*sorry for the long winded post*
My family and I just purchased 80 acres here in central FL, the plans are to eventually build 3 homes and maybe a granny-flat. It is a wooded lot with sand pine, long leaf pine, water oak, live oak, blackjack oat, the occasional palmettos and even some cypress by the lake. There is only one cleared spot that is nearly 3 acres and that is being fenced for my mothers nags. The rest we are only wanting to clear enough for the home sites and then another 3 acres for my lady's mini animals (goats, cow and donkey). So that means 3 drievways, 3 home sites, and an additional 3 acres are going to need to be cleared.
Now im "do it yourself" kinda guy, always do our own work with pretty much everything. Unfortunately I dont have the equipment or rather the experience on what im going to be up against with this much land clearing. I have ran tractors and backhoes for relatively short periods of time, and used them to clear various trees and stumps, but nothing involving full acres of land.
The good thing is, the homes arnt going to be built for another 1-2 years, so i am weighing the options as to weather i should get the equipment and chip away at it slowly (which is what i would like to do) or to rent and not worry about the wear and tear on a machine of my own, or the just hire it out.
Talking to a few people and reading the forums i have been trying to figure out the best route on which piece of machinery i sould get. And judging by what i could find, a decent size excavator with a thumb is the best stratagy. Unfortunately in my price range $15-18K, im mostly finding older backhoes, dozers and wheel loaders. I have found the occasional mid to large excavator but they havent been in any kind of condition I would be willing to spend my money on.
I understand the older backhoes and dozers are a risky idea, especially given the amount of abuse they have put through and the work ill be adding to get the job done. I know a good size dozer with a tree spear will push them out with the root balls, but im not the knowledgeable in the undercarriage on tracked machines and the dozers are limited to just kinda pushing the stuff around. The backhoes are on the lighter side being 14-18k lbs, and im not that keen on digging out the roots and trying to shove them over. slight breeze or wrong call on which way it wants to go and im in some quick trouble. Cutting the trees and digging the roots is what ive normally done, but that takes a bit of time and once the weight of the tree i gone, pulling that stump is hard work sometimes on the machine, especially with the bigger pines having a 10ft deep root ball.
This is what brings me to favoring the larger wheel loaders 50,000lb or more,,, they are built pretty tough, higher hp, alot of weight and much higher lifting capacity which seams to be the ticket when clearing tree's. Also have to ability to scoop them up and dump them in a pile unlike the dozer.
I would consider renting, but i work a fair amount of hours as is and being that im not a "skilled" operator of either machine, i dont think ill get my moneys worth out of it or have a clue how long it will take. The larger excavators are like $3500 a week and i would only be able to get a few full days on it at max even on the weekend...
Now i understand hiring out would be much faster and easier, but down here its a bit more expensive then i was originally expecting.. I have gotten 5 estimates so far for a driveway, the first thing i need in order to get started on my section of the land. My spot is roughly 1100ft to the back and per county code i have to have a 40ft easement. So roughly 1 acre of land. Out of the 5 estimates i have been quoted between $7-12k:shocked::shocked:... for 1 acre! and that was only clearing out the root balls of 20ft in width so my driveway doesnt form craters later on... to think of what i would cost for the home sites and acreage i will defiantly be buying or renting..
so far i have found a ford 655a, 755b international 3600, a cat 980b, a kumatsu im waiting on some info on and a clark 275c. All of which fit the price, distance and acceptable condition. Personally i think i would be pretty fun to run the 275c around
:laughing:
I appreciate the group and hope to hear some thoughts on this.
Thanks,
Jon
My family and I just purchased 80 acres here in central FL, the plans are to eventually build 3 homes and maybe a granny-flat. It is a wooded lot with sand pine, long leaf pine, water oak, live oak, blackjack oat, the occasional palmettos and even some cypress by the lake. There is only one cleared spot that is nearly 3 acres and that is being fenced for my mothers nags. The rest we are only wanting to clear enough for the home sites and then another 3 acres for my lady's mini animals (goats, cow and donkey). So that means 3 drievways, 3 home sites, and an additional 3 acres are going to need to be cleared.
Now im "do it yourself" kinda guy, always do our own work with pretty much everything. Unfortunately I dont have the equipment or rather the experience on what im going to be up against with this much land clearing. I have ran tractors and backhoes for relatively short periods of time, and used them to clear various trees and stumps, but nothing involving full acres of land.
The good thing is, the homes arnt going to be built for another 1-2 years, so i am weighing the options as to weather i should get the equipment and chip away at it slowly (which is what i would like to do) or to rent and not worry about the wear and tear on a machine of my own, or the just hire it out.
Talking to a few people and reading the forums i have been trying to figure out the best route on which piece of machinery i sould get. And judging by what i could find, a decent size excavator with a thumb is the best stratagy. Unfortunately in my price range $15-18K, im mostly finding older backhoes, dozers and wheel loaders. I have found the occasional mid to large excavator but they havent been in any kind of condition I would be willing to spend my money on.
I understand the older backhoes and dozers are a risky idea, especially given the amount of abuse they have put through and the work ill be adding to get the job done. I know a good size dozer with a tree spear will push them out with the root balls, but im not the knowledgeable in the undercarriage on tracked machines and the dozers are limited to just kinda pushing the stuff around. The backhoes are on the lighter side being 14-18k lbs, and im not that keen on digging out the roots and trying to shove them over. slight breeze or wrong call on which way it wants to go and im in some quick trouble. Cutting the trees and digging the roots is what ive normally done, but that takes a bit of time and once the weight of the tree i gone, pulling that stump is hard work sometimes on the machine, especially with the bigger pines having a 10ft deep root ball.
This is what brings me to favoring the larger wheel loaders 50,000lb or more,,, they are built pretty tough, higher hp, alot of weight and much higher lifting capacity which seams to be the ticket when clearing tree's. Also have to ability to scoop them up and dump them in a pile unlike the dozer.
I would consider renting, but i work a fair amount of hours as is and being that im not a "skilled" operator of either machine, i dont think ill get my moneys worth out of it or have a clue how long it will take. The larger excavators are like $3500 a week and i would only be able to get a few full days on it at max even on the weekend...
Now i understand hiring out would be much faster and easier, but down here its a bit more expensive then i was originally expecting.. I have gotten 5 estimates so far for a driveway, the first thing i need in order to get started on my section of the land. My spot is roughly 1100ft to the back and per county code i have to have a 40ft easement. So roughly 1 acre of land. Out of the 5 estimates i have been quoted between $7-12k:shocked::shocked:... for 1 acre! and that was only clearing out the root balls of 20ft in width so my driveway doesnt form craters later on... to think of what i would cost for the home sites and acreage i will defiantly be buying or renting..
so far i have found a ford 655a, 755b international 3600, a cat 980b, a kumatsu im waiting on some info on and a clark 275c. All of which fit the price, distance and acceptable condition. Personally i think i would be pretty fun to run the 275c around
:laughing:I appreciate the group and hope to hear some thoughts on this.
Thanks,
Jon
