Advice on clearing two acres (video inside)

[texansfan]

Hi,

I have a couple acres behind a trailer and chicken coop I want cleared. Land was timber logged about 7 years ago so now a good bunch of it is already thinned out but there is a good amount of underbrush. Well, you can take a look at the video. The soil is sandy and most of the trees are pines. This is East Texas (Harrison County) afterall.

I saw another post on here a guy recommended this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxfw66cFIdE&feature=youtu.be

Which is something the Kubota dealer offered to rent me for $3,000 for a week (Kubota SVL90 with mulching attachment)

Here is the land in question: http://tinyurl.com/twoacres

I start out at the backdoor of the trailer.
20 seconds in I pause at the chicken coop
45 seconds in I show the fence post where I want to begin the clearing
clear a 2 acre square from that post out into the thinned area you see

1. If I were going to buy something to do this what should I get?
I only need these two acres cleared and that's it. I'm not trying to get into the land clearing business so I will be selling the machine afterwards.

2. If I were going to pay someone to do this, how many hours do you think this should take? To clear everything in this 4mins video? I know hourly rates will differ around the country so I'm looking for the number of hours/days it should take and I can go from there.

Thanks.

 

[Duwop]

I hired a local company to come in and clean up my overgrown land. 14 hours at 150 per hour later my 6 acres was cleaned up. They had a cutter similar to what is in your video on a Deere skid steer. Some of the best money spent and countless hours of manual labor saved.

 

[zionview]

I'm hesitant to offer an idea without knowing what your goal is for the land, for instance cropping, pasture, trees, etc. A backhoe and a chainsaw would work for me if I were clearing it. My problem with flail type machines is what they leave behind- tree trunks and roots that are often spear-shaped and ready to poke a tire or someone's leg. I would cut the trees and underbrush low, then dig the roots out and smooth the ground over. I'd be interested in more detail about Duwop's experience. Were there sharp roots leftover? Was there a pile of brush and wood to burn, or was it flailed into a mulch on the ground as they went? If there wasn't much to do after they left, your talking about less than $1000 to drink coffee and watch someone else do the hard part.

 

[rustyshakelford]

You can rent a decent sized Dozer for 1200-1500 for the week. If you have a buddy that can run one I would go that route because you will be able to get a lot more done than with a mulcher. I could underbrush 2 acres in a day depending on how dense it is and soil conditions for reference.

Brett

 

[texansfan]

I'm hesitant to offer an idea without knowing what your goal is for the land, for instance cropping, pasture, trees, etc. A backhoe and a chainsaw would work for me if I were clearing it. .

I have 1,000 Virginia Pine Xmas trees coming in January that I will be planting with a dibble bar on these two acres. I simply want the land cleared and the brush to be stacked in piles on the back of the two acres so I can burn it.

I guess I can spend a few days with a chainsaw going at it but then I would have the problem of getting all of the downed trees into big piles.

I need to befriend someone with heavy equipment.
None of the neighbors have equipment but they have giving me numbers for guys that do and they are going to look at the property this weekend to assess.

 

[yellowdogsvc]

I still can't believe a dealer will rent a skid steer mulcher especially to people who may not have ever operated one. I was looking at rental machines while waiting on one of my machines and they are just beat to ****.

After re-reading the posts and seeing you want to replant, I'd either use a small excavator or small dozer or big skid steer with grapple.

 

[rustyshakelford]

I still can't believe a dealer will rent a skid steer mulcher especially to people who may not have ever operated one. I was looking at rental machines while waiting on one of my machines and they are just beat to ****.

After re-reading the posts and seeing you want to replant, I'd either use a small excavator or small dozer or big skid steer with grapple.

You are spot on. I wonder how many deposits they keep on these rental mulchers. It's not like a little track hoe your using to dig a trench with. These machines can get you hurt or damage the equipment quick. I'm sure the dealers only care about the money though. I run heavy equipment and would even be nervous running a mulcher the first time


Brett

 

[rustyshakelford]

I still can't believe a dealer will rent a skid steer mulcher especially to people who may not have ever operated one. I was looking at rental machines while waiting on one of my machines and they are just beat to ****.

After re-reading the posts and seeing you want to replant, I'd either use a small excavator or small dozer or big skid steer with grapple.

You are spot on. I wonder how many deposits they keep on these rental mulchers. It's not like a little track hoe your using to dig a trench with. These machines can get you hurt or damage the equipment quick. I'm sure the dealers only care about the money though. I run heavy equipment and would even be nervous running a mulcher the first time


Brett

 

[tonyoz]

Gees 2 acres is bugger all. I carry them around with me all day and night
Seriously though a good operator on a 100hp machine should take about a day to clean up that area where as you rent a machine for a week and get a bad job done expensively

 

[Duwop]

I'm hesitant to offer an idea without knowing what your goal is for the land, for instance cropping, pasture, trees, etc. A backhoe and a chainsaw would work for me if I were clearing it. My problem with flail type machines is what they leave behind- tree trunks and roots that are often spear-shaped and ready to poke a tire or someone's leg. I would cut the trees and underbrush low, then dig the roots out and smooth the ground over. I'd be interested in more detail about Duwop's experience. Were there sharp roots leftover? Was there a pile of brush and wood to burn, or was it flailed into a mulch on the ground as they went? If there wasn't much to do after they left, your talking about less than $1000 to drink coffee and watch someone else do the hard part.

Much as you described a little of each left for me clean up. I would have preferred to hire a couple of men to come in and chainsaw it down and get the stumps out but I'm sure you know not that many young men want to work that hard. For me I think it was my only option as I'm unable to do much work physically.