I am glad I saw this thread...
My gramps passed away 3 years ago. Prior to that in the early/mid 90's he had timber cut off of some hilly land to replant trees on. He never did and in that time until 2008 it grew like wildfire. The lumber company left many of the softwood trees, as well. We rented a D5 dozer, and a T130 bobcat. The D5 dozer should have been a D6 or D7, yet was capable of taking down any trees. I was completely inexperienced in driving the dozer but caught on quick...I'm just good like that, in all seriousness. The T130 was swapped out for a T270 bobcat as well as having a bucket with teeth vs. the smooth blade bucket. We tore the crap out of that dozer! We rented all of that for about 6k for 2 weeks after getting 5 extra days out of it for rain delays. We got insurance to cover 80% of all damages and than the remaining 10% is split between the company and ourselves, so we paid 10% of damages. We rented from local company which rented through a heavy equipment dealer to get the dozer. That company tried to claim that the dozer was a loss after us. We broke two windows, removed the radio antenna windshield wipers, a door handle, cab lights and fuel cap, put a stick through the rear hyrdo box (which we were not using so we didn't care), dents and dings to body, somehow getting it to overheat every 2 hours of use which needed to have it shut down for 15 to 20 minutes (which was fine, because we were regulated to so many hours of use a day). The skid steer was flipped in to a creek by my dad but we had a towing company pull it out. He had no idea how to drive a bobcat, that was entirely his fault (it cost 300 to have it pulled out and we never . I got the D5 stuck in a swamp, I guess even if it is a dozer it can get stuck. The dozer cost 700 to be pulled out. The bobcat also broke a few times through no fault of our own and having to wait on a tech to fix it was annoying, even though there was little the machine could help with.
At the end of the day, after all was paid from the previously mentioned ordeal, we paid about 8,500.
The next fall we had a friend with a Case track loader come and push all the piles together. The bulldozer could not clear dirt from the tree and brush debris. He also ripped the soil, doing a mediocre job at best. I did not pay for that portion, so I can only say that when I had that part priced out it was guessed to be 3k.
The last portion was using a rake and a scarifier to go over the land removing sticks and root debris. The cost there was fuel, about $100.
That being said, for the adventure, I would do it again, but I could have spent the money and had a professional do it in 3 days for about 12,000 vs 2 years for me and 11,500 and a whole lot of trouble. If you are wondering, the land I covered was about 12 acres.
I think my 10' is small on a 10ac piece.. and love my 15' batwing.
