Excavator cost per hour????

[tlbuser]

Knock off the dirt in the hole and steal a little from here and there to make it up. When all done, grab a big ole treetop and "sweep up" the area. You will hardly know a machine was even there. Yea it takes a little longer but saves money in the long run.

 

[AGGIE00]

How much of the tree is left on the stump? A 36" oak stump is one **** of a feat for a D6R with no leverage to push against. If you use a dozer you will spent 3-4 times what it will take for a 300 excavator. Even a large excavator will work extremely hard removing those stumps. Your money will be best spent hiring a contractor with a large enough machine to work efficiently. One of the recent post spoke of a 5ton excavator which is smaller than a backhoe. You will never finish with a machine that small. A 300 excavator with operator is worth 175/hr.

 

[davygp38]

A couple of things I wanted to mention about this. I live in the Northeast, and I belong to a hunting club that regularly has 30-100 acres of trees logged at one time. We sometimes require the logger to push over the trees prior to harvest. This costs us more to do, but we have never had a problem with any of the loggers we use. The loggers usually have a feller buncher, that grabs the tree, pushes it over to expose the roots, then without letting go cuts it, and stacks it. The log never touches the ground. Never had a problem selling the trees. The stump is not completely ripped out of the ground, but the roots are exposed, and it is much easier to clear out. We also regularly have an excavator contractor come in to clean up the stumps. He rips them out, and dumps them in the woods. The price per hour is lower depending on the acreage. Our last field we put in was only 6 acres. the cost was $2600, and it took him 2 days of seat time. This was for stumping, and a rough clean up to get ready for a food plot, and seedlings. Not to long ago the same contractor charged $10500 for 30.5 acres. It took him a week ( a full 7 days,) but we saved a lot because of the size of the job. I would also mention that everybody, and his brother has a machine out here, and with the end of the construction boom these guys are hungry. For what its' worth.

 

[Bigfoot62]

Can anyone give me an estimate on what the average (ballpark) cost per hour is on a large excavator with a thumb. I have several stumps to be taken out (in the future after logging) and am trying to figure approximately what it will cost to pop the stumps out after logging. I am in the northeastern Oklahoma area. The area is flat so access and operation for the equipment won't be a factor. Total acreage to be cleard of stumps is approximately 30.

The trees they are logging are anywhere from 16" to 36" in diameter. Mostly Oak. What size stumps will a d6 or d7 class dozer take out with a root rake? I actually have eighty total acres being logged but I wan't just 30 cleared off. And it doesn't have to look perfect, it will just be cattle pasture.

My cousins are in the dirt contracting business, here in La., and I've worked for them a good bit through the years. Several years back, I also had my own equipment, though not as large as what you will need. According to their rule of thumb, clearing and grubbing will cost $1000-3000 per acre. That would be using a large excavator to dig the stumps and a dozer with a root rake to pile them. (the most effecient and economical way to do it)

I can tell you from experience, you won't be pushing many 36" stumps with a root rake on D6 or D7.

A slightly cheaper alternative method would be to get a dozer with a shearing blade (also known as a K-G blade) to shear the stumps off at ground level. Then a root rake would be used to pile the stumps. That would allow you to use the land for grazing, but not hay production. Just be aware that it will take years for those hardwood stumps to rot.