Buying Advice Bought 100 Acres. Upgrade my tractor or hire some work done?

[nosurprise]

In my opinion DIY is more satisfying, but a WHOLE lot of work- obviously. I guess I would consider a mixture of resources having done this similar thing a time or two.

Perhaps consider initially bringing in a Forestry mulcher to knock out an inner area access trail for you that allows you to reach the back areas, yet still leaves natural barriers to keep out trespassers. Then you can work on finer details with your time and equipment. If you find the task remains daunting, you can always bring equipment back in... The nice thing about a mulcher is that the end result is just mulch as opposed to piles of knocked down trees that might get in your way. (Dozer on a tear would be cheaper though to be sure.)

This big guy here could make short work of a basic access trail. There are also skid steer mounted units that have done great work on our place a couple of times.

Enjoy your new place! Stay safe and have fun.

Sound advice right here, Imo

 

[crazyal]

As someone with plenty of land and a Case 450 dozer my advise is to rent one for a week. The first day will be more learning but by the second day you'll have a smile on your face so large that it'll take months to remove. Unless you need to fill in low spots I wouldn't touch the dirt with the blade. Just keep it an inch or two off the ground and push them trees over and the stump will come up with them. It'll probably only take you a day to make all the trails you want but the price for two days (and transportation) is not much cheaper than a week.

As for the piles of brush, push them off to the side and deal with them later. If you can do this right before spring (just don't do it in muddy conditions) the trees will have buds on them that the deer will love you for the free meal. In a year or so the brush will dry out making it easier to deal with. Personally I just drive over it with the dozer. Once dry the tracks bust it up into small pieces. It's good for the land to let the branches decompose to help build soil.

The other advantage is you'll get some seat time on a tool that you may need down the road. I rarely use my dozer but there are tasks that it's just so much better at.

 

[Olympus]

Hey all, just wanted to provide an update. I have done some research on renting a dozer and can't find anyone in my area that has one small enough to use for atv trails. The smallest I can rent is a Case 650. One place has one for $600/day or $1800/week and anothet place has a 650L for $1330/week. In looking, it seems that the 650 suze had a blade that is 10ft wide! Even angled, that seems too wide to use for ATV trails.

 

[Sodo]

Hey all, just wanted to provide an update. I have done some research on renting a dozer and can't find anyone in my area that has one small enough to use for atv trails. The smallest I can rent is a Case 650. One place has one for $600/day or $1800/week and anothet place has a 650L for $1330/week. In looking, it seems that the 650 suze had a blade that is 10ft wide! Even angled, that seems too wide to use for ATV trails.

Forum advice is almost ALWAYS out of scale to the job at hand. Theres often very little advice how to do any job with the tools you have. If you have a chainsaw, you need to buy a bigger one. If you have a pickup, you need to buy a bigger one, if you have a tractor,..... leave it parked and hire out to get a 14 foot wide road where you want a little path. Get the picture?

Part of this is because you don't show pics of your land, or pic of your tools or pics of a trail that you like. Pics of trails are difficult though, I'll grant you that.

Use what you have and the trail will progress at the necessary speed, it will pass by the attractions that you value, and you will enjoy the work, and the exercise. Physical conditioning, you will become stronger and feel better and have the satisfaction of working your land. By the time you buy a tool you will know that you need it, and it's not just some other guy who doesn't need it himself getting you to buy one to see how it works out. You will find out what tools you need, and the tools you have won't just "age in waste & non-use". The time I spend making my trails is happy time, and then I get to use them too.

That said, I would like to have a small dozer to scrape up piles of brush. But a dozer is too wide for the style of ATV trail that I like.

 

[Snowback]

Hey all, just wanted to provide an update. I have done some research on renting a dozer and can't find anyone in my area that has one small enough to use for atv trails. The smallest I can rent is a Case 650. One place has one for $600/day or $1800/week and anothet place has a 650L for $1330/week. In looking, it seems that the 650 suze had a blade that is 10ft wide! Even angled, that seems too wide to use for ATV trails.

With this new info, I would think about walking the area and marking a "path" with orange ribbon, then hiring a guy with Chainsaw to move in front of a smaller Forestry mulcher like this deal here... You could just have the guy squirt around the big beautiful trees, chainsaw down medium/big ones that were in the way, and then have the mulcher get you an instant, mulched 6' trail in and out of the woods. I don't think it would take too long at all and you could ride right away!

