My property is flat in front, then drops down behind the house at a 15 degree slope, then flattens out again.
One thing nobody ever talks about with having a sloped yard…using and transporting power equipment. People do talk about mowers, but that’s it.
I thought of renting a chipper to chop up some debris (leaves and small branches), but then came to the realization that moving a 265 lb chipper back UP that hill would probably destroy my back.
I briefly thought about backing my car down the hill, but as muddy as it is, I’d be concerned about getting my car back up as well. Plus, I don’t want to compact and destroy that part of the yard.
My property also slopes down from the house, though probably not as much as 15 degrees. When purchasing a chipper I made sure to get one with a tow bar so that I could pull it with my mower. I’d be surprised if a rental unit doesn’t have a tow bar. Of course you’ll need to have something to tow it with - mower, atv, etc.
The only other option I can think of is to bring the leaves and branches up to the chipper with a dump cart pulled by a mower, atv, etc.
I cleared quite a bit of sloped woods. Cut down the trees. Burnt limbs in barrel. Then I put ad on craigslist giving away the wood. People showed up to cut and remove. Took a couple weeks, but it worked for me.
Just use a single pulley. Your tractor going down hill on one end of the rope and the chipper going up hill on the other end of the rope. Pulley in the middle at the top of the hill. Your weight and your slope should pull that thing right up the hill.
If you have access to a winch that should do the trick if you can power it and have something to attach it to (like a car or mower with a hitch receiver. If not, you could go old school and get a cheap manually driven come-along and attach it to a tree. If no trees are available, pounding a digging bar into the ground at a slight angle uphill like a giant tent stake might do the trick. Additionally - consider turning that hillside into a system of terraces for garden beds if it’s not currently being used. When I was down in Bolivia and Peru I saw the remnants of the agricultural techniques used by the Incans a few hundred years ago and it made me wonder how amazing their irrigation techniques must have been to farm the mountainsides of that area.
That is very much like the Bricklayer’s song. Except it is even more entertaining when presented this way:
Funniest song ever…
Edit: when I located the above video, I also found an old recording. It looks like this is based on a skit that Gerard Hoffnung did in 1958. The original is longer and the commenter seem to like it, but I think the timing and rhyming in the above link makes it much better.
15 degrees? Hah! That’s almost level ground! lol
But really…surely your chipper has wheels, right? If I didn’t have the strength to pull it by hand, I’d hook that sucker behind my mower and roll on, ‘towing capacity’ rating be d@mned. Its not like you’re going on a cross-country road trip…just a few feet across the yard.
The problem I have with my mower on the slopes around here is that I’ll fill my mower trailer with rocks, dirt, or kids, take off just fine on level ground, and then spin out when I get to the steepest part of my driveway or hill. Then I get to look like a dummy backing up and trying again a foot to one side or the other and usually eventually have to lose some weight to get to the top.
I may try that, but it’s more than “a few feet” up that hill. It’s more like 105 feet. I’ll have to get a running start and go to the far side of the property where the slope is the least steep to have a chance to make it, otherwise I have the aforementioned spinning out.
My original orchard is up at the top of such a steep slope that I had to put steps of railroad tie pieces to even WALK up the slope. The soil is very poor up there, too, so I have physically had to carry any amendments up there. At one time I dragged a little cart from step to step hauling composted manure, but ended up needing shoulder therapy at the hospital, and am forbidden to do that again. I have also considered some sort of pulley system, but instead, I bought another piece of property on foreclosure and started over. It shoots a lot of time driving back and forth to the property, but I can use a pickup to move wood chips, tillers, bushes, etc. What an improvement! And when I feel a need for strenuous exercise I still carry wood chips in a large sack up the steps to my original orchard.
If you have to haul lots of stuff up and down the hill, you might consider lawn mower chains. That should keep you from spinning out.
Tractors can sometimes flip over backwards going up steep hills. But with a 15 degree slope, I doubt there is much danger of that. Still, you might keep it in mind if you ever put chains on your lawn mower.
