looking for best equipment to clean a mountain

[flusher]

Hey folks!
I have 96 acres of raw mountain in east Tenn. No house, no electricity, no barn no nothing but 30 minutes of gravel road to get to it. It has been logged about 10 - 15 years ago, and therefore is pretty messed up. The loggers leave all the top of trees, branches brush. logging trails have been eroding for 10 or 15 years, briars and thorns everywhere. It needs a ton of cleaning up.
After looking around for a year or so, it seems the best tool for cleaning up would be a 4x4 tractor with a grapple loader and a bush hog on back. I could also get a back hoe attachment to help maintain the roads and trails. I first thought track loader (skid steer with tracks) with grapple but the mountain is really steep and rocky.
The Cub LX tractor caught my attention, with its quick attach loader. looks like a skid steer style attachment. Is it? skid steers have such a ton of options. But if it is not standard, then it will be hard to find anything to fit it?
The LX comes with its own grapple. seems to have everything I need.

Any advice?
thanks, it is really great to find an active forum.

That LX at 49hp would be OK for cleaning up the loose stuff laying around on the ground. But cleaning 90+ acres is going to take a lot of seat time.

How about stumps? I assume the loggers left you a whole mess of them. Are you planning to leave them or dig them out?

Have you considered construction equipment--my neighbor uses an old Cat D7 for leveling irrigated alfalfa fields. Something like that (with a bulldozer blade) would make the job go a lot faster



Your steep terrain is a safety problem with a tractor like the LX which is a general purpose utility tractor more suited to flat/moderately sloped topography. These tractors are not mountain goats. So be careful. Don't know how steep is steep in your case, but I'd consider some type of modified tractor set up for steep slopes--like my 1964 Massey Ferguson 135 diesel which has been modified to squat low for work in the olive orchards around my place.



This 135 is a field tractor modified by switching from 28" diameter rear rims to 16" diameter rims to handle those wide 18.6-16A tires and installing shorter spindles on the front axle to keep the tractor level.

Whatever you decide, be careful out there.

[AKfish]

I know this is a forum about tractors... and you want to buy a mid-sized utility type tractor with possibly a backhoe and HD brush hog mower.

I get it...

That said; I've been clearing timber these past 4-5 years on my 20 acres using a JD 110TLB with hyd thumb. I started out with a smaller (33hp) JD 970TLB. Trees, stumps, logs and brush are murder on tractors!

Ever take a good look at USED logging equipment...

It's a slow hoe to row, too! Better be looking over your retirement investments -- if you're gonna get it all done with a 50hp< tractor!

I'm with the buy a piece or two of heavy equipment crowd! Especially an excavator with blade and thumb! If you're only gonna buy one piece of equipment - get the hoe before a dozer - IMO.

There... I said it - and I feel better, already!

Good luck with your decision.

AKfish

[spiglett]

Wow, excellent forum gize! thanks for all the experience. To answer some of the questions:
- It is very steep, so I hear the advice about tractors on mountains. I'm thinking bulldozer.
- No I will not clear all 96 acres. just the flat areas at the bottom and the top. But to get to the top I have to clear a lot of logging trails. sounds like a dozer job, and ongoing dozer maintenance also.
- There are loggers in the "neighborhood" so hiring out a few weeks sounds like a great way to start. They work the land around here, so they should do a good job. And its neighborly to hire them.
- shop around. bigger is better. got it.
thanks again!