Then you could get the tractor in and out to do more surgical work as time permits. You could also maintain the trail easily with your smaller tractor. Someday soon though you are going to want a bigger tractor and a grapple!

Would be a great starter trail with minimum investment and quickest time to enjoyment. Dozens more examples here: forestry mulcher - YouTube

 

[WoodChuckDad]

I read thru the thread, then went back and read your original post. There are a couple things that come to mind and a few questions. First I don't know how much of a hurry you are in. If you feel you need the trails cut immediately, then hire it out. If you don't, then I'd take some time and thin some walking trails just so I could get used to the area. Are you only using it for recreation? Is anything else besides trails, and hunting going to be done on the property? How far do you live from the property, and how much time can you realistically devote to this task? All these things weigh in.....You are 33, do you have kids? If working on the property takes away from dad time, then that should be heavily considered. If I didn't live too far away, and didn't need the trails cut right away, I would pick at it myself for a little bit, just so I could get the lay of the land and decide better, what I want/need. If I am far away, or this would take a toll on my family life, then I would look at hiring it out. Ultimately you can't hire it out unless you can afford to spend that money. And if you can, and you want to, then go for it. That brings up another point. If this is something that you really just don't want to do yourself, and would rather just have it done, and can afford it, then pay somebody and use your time for something else.

 

[Olympus]

I've got a year and a half old boy at home, so I don't have a ton of time to just go out and spend all weekend out there.

But I think I'm going to try the DIY method with a chainsaw and go a little at a time. I've read a lot of good advice on here about enjoying the journey and not just the destination. So I'll try to take that to heart.

 

[jenkinsph]

I've got a year and a half old boy at home, so I don't have a ton of time to just go out and spend all weekend out there.

But I think I'm going to try the DIY method with a chainsaw and go a little at a time. I've read a lot of good advice on here about enjoying the journey and not just the destination. So I'll try to take that to heart.

Sometimes as the old saying goes "Haste makes waste", I suspect that you will get a better picture of what works best with closer involvement. Even if you don't have time to complete this with the DIY method the time you spend assessing the land will aid you in telling others what you want. Trees are easier to cut down than to replace so choose your paths wisely.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

Sometimes as the old saying goes "Haste makes waste", I suspect that you will get a better picture of what works best with closer involvement. Even if you don't have time to complete this with the DIY method the time you spend assessing the land will aid you in telling others what you want. Trees are easier to cut down than to replace so choose your paths wisely.

Well said. One other thing to consider. Just because you start doing it yourself, doesn't mean you have to keep doing it yourself. When we were having trouble finding people to log our land so that we could clear it, I grabbed a saw and started working on clearing a hill. It took a ridiculously long amount of time. I cut a bunch of trees then had my kids working the chains for me. I would pull trees out with the chains, and then I would grab them up with the grapple and put them in a pile. I couldn't get the tractor up to the hill to grab the trees with the grapple where they fell because it was too steep. This experience let me know some of my limitations, both ability wise and time wise. It didn't take long before I knew that I needed somebody else to clear that hill. Be careful with that chainsaw. I wear all the safety gear and have a blood clot kit on my belt when I'm working the saw.

 

[Milo]

.....Just because you start doing it yourself, doesn't mean you have to keep doing it yourself. When we were having trouble finding people to log our land so that we could clear it, I grabbed a saw and started working on clearing a hill. It took a ridiculously long amount of time. I cut a bunch of trees then had my kids working the chains for me. I would pull trees out with the chains, and then I would grab them up with the grapple and put them in a pile. I couldn't get the tractor up to the hill to grab the trees with the grapple where they fell because it was too steep. This experience let me know some of my limitations, both ability wise and time wise. It didn't take long before I knew that I needed somebody else to clear that hill.........

Clearing land can be a lot of work (it certainly sounds like it in your case) but cutting trails are relatively easy. We have some large trees and rocks but I went between or around them for the most part. Even the ones that do need cut are no big deal you just fell them to the side, perhaps lop off the bigger branches sticking up, and leave it, so it's much quicker than cutting firewood. My wife used loppers to cut limbs back, I followed along with the hand held brush cutter and saw. Naturally what grows between large trees are small stuff, saplings, and brush, and the brush cutter (basically a straight shaft weed eater with a blade) makes quick work of that and you don't have to bend over. When we first started cutting trails I was pleasantly surprised how far we got that first day.