Skid steer or tractor or clearing land?

[VTHartford]

I have about 9 acres of old pine timber land to clear out and I have several months to do it. I am contemplating buying a used tractor or skid steer to do the work. FOr the money I can spend, I can get a much larger HP skid steer that I can get a trator. The SS are also much heavier. If I get a SS, I will sell it whne I am done. If tractor, I will probably keep it.

What do you think?

Bill

 

[dubba]

Are you digging out the stumps? or just leveling the land? I've never seen many people "off-roading" with a skid steer unless it had tracks.

 

[RedRocker]

I've looked at ASV skid steers, attachments are kinda pricey, but they look pretty capable.

 

[BarryinMN]

A tracked SS may be less likely to get stuck in loose soil but either tracked or wheeled is low to the ground & easier to get stuck highcentered.

If the trees have any value how about calling a Forester to walk the area & auction the trees? May be salable & you can get at least a partial cleanup as part of the contract.

A tractor with a loader\grapple & backhoe would be most flexible (attach a bush hog for mowing)

A Dozer would be fast simply pushing over trees with root balls attached & pile for burning.

The big question is how much work do you want to do?

 

[Doc_Bob]

I have about 9 acres of old pine timber land to clear out and I have several months to do it. I am contemplating buying a used tractor or skid steer to do the work. FOr the money I can spend, I can get a much larger HP skid steer that I can get a trator. The SS are also much heavier. If I get a SS, I will sell it whne I am done. If tractor, I will probably keep it.

What do you think?

Bill

Skidsteer will get hung up since it is so low to the ground. Dozer will make quick work. Tractor will give you hours of fun and can be used for other things when that project is done Just get some serious HP on the tractor, as HