Can a tractor clear this?

[SteveM70]

To each his own. I don't abuse my tractor. I keep the maintenance and greasing up to date, I don't wash it but I do spray the dust and mud off. When it comes to working it though, it owes me $20,000 and I intend to collect.

 

[4570Man]

I agree with blb078. Life isn't black and white. There are extremes. Just as one can abuse a machine one can WAY under-use a machine. On the later I have to wonder why someone bought that equipment in the first place. As long as one is factoring in use vs cost then I'd think that one can figure out what makes the most sense to them. I have used the crap out of my B7800. Have put over 900 hours on it: bought it with 750 hours. I consider it fully depreciated: total lifetime cost is averaging $14,40/hr and declining; my NX5510 will take over 2,700 hours (18 years at hours/year usage rate of my B7800) to get to this point. It looks beat to heck. But, if I were to add up the costs for all the things that I've broken I can tell you that it's very little/small (and little down time). Will I beat my NX5510HC like I've beat my B7800? Probably not. So, again, it's all situational, making blanket statements doesn't often comport with reality. I recently had a professional come in and take down a huge cottonwood tree that loomed large over my house: I don't have a saw big enough; and, I didn't want to take the risk (I"m a novice). Another guy I'd had assess the job had said that he'd just quoted someone else $3,200 to take down and haul off a similar sized tree. I paid $400 (and had a second tree thrown in for free). I achieved the cutting up and "hauling away" part via my chainsaw and an excavator (buried most of the cut up wood). Excavator was used for several other things, it cost $1,000; figure $500 for it's work for the cottonwood "disposal" activities. OK, so here's the part relevant to this discussion... I KILLED my $700 saw! I was running that saw non-stop (perpetual snow storm of chips!) and I cooked it (big tree, me running it non-stop AND temperatures were in the 90s). Total abuse of the saw, shouldn't have done that (and in the future I likely won't!). I got the job done. $400 + $500 + $700 = $1,600, or HALF what the one guy was suggesting. Keep in mind, however, the saw wasn't new and had spent several years in the "depreciation" cycle; therefore, that figure of $1,600 should be adjusted, so let's deduct 1/2 the cost of the saw for this operation-> $1,250. If I'd gone about it slower my saw might not have cooked; but, sometimes you HAVE to get stuff done in a short period of time. No picture of my saw, but here's my other "abused" tool (posing with the downed cottonwood): <img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=480946"/> This stump was much smaller, at 44" at the butt, than an old cedar stump that I dug and buried during the same excavator rental period.

Your B7800 still has a resale value drastically lowering the $14 per hour.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Get one of these and never have to buy another tractor again. Do it yourself and have fun

OSHA is coming for you now. Got an employee (wife maybe) in a ditch over 4 feet deep without any shoring. A cave in could have disastrous consequences. Also spoils need to be moved away from the excavation at least 3 feet. Very dangerous actions there.

 

[DieselBound]

Like ever othet action in life there is smart, dumb, or unknowing.

Operating any piece of equipment falls under that situation.

Unknowing is when you either don't have knowledge if something or experience.

Smart is applying learning and past knowledge to not replicate past mistakes and to enhance past successes.

Dumb is not considering past risks or mistakes or the cost to yourself or others from the results.

Equipment is designed to be used . . not abused . . unless it is considered expendable.

One other thing I seldom understand is statements like "it has xxx hours on it and I've worked it hard".

The number of hours of use on most tractors can be a significant 4 digit number if properly cared for. And if improperly used even a couple hundred hours can be half of its life.

I had a coversation a while back with someone who bragged that his motorcycle could redline at a number in excess of 115 mph and that he did it once a week or more (not on racetrack). He wanted to sell it. He wondered if I knew anyone who might be interested lol. Every biker I ever met has cranked it up once or twice to see how it goes . . but to redline it thru the gears every week is not a bike I'd ever own.

Go rent a piece of equipment. They charge by the hour. I'll guarantee that rental equipment takes a lot of "abuse." I know.

I recently acquired a dump trailer that was a rental item. There is no mistaken that, at only three years of age, this thing has seen it's share of abuse. It is one of the most expensive dump trailers that you can buy. It still does everything it did when it was new, except LOOK like new: OK, it needs new tires...

It's situational.

What you believe to be "abuse" may not be "abuse" to another. Which person is right?

Engines have a redline because they are rated up to (and in most cases a bit beyond) that. Abuse would be to be running OVER redline. I've got older TDIs and it is a FACT that these engines would coke up if not getting hammered on. So, in the case of the guy just hitting the redline once a week I'd have to say that this is NOT abuse in any way whatsoever.

 

[h82crash]

OSHA is coming for you now. Got an employee (wife maybe) in a ditch over 4 feet deep without any shoring. A cave in could have disastrous consequences. Also spoils need to be moved away from the excavation at least 3 feet. Very dangerous actions there.

Coming from the military and industrial manufacturing I can really appreciate safety. The consequences you mentioned are very real. That said, that looks a lot like my soil and if I dug that hole and left it, it would still look like that in 20 years.

 

[mguitas]

My 710 might clear it.

 

[chsdiyer]

Sooo, we finally bought our land...what a disaster that process was. I took last Friday off to start clearing with my chain saw. Didn't go quite as I expected. Flooded the chain saw trying to get it started, so while I waited on that, figured I'd remove the trees with my shovel. I was pretty proud of the progress I was making until I finally got the chain saw working. BIG difference. But of course still was grossly optimistic is the amount of work I'd get done in the weekend. By Saturday afternoon, i'd decided I was wasting my time and I just need to rent a backhoe.

The picture shows my initial shovel cleared work (it wasn't much). If find my camera I'll post pictures of what I got done with the chain saw. The area I'm trying to clear has mostly 2-5 inch diameter gum trees ever 3 feet or so. With some wax myrtle mixed in there. I was able to get quite a few gum trees out by pulling them over and then using the shovel to finish off the root(s). Because there are so many, the chainsaw route leaves too many stumps for the kids to have a decent place to play. So if i'm going to clear it, I need to take the stumps out too...hence the backhoe or mini excavator route.

Definitely learned a lot this weekend...especially that even if I take my safety glasses off for 5 minutes while cleaning up, that's still plenty of time to get nailed in the eye ball by flying debris. Glad I only wound up with a minor scratch to the cornea.

 

[Sprinklerman]

I would suggest first renting a disc chipper . Cut all the trees leave the stump up about 3 feet . chip the brush , then use the mini ex to pup out the stumps . All those trees add up to a lot of brush

 

[Brazos by Nemo]

Go hire a dozer operator by the hour. I know that sounds scary that you might spend a fortune. Reality is you won't. They do stuff like that so quickly you don't have time to rack up a big bill. You didn't say how many acres you are trying to clear but a dozer could knock that out really quick. Dozer guys around here get about $65/hour. I limit them to around 20 hours a trip. They can do a lot in 20 hours. It would take me a year with my chainsaws and tractor to do what they can do in 20 hours.

 

[sea2summit]

Go hire a dozer operator by the hour. I know that sounds scary that you might spend a fortune. Reality is you won't. They do stuff like that so quickly you don't have time to rack up a big bill. You didn't say how many acres you are trying to clear but a dozer could knock that out really quick. Dozer guys around here get about $65/hour. I limit them to around 20 hours a trip. They can do a lot in 20 hours. It would take me a year with my chainsaws and tractor to do what they can do in 20 hours.

I'm always surprised by how many people have this as the goto response. If you have the time and don't want to do more damage to the land than needed use a tractor. Don't push it past it's limits and you'll just be using it for what it's made for, getting dirty and work:thumbsup: