DIY Land Clearing

lead_dog · Aug 29, 2009

Thanks everyone...great ideas to consider.

I have contacted the forestry division and they will be here next Wednesday. The grapple for my tractor is a good idea, although mainly useful after I've pushed the trees down, I believe. If it's not a burn, then I guess I'm leaning toward a small dozer to push them down.

Taylortractornut · Aug 29, 2009

For the size brush you mention and larger dozer or track loader would work great. One then would be to get a stacking rake. I ran a D66Komatsu for a comapany its the only rear engined Hydra st trackloader made by them. It was in a 963 Cat range. I did several acres with it and a toothed bucket and later got a dedicated stacking rake and doubled my production. big stumps are hard on everything but an excavator. If theres alot of big stumps we used to rake around them and leave them exposed for an excavator but usually we had a D8 with a stinger blade to bust them and root them out. A track loader is very handy and can replace a few dedicated machines. They can even do grade work. Doser or loader either one you can get dirt in your piles but what we do is before we get to the main pile raise the blade a few inches to spill the soil.

Redbug · Sep 6, 2009

I also would go for the root grapple on your tractor. I think on those size trees, you can raise the grapple up and push them over. Then lower the grapple into the exposed root ball and push the tree out. I do it occasionally with my tractor, (and it's smaller and weighs less than what you are using). Grapples are pretty versatile.

If you have any big stumps left from years past then what the other fellows said about heavier equipment would be needed. Hopefully, they have rotted away or softened up. Just thinking about it some more...I know that around here, sweet gums especially will sprout from a cut off stump and regrow. That means a small little tree growing with a big stump...

tlbuser · Sep 7, 2009

lead_dog said:
Thanks everyone...great ideas to consider.

I have contacted the forestry division and they will be here next Wednesday. The grapple for my tractor is a good idea, although mainly useful after I've pushed the trees down, I believe. If it's not a burn, then I guess I'm leaning toward a small dozer to push them down.

With a "C" shaped root rake/grapple you should be able to move 3" stuff by the roots.

woodchuckcanuck · Sep 7, 2009

Just curious...are you guys talking about a root rake with grapple that attaches to loader or are you talking about a grapple boom on the back of the tractor with grapple claw?

Redbug · Sep 7, 2009

Hi WoodChuck...I think most people are talking about a grapple attached to the loader in front.

tlbuser · Sep 7, 2009

woodchuckcanuck said:
Just curious...are you guys talking about a root rake with grapple that attaches to loader or are you talking about a grapple boom on the back of the tractor with grapple claw?

Front for this particular application. If you look at http://www.anbomanufacturing.com/,m their heavy duty is a "C" shape vs. a flat bottom stone type bucket with grapple arm(s)

Eagleview · Sep 9, 2009

Obviously you don't have an excavator with a vertical tree extraction grab like I do , but you can do the same job with what you have . I only pull out the bigger trees , if the soil is sandy and the 3" stuff is not brittle I swing the grab from side too side at ground height to knock them down . I then scoop them up with the grapple rake on the tractor and mow the area with the flail mower . This 6 acres took 3 days .

If you bought a Talon grapple rake from Quick attach (make sure it has a full length top clamp)to fit your loader and also bought a heavy duty flail mower you could get results like this . You need to push all the trees down in one direction , your tractor has enough power and traction to push low to the ground . You can then scoop them up @ 90* to the fall . Put them into piles and then mow the area . DO expect though to get a puncture or two along the way , it's just a fact of life with tyres and sharp things .

Eagleview · Sep 9, 2009

The Talon grapple rake is the best implement I have ever bought . These huge trees blocked my way while slashing a Forest trail . Within an hour I had the road open , imagine what you could do with 3" material . But as I said , make sure it has the full length top clamp as the other type let all the loose material pull out of the center of the rake when dragging material out of a mess like this .

Redbug · Sep 9, 2009

Boy, those are some pretty woods you have there Iron. Some huge trees. Wonderful country! When was it last logged...100 years ago?

A couple pics of my grapple...

lead_dog · Sep 10, 2009

Iron - Good ideas...thanks! I'll definitely look at the grapple as I need that anyway.

Regarding the flail mower, I have a heavy duty bush hog. Wouldn't they be just as good/better for the area I'm describing?

Eagleview · Sep 10, 2009

No , not a patch on a flail mower with hammers . A flail will suck up most of the remaining sticks and saplings and turn them to confetti , a hog won't and it will leave sharp stakes to puncture your tires .

This is a before and after of the same area I did last week . As you can see , there were thousands of smaller trees amongst these keeper Gums . Don,t expect a result like this as I can pluck a tree straight up out of the soil and then smudge the hole in the ground with the root system (using it like a big paint brush) . But you can see how tidy the flail leaves the site . As you can imagine there was a birds nest of leaves and sticks left on the ground after the tree extraction , but the flail sucked them all up and mulched it all . Pushing them over will leave divots in the soil but a bit of back blading with your rake will smudge them to an acceptable level . Don't forget , there are other options that others have suggested which may work well for you , but i think this would be your cheapest route which will also leave you with some handy equipment .

