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May 28, 2009 |

Trees Unlimited in suburban Chicago employs a diverse array of skid steers and attachments to achieve a common land clearing goal. Whether they are performing selective thinning and beautification for a private landowner, trail development and maintenance for park projects, or clear-cutting for a commercial endeavor, the skid steers work in tandem to get the project done quickly, efficiently and with minimal disruption of the surface.

Owner Curt Pfaffinger initially purchased the Bull Hog mulching head, a shear and a grapple so he could do more work for park and conservation districts. Selective thinning is the name of the game, so the highly maneuverable skid steers are a perfect fit. “They want to make trails without taking much down – everyone wants to save a tree,” says Pfaffinger. “With the Bull Hog we can do that work efficiently. We get around the big oak tree but not destroy anything that you do not want to.”

The low ground pressure imparted by the skid steers – especially his rubber tracked Cat 287s, and John Deere 280s – was another big selling point for the municipal work. “There is no compaction,” Pfaffinger says. “We do not hurt the root structure so the keeper trees continue to grow and develop.”

As counter-intuitive as it may seem, the maneuverability of the skid steers also enhances efficiency with commercial projects where all of the vegetation is removed. Pfaffinger sends in a skid steer with a Bull Hog mulcher head to clear away the undergrowth before bringing in skid steers with shears, grapples, saws and other equipment to clear away larger material. “We’ll go in with a Fecon head first and get rid of all of the minus-4-inch material – that gives us room to maneuver around without brambles and thorns grabbing at the operators,” says Pfaffinger “The Fecon head goes in the day beforehand, mows it all off and gives the other guys room to work.”

The “other guys” use grapples, tree saws and bunching shears to fell larger diameter trees before hauling them to a central chipping location. “We’ve got a Vermeer with autofeed, which we feed with a Bobcat,” says Pfaffinger. “One guy just feeds the grinder and two guys bring the material to them. He doesn’t have to waste time schlepping logs.”

Sticking to their specialized roles has helped increase the productivity of the entire crew. But that’s not to say that operators never switch attachments. “We’re using all implements on any given job – we flip-flop all the time, because the time to change from one to another is minimal,” says Pfaffinger.

Depending upon the terrain and site conditions, operators may start using the tree saw to fell large diameter trees and then switch to the bunching shear for more control. “Both will handle the same diameter materials – about 16 inches – but the shear gives us more control since we’re still holding onto the tree after it has been sheared,” Pfaffinger says. It’s important in tight working areas, especially residential or where there are other Trees Unlimited crew members working in the vicinity, he says.

Pfaffinger also believes in bringing more equipment than will be used so the project can continue in the event of a breakdown. If the project calls for removal of the mulched material, then Trees Unlimited blows the chips into one of their fleet of chip trucks. “We’ve got 6-wheelers with a box on the back, and a box inverted on top so we can handle 20 yards of chips at a time,” he says.