Cost of clearing land-dozer

[Highbeam]

I agree. You will be very impressed with the amount of slash generated by such a small area of forest. The trackhoe really shines here as he can stack it high, tight, and dirt free. I don't mind a pile of slash here and there but a low mountain of dirty junk that dominates the landscape must go away.

 

[EddieWalker]

I met with the dozer guy and it was good news. He said no bigger and no thicker than my trees were he could cut my road and clear ten acres in about 20 hours. He said on average it takes him about two hours an acre on projects like mine. His rate is $100/hour with a Case 1150. Of course thats only clearing and piling with no leveling but will be smooth enough to brushhog.

This doesn't sound right at all. My dozer is a Case 1550 and there is no way I could possibly clear two acres in an hour. Obviously it could be that you don't have nearly as much timber on your land, and comparign yours to mine could be totally wrong, but I don't see it happening.

Just pushing over small trees on that much land will take a couple hours per acre if it's even moderately wooded. That's the easy part. Pushing them to a burn pile is what takes all the time. Push a pile, come back for another and so forth will eat up all sorts of time.

$100 an hour is a fair rate, but his ability to clear ten acres in 20 hours doesn't sound right at all. I don't even think you can bush hog an overgrown field that fast with a big mower.

Good luck, but don't be suprised if he's grossly misjudged how long it will take.

Eddie

 

[Highbeam]

Yes, just brushhogging a grass field with a 5' mower at a reasonable pace takes more than an hour per acre. I did one bumpy field of 6 acres in 10 hours.

How wide is the blade on an 1150. I question whether he can cover that much ground in that much time. Unless it was pretty smooth, I would spend the better part of 20 hours just mowing your 10 acres.

My BS meter is climbing. Perhaps you can get a lump sum bid on the job rather than an hourly rate. Don't pay in advance.

 

[johnnyringo]

Ok you guys are scaring me now. I will have to take pictures and give you a good idea of what the place looks like right now. I have done a little clearing so its not like the place is a total jungle. We also agreed that the ground will be good enough to brushhog and not like a golf course.

This guy came with good references so I'm taking a leap of faith and letting him do the job. I guess the best thing about it is after two to three days I can judge what he's did so far and go from there. After all the best way to make someone quit working is tell them your not paying them anymore!

I'll keep you posted.

 

[redlevel]

About the only thing you can do in a situation like this is to pick out somebody who strikes you as relatively honest and has a fairly new machine. Agree on an hourly rate and put him out there for as long as you can stand it. I believe most operators will invariably underestimate the amount of time it will take to do a given job. I'm not saying they are dishonest, but it is just human nature to err on the positive side when making plans.
Good Luck

I hope it works out like he told you, but unless the trees and brush are really thin, I'm afraid your operator might have underestimated. If you think about it, it puts an operator on the spot when you try to pin him down. If he estimates too high, you will go looking elsewhere. If he estimates too low, then you are mad when he takes more time than he estimated.

 

[TwinWillows]

Cut a road & clear 10 acres in 20 hours (2 - 10hour days).. Wow that's fast.. I just don't see any way for that to work out given what you said about your trees being 8 - 10" oak & hickory but I've been wrong before & will be again...

 

[Kendall69]

I just did this a few days ago ( still waiting to get in the Jacuzzi) man was I sore, but the money I saved took away all the pain.

I did aprox 3ac, and it took 6 hours on the rental clock of the tractor. Cost was $400.00 for 8 hours, I returned it with 7 hours, but one hour was other work.

The time was in the rolling it into piles, and some of the Mequite had roots down to China.

Granted, it may of been my first time on the tractor, but after 15 minutes I was doing 180's and pulling and pushing like a pro, at a good clip.

You can see by this pic, I wasn't shy, and it still took time.

 

[meadowlarkponds]

johnnyringo,


I've enjoyed reading this thread and maybe can add a little to it. I'm two years into a project clearing 70 acres of East Texas 7 year old growth clear-cut. I'd guess that 7 year old clear-cut East Texas is probably equal to 25 to 50 year old elsewhere because of our incredible tree growing conditions.

I'm running a Case 450C dozer for all the work. Most of the trees were/are about 6 to 8 inches diameter and I have little trouble pushing them down and into burn piles. The real difficulty for me are the old large stumps remaining from the previous clear-cut. Those stumps are really hard on my small equipment...in fact just this week one got caught up in a track and caused it to throw...not a fun repair job.

Time is a big variable in this kind of project...i.e. how big of a hurry one is in and how much time one is willing to spend on working it. I'm a little different, I suppose, but I enjoy doing the work myself. I now have about 35 of the 70 acres ready for liming, fertilizing and seeding this spring. The other 35 acres is mostly cleared but needs a lot of finishing work still. Should be completed by this fall. I'll be glad to finish, but will also be somewhat sad to see the project end. I have looked forward each day that I can work on it, to climbing on the dozer and getting after it.

I paid $13k for my small Case 450C. I've rennovated/dug two ponds with it in addition to this 70 acre project. I've gotten my money back many fold from just an economics standpoint, but have gained immeasurable satisfaction and joy accomplishing this myself. It isn't for everyone, but a project like yours can be a great blessing in terms of personal satisfaction for years to come.

Best of luck to you on whatever path you choose.