Clearing old burn piles with a mulcher

[cmuncy]

2 years ago I had about 5 acres cleared in to 4 rather large piles. We attempted to burn one, and let's just say, with the winds coming and going, it was more than I want to procede with.

WIth that being said, I got a few bids for contractors to come in and mulch the remaining dry burn piles that would leave me material to til into the ground. The bids ranged fron 5k to 8k with a time frame of about 3 days from piules to planable pasture land.

My question is, has anyone rented a mulcher from a heavy equipment rental shop and used it? I seem to be havign a difficult time finding a place willing to rent me one.

Thanks.

 

[Willl]

What's a "mulcher" ?

 

[KennyV]

A shredder?
Or even a large tub grinder/shredder.
You are right, I doubt you will find anyone will rent you one. KennyV

 

[sandman2234]

Piles too big? Consider breaking them down into smaller and smaller piles either by splitting a pile in half or just moving part of it to a new location. Find the best location for a burn pile and then move a little bit to the pile as it burns away. It will take days and days for it to go away, but unless you have more money than time, it should work out. You will need to be extremely carefull when feeding new stuff into the existing fire, as it doesn't take much to turn a nice paint job into a discolored machine. Heat is nasty, so take your time and let it burn down before adding another bite. Depending on the water table, you might consider digging a pit and piling the dirt around the hole, to make a wind screen to protect the fire from wind gusts. You can do a lot of prevention for less than five grand. Tamper one side to allow you access for adding more stuff to the fire without having to climb over a dirtpile or getting too close to the edge and risk your equipment taking a dive into the fire.
David from jax

 

[charlz]

If you were to rent a tub grinder or similar you would also need a piece of equipment to load the piles into the grinder. Why not just use that piece of equipment to make smaller piles and burn those over a period of time?

 

[602466]

I just completed the same project. I had about 80 trees taken down, stumps and all. The dozer pushed everything into one big pile. What a big mistake. Over the last year I have been dragging the trees out cutting to fit the FEL and moving over to the burn pile. It was slow work but I got it all done. The worst part was moving the stumps around. I had some really big ones that I could not lift, I had to roll them. I also put an ad in Craiglist for free fire wood. I would make 5 foot sections for them to take. I had one guy that came over every weekend and filled up his trailer and pickup.

Take your time, it will get cleaned up!

Wally

 

[Highbeam]

When I have cleared acreage I always ended up with one or two piles bigger than anyone would want to burn and too close to trees anyway. This was on purpose. I would then hire the logger with his single excavator and a burn permit to burn the slash. He would insist on a feeder pile and would start the fire and then feed it from those huge piles until it was all gone. His risk, his inurance, and only one piece of equipment. Price was 100$ per hour and it took one or two days for 3 or so acres of slash. While he is letting the fire burn, the excavator can stay busy by pulling stumps.

 

[slaveToHorses]

Burn em! It's way fun.
My previous pasture clearing yielded 4 big piles.
My friend in the photo is 6'-7", for scale

I am doing another pasture now and have a new pile waiting for the burn season to start.

 

[Sniggle]

Wait for a good rain...have your tractor ready to move the pile, and burn the suckers.

They should be nice and dry, so if you light it during a nice light rain/drizzle, you should have no problem.

 

[Cacinok]

burning wood piles in wind is not fun, but it can be responsibly done. obviously you don't want any grass or brush on the down wind side. i lit the down wind side and let the fire burn into the pile. b/c the wind pushed the fire away from the fuel, it limited the size of the flames, but still, eventually burned the whole pile.

i have also build a small to medium sized burn pile, got it burning and then pushed more wood on to it as i went. this way you control the rate of burn.