Land Clearing With Your Tractor

[Muhammad]

I just put together this article on land clearing with your tractor with credit going to all the great tips and photos on TBN and specifically this forum. This article is intended to be a primer for people who want to tackle typical homeowner land clearing projects.

Land Clearing With Your Tractor | TractorByNet.com

Please take a moment to review and let me know if I need to make any factual corrections/edits. Also, if you guys have tips to add to the "tips" section at the bottom, please post them here in this thread and I'll summarize and add them.

 

[mcfarmall]

Thanks for the article. Looks pretty good for a basic primer as you said to get people going.

 

[Muhammad]

Thanks for the article. Looks pretty good for a basic primer as you said to get people going.

Was that sarcasm?

 

[4570Man]

I'd have to say step one of land clearing with a tractor is park it. Step two get a proper machine.

 

[D7E]

I'd have to say step one of land clearing with a tractor is park it. Step two get a proper machine.

Absoluteley

 

[BrokenTrack]

I'd have to say step one of land clearing with a tractor is park it. Step two get a proper machine.

That is too funny right there, but sadly also the truth.

I once was clearing an 18 acre mountainside off, and a guy rented a 700 G John Deere bulldozer for me and I was like, "and just exactly am I supposed to do with that?" It worked okay for finish grading, but just was nowhere near enough tractor.

 

[mcfarmall]

That is too funny right there, but sadly also the truth.

I once was clearing an 18 acre mountainside off, and a guy rented a 700 G John Deere bulldozer for me and I was like, "and just exactly am I supposed to do with that?" It worked okay for finish grading, but just was nowhere near enough tractor.

Maybe he wanted to marry you!

 

[Rustyiron]

This article is intended to be a primer for people who want to tackle typical homeowner land clearing projects.

I think you did very well.

 

[ruffdog]

This rig moved through my pine grove pretty quickly.

 

[BrokenTrack]

I think you did very well.

It depends on what is meant by "typical".

In some areas of the country, ridding the back forty of scrub brush exemplifies typical land clearing, but here in Maine...the most forested state in the nation...land clearing means removing massive sized trees. At 30 cord to the acre on average, and it taking 8 decent sized trees to make a cord, that is 250 stumps per acre!!

Some people are okay with stump grinding, I am not. They ultimately rot and causes horses and other livestock to break legs. That means removing the stump entirely.

I love my tractor, and whenever I can burn 7 gallons per day instead of 100 gallons per day; trust me I do, but there is no replacement for weight in land clearing. It just plain takes shear weight to hold its ground against a stump.

Even finish grading it takes big equipment, not because a little tractor cannot grade, but a 6 foot blade is not going to leave anywhere near as smooth surface as a bulldozer blade that is 14 feet wide. Wider than that is even better, and I drag long logs to get me out at 30 feet wide, but that too takes traction and horsepower. My small 350 bulldozer would not even pull this 24 foot log, it took my skidder, and even then it had all it wanted!

I am a HUGE proponent of "do as much for yourself as you can", but busting up nice everyday tractors is not the way to do it. Like 4570Man said; "Park it and get something that can do it." That equipment is sitting at the local rental shop just waiting for it to be rented out.