Bush hog myself or hire it out?

Kit2821 · Feb 29, 2012

A little background...I recently purchased my first tractor, a 2wd, geared Kubota MX5100 with FEL, RT, and BB. This thing is awesome! Who knew?!

Previously, I've had a little experience operating a tractor.
To my wife's satisfaction, we have finally purchased some land to go with the tractor. The ten acres that we purchased, have 6 years worth of scrub trees to clear.

The 4-5 acres of densely, packed 1/2" to 3 1/2" trees are my concern. While I plan to purchase a rotary mower, I'm debating on hiring out the job. Should I a) purchase a very heavy duty mower and do it myself or b) hire out the job.

My concerns are the extreme stress that comes along with clearing these trees. I will just have normal land maitenance after the primary land clearing. Is it likely that I would damage the tractor or mower with the size and scope of this job?

Did I mention, I'm hard on equipment and typically pay for my mistakes and brashness...lol

Otherwise, I would love to do the job just for the satisfaction and added seat time.

Any input would be greatly appreciated. As a side note, I've been addicted to this site (to my wife's chagrin) and have purchased a ratchet rake thanks to the posts.

Kit2821 · Feb 29, 2012

Additionally, I'm thinking I could defray some of the clearing costs and justify the bush hog purchase. This thought coming from a guy who bought a tractor due to a great deal although I had no land! (big ol' Kubota in a subdivision :thumbsup::laughing

bucktaker · Feb 29, 2012

3 1/2 inch trees might do some damage. go around if possible then follow up with a chain saw not worth the possible down time

Rental tractor/bushhog and get the damage ins for first cutting

Get a new midgrade mower or even a used cutter for yourself.

I picked up a good used 6 ft with slip clutch for 600.00

smstonypoint · Feb 29, 2012

My :2cents:.

I take it that you will be mowing the 4-5 acres after getting rid of the saplings/trees. If you are not looking for a manicured look, you would need a bush hog or flail mower for maintenance.

Depending on the density of the larger trees, say 2" and up, you might consider obtaining a medium duty bush hog to clear the smaller stuff and then use a chainsaw to clear the larger stuff. Alternatively, if the larger stuff is very dense, you could hire out the initial clearing and then use a medium/light duty bush hog or flail mower for maintenance.

Bush hogs with a 3+" capacity are very heavy and pricey, and would be overkill for routine maintenance.

Steve

Lineman North Florida · Feb 29, 2012

Get a good rotary mower (Bush Hog type) and mow the small stuff, take front end loader and push the bigger stuff, push in piles and burn. Good luck.

kebo · Feb 29, 2012

Honestly, I think I would just hire someone with a forestry mulcher to come in and pretty much level the place. Save your tractor from potential and costly abuse. While tractors are very capable of a tremendous number of tasks, it's not a bulldozer or a large scale mulching machine. This is a case of using the right tool for the job, and it seems to me that a tractor isn't necessarily the best tool to make the initial clearing. Sure, you can attempt it, but if you have just one oops, it could cost just as much to fix it as it would have to hire the job out to someone with a better tool. Once it has been leveled, then you can get a bush hog to maintain it. Good luck with whatever you decide.

foreman Etexas · Feb 29, 2012

Just hirer a small dozer,should take no time to clear it and will get stumps and all out the ground. You will have a brush pile to burn up and alittle waste to get rid of but just get dozer to push you out a small hole that you can use the kubota to push waste in after burned down(and cooled off)and back fill(your seat time you wonted

)....

WM75Guy · Feb 29, 2012

foreman Etexas said:
Just hirer a small dozer,should take no time to clear it and will get stumps and all out the ground. You will have a brush pile to burn up and alittle waste to get rid of but just get dozer to push you out a small hole that you can use the kubota to push waste in after burned down(and cooled off)and back fill(your seat time you wonted)....

I second this idea. I hired a 650 LGP dozer to clear 2 acres of thick scrub. I kept the big nice trees, the dozer operater stood on his tracks and used a chain saw to clean up to about 10' on the trunks and left the ground looking like park land. He piled everything up into 2 big piles. I used my landscape rake to clean up the small stuff. Six months later he burned the 2 piles and buried the remains. Total cost was $1100 to clear and $500 to burn. Took him a day and a half to clear and two days to burn. It would have taken me months to do it with my TC40DA and I could not have done as good a job as he knocked down 50' dead trees with 12" diameter or greater trunks.

Barnone · Feb 29, 2012

Kit,
I usually buy the land and then get a tractor.:laughing:
First time I've heard of buying the tractor and then buying the land.
Like Lineman North Florida said, I'd bush hog what I could by going slow and the use the FEL and chain saw to do the rest.
My 2 pennies worth....

Hollow · Mar 1, 2012

You could pay for half the cost of a nice bushhog by doing it yourself but not having any experience you'll have to be careful! I don't know how much abuse the PTO system on a kubota like yours can take so I wouldn't cut anything over 2". If you do it yourself, don't buy something you think you can just get buy with... If your going to cut something like that "ether go big or go home". A Bushhog 286 would be a good mower or any equivalent there of by an equal manufacturer like Rhino, Alamo, Woods... ect.. ect... But I would suggest looking into an HD Kodiak mower, they use flywheels instead of the regular stump pan blade holders. The Flywheel carries a lot of kinetic energy and will absorb a lot of the shock load from the blades striking solid objects like stumps before the energy is transferred up through your tractors PTO system. The Kodiak M-Heavy Duty Roundback or the Super Duty Roundback would be great for your situation.

Here is a pic of a batwing but it shows how they use a flywheel on their heaver cutters...