Bush hog myself or hire it out?

[Kit2821]

A little background...I recently purchased my first tractor, a 2wd, geared Kubota MX5100 with FEL, RT, and BB. This thing is awesome! Who knew?!

Previously, I've had a little experience operating a tractor.
To my wife's satisfaction, we have finally purchased some land to go with the tractor. The ten acres that we purchased, have 6 years worth of scrub trees to clear.

The 4-5 acres of densely, packed 1/2" to 3 1/2" trees are my concern. While I plan to purchase a rotary mower, I'm debating on hiring out the job. Should I a) purchase a very heavy duty mower and do it myself or b) hire out the job.

My concerns are the extreme stress that comes along with clearing these trees. I will just have normal land maitenance after the primary land clearing. Is it likely that I would damage the tractor or mower with the size and scope of this job?

Did I mention, I'm hard on equipment and typically pay for my mistakes and brashness...lol Otherwise, I would love to do the job just for the satisfaction and added seat time.

Any input would be greatly appreciated. As a side note, I've been addicted to this site (to my wife's chagrin) and have purchased a ratchet rake thanks to the posts.

 

[Kit2821]

Additionally, I'm thinking I could defray some of the clearing costs and justify the bush hog purchase. This thought coming from a guy who bought a tractor due to a great deal although I had no land! (big ol' Kubota in a subdivision :thumbsup::laughing

 

[bucktaker]

3 1/2 inch trees might do some damage. go around if possible then follow up with a chain saw not worth the possible down time

Rental tractor/bushhog and get the damage ins for first cutting

Get a new midgrade mower or even a used cutter for yourself.

I picked up a good used 6 ft with slip clutch for 600.00

 

[smstonypoint]

My :2cents:.

I take it that you will be mowing the 4-5 acres after getting rid of the saplings/trees. If you are not looking for a manicured look, you would need a bush hog or flail mower for maintenance.


Depending on the density of the larger trees, say 2" and up, you might consider obtaining a medium duty bush hog to clear the smaller stuff and then use a chainsaw to clear the larger stuff. Alternatively, if the larger stuff is very dense, you could hire out the initial clearing and then use a medium/light duty bush hog or flail mower for maintenance.

Bush hogs with a 3+" capacity are very heavy and pricey, and would be overkill for routine maintenance.

Steve

 

[Lineman North Florida]

Get a good rotary mower (Bush Hog type) and mow the small stuff, take front end loader and push the bigger stuff, push in piles and burn. Good luck.

 

[kebo]

Honestly, I think I would just hire someone with a forestry mulcher to come in and pretty much level the place. Save your tractor from potential and costly abuse. While tractors are very capable of a tremendous number of tasks, it's not a bulldozer or a large scale mulching machine. This is a case of using the right tool for the job, and it seems to me that a tractor isn't necessarily the best tool to make the initial clearing. Sure, you can attempt it, but if you have just one oops, it could cost just as much to fix it as it would have to hire the job out to someone with a better tool. Once it has been leveled, then you can get a bush hog to maintain it. Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

[foreman Etexas]

Just hirer a small dozer,should take no time to clear it and will get stumps and all out the ground. You will have a brush pile to burn up and alittle waste to get rid of but just get dozer to push you out a small hole that you can use the kubota to push waste in after burned down(and cooled off)and back fill(your seat time you wonted)....

 

[WM75Guy]

Just hirer a small dozer,should take no time to clear it and will get stumps and all out the ground. You will have a brush pile to burn up and alittle waste to get rid of but just get dozer to push you out a small hole that you can use the kubota to push waste in after burned down(and cooled off)and back fill(your seat time you wonted)....

I second this idea. I hired a 650 LGP dozer to clear 2 acres of thick scrub. I kept the big nice trees, the dozer operater stood on his tracks and used a chain saw to clean up to about 10' on the trunks and left the ground looking like park land. He piled everything up into 2 big piles. I used my landscape rake to clean up the small stuff. Six months later he burned the 2 piles and buried the remains. Total cost was $1100 to clear and $500 to burn. Took him a day and a half to clear and two days to burn. It would have taken me months to do it with my TC40DA and I could not have done as good a job as he knocked down 50' dead trees with 12" diameter or greater trunks.

