Welcome to Stevens Tree Spades.......

We have been designing and building tree spades since 1973.   Our first tree spades were variations of a Holt and Vermeer design.  They were much improved models with innovative features like hardened wear sleeves in hinge assemblies,extremely heavy duty fail safe design features which were accepted in Canada and many are still in use today.  All these tree spades were built with fail safe features such as mechanical fixes which are gussets and locks to secure welds which had been failing in other manufacturers tree spades.

Early in the 1980 Steve Dankewich, owner and designer of all tree spades designed his own tree spade with features that other tree spades did not have such as nylon wear pads, first tree spades with 3 blades that had inside frame, back and sideshift systems on truck mounts with removeable nylon wear strips and many more innovations.

While a tree spade appears to be a simple machine to design and build in reality if the spade is not built with inherent strength in all areas it will surely fail when the digging gets hard. 

All Stevens tree spades from the smallest potter to our 105" tree spade are designed with the customer in mind. The frames are designed and built so that they will not self-destruct.  The hinges are extremely strong with hardened greasable ballbearing races which are harder than the hinge pin.  There are 7 levels of steel on our hinges and all have hardened sleeves in them.  The top and bottom levels act as anti-tip devices and stop hinge from leaning over not matter how old the spade is. We have never had a hinge wear our with these ball-bearing race sleeves installed in the hinge.  If they do they are easily replaced. The blade towers are fully cross-sectional

with T-1 steel plug welded to front and back for strength to counter extreme forces on all side of blade tower.

Wear pads are made from either Nylotron or Aluminum-bronze.  Nylon wear pads are with large surface area for long lasting.  We use Aluminum-Bronze where dirt can accumulate.  Aluminum-bronze wear pads can be removed externally without dismantling tree spade.  They are held in place with silicon-bronze bolts which wear with pad. Silicon bronze wear pad bolts are soft and wont wear out steel surfaces.

Blades are made from T-1 steel 3/8" thick on all our tree spades.  AR400 steel is optional.  We have found that T-1 steel is stronger that AR 400.  However AR 400 is  more abrasive resistant.

All our new models now come with removeable blades option.   The blades are secured to the blade towers with 2 pins made from 4140 steel.  If you happen to bend a blade they are easily removed and repaired.  This is a expensive option and the price is commensurate with the size of the tree spade.  Enquire for pricing. All blades have 3 bends in them to kept them straight for many years to come.  We have been bending blades with one bend in middle with smaller bends to make the rest of the blade curved.  All sizes are miminal as dimensions are taken from smallest diameter of hole made by blades bent in this manner. You are guarranteed to fill the basket every time with 3 bends in 3/8" steel and you will never have to worry about bending your blades.  For people who want one bend down middle and curved blades to outside we still offer this as an option  Of course trying to break rocks is hard on any steel and this should be avoided.  If you care about your investment you will look after the spade and it will then look after you.

All our models have not changed in the past 5 years as they have proven to be mature in all respects.  We reserve the right to improve any part of any tree spade without notice.  This is our drive to make you the strongest tree spade available with features that others just simply do not have.

If you are sincere in acquiring the best tree spade available, look closely at our web page and look closely at the competition.   Only then will you be able to learn that we are not just trying to be good salesmen, but we are trying to educate you to the fact that our spades are truly better.

Prices are commensurate with quality.  Some of our best models do not come cheap.  We charge more and in most cases we do not make more money but are simply getting back what we are putting into the tree spade so that your investment will be secure.

Engineered cad drawings and specifications on request for discerning buyers.

Steve Dankewich

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