Breaking up overburden/duff

[Pac Coast]

We rented a mulcher and tried it. It did reduce the volume of the brush, but not enough to really be cost effective for us. We are going to continue to clear with excavators and haul it off. Thankfully someone now has a large tub grinder set up fairly close by, so our trucking costs will be less.

After clearing the brush we are left with 8-12" of overburden/duff that is mostly roots and other vegetative matter with some sand. Tilling will only get about 6" deep, so we can't get a neat grade, especially with much cutting, with the remaining layer of overburden. It just balls up and rolls up. Is there any implement that can be used on a tractor or skid steer that can work the top 12" of soil and break it up?

 

[Egon]

A disk may work if it is heavy with large diameter disc's.

 

[Pac Coast]

I have looked at some discs egon and from the specs anything that would would work that deep are HUGE and need a really big tractor to pull them. I've seen one subsoiler that was designed for a 40hp tractor to work, but don't know if it would work since they're mostly designed to help break up compacted soil. It looks like a chisel plow may work if I could find one that was small enough to be pulled by a 40hp or under tractor.

 

[Egon]

Ahh-you know whats required!:thumbsup:

Have you considered building a small spike tooth cultivator that is strong enough to withstand the abuse. :confused2:

 

[DIRTROAD]

A drum chopper would work. The only drawback is the size of tractor or dozer it would take to pull it.

 

[Pac Coast]

I have been looking online at some cultivator/rippers and wonder if one of those may help break up the vegetative layer? We need to work about the top 12" of soil. If we tilled the top 6" first that would leave about 6" under that still needing to be broken up. I would think that possibly even a smaller tractor should be able to pull a few points through that? I could see that working the full 12" could be difficult, but wouldn't tilling the top half first reduce the required HP to get a cultivator/ripper through the ground?

I am also wondering if a root grapple on a skid steer could work through the soil, maybe collecting some of the bigger root clumps while leaving the majority of the sand/soil?

Right now we are hauling off quite a bit of the overburden and burying a small amount on site. I really need to find a way to be able to reduce the loads hauled off and keep as much of the soil as possible on site.

 

[DJ54]

Do you have someone local with a root rake on their dozer..??

 

[magicheater]

You have not stated how large an area this is and what sort of terrain. I tend to agree with the dozer and root rake for a large area. Why do you need to haul it away? No place to burn? What is the end use for the acreage?

 

[Pac Coast]

We build spec homes in a coastal area. Burning is no longer allowed in the area. I have not been able to find anyone with a dozer with a root rake. Our current excavation subcontractor uses an excavator to clear the brush, hauls it off in end dumps, and then uses the excavator to pull up the overburden/vegetative layer. In doing it that way we loose quite a bit of the soil, which is almost entirely sand. In addition, we end up with several loads of the dirty overburden that has to be hauled quite some distance to dump, and that gets expensive. We have a more local tub grinder where we can take the clean brush to, but not the more dirty material.

We typically clear about 8,000sqft lots. Some of them are so brush covered that it is almost impossible to walk through. Much of the brush is crepe myrtle.

Right now I am thinking that perhaps a heavy duty brush mower, like the QA-60 high flow unit from Skidsteersolutions, along with a good root rake on a skidsteer may reduce the amount we have to haul off. We have previously done some tilling of the lots after they were cleared, but that still leaves 6" or so of unworked overburden. My thinking is that perhaps a root rake would work that deeply and help break things up.

The lots are typically pretty level. A smaller percentage of our lots are covered with dune grass and tend to be a little more uneven.

 

[yellowdogsvc]

what did you use to do the initial mulching?
There are mowers out there, like some of the Fecons and especially Iron Wolf that will till the material into the ground as it cuts. A good operator should be able to reduce the material into very small pieces with enough passes of a mulcher leaving you with only stumps. A good stump grinder will be more effective than excavation and hauling unless your hauling costs are very cheap.
The materials can be stockpiles, composted and used for erosion control, sold to landscapers, or regrinded and sold as landscape quality mulch or compost additive.