 

[Barnone]

Kit,
I usually buy the land and then get a tractor.:laughing:
First time I've heard of buying the tractor and then buying the land.
Like Lineman North Florida said, I'd bush hog what I could by going slow and the use the FEL and chain saw to do the rest.
My 2 pennies worth....

 

[Hollow]

You could pay for half the cost of a nice bushhog by doing it yourself but not having any experience you'll have to be careful! I don't know how much abuse the PTO system on a kubota like yours can take so I wouldn't cut anything over 2". If you do it yourself, don't buy something you think you can just get buy with... If your going to cut something like that "ether go big or go home". A Bushhog 286 would be a good mower or any equivalent there of by an equal manufacturer like Rhino, Alamo, Woods... ect.. ect... But I would suggest looking into an HD Kodiak mower, they use flywheels instead of the regular stump pan blade holders. The Flywheel carries a lot of kinetic energy and will absorb a lot of the shock load from the blades striking solid objects like stumps before the energy is transferred up through your tractors PTO system. The Kodiak M-Heavy Duty Roundback or the Super Duty Roundback would be great for your situation.

Here is a pic of a batwing but it shows how they use a flywheel on their heaver cutters...

http://www.kodiakmfg.com/products/Kodiak_Rotary_Cutters.pdf

 

[namesray]

A little background...I recently purchased my first tractor, a 2wd, geared Kubota MX5100 with FEL, RT, and BB. This thing is awesome! Who knew?!

Previously, I've had a little experience operating a tractor.
To my wife's satisfaction, we have finally purchased some land to go with the tractor. The ten acres that we purchased, have 6 years worth of scrub trees to clear.

The 4-5 acres of densely, packed 1/2" to 3 1/2" trees are my concern. While I plan to purchase a rotary mower, I'm debating on hiring out the job. Should I a) purchase a very heavy duty mower and do it myself or b) hire out the job.

My concerns are the extreme stress that comes along with clearing these trees. I will just have normal land maitenance after the primary land clearing. Is it likely that I would damage the tractor or mower with the size and scope of this job?

Did I mention, I'm hard on equipment and typically pay for my mistakes and brashness...lol Otherwise, I would love to do the job just for the satisfaction and added seat time.

Any input would be greatly appreciated. As a side note, I've been addicted to this site (to my wife's chagrin) and have purchased a ratchet rake thanks to the posts.

since you are new to equipment, i would hire out the first clearing. 4-5 acres of densley packed 1/2" to 3 1/2" trees is quite alot. having only 2wd isn't going to help much either trying to up root those stumps. also if you chop all those stumps, they will be sticking up, big chance of flat tire off one of them. get a dozer in there and be done with it. the dozer can level the stump holes better and quicker then the loader tractor and clear the brush to piles. then buy a regular duty bush hog for the yearly mowings/maintenance. you will save money on not having to get a heavy duty bush hog too.

 

[MarkV]

I am with the hire it out crowd. I would also hire a mulcher or a dozer rather than someone with a rotary mower. That 31/2 stuff is almost too much for a mower particularly if it is hardwood. The difference in the cost between a truly heavy duty mower and regular duty maintenance mower would pay for the clearing. The advantage of having cleared with the right equipment is you will not have thousands of little stumps to deal with for years.

Congratulations on the new land and tractor.

MarkV

 

[TripleR]

Very good information and advice so far and as always opinions will vary with none being wrong.

Personally, I love this kind of stuff and do it every year as we rotate wildlife cover on about a 3-5 year cycle on our properties. I use a L5030 with LP2672 and M8540 with Woods DS1260 both 4WD and do a combination of cutting and pushing trees down. Not always, but sometimes I will bend something, but I can fix it and I am sure one of these days I will break something, ruin a tire etc. We run cabs, but even then it is pretty darned noisy in the heavy stuff with a lot of debris in the air, not to mention bees, hornets, mosquitoes and the crap you will inhale on an open station tractor. So I guess the question is can you do it or should you do it?

My opinion only, based on your equipment and experience is to pay someone else to do it and buy a lighter duty cutter for maintenance/upkeep.

(For those out there who tackle this stuff gladly on an open station tractor with a smile on their face, I certainly understand that, I'm just to old.)