DIY Land Clearing

[lead_dog]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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 .

 

[Redbug]

Iron, Only 30 years, wow. What a great contract! And to think you also get paid to do that kind of stuff in such a great place! Ain't life great!