Clearing questions front a newbie.

[Blakemorar]

I am new to tractors all together, but have several jobs to do with some property I just bought. I thought about hiring someone to do the initial work and me concentrate on maintaining the property. I have 65 acres with about 17 acres in pasture, 35 acres wooded and the balance is wetland. I would like to cut some trails through the wooded area and clean up around some grandpa oaks and wild Magnolias. How aggressive can you get with clearing 30 year old grown up woods with a 45 hp Tractor, 6 foot heavy duty rotary cutter and a FEL? I have about a $30K investent and I might as well put this baby to work in order to save about $15K (quoted) worth of work. What type of limitations should I be aware of? I can use some guidance.

 

[Soundguy]

The 6' hd mower powered by the ample 45 hp tractor should pretty much chew up anything you can push over with the front axle... In keeping with taking care of your equipment.. around here.. it's a fair consensus that 2" green material and 1.5" woody material can be mowed pretty regularly, and the accidental 3" green, and 2" woody every now and then makes alot of noise.. and otherwise doesn't hurt much.. as long as you are not mowing a hedgerow of the stuff.

Small trees that are green and flexible should be pretty easy to push over using mechanical advantage, and your loader... Anything 4" and woody is chainsaw teritory, IMHO.

Feel free to post specific questions.

Soundguy

I am new to tractors all together, but have several jobs to do with some property I just bought. I thought about hiring someone to do the initial work and me concentrate on maintaining the property. I have 65 acres with about 17 acres in pasture, 35 acres wooded and the balance is wetland. I would like to cut some trails through the wooded area and clean up around some grandpa oaks and wild Magnolias. How aggressive can you get with clearing 30 year old grown up woods with a 45 hp Tractor, 6 foot heavy duty rotary cutter and a FEL? I have about a $30K investent and I might as well put this baby to work in order to save about $15K (quoted) worth of work. What type of limitations should I be aware of? I can use some guidance.

 

[MarkV]

You've got enough tractor and a strong mower which will get you going pretty good on much of it. As Soundguy said, I've pushed over many a smaller tree and pulled it out by the roots. Where you problems will begin is with the larger trees. A chain saw can drop the tree but with out a backhoe the stump removal is the problem. Even your size tractor is not going to be very efficent at removing larger stumps with a FEL. Keep in mind that dozers have trouble with stumps until you get to the big dozers.

When clearing questions come up I always think the wild card is the soil that one has to deal with. Your in Florida where many areas have a high sand content. If that is the case where you are you may well be suprised at what you can push over and it will most likely be larger than what I can here. Now bring your tractor up to my Georgia clay in the summer, when it is like concrete, and you will be disappointed.

MarkV

 

[Egon]

Unless you are pressed for time you've got all the equipment you need. Maybe a backblade or box blade for smoothing trails if you are real fussy.

A word of caution; trees have a tendency to whip back, have the tops fall on you, snag hydralic hoses, put holes in radiators and will come up in the most unexpected of places in an attempt to impale you. Filters may also be in danger so always keep an eye out for oil on the ground.

So use caution ??? [ how is it defined?? ] . Grill guards, be careful of trees slipping over the top of the bucket and whacking you. Try and get the hoses tied up and covered if possible and do wear a hard hat. A face sheild may also be advisable for the slaps it the face. And Ohh, Have fun.

 

[daTeacha]

Unless you have a crying need for the straight line, you can make a pretty good trail by simply driving through the woods with the mower behind you. Just avoid the big stuff, go slow, watch for rocks, etc. The overhead clearance problem should be minimal in a mature woods, but around the edges there will be a lot of low hanging branches to snag your hardhat, ROPS, and lights if they're high mounted. As has been said, watch your filters on the greasy side, too. Some tractors are more suited for woods work than others simply due to the placement of hoses, hard lines, lights, and filters. If you have stuff hanging down that could be snagged, rig it up out of the way. You may want to prewalk your trails for 50 or 100 foot segments before driving/mowing through, depending on how thick the herbaceous undergrowth is. It doesn't take many weeds to hide a serious rock. It might be advisable to set your FEL bucket about the same height as your mower to serve as a "mine sweeper" of sorts.

 

[Highbeam]

Ah, clearing. The story of 90% of the last 280 hours on my tractor. Most of my clearing is done in dense second growth where the maximum tree is 8" across with ultra dense underbrush that can't be walked through. I save the big trees and pull out the smaller ones. I have found that if you try and remove the slash and brush that you end up with a huge problem of tons and tons of slash. If you can mow it and chop it up then you are time ahead. I have had good success with backing into the brush with a raised brushhog and then lowering it slowly, repeat 1000 times. Often, I'll find stumps or logs that can't be chopped up so I go around them. In the end you go back through and push this big stuff into a pile for burning or rotting.

If the area to be cleared is thinly vegetated and you can see well enough to go around stumps then just mow it like an overgrown lawn. As you push trees down and keep going forward to mow them remember not to change direction as the freshly mowed trees will pop up like spines on a porcupine and impale your tractor. I have mashed filters and plumbing, dented hood and fender but have never gotten a flat tire.

The deer seem to really enjoy the forest when it is cleared of underbrush but the large trees remain.

