Need opinions on clearing land

[weesa20]

My long term plans include purchasing ~20 acres and starting a small christmas tree farm/tree farm. The land will need to be cleared (probably will be a few hardwoods and mostly loblolly pines here in the Piedmont of NC) and prepped. I was thinking of ~1 acre a year of clearing and planting.

I know the BEST tool for clearing is a full sized excavator. I do not have access to one and I don't think they will rent me one, nor could I run it efficiently. I am not sure of the cost to pay someone to do it for me. Time is one thing I do have.

I don't think I want to undertake this project with a tractor-mounted backhoe, but I was thinking of either purchasing or renting a full-sized backhoe to do this work...what do you all think?

could an acre be done in a week? 2 weeks? (I have run a 2 stick Kubota B21 and did okay with "brute" work, finesse will have to be learned)

I am also considering a larger mini-excavator...?

A bulldozer is also not out of the question...but not as effective as above, is it?
Also considering a dozer mounted backhoe like a JD 650/655 or komatsu...one one ebay right now.

I also plan to buy a 30-40 hp tractor so I was thinking of running a root rake/grapple on the front of that to do the clean-up so it is really just the taking down and stumping that I need bigger equipment for. I think I can chainsaw and handle much of the brush-work now with my GC and a root rake/grapple setup) I will either chip or burn whatever is left over once it is cleared of timber/firewood.

What do you think is the best approach?

thanks for any info

W

 

[EddieWalker]

The question is how big are the pines you want to take out? Small to medium sized pines come out real easy. But bigger ones can be a bear.

An acre is nothing with the right equipment, but that equipment is also pricey. What's even worse, is what are you going to do with it when it's down? Clean up is MUCH MUCH tougher than knocking down the trees.


I have a full sized backhoe and theres no tree that I can't get out with it. I use it over my dozer for all my larger trees. I can do it faster and with less effort. Of course, my dozer just runs right through small to medium sized trees.

One thing to consider is that when the ground is moist, trees come out ALLOT easier than when it's dry out. With my dozer, I can pop out an 18 inch pine in winter but have trouble with 12 inch ones in summer.

If I was in your situation, I'd seriously consider hiring it out. Have a guy with a D6 sized dozer come in and do it all at once. Just have him take out everything he can in a week. Five days should just about clear your land if he ignores the bigger stuff.

Then I'd buy a tractor with a grapple or 4 in 1 bucket and a backhoe. I would pick up the trees on the ground with the grapple, and put them in a burn pile. You have lots of time, so spend it cleaning up the land. Depending on weather and your proficiency, you should be able to clear an acre a week real easy.

When you've got all the stuff on the ground cleaned up and burned, than you can start taking out the bigger trees with the backhoe. Just dig a deep hole on the side you want it to drop. Dig another trench on the side you will push from. Change positions to that side and dig out the other two sides. Then you just push the tree over. The only difference from a bigger tree is how further out you have to start to get through the roots and how deep you have to dig. Start out with the small trees to get a feel for it. Once you're comfortable with it, move on up to the bigger trees.

The problem with doing an acre at a time is working next to it. You will have to be careful of the cleared land and probably kill what you plant in that area. Then where will you burn your brush? Another problem with taking years to do it is that it will only get more expensive every year you put it off.

Good luck and have fun,
Eddie

 

[andrewj]

Please learn from my mistakes! we purchased 60 acres in 04. cutover with large stumps, cut 2 yrs prior. some partiall rotted, some hard as the day cut.

first, I rented a mini ex. waste of time and money - mini had not enough power to do the job - took me way too long per stump.

next, tried a JCB machine much larger, same problem still not enough power.

Next tried small dozer just pushing them over. Worked OK on rotted ones, not ok on the rest.

then I got smart about it and hired a bobcat with a "fecon" unit which is a rotating drum that functions as a bush hog and stump grinder. An acre took 20 minutes. 120 per hour. I used a local guy in the upstate of SC. Are you in NC? The guy was very reasonable, very professional, just a good old boy feeding his family, and I would gladly hire him again. last I talked with him he was buying a bigger unit to do jobs faster! with this procedure, I just wait a month or two then begin plowing the fields.

 

[SteelDust]

Just so you know...All of the rental place here will rent you a full sized excavator. I've rented them two times now and they are really not all that hard to run. If you are familiar with any type of heavy equip at all you'll be "decent" in no time.

But, for a job that large you will be money ahead to hire the job out. Rental for a Cat 312 here goes $500 a day, $100 for delivery (unless you have a CDL a tractor trailer, and are comfortable hauling oversized loads), $50 for the "hey y'all watch this" insurance, and $60 for a days worth of fuel at $3.00/gal. I recently had a guy bid 8 hours worth of excavator work at $900, including his eqipment move.

 

[JDGREEN4ME]

We bought 5 acres several years ago with the idea we would clear an acre for our house. We bought a small TLB with grand plans of doing it ourselves. Cutting down the trees was the easy part, however clearing all the brush, chipping all that could be chipped (no burning allowed) digging out stumps, paying someone to take them away, living about 260 miles from the property and only having about one week a year to get up there to work we decided to pay someone to do the work. For $5500 we had an acre cleared and graded with all debris removed off site. Now I know your situation is different than ours but we could have saved a bunch of money by just having someone else do it in the first place.