Friend is getting a D8!
- Thread starter N80
- Start date
- Views: 12332
BrokenTrack
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2018
- Messages
- 1,422
- Location
- Maine
- Tractor
- Tractors, Skidders, Bulldozers, Forestry Equipment
NICE!
Too bad about the sticky soil, but that is part of being in North Carolina too I think...you guys have sticky soil down there from what I heard. (I am in no way bashing your soil, I think fertility wise it is better than here, just kind of wet and sticky).
Here, we have frost which can help. If a farmer pulls a stump, but leaves it for a year, the frost will move in over the winter and break most of the dirt from around the roots, so when you push the stump to the edge of the field, the soil stays behind. That is a perfect situation though, and most land clearing clients want a field stumped and cleared immediately, with no 1 year wait.
I am excited for you. Very few things show massive change like logging off an area and then clearing it of stumps. Literally overnight the landscape changes.
Good for you guys and all involved!!
Too bad about the sticky soil, but that is part of being in North Carolina too I think...you guys have sticky soil down there from what I heard. (I am in no way bashing your soil, I think fertility wise it is better than here, just kind of wet and sticky).
Here, we have frost which can help. If a farmer pulls a stump, but leaves it for a year, the frost will move in over the winter and break most of the dirt from around the roots, so when you push the stump to the edge of the field, the soil stays behind. That is a perfect situation though, and most land clearing clients want a field stumped and cleared immediately, with no 1 year wait.
I am excited for you. Very few things show massive change like logging off an area and then clearing it of stumps. Literally overnight the landscape changes.
Good for you guys and all involved!!
hawkeye08
Elite Member
If he is careful, it likely will do everything he wants with basic maintenance... These old tractors are mechanical, not a bunch of electronics or complex fragile systems. Wearout and abuse are the big risks.
OP
N80
Super Member
There is a lot of variation in soil types around here, even half a mile away. Mostly red clay. We also have a lot of "bull tallow" a yellowish brown sort of clay with no redeeming qualities unless you want to make pots. Not fertile. Harder than concrete when dry. Sticky as snot when wet and yet still slippery to drive on. Sticks to shovels, hoes, post hole diggers, tractor buckets and blades.....a product of the devil no doubt.
The main factor in our soil in this region was the planting of cotton over a hundred years ago. Everything was logged and made into cotton fields. The cotton depleted the soil within a decade or so and then what was left was washed into the rivers and creeks leaving a blighted and eroded landscape. It is still hard to grow stuff without lots of soil prep....well, except for pines. They seem to love it.
It was almost impossible for me to pass a perk test for my cabin.
Anyway. I'll get a kick out of watching him get this project done. I think he is trying to get 40 acres in pasture. I'm sure there will be breakdowns and repairs. That'll be interesting to see as well.
EddieWalker
Epic Contributor
Congrats to your friend, that's a big machine. I found that when popping stumps out with my dozer, winter is much better then summer because the moisture in the soil makes the soil softer. You don't want to be in the mud, getting stuck would be an unimaginable nightmare, but if the ground is firm enough to support the weight of the machine, that's the best time to take stumps and trees out. Once the ground dries out, it becomes like concrete and it's ten times harder to get anything out!!!!!
OP
N80
Super Member
Agreed. Even removing small pines with my tractor if the soil is too dry and hard it is miserable if not impossible. Winters are often wet here so there is a fine line between too wet and too dry.