Going from timber to grass.....

[chrishet]

Sure will...have you already contacted Alex about doing your site? We had him come out last week but we still don't have an estimate. He was a very nice guy with plenty of suggestions. The process sounds like a winner but the cost may prevent us.

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( That is the same option we are looking at for clearing out about 30 acres. Let me know how it goes for you. )</font>

 

[Turkeyman]

I took 5 acres of pines ranging from 2 to 20+ ft tall ( 1-5' trunks)down with a 35 hp hydro, FEL, 4wd tractor and a 5' med duty ( 2") Woods rotary cutter. I bought a Stihl 850 brush cutter for trees bigger then 5'. Only did this to save my back. The FEL would knock it over and then the rotary cutter would chew it up. Nothing left but the stumps at ground level. Took me 2 days by myself. Our estimate was $1500/ acre using the rotary cutter or $2500/ acre to root rake it with a D4 and then burn it. He would have lit the fire so it would have been his insurance.

Go buy a 75hp, power shuttle, 4wd, FEL w/ grapple, safety screens/shield, HD tires, 8-10hd ( 4") capacity rotary cutter for about $50,000 and do it yourself. These are new prices.
It was very theaputic too, instant results.
I did ours last summer, get some great bug spray as the chiggers were rough. Even better spend another $10,000 and ride in A/C and no chiggers.

Good luck

 

[Highbeam]

Perfect. Real world experience. This is why I suggest even renting a piece of equipment like this for a day or a week and give it a go. You'll know real quick if you are going to have success.

So you were able to push over a 5" trunk and then the mower chewed it up into mulch? You just went over the top of it?

 

[Turkeyman]

Yes it did, open the 4 in 1 bucket keeping the blade level with the ground and tilited the clam shell part to let it hit the tree first. This helped the blade shatter the wood, then the rotary cutter chewed right thru it. Pine, gum, dog wood, and oak were easy but I hit cedar about 5 'in diameter and it tore the saftey chains off the cutter. Most time I was doing 2-3 MPH, other times 7, same with cutter some time I cut w/ all 5 ft, others only 2-3 ft. One thing that I did learn was to run it at 1500 RPM's and not 2500 (pto speed). Good luck and get a rear safty screen to fit the ROPS.

 

[tjkadar]

Haven't talked to him yet. Still trying to determine how to come up with the cash to have it done. Since we are a bit closer to Charleston then y'all are, I'm thinkin' about renting a machine to chew up the woods.

I had one estimate, using a trackhoe, for about $2,000 an acre. But I really like the idea of the Langolier machine. Seems to be a bit easier on the environment.

 

[chrishet]

Well I looked into renting a D5 Cat with a Root Rake. Looks like that will cost me about $3200/month, cheap!. We are now really considering doing this ourselves. The cost savings may be too much to resist. We can use the money saved to get a nicer tractor and maybe build that pond everyone wants! Any ideas how many ares per day one could clear 6 foot pines with a D5? and if we do use the dozer any recomendations on how to level/prep the soil for grass seed? I was thinking a tiller/box blade but I've seen these Harvey Rakes and that looks like a pretty good solution.....

-Chris

 

[Egon]

If you are renting a Dozer schedule the work for at least 20 hours a day. They do have lights.

Get a heavy disk to pull behind the dozer for the initial soil prep.

Egon

 

[Highbeam]

Be warned that most rental equipment is rented by the 8 hour day. So your work month will not be full of 12 hour days unless you plan to pay extra.

A D5 is a good sized machine. Fuel consumption will be moderate so have a plan for moving lots of fuel. I would recommend no less than a 110 gallon in the truck type transfer tank.

So you can use the dozer to push the material into low heaps or windrows, don't forget that you must stack it before burning if you want a clean fast burn.

Before you return that dozer, I agree that you should use it to pull the heaviest disc you can find. The heavy disc will chop up all the roots and stumps that the rake leaves behind. Realize that the root rake will have 10-12" gaps between the teeth so you will have lots of debris to deal with that the dozer can't get with the rake.

That is a good price for the dozer.

 

[PSDStu]

I gotta tell ya, a good operator with a root rake can clean a mess up pretty quick.

This Kubota D37 did a good job on what was a real mess.

This is a pic of some of the roots left after a days work.

Stu

 

[PSDStu]

Heres another pic of before doing a good clean up with the root rake.