 

[flusher]

I am new to tractors all together, but have several jobs to do with some property I just bought. I thought about hiring someone to do the initial work and me concentrate on maintaining the property. I have 65 acres with about 17 acres in pasture, 35 acres wooded and the balance is wetland. I would like to cut some trails through the wooded area and clean up around some grandpa oaks and wild Magnolias. How aggressive can you get with clearing 30 year old grown up woods with a 45 hp Tractor, 6 foot heavy duty rotary cutter and a FEL? I have about a $30K investent and I might as well put this baby to work in order to save about $15K (quoted) worth of work. What type of limitations should I be aware of? I can use some guidance.

Keep your eye on the temp gauge when using your mower in the weeds. It's easy to get the radiator screen partially clogged and overheat the coolant. My Kubota B7510HST has a nice sliding screen in front of the radiator that keeps most of the debris out of the radiator core. When I mow my 7+acres of weeds, I usually have to stop 2 or 3 times to clean that screen.

 

[SPYDERLK]

Blake, what tractor do you have? How wide is it? Im asking because my experience is with a 5' JD Bushog - - always only as wide or narrower than the tractor used. I believe the narrower than tractor setup is best for woods work, along with moving exclusively forward as much as possible. That way the tractor folds down everything the bh is going to chop. This spares the bh frame from the high forces needed to push a tree over far enuff for the 45 HP axe to get to it. Once youre there just go very slow and the bh will cut it and loosen and fray the stump. It is a problem to mulch up a big trunk, but there are ways around that. The 6' is a little big for the woods IMO. You will certainly need a slip clutch instead of a shear bolt or you wont be able to do anything but small stuff.
Larry

 

[leeinmemphis]

I also have done this a good bit. Make sure you have a good set of ear muffs on because the noise can really hurt your hearing. I learned the hard way and now I always wear muffs when doing that kind of work.

 

[jmc]

This thread is full of great advice although I don't think I would have appreciated all of it until I had some experience clearing brush. For example, Egon's suggestion about a face shield would have saved me a trip to the hospital and several stitches. But even now, I still don't wear a face shield because its uncomfortable and it reduces visibility. The lesson learned however, was that compressed brush is just a giant spring looking for an opportunity. Over the years, the many narrow misses before that big one should have served as a warning to me. Sounds like you have a great combo for this type of work. The only thing I would add is to practice your clearing skills on the easy part of the property before you head into the jungle, and think about the inevitable narrow misses.

John

 

[AndyMA]

Unless you are pressed for time you've got all the equipment you need. Maybe a backblade or box blade for smoothing trails if you are real fussy.

Egon If I were doing trails one thing is definately missing, a backhoe. With a backhoe, you can dig around trees and let them fall with the roots. Dig out rocks and also pull stumps from the ones you need to cut.

It's' real slow work making a trail through the woods without a backhoe. Now that I have a exavator and backhoe, I'd say the excavator is about 20 times faster than the backhoe on making trails.

Andy

 

[Turkeyman]

I would remove your rear safety chains and back into the brush. Often a 2" tree will bend under the mowers rear flange and get cut by the blades. When it is laying down you can then drive over it. I do this in 2wd so the mower does not just lift up. A hydro make this much easier. Ditto on the face shield and safety glasses and hearing protection.

When done install your rear chains.

 

[DaneJasper]

The 6' hd mower powered by the ample 45 hp tractor should pretty much chew up anything you can push over with the front axle... In keeping with taking care of your equipment.. around here.. it's a fair consensus that 2" green material and 1.5" woody material can be mowed pretty regularly, and the accidental 3" green, and 2" woody every now and then makes alot of noise.. and otherwise doesn't hurt much.. as long as you are not mowing a hedgerow of the stuff.

Small trees that are green and flexible should be pretty easy to push over using mechanical advantage, and your loader... Anything 4" and woody is chainsaw teritory, IMHO.

Feel free to post specific questions.

Soundguy

How does a flail mower compare for this type of work? I've got a Gearmore 61" unit, but am wondering if I should purchase a cheap rotary brush hog type solution for clearing.

Thanks!

-Dane

 

[Egon]

For sure Andy, an excavator or backhoe are real aids for making trails. Trees and rocks are handled much easier. Side slope get leveled quickly and a whole host of other items become much easier!

However; if one does not have access to these items one may have to go around obstacles or change trail location etc.

 

[MarkV]

Dane, flail mowers come with different types of blades for different tasks. The ones with the proper blades are used on boom mowers by municipalities to clean ditch lines and will cut some “woody” material. Generally though a flail mower is not the tool of choice when you start taking on those 1”-3” trees.

MarkV

 

[Soundguy]

How does a flail mower compare for this type of work? I've got a Gearmore 61" unit, but am wondering if I should purchase a cheap rotary brush hog type solution for clearing.

Thanks!

-Dane

There are some flails for light brush.. but mostly thay are for lighter work.. I.e.... no trees.. etc. While a brush cutter can diget 1.5" stuff.. I see a flail mower getting beat to heck on that..

Soundugy

 

[DaneJasper]

Dane, flail mowers come with different types of blades for different tasks. The ones with the proper blades are used on boom mowers by municipalities to clean ditch lines and will cut some “woody” material. Generally though a flail mower is not the tool of choice when you start taking on those 1”-3” trees.

MarkV

Thanks for the info.

Mine says it will cut up to 2" brush, but we really didn't plan to do any clearing with it. It's instead generally used to mow the vineyard, mulch cane trimmings, etc.

Maybe I'll need to get a Brush Hog of the big variety for this type of work - or a small excavator/backhoe.

-Dane