Clearing land options...

adegiulio · May 23, 2003

We have a 14 acre lot in NY state that we are looking to clear a portion of to build a house on. It has a moderate number of trees on it but a very heavily overgrown with brush (prickers, saplings, and tons of other stuff). It is quite flat. Usually a bulldozer would come in and scrape the top layer off, remove the brush and roots. Can this sort of thing be accomplished using a compact tractor?? I am trying to talk myself into buying a tractor (the JD 4310 has caught my eye). There is plenty of other work other than clearing that would make this tractor useful for me, but the ability to clear my lot would be the icing on the cake. Any advice would be appreciate.

One issue with the land is that the soil has a lot of clay. I would like to add some organic material. Would it be a good idea to bush hog the area, then plow and till it? We wont be building or planting for over a year, so rotting prickers and such shouldnt pose a problem. Or are we better off scraping and burning the brush?? What would be best to scrape with?

Thanks for the help. I have been lurking on this site for a couple weeks and have learned a lot already.

MossRoad · May 23, 2003

Welcome!

If you're going to build a house soon, just have the person that is doing the excavation do the clearing. It probably won't cost that much extra and will be done in a day or two.

However, that doesn't mean you shouldn't buy a tractor /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

adegiulio · May 23, 2003

Yeah, its not the clearing of the brush that is expensive, its clearing the trees where the price starts rising. We have a lot of trees that need clearing, and it would be much much easier to do it without all of that brush. The underbrush is so thick in some areas, it is impassible. We want to have some friends (with tree cutting experience) come up and take them down, but we need to make the area accessible...

Thanks for the reply though

rancar · May 23, 2003

"...very heavily overgrown with brush (prickers, saplings, and tons of other stuff). It is quite flat. Usually a bulldozer would come in and scrape the top layer off, remove the brush and roots. Can this sort of thing be accomplished using a compact tractor??..."

It would be very difficult and time consuming to do this task this way. I'd suggest renting a dozer for a day or a weekend and hiring a skilled operator to scrape this layer off. It would be done then in a heart beat.

"...Or are we better off scraping and burning the brush??..." 

Yes....this personally is what I would do.

...Bob

JohnMiller3 · May 23, 2003

...its clearing the trees where the price starts rising. We have a lot of trees that need clearing... 

If you do it right... you can have your "cake and eat it too".../forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

Have you considered hiring a logger for the trees, share in the generated revenue... then take that "new found money" and pay a dozer operator to remove the stumps and clear the rest...

...and now you have the best of all worlds... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Trev · May 23, 2003

There's nothing like a real bulldozer for this kind of thing. You could rent one, then spend half your rental time learning to use it, or just hire a pro to come in and do the job. My experience is limited here, so I hired the pro. I think I probably saved money, but had less fun. Life is always a tradeoff. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Bob

adegiulio · May 23, 2003

well, if we do use a dozer (which I think I am judging from the responses here), I am going to have my friend do it. He is an excavator around where I live now (northern NJ). I'm sure I'll jump on the machine just to try it out.... /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

Egon · May 23, 2003

Trev:

The land of off/on has been conquered and you have returned to the world of communications!

Watching a dozer with bush rake would be my choice.

Egon

soarkrebel · May 23, 2003

John miller said it. in my neck of the woods if it has good timber you can come out smelling like a rose!

you could make more than enough to pay for the clearing. check into this .
make sure you don't pay someone to clear your trees and they take your money and the timber buyers too.

Anonymous Poster · May 23, 2003

Egon, Trev's probably using Viv's computer, after all he is a gooburmunt employee, and he runs computers for the gooburmunt, so his is probably still apart.

Egon · May 24, 2003

Franz:

Ahh -- That clears things up. Means the second committee to pick the first repair committee is just being convened.

Egon

popeye · May 26, 2003

Bulldozer,Bulldozer,Bulldozer. I have tried both methods being a little hardheaded and a cheapskate. You will get a much nicer job and in less than third of the time you could do it with your tractor. After he is done go in and finish up with the tractor. It will be money well spent and if you can sell the timber you may be able to offset the costs.
Mike

adegiulio · May 26, 2003

Thanks for all the responses guys. Bulldozing it will be! But I still want a tractor, so I will have to come up with some other creative uses!

Richard · May 27, 2003

so I will have to come up with some other creative uses!

I bet that wont be terribly difficult... just a couple weeks ago, my wife wanted to transplant (for the 2nd time) some day lillies.. seems their color scheme doesn't match her desires...

Anyway, she wanted them moved "over there", so I grabbed a shovel and dug them up, then fired up Brutus (90 hp industrial TLB with 2 foot backhoe) and went to dig up a little flower bed for her 4 flowers.....

yes, she was rolling her eyes, but me? I was /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

stmiller2 · May 27, 2003

Just curious as to what folks around the country have to pay for bulldozer work. I had some bulldozer work done on my farm two weeks ago and paid $85 per hour.

Bird · May 27, 2003

Steve, it's been a couple of years, but my brother and a neighbor used some guys who have 3 dozers and are really good and fast with the work they do and they were charging $60 an hour, minimum of 4 hours, but usually worked 10 hours a day.

stmiller2 · May 27, 2003

Bird,

The fellow that I hired actually used a CAT track loader (I'm not sure if this is the correct name -- a dozer with a front-end loader rather than a blade). He was a joy to watch -- no wasted time or motion. I think I got my money's worth.

Casimir · May 27, 2003

I also had our pasture and barn area cleared with a CAT track loader -- much faster (perhaps years faster) than I could have done it with my little tractor. The owner/operator gave me a deal of $70 per hour if he could work around his other jobs. Still took a long time and about $6K - he said he had never seen so many stumps per acre. The previous owner sold the timber, so I couldn't recover any of the cost /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif.

rancar · May 28, 2003

"..what folks around the country have to pay for bulldozer work..." 

Last year, I hired a dozer for a weekend and contracted with a skilled operator to bulldoze some hedgerows on the property. I paid separately for the rental of the dozer, diesel fuel, and operator's labor and not by the hour. However, the dozer worked for 20 hours that weekend and I spent about $950 for the job. Equivalent hourly cost was slightly under $50 per hour.

...Bob

Mike_Dumond · May 28, 2003

Paid $75/hr last week for a days work. He did more work in that one day than I did all last summer. Amazing how much more you can do with a dozer compared to a B6100 /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

But, I made sure that he didn't do too good of a job. I got to have something to do this summer /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif At least the 25 to 45 degree slopes will be a bit more visible.