Hey guys. Have any of you ever used your X or any other vehicle to pull out vegetation? The home we are buying has a lot of overgrowth and a lot of stragly trees, lilacs, privits, etc. What do you suppose would be the best setup if this operation is at all recommended? A shackle for the hitch and a chain or racheting tow strap? I might need something that will tighten as I pull. For the most part I would have a good footing for the truck on the road, but some might be pulled from the grass which I know I will sacrifice. I tried searching but with no results. Thanks in advance!

Whoa.

I haven't, but that sounds like a disaster in the making. A tree pruner, axe and stumpgrinder would be much safer. Rent 'em at Home Depot if you have to.

A lot cheaper than body work on your X, or on you...

We had some bushes around my house that we needed to get rid of. The roots were getting a bit close to the foundation. We trimmed them down to almost a stump and dug around as best we could. We tied a tow strap (the firehose type kind) around the base of the bush and the other end around my tow hitch(with the pin). We placed wet towels on the rope in case it broke and pulled away. The bush came free pretty easily. I wouldnt recommend it for really big stuff but the x pulled it out just fine with no damage to the truck or too the yard. Hope this helps.

Used mine to pull out a satelite dish... worked fine, and that sucker was in there deep.... Just gotta take it easy, and be careful.

Same here. I pulled out a medium sized stump with a tow strap. Just go slow and take it easy.

Last week I used my Xterra to pull up 10 3' tall shrubs and a tree that was about 12' tall and about 4" in dia. I just used a nylon towing strap, looped it through one of the ends so that it would tighten as I pulled. I had to dig around the shrubs a little so that they wouldn't break off when I pulled them, but other than that, they all came out easy enough. It didn't require much pulling to get them out either. I just put it in 4 low and pulled at just a tad over idle speed.

Just make sure your strap can handle the load you are putting on it, and make sure anyone standing around isn't in the " danger " zone before putting any tension on the strap.

I pulled out three bushes that were about 4 foot tall using my 4X2 without much problem. In fact, I thought I was probably the only one crazy enough to use an Xterra for this. Wow, I don't feel like such a redneck after all!

The big thing to remember is use heavy straps, and take it easy... no jerking!

I used the winch on the Xterra and pulled over a 60' tree, while my Uncle was cutting it down with the chainsaw to keep it away from his house.

You'd be surprised what a VG33E can pull, even a 4x2. There was this one cedar tree stump in my girlfriend's yard. It wa about 2' high and about 4 to 5 inches in diameter. I had just bought a HiLift and I wanted to try it out. I tried to rip it straight out of the ground by jacking up on a chain wrapped around the stump but the jack kept sinking. Then I tried to winch it out using my truck as a tow point. However, the chain kept slipping off the lifting arm because I didn't have an offroad kit. My last resort was my truck. I was really just playing around because the stump didn't really have to come out, but I hooked the chain around my ball hitch (on a class III reciever) and wrapped the other end twice around the stump. Sure enough it came right out. When I finally realized it had come out I had actually dragged it about 5 feet, with root ball atached (I hadn't even cut the roots). It weighed so much I had to have my girlfried help me with the light end to get it in the bed of my truck (Frontier, not X).

Here's some tips I figure you'll need:

1. If you're using a tow strap or cable drape something on the line incase it breaks and snap back. You should ideally do this with any type of line, but especially with a rope, cable, or a strap.
2. Take it easy. Go reeaaal slow until slack is taken up. At that point, just ease onto the gas. If you find that you're having to get the revs up above about 1500 rpm then you're probably not going to pull it out without damage to your truck or other property. At that much force the stump can rip out of the ground and inertia will cause it to fly into the back of your truck or in some other unknown direction.
3. Don't yank it. You should be able to "will" it out. If you feel the need to back up and get a running start, don't! The same thing can happen as in #2.
4. If you do have to back up (eg the line you're driving becomes too crowded due to trees, houses, etc) remember to check that your chain (if that's what you're using) is still hooked up. Nothing more frustrating than thinking you ripped up the stump and then find out you haven't been pulling anything at all.
5. Shift to first gear (in an auto, of course; in a manual you should know to do that alread) and 4x4 low (if you have it).

Like this?

This was probably 3 years ago. Hard to see the shrubbery, but it was about 8" in diameter at the base.
I hacked the edge of the trunk with an axe as I was gonna Paul Bunyan the thing - and then decided
that was too much effort.

About 3 easy tugs in 4-low that sucker was free.

Hope you had more than 60' of cable out.