land clearing
- Thread starter jeromet
- Start date
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LeadPoison
Platinum Member
- Joined
- Oct 4, 2005
- Messages
- 501
- Tractor
- Kubota M4900
Give us some more info.
Acerage?
What is the maximum size of material you want to cut? 2"?
Hills?
Just all the details?
Acerage?
What is the maximum size of material you want to cut? 2"?
Hills?
Just all the details?
i clear land for the public some times in tight woods, bush hogging varies from two acres to 20. the problem is most of the heavy crearing is done with chains saws.and just moved with the loader. i want a machine that will push. the L3400dt is two small and light
IslandTractor
Super Star Member
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2005
- Messages
- 15,802
- Location
- Prudence Island, RI
- Tractor
- 2007 Kioti DK40se HST, Woods BH
What size trees are you trying to "push" over? A bigger tractor still won't come near to what a bulldozer could do in that regard.
A L3400 with FEL and loaded tires would weigh in at about 4000lbs with 34hp. The M4900 would up that to maybe 5500lbs with 45hp. That still seems to me an incremental change that might make things go faster but is not going to allow you to be easily pushing over trees you are now stuck with chainsawing.
How about adding a QA hydraulic tree shear to your L3400 as an alternative? Those are not exactly cheap but might be the sort of tool you are really looking for rather than just a bigger tractor.
A L3400 with FEL and loaded tires would weigh in at about 4000lbs with 34hp. The M4900 would up that to maybe 5500lbs with 45hp. That still seems to me an incremental change that might make things go faster but is not going to allow you to be easily pushing over trees you are now stuck with chainsawing.
How about adding a QA hydraulic tree shear to your L3400 as an alternative? Those are not exactly cheap but might be the sort of tool you are really looking for rather than just a bigger tractor.
N80
Super Member
jeromet, a little more info would help. As mentioned, a dozer would be the safest bet. However, I have an L4400 and you can see what I was able to do in this post:
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Board/owning/Number/842232/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/fpart/1
This was two or three acres with predominantly 3-6" pines, a few as large as 8", very densely spaced as you can see on either side of the cleared area. When the ground is dry and hard the tractor can snap them off but that leaves a ragged stump and is probably a little dangerous. With damp soil I bend them over and then hook the bucket under the root and pull them out. It is rough work and as you can see I sustained a little damage. The tractor (45 hp, 4wd) was up to the task but this took approx 10 hours of tractor time, so if time is an issue a bigger tractor would be in order.
Also, the bucket does a fairly poor job of moving all the debris around once it is on the ground. Teeth would help a lot but a grapple would have been a huge help.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/showflat.php/Cat/0/Board/owning/Number/842232/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/fpart/1
This was two or three acres with predominantly 3-6" pines, a few as large as 8", very densely spaced as you can see on either side of the cleared area. When the ground is dry and hard the tractor can snap them off but that leaves a ragged stump and is probably a little dangerous. With damp soil I bend them over and then hook the bucket under the root and pull them out. It is rough work and as you can see I sustained a little damage. The tractor (45 hp, 4wd) was up to the task but this took approx 10 hours of tractor time, so if time is an issue a bigger tractor would be in order.
Also, the bucket does a fairly poor job of moving all the debris around once it is on the ground. Teeth would help a lot but a grapple would have been a huge help.
Highbeam
Super Member
I'm having a hard time with your question, what is it? The larger tractor with more HP and weight will push a little bit harder allowing you to take slightly bigger bites. Do you want to be able to push over bigger trees? Do you want more brushhog capacity? Do you just want a new tractor? What is it that you can't so now that you expect to be able to do with the larger tractor?
Commercial type work requires commercial type equipment. You are ready for a dedicated grapple rake on the FEL. If after you pick up the grapple, you still want more tractor then you can make it work with the new tractor.
Commercial type work requires commercial type equipment. You are ready for a dedicated grapple rake on the FEL. If after you pick up the grapple, you still want more tractor then you can make it work with the new tractor.
