Clearing Trees

[BXmark]

I want to cut a trail through my woods -about 800 feet-and clear about 3/4 of an acre. It's all weed trees mostly 3 to 8 inches with a few large Osage Orange (Hedge Apple) trees and spiny locust trees. This excavator wants to bring in his large track hoe and a loader. I questioned whether such a large piece of equiptment was necessary but he assures me it will make the job go faster. I hope it goes fast because he's quoting me $100 per hour for the hoe and $75 per hour for the loader. Does this sound reasonable?

 

[RobS]

Mark, like anything else it depends on how long you want to spend. I cleared a driveway swath through an old fencerow on our property. Took out about 20 trees, only half of which were 6-8 inch. The three inchers pull out pretty easily but the bigger ones took me quite a bit of time. For such a small area, I still spent the better part of two weekends cutting and digging the stumps (with my FEL).

You've got quite a bit to clear, I'd recommend the heavy equipment. You'll still get ample tractor time moving brush piles and logs /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Buck]

My neighbor cut a snowmobile paths through my woods in an afternoon. He used a dozer. Why does he need a back hoe for such small trees?

I'd bring in a dozer. Or do it myself.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I pay $50/hour for a medium-sized dozer, or a Ford 545 TLB, with operator. Did the excavator tell you how long he thinks it will take?

I cut a winding trail through my woods, barely 8 feet wide, with a brush hog and chainsaw. I cut the 4 or 5 largest stumps down to about an inch tall. For my purposes it just doesn't matter.

The last time I cleared a multi-acre field I brush hogged the small stuff, then cut the remaining trees at breast height. I dug out all the small stumps with my tractor, then had the rest pushed out with a dozer when I had some other work done. But I wasn't in a hurry and only wanted to plant grass, not crops.

 

[TerryinMD]

BXmark,

He's probably not too far off the mark with his rates.

It is probably very true about using the larger piece of equipment. The job should go a lot quicker with a larger piece of equipment.

I have used several contractors in my area and they all have been good. The last time I had a large number of trees removed, the contractor used a big ol' D8. I had about a half an acre of various sized trees and a bunch of brush coving another 1/4 or so acres. The work was done in about three hours. He had 4 large hackberry trees which had root balls about 6-7 feet in diameter. Too me a year to clean up the mess. But, that was my choice - pre-tractor days.

Hope this helps.

Terry

 

[Hillbilly]

A 450 JD and up or its equivalent would do the job easily. The larger the dozer the more per hour it will cost,but the larger the dozer the quicker and easier it will do the work.3" to 8"trees would not be a problem for a dozer,they can take a live tree down easier than they can push a stump out. Have him shove the brush and trees into a ravine.
I had a JD 650 work for me this summer,$60.00 and hour plus a 1 hour moving fee,56 hours total on the clock.

 

[MarkV]

Mark, the excavator’s rates sound about right for my area. (I would expect a fair size tracked loader at $75 per/hr.) I just don’t understand the choice of equipment. A track loader and track hoe are great for moving dirt from point A to point B but it doesn’t sound like that is what you are doing. Unless you expect him to load and haul off the trees, it sounds like a dozer job. I agree with Hillbilly, a D6 size machine should be able to do that work without any trouble.

Maybe the excavator is seeing something we don’t know about. Can you give us a better idea of what your land is like?

MarkV

 

[dummy]

Did he come recommended from a friend or neighbor? Ask if his price is on the meter time or on the job time. Does he charge a hauling fee also? Can be huge difference in bottom line. Quite a few in this area are using tracked hoes (w/ thumbs) for all clearing work. Much quicker and easier to stack the burn pile.

 

[BXmark]

The equiptment operator told me the track hoe works best to yank out the trees roots and all and leave the area less disturbed. He says he pushes the tree over, then hooks the bucket around the stump and lifts up. On very large stumps he rakes the dirt off the stump with the bucket teeth so as to not leave such a large hole. The operator tells me that with a bulldozer you have to come in at such an angle that you end up digging out a swath 3 to 4 times as big.

 

[TerryinMD]

BXmark,

Sounds like a guy who has experience. If he's said that he would clean the dirt off of the root balls, I'd use him. May cost a little time, but it will save you a lot of work later on.

About a dozer, when the contractor removed the large hackberry trees on my property, my wife got scared watching him. She said that the dozer was on its tippy-toes to get the tree out of the ground and it left some sizable craters.

Terry

 

[Hillbilly]

I can see where the excavator would work well on the larger trees,but for small stuff the dozer is going to do the job a lot quicker and cover a lot more area.And it all goes back to size, a large dozer (D-6) is not going to stand on its "tippy toes" unless it is some really large diameter trees and a good dozer operator knows his limits whether a spectator knows it or not,I have seen dozers standing almost straight up and pulling himself backwards on the winch at the same time. And as far as the crater size holes a dozer can skin a little dirt off and fill the holes in an go on. Are you wanting a road cut anywhere?
It also boils down to how particular your are about the looks of the place,even the brush and small stuff is going to have to be put somewhere,and an excavator is going to spend a lot of time with 2" and 3" stuff.But then again the guy with the excavator who is there looking at your job,ought to know more about what he needs to get the job done.

 

[BLJ]

If the loader is a good size machine and on tracks,he should be able to do a good job.If it is a rubber tire loader I would find a track loader.A track hoe does a good job on clearing,but on 3/4 acres it is not need.

 

[PTRich]

Last time I cleared some land I dropped all the big trees, skidding out the logs I wanted with a tractor. Then hired a brand new D6 high track. It was a lot per hour but it had a 10 foot blade, 6 way. He was able to pop stumps much like an excavator because of the extreme angles it could dig in. He pushed all the stumps, small trees and brush down a hill for me. Back bladed the land. When he was done it was ready for york rake and seed.

 

[Egon]

The D6 would be a perfect for clearing the trees. Some that do clearing for a living have a " root rake blade " . This is a blade with sturdy forks/ tines that can act like a harrow ony they dig in and remove the roots. Then when the operator is piling the debri the dirt has a chance to fall off through the rakes. The real serious clearing is/was done with 8's or 9's knocking done the trees and digging stumps while the smaller 6 followed up and piled the debri. They all had expanded metal shielding for the operator so stray trees could be deflected and not impale the operator.

Egon

 

[MarkV]

Bxmark,

It does sound like the guy has done this a few times. I guess it is one of those things where everyone finds a system that works best for them and the equipment they have. Sort of like some of us maintain gravel roads with a box blade and some with a rear blade. All that matters is the end result and the time it takes to do it.

Dummy,(doesn’t sound like the name fits) has brought up the questions I would ask. I would also ask how long he would guess it would take. We just had a guy with a D6 Cat cut a road/trail across three 40 acres sections of family land. He spent a bit less than two days to create a rough grade road and set two culverts. The entire property is pine of varies sizes no rock to speak of. We just pushed trees into piles to be dealt with later.

Let us know how things go, clean up and finish grade should be a great project for your tractor.

MarkV

 

[Egon]

Now what size rubber tired loader might you be talking about. One with a 5 yd. or so bucket just might surprise you in what it can do.

Egon

 

[JoeR]

In the Central Florida area, the average cost is 1,000 per acre. They usually have a loader and track hoe. Like someone else said, they push over the trees with the track hoe. The root rake would shake the dirt out of the debris, then the track hoe would dig a hole and bury the debris. The leftover fill was spread around the field by the loader.

Good luck,

Joe

 

[dummy]

"The root rake would shake the dirt out of the debris, then the track hoe would dig a hole and bury the debris."

And what happens when the debris in the hole decomposes? Are these sites marked for future non-use? Burying is not a very good long term solution. A local developer is now in the process of trying to build on an old landfill and things aren't going real well for them.

 

[JoeR]

The areas were cleared for grazing land. We have 2 lots which make up 8 acres. The local ordinance is one homestead per lot; therefore, the debris was put into the back part of the lot about 500' behind the house. In Florida with the sandy soil, we don't seem to get big depressions in the land after the debris decomposes. The water table is only 7 feet down, and the sand seems to fill in the pockets without creating large depressions. Most of the time we would burn the debris, but the drought that lasted from 1998 to 2000, has made it difficult to obtain burn permits.

Joe