Dcara · Sep 15, 2009

I'm recently started clearing 27 acres with a Komatsu D31 loader (14000 lbs). Alot of Bodark, honey locust, post oaks, etc. Some of the trees are up to about 2-3 feet in diameter. The big ones I take down by driving the bucket into the ground about 1 ft or so close to the tree to loosen the soil. Raise the bucket to about 6-8 feet for leverage and over it goes, root ball and all. Driving the edge of the bucket down onto the ball breaks a lot of dirt off that I use to back fill/drag a good bit of the hole. I can also lift the trees higher onto the burn pile. Tall burn piles I think burn faster and take less pushing together than low spread out ones.

Reasons I got this loader

1) My little 40hp tractor could only push over trees up to one foot dia or so using same technique.
2) I wanted to be able to load dirt to carry to other parts of property and sell to local folks for their own purposes. ($10/pickup, $20/trailer load made me a few hundred this past spring from Craigs List from a previously dug tank)
3) At 14000 lbs I can put it on a 5000 lb trailer and still be under the 20k lb tow limit of my F250 so I can take it to the shop if I have to, or to other properties for whatever.

Note that the loader leaves way more bare/heavily disturbed ground behind than the tractor and so takes longer for the worked area to re-vegitate. If I hadn't lost my camera last month I'd post pics.

scoutcub · Sep 15, 2009

I just started clearing land with a Komatsu D-38E. I can get any of the trees down (up to 3-4 ft in diameter) by angling the blade and cutting out the roots, then start pushing up high. Stumps is a bit harder, they logged the best (and biggest) trees before I bought, so I have to go around 3 sides of the root system and then start diggin.....lots of extra work. But it's doing it, and some great seat time

One of my dilemma's is piling up the brush/rootballs.....I've got a compact with forks, which I'll put all the logs/firewood on to haul out, but moving and piling these stumps with the brush is a major pain thus far.......an excavator would be ideal, but I can't swing another nice piece of yellow gear right now!
Some great info/ideas here on grapples, flail mowers, and the like......always learnin.
O' course, if I had the $$$ I would get that awesome rig that Iron Horse owns and do some serious damage quickly....!!

Eagleview · Sep 16, 2009

When you guys say your pushing over 2 , 3 and 4 foot diameter trees with these machines my mind boggles . A 2 foot diameter tree is as big as a 50 gal drum , a 4 foot diameter tree is D7 Cat size . Do you mean circumference and not diameter ? The tree below is around 2 feet in diameter and was quite a handfull .

Dcara · Sep 16, 2009

I am talking diameter. But I haven't actually put a tape around one and calculated the dia from the circumference. The Bodarks are the big diameter ones and they have fairly shallow root balls. Rootball depth probably a little less than the diameter and the soil is sandyloam, not much clay. I had the county come out to clear about 1 mile of heavily over grown road easement to about 50 ft back from the road. The guy used a 60k lb New Holland dozer (don't remember the model) and he did more clearing in a day than I could do in a week. As we all know, Size Does Matter. But then I suspect I could only afford about 1 days worth of fuel per week for that thing.

scoutcub · Sep 16, 2009

Iron Horse said:
When you guys say your pushing over 2 , 3 and 4 foot diameter trees with these machines my mind boggles . A 2 foot diameter tree is as big as a 50 gal drum , a 4 foot diameter tree is D7 Cat size . Do you mean circumference and not diameter ? The tree below is around 2 feet in diameter and was quite a handfull .

Ahh sir I believe you have caught me in a grievous miscommunication. I've always been confused on diameter, circumference, radius, etc. so my humblest apologies!
My biggest trees are no bigger than a 55 gallon drum, perhaps close but certainly no bigger. Some of the root balls are simply huge, I believe bigger than in your pic. I am going down this weekend to do some more damage, will try to get some pics.
Sorry for the mistook...

tlbuser · Sep 17, 2009

Iron Horse said:
When you guys say your pushing over 2 , 3 and 4 foot diameter trees with these machines my mind boggles . A 2 foot diameter tree is as big as a 50 gal drum , a 4 foot diameter tree is D7 Cat size . Do you mean circumference and not diameter ? The tree below is around 2 feet in diameter and was quite a handfull .

Maybe we should stick to radius measurements to eliminate confusion

P.S. I never get tired of seeing pictures of your tree grabber.

Eagleview · Sep 17, 2009

tlbuser said:
P.S. I never get tired of seeing pictures of your tree grabber.

It's definitely a beast , my customers have nick named it "Tree Hugger"

Redbug , I'm sorry I overlooked your question as the page has turned .
The area was last logged about 30 years ago , it is now part of a National Park . I have a contract with the Department to keep the fire trails open and clear .