or just lay the hedge and have a good hedge straight away
tree shear
- Thread starter R J
- Start date
Goweresque
Member
- Location
- North Wilts
Thats what my 360 has - you have to flip a switch in the cab to toggle between opening and closing the shear and the up/down tilt. Doesn't cause me any grief. Most of the time if you are working on hedges you are working at the same horizontal angle anyway, so you don't need to change the shear angle very much.
Goweresque
Member
- Location
- North Wilts
Would a laid hedge be stock proof without a fence? I doubt it, especially if its an old gappy one to start with. So given you're going to have to re-fence the hedge after both scenarios (laying or cutting off low down), sure its far cheaper and quicker to use a shear to cut it off low down and let it regrow (and the stems do regrow rapidly after shearing, the hedge recovers many times faster than flailing) than spend a lot of time and effort yourself (or £££ paying a contractor) to lay it. I reckon I can do 50-100m/hr, depending on the thickness and complexity of the hedge, would be quicker if just cutting everything off low and not trying to shape the hedge up too. So given the prices quoted above I reckon the cost per metre would be closer to 50p/m than to a £1/m. The other advantage of shearing is that it can be done either above the existing fence line, which would have to be removed if the hedge was to be laid, or from the unfenced side (if there is one).
- Location
- East Sussex
Agree but with a coppiced hedge you would have to fence both sides which is an issue with a smallish ditch alongside. If you laid it then you would get away with only fencing the one side therefore leaving the ditch accessible.
yes they can be made stock proof but I get your point, I have had a hedge saw for 25 years that will take down 18 inch oak limbs so know how well it grows when cut of nice
we are looking at one of these tree shears though, mainly for the fact they pick up the and carry it out, we want it for getting wood out off inaccessible places for logs that would be to much work to justify otherwise
it all depends on the hedge really, plus there is a grant for laying them
we are looking at one of these tree shears though, mainly for the fact they pick up the and carry it out, we want it for getting wood out off inaccessible places for logs that would be to much work to justify otherwise
it all depends on the hedge really, plus there is a grant for laying them
we tend to lay the hedge, dig the dich then fence both sides, fencing to keep them out of the dich then let the hedge grow over the ditch and trim what grows through the fence, the dich will keep clean for far longer like this
Goweresque
Member
- Location
- North Wilts
The ability to hold on to the branch after cutting is a massive plus. It means you can clear stuff overhanging deep ditches and streams, and down banks in ways that would take a huge amount of effort using other methods. I wish I'd had one a few years ago when pollarding willows next to a stream, I had to take the fence down, and drag all the big branches out into the field with the telehandler (the ground of course was wet, pollarding having to be done in winter), it was a real mess. 360 and shear grab would have done the job in half the time and none of the mess. Probably wouldn't even have had to take the fence down. I've also done roadside hedges from the inside with no problems - these were hedges that if I'd tried to flail them I would have covered the road in a carpet of wood chips!
I have a huge amount of willows to clear, is a shear without a rotator any good for that job ?
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
Would be fine for willow without a rotator.
Doing it for the kids
Member
Yeah got a hammer line, need to price up for the mods, got a few km to sort so may be cheaper as have the digger, rather than hire whole unit.
What does it cost to lay a a hedge and how much in a day?
Most of what infant to tackle is boundary hedge to a road. No need to worry about fencing other than hares and deer which are kept in check anyway due to all the new hedges we have planted. The locals will go. It's but they won't appreciate in 5 yrs time how good it will look. They never do though
it depends on the hedge and who has the wood if there is any, I have had them done for anything from nothing to £10/meter, you may be able to get a grant, we just did
Doing it for the kids
Member
The hedge is only 3 m tall max. No wood value there.
@ £10/m that's 10-20k in hedge costs!
@ £10/m that's 10-20k in hedge costs!
Goweresque
Member
- Location
- North Wilts
Assuming they've been pollarded before, and you have a 360 with enough reach it shouldn't be a problem. Even if the stems are a bit big at the bottom to do in one piece you can usually shear them off further up where they're thinner, and then cut the bit sticking up with a chainsaw and clear the felled logs with the grab afterwards. I have a 15 tonne 360 and lots of old willow pollards and would be happy to tackle any of them using my grab.
Goweresque
Member
- Location
- North Wilts
I sheared a road side hedge last winter, early this year in fact. Its grown so much since then it'll need a trim this winter to keep the shoots out of the road. You'd never know it had been cut off only 9 months ago. I'll try and get a pic.
Edit: here you go:
You can see from the trees I've left how tall the hedge was, it was all planted new 25 odd years ago. Some of the new shoots are 3-4 foot long, most 1-2 feet at least.
Last edited:
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
Not that i Know of, My Plan is to add a Grab to the Exact one, Should be fairly easy and been done before aparantly.
DaveJ
Member
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
Having had a look at their facebook site, the biggest Exac-one (350) is available with a grab. There's a video of it working. On a 14 tonne machine though.
exmoor dave
Member
- Location
- exmoor, uk
Might have a shear for sale later this year once my bro and me can decide whether it's worth us having or not.
6" capacity and it's got 90deg rotation (via a ram not a rotator)
We have it on our 8 tonner. Done plenty of work in a previous life by the looks of it, so has had abit of welding and one of the Rams is likely to need resealing before long.
It's a cool machine to have, but to be honest digging bucket used in conjunction with the hydraulic thumb is miles better and faster for gorse work.
Shear is ok for hedges providing there's room on each side of the target tree to get the shear in which we found often wasn't the case, so we've gone back to using chainsaws to cut hedges down and then digger with bucket and thumb to swing the timber right round out the way to bank and fence hedge.
The big advantage of the shear is the ability to cut tree, then grab it again mid way up trunk then swing round and place all the trees facing the same way facing away from the hedge which makes picking op with the loader much easier.
Where as with the bucket you get left with a jumble
If any one has some pennies to spare I can't recommend a hydraulic thumb highly enough
Don't even bother with a manual, you'll regret it once you see a hydraulic in action.
6" capacity and it's got 90deg rotation (via a ram not a rotator)
We have it on our 8 tonner. Done plenty of work in a previous life by the looks of it, so has had abit of welding and one of the Rams is likely to need resealing before long.
It's a cool machine to have, but to be honest digging bucket used in conjunction with the hydraulic thumb is miles better and faster for gorse work.
Shear is ok for hedges providing there's room on each side of the target tree to get the shear in which we found often wasn't the case, so we've gone back to using chainsaws to cut hedges down and then digger with bucket and thumb to swing the timber right round out the way to bank and fence hedge.
The big advantage of the shear is the ability to cut tree, then grab it again mid way up trunk then swing round and place all the trees facing the same way facing away from the hedge which makes picking op with the loader much easier.
Where as with the bucket you get left with a jumble
If any one has some pennies to spare I can't recommend a hydraulic thumb highly enough
Don't even bother with a manual, you'll regret it once you see a hydraulic in action.
- Location
- Montgomeryshire
yes thats the sort of thing i've got in mind. was Hoping to use the grab thats fitted to the Engcon, but sadly it wont line up well enough.