Tractor Sizing 47 Acres of woods, NH Lakes region, 1/2 of a house too

[jim_wilson]

Jim, what type of drill, and bit, do you need for drilling the holes?

I've got a Bosch hammer drill - one of the "real" ones , that will take SDS type bits (or similar) - and a rock or concrete drilling bit. I think there is a hole size requirement from Dexpan - but I can't remember if it's 1.25" or 1.5" diameter. There's some videos on the Dexpan site and on Youtube about how to use the stuff if you're interested.

If you have a Taylor rental or a Home Depot in your area they might have the appropriately sized hammer drill available. I know I've seen them in both places around this area.

I've taken out a couple of rocks using this method that were just too big for my tractor to work with. One was down in a hole I as digging for drainage lines - and the darn rock was probably a good 16 inches thick on the average - about 6 feet long - and 4ft wide. I could move it around with the BH77 hoe on my B3200 - but every time I tried to get it out of the hole I tried to pull the tractor down into the hole. So I broke it in half and was able to pull it out after I did that.

 

[1LuckyDog]

... Do you have any pictures of your progress, or the mini ex?

I did take some pics. I'm not great at taking many though. Will try to post some.

Does your land look similar? Or do you have a lot more larger trees? I often wonder how much more productive I would be with a mini ex.

Dude! where are your rocks??:irked: My trees are a LOT smaller.

How big are the rocks? Have you thought about a power rake?

My rocks run 4' x 4' by 2 to 8 foot! Ocassionally I run into a big one too Most of what I want to sift out is 5 to 10 inch diameter stuff.

If you don't mind me asking: how much was the four week rental?

~$3000

... try using some Dexpan to break them into smaller pieces: ...

Have thougth about that.

My concern is the drill size and depth required. I have a HF SDS rotary hammer drill. I can get a 1" bit - but where would I find 2 -3 foot long 1" SDS drill bits?

 

[Piston]

I do have my fair share of rocks, but most of them are basketball sized or a bit bigger. In the area that I'm clearing, there really aren't many rocks, well, at the surface anyways :laughing: Some poor farmers of the past went through the hard work of clearing and piling them for me, there are 3 different rock piles, the biggest is 40' wide, by 75' long, although only about 3 to 4' high. The other two are a lot smaller. I keep trying to think of a use for them all!

 

[1LuckyDog]

Here's a couple pics from my place:
Some before and afters




The big rock on the right is about 5' tall

One of the Mini Ex captured by a game camera

 

[Piston]

Thanks for the pics, I bet that was a very productive month for you with the excavator! Now that you have some seat time in one, do you think you'd be better off with a cheaper, smaller tractor AND a mini ex? Or just a nice, bigger tractor?

 

[1LuckyDog]

I'd have to say in my position, I could get by with a smaller (30 - 40 HP) FEL and a mini-Ex. I look at some of the jobs I have and think how much easier and faster it would be to use the mini-Ex. The list price on that one I used (12,000 lb class) is $70k though. Used ones ain't cheap either.

I'm really glad I rented it. I would and will rent when I get the chance to spend a week or month at one shot to do work.

I'd love to have a JD410 or Case 580K to just jump on and go when I get up for a weekend. Just figure, for the cost of one, I'd rather get some things done that I can't do even if I had one. Things like the well being drilled, the drive way needs a bulldozer like a D8, the septic system needs installed. The well is done, so I can scratch that off the list. For about 20k, I'd rather get the septic installed and the drive way upgraded.

I am sure I will eventually get a tractor, FEL, and backhoe, and snow blower too. I have a quarter mile of driveway to keep up.