clearing land

rickyb01 · Jul 14, 2021

I have ran into a bit of a snag. I cleared about 3 acres for a home site and have started clearing another 4 acres for a back yard or open area to home site. Most of the work I have hired done and they removed 7 year old pines so not much of a root. The person I hired came in with a small dozer and piled all the pines up which I have burned. The dozer started on the back 4 acres but at the time it was just to wet and really tore up the ground before I was able to get him stopped and on his way. Currently I have a 65 horsepower 2wd tractor and a front end loader. I have managed to take down the rest of the pines on the back 4 acres with tractor. I'm looking to buy a New Holland 70 workmaster 4x4 and the dealer I'm purchasing it from took it in with a bad hydraulic pump which they are changing out for a new one. It also has the third remote. Looks like it will 4-6 weeks before I can pick it up due to most of the staff has covid and not working. I have a 66" wicked grapple on order that will take 14 weeks to get here. After saying all this what choices do I have on cleaning up this area now with my 2wd. I thought about a rock rake but I think my tractor will overpower one and just tear the tines off or bend them up. I have an old chisele plow that was my grandfathers that I could sink in the ground for a foot and see what it does. There is a lot of small debris that really needs to be removed somehow and I really don't want to do it by hand. Any implements that I can use to help with this or am I looking at waiting for my wicked root rake to come in. For some of you guys that have done this what are the next steps on getting that three acres of yard ready? Mostly I would like to remove all the small pine branches that were broken up. No rocks to speak of and ground already has a nice slope to it. I thought about hiring someone with a root rake on a dozer to come in and make a pass but being a rural area I cant find anyone that will do it. Looking for suggestions.

Jchonline · Jul 14, 2021

So you are asking what you can use to clean up smaller debris on that back 4 acres where you have already cleared the trees? Can you describe the debris? Size, type, density? Still have stumps or other trees standing?

rickyb01 · Jul 14, 2021

Basically both areas since I have the trees taking off. The front three acres is down to dirt with no grass but a bunch of small broke tree limbs or sticks. None bigger than a 2" and I picked most up by hand on the bigger stuff.

One the back four acrea I have taken all the pines down and going spray the grass to kill this week. Going fill up the ruts that dozer left on the back 4 acres. The back has some roots and bigger debris to move. Really would like a dozer with root rake to go thru there but may have to wait on my root rake for tractor. Implements that I have are chisel plow, disk and box blade. I also have a home made drag out of chain link

Jchonline · Jul 14, 2021

You need something to push it I assume because you can't run over it first. Do you have a bucket on your Front Loader? Why not just try and push smaller bits of it up into a pile?

sea2summit · Jul 14, 2021

Sounds like fairly small material in the front part, if it were me I'd disk it a few times then rake it. Probably be ready for grass seed with one or two chucks of wood here and there you could hand pick.

I'm confused about the back four. Why do you want to root rake it? Another option for $150, or so, subsoiler and break up/pull obvious close to the surface roots and material. Then disk and rake.

Guess it all depends on what you want to do with it since I assume you're not trying to build a 3+ acre pad for a house.

rickyb01 · Jul 14, 2021

[U]Jchonline[/U] its a little to much area to push up in a pile. I do think I could start disking it and then maybe run a rock rake thru it to gather up my wood (trash)

Sea2summit the back 4 is not as clean as the front 3. There are some roots still left and some ruts left by the dozer. Of course I can go thru and hand pick up most wood branches 2" or bigger but that's a lot of work. And I can only do this on the weekend because I still work during the week in another town until the end of this year.
The 3 acre is basically going be my yard where the house will sit. The 4 acres will be an opening in back that will be bush hogged. Now I have had an engineer down and his recommendation for the four acres is to strip the three inches of top soil off and add a foot of fill and spread back out the top soil. Right now I don't see how someone can strip off topsoil until I can clean it up better, get trash out and level those ruts.

jeff9366 · Jul 14, 2021

Mostly I would like to remove all the small pine branches that were broken up. The ground already has a nice slope to it.

Consider a Ratchet Rake bucket attachment.

LINK: Front-End Loader - Ratchet Rake // Today

JJT · Jul 14, 2021

rickyb01 said:
[U]Jchonline[/U] its a little to much area to push up in a pile. I do think I could start disking it and then maybe run a rock rake thru it to gather up my wood (trash)

Sea2summit the back 4 is not as clean as the front 3. There are some roots still left and some ruts left by the dozer. Of course I can go thru and hand pick up most wood branches 2" or bigger but that's a lot of work. And I can only do this on the weekend because I still work during the week in another town until the end of this year.
The 3 acre is basically going be my yard where the house will sit. The 4 acres will be an opening in back that will be bush hogged. Now I have had an engineer down and his recommendation for the four acres is to strip the three inches of top soil off and add a foot of fill and spread back out the top soil. Right now I don't see how someone can strip off topsoil until I can clean it up better, get trash out and level those ruts.

A foot of fill on 4 acres is 400 large dump truck loads.... You need at least a D6 dozer for a few weeks to strip 3 inches, spread a foot of material and then redistribute the top soil. Unless your pockets are deep, live with it for awhile and do a little at a time with your new equipment.

rickyb01 · Jul 14, 2021

JJT good catch but I’m only going do about 1 acre at a time. Should have typed that in. I’m going to go talk with a farmer that selling off his land about his case 550 dozer. If he is selling I may be buying it.

Jeff9366 you think the ratchet rake will catch all or most wood and let dirt thru. Looks like it may act like a scrapper blade when pulling backwards making pile of dirt and sticks?