference, the method of clearing land is applied to a site where the timbers have been removed to the extent that stumps are projecting substantially above the ground. In explanation, if larger timbers are separately 15. felled, this can still leave timber of modest height for, as stated, stumps in the ground and it is in this particular context that the method of this invention is particularly advantageous. The means for cutting the roots below the ground 20. in continuous fashion can comprise a blade having a forwardmost cutting edge of V-shape and the blade being supported by a single leg by which the blade can be drawn in a substantially horizontal alignment through the ground. 25. This technique does imply that there is some alignment of reasonable clearance through the forest area to be cleared because it is also implicit that the leg itself will not be adapted to encounter stumps or trees. It is a further feature, that there can be a plurality of such blades held by means which control the depth of penetration of each of these and in preference the working depth is approximately 6 inches 5 * below the ground surface. Also in preference, the blades are aligned in an overlapping relationship so that the rear wing of one aligns with the rear wing in a forward or rearward alignment with an adjacent blade. 10- It is, of course, a feature that such blades will have a wing which can extend from a central location where supported by the leg to a sufficient extent to a side to ensure that the roots of a stump effective in holding timber of the size discussed can be severed. 15• In preference, the raking subsequent to the severing of the roots, is effected by a plurality of rotatable wheels each having periphally extending fingers, each being supported so as to engage material being gathered and by having such contact be caused to rotate in 20. effect of shifting of such material being gathered to a side of the wheel. By having such a plurality of wheels in adjacent and rearward alignment to the other, and drawing these through areas in which the timber has been treated by 25. having the roots severed beneath the soil as discussed, this can in effect gather such timber in a single pass and collect this as a row. To assist in a better understanding of the invention it will now be described with respect to the referred embodiment which will shall be described with the assistance of drawing in which 5. FIG. 1 in schematic illustrates an arrangement of a caterpillar type tractor drawing to blades in adjacent relationship beneath the ground to sever roots and FIG. 2 illustrates in schematic manner a rotary 10. rake arranged to gather timbers subsequent to being severed. Referring to the drawings, a tractor 1 of a type is adapted to straddle the stumps of the felled timber and has caterpillar tracks to provide sufficient traction 5. for the purpose. The tractor 1 is appropriately secured each having a forwardmost cutting edge of V-shape with a centralmost apex and each being supported by an upstanding central leg 3. The wings 4 of each blade plough extends substan- 20. tially out beyond the width of the tractor 1 and in this instance the width from tip to tip is 6 feet. Accordingly, the position of the two blades 2 is such that there is an overlapping relationship when moved forwardly with respect to each of their 25. inner wings 4 so as to ensure a fully effective cutting of the roots of the central timber stumps 5. The remaining timber stumps lines 6 and 7 are of course, cut by the outermost wings 4. The method of use is such that the blades 2 are each drawn beneath a ground level at a sufficient 5. depth that will avoid the major mass of the timber stump but at the same time will pass through and effect¬ ively sever the effective root connections. By using a height of approximately 6 inches, the lateral roots are also effectively severed as 10. well as any tap root. Also the effect of severing is to ensure that dirt which otherwise will be trapped by the extensive network of roots will be left in the ground and the major bulk of timber will be lifted when subsequently 15. the timbers stumps are raked. In FIG. 2, once again shown schematically, there are two rows of stumps 8 and 9 in each case having had their roots severed in the manner previously described and in this case there is a raking device shown schematic- 20. ally at 10 which has a number of sequentially positioned overlapping pin wheels each of which has a number of fingers extending in a radial direction from the periphery of the wheel. Such wheels are supported by appropriate frame 25. and ground supporting carriage means and are drawn by a tractor so that they will progress in the direction of the alignment of the rows 8 and 9 and as they go forward will be caused to gather the stumps, lifting these from the ground and by the combined effect of ground 30. contact and engagement against the inclined face of each rake wheel, the stumps will be gathered into a common alignment which is shown in the drawing at the left hand side at 11. It is implicit again in the raking action that any tractor would straddle a row of timber. Using this method in respect of a forest area in the United States, in respect of a common variety 5. of forest timber, it has been estimated that a saving in cost against the conventional clearing technique has been achieved of at least 50%. The gathered or raked timber can be used for economic purposes or it can be simply kept aside for 10. subsequent destruction or burning. An examination of the results of one method of clearing in the manner described was that there was very little dirt gathered and that because each of the techniques could be achieved by a single pass 15. both time and therefore cost, as well as overall equip¬ ment life could be saved with the outstanding advantages thus expressed.

Claims: C L A I M S J 1. A method of land clearing which method includes the steps of cutting the roots of timbers to be cleared by passing a blade, while being . drawn beneath the ground through said roots, 5. and then effecting a collecting of. the separated timbers by raking. 2. A method as in claim 1 wherein the method is applied to a site wherein the timbers have been removed to the extent that stumps are project- 10. ing substantially above the ground. 3. A method as in claim 2 wherein the method is applied to a site wherein the timbers have been cleared by means such as to leave stumps projecting substantially above the ground. 15. 4. A method as in any one of the preceding claims wherein the steps are further characterised in that the steps of cutting the blade is effected by a blade having a forwardmost cutting edge of V-shape and the blade is supported by a single 20. leg by which the blade can be drawn in a substantially horizontal alignment through the ground. 5. A method of clearing land as in any one of the preceding claims wherein the raking is 25. effected by a plurality of rotatable wheels each having periphery extending fingers and each being supported so as to engage the ground and by having such a ground contact be caused to rotate and effect a shifting of material 30. being gathered to a side of the wheel. 6. A method as in the immediately preceding claim further characterised in that there are a plurality of such wheels each positioned in an overlapping relationship whereby to effect 5. a passing of the timbers along the length of the rake. 7. A method of land clearing substantially as described in the specification.

Inventors: SYMONDS DARRELL CHARLES, SYMONDS, DARRELL, CHARLES
Applicants: SYMONDS DARRELL CHARLES, SYMONDS, DARRELL, CHARLES
Application year: 1985
Main classification: A01G23
IPC codes: A01G23