Field cleaning thoughts...

[tonyoz]

You are going to have to explain this one to me............ Why would you think that?

When I see a mess like you had in the first photos I also see topsoil that is going to be lost forever unless it's mulched. As you stated "you have sandy soil with more sand than soil" and no doubt very little organic matter. Mulching your site would put some orgainic matter into what soil you have for the betterment of your land.Now for your own reasons you have elected to clear this land using the methods you which is fair enough but I don't belive it's the best method.
Yes I am a contractor and you look a bit further at my advitar you will notice my location, about 20,000 miles from you so I have nothing to gain financialy from my comment

 

[hunt4570]

When I see a mess like you had in the first photos I also see topsoil that is going to be lost forever unless it's mulched. As you stated "you have sandy soil with more sand than soil" and now dought very little organic matter. Mulching your site would put some orgainic matter into what soil you have for the betterment of your land.Now for your own reasons you have elected to clear this land using the methods you which is fair enough but I don't belive it's the best method.
Yes I am a contractor and you look a bit further at my advitar you will notice my location, about 20,000 miles from you so I have nothing to gain financialy from my comment

Interesting ,and not something I really knew existed, and maybe its not here. Upon talking to local timber guys and clearing guys, this type of thing was never mentioned.

 

[hunt4570]

A box blade with scarifiers will do an amazing job of working the soil. It will load up a lot less than a landscape rake and will almost "disc" the land similar to a chisel plow.

If you set the scaifiers right and the tilt is right then the box blade will do a fair job of leveling, also. With the box blade tilted way back so it won't dig (or barely dig) is best for smoothing. It can be done at a reasonable speed since the box won't load up.


If you can find a dedicated land leveller like this it would help.

View attachment 433330

Well I did find these... what do you think about them? Also tracked down a 66" roll over box blade I'm thinking about.

New Land Levelers

 

[gwdixon]

Well I did find these... what do you think about them? Also tracked down a 66" roll over box blade I'm thinking about.

New Land Levelers

Those look nice. Very similar to road graders so they should work fine. It would need to be properly adjusted to work well. But once it is used to level your land it will likely just sit. Or you might choose to sell it. If you could rent one for your project, that would seem the best solution

The only comment I'd make is that a box blade with scarifiers is similar and would be of more use in the future for other projects. Wide trenching for drainage, moving large amount of soil, pushing burn piles while burning (backwards!) come immediately to mind.

A hydraulic top link would be a perfect upgrade (I know...not in the plans) to make small adjustments that make a big difference. Getting on and off the tractor to turn the top link one way or the other gets old fast. Different areas of your property may require different settings due to soil conditions, moisture, or other factors.

I'm not experienced with rollover box blades so am not much help. I think that more of them would be sold if they are that superior to a box blade that has a blade on the rear for shaping soil when backing up. Does the one you are looking at have scarifiers?

EDIT: Whoops, I see you started another thread and already are looking for answers.

 

[hunt4570]

Those look nice. Very similar to road graders so they should work fine. It would need to be properly adjusted to work well. But once it is used to level your land it will likely just sit. Or you might choose to sell it. If you could rent one for your project, that would seem the best solution

The only comment I'd make is that a box blade with scarifiers is similar and would be of more use in the future for other projects. Wide trenching for drainage, moving large amount of soil, pushing burn piles while burning (backwards!) come immediately to mind.

A hydraulic top link would be a perfect upgrade (I know...not in the plans) to make small adjustments that make a big difference. Getting on and off the tractor to turn the top link one way or the other gets old fast. Different areas of your property may require different settings due to soil conditions, moisture, or other factors.

I'm not experienced with rollover box blades so am not much help. I think that more of them would be sold if they are that superior to a box blade that has a blade on the rear for shaping soil when backing up. Does the one you are looking at have scarifiers?

EDIT: Whoops, I see you started another thread and already are looking for answers.

Yes but thanks for replying. And yes, everything I am looking at has the scarifiers. And yes, you hit the nail on the head as far as the usage of the land leveler after I'm done.

 

[jeff9366]

Rollover Box Blades work well WITHOUT hydraulic support. They are less finicky about adjustment. They are an ingenious design.

Generally speaking ROBBs are heavily built and somewhat more complex than standard Box Blades so they cost more.

I have never encountered, nor seen pictures, nor read of a ROBB without scarifiers.

 

[tonyoz]

Interesting ,and not something I really knew existed, and maybe its not here. Upon talking to local timber guys and clearing guys, this type of thing was never mentioned.

If you had posted this thread in the landclearing forum on this site you would have plenty of contractors wanting to help and are local to you.

Here is a before and after of how I work. This job was in soils very similar to your land. What we do is go through and rough cut it then the client seeds the site, then I do a finish cut which covers the seed, nothing more to but watch the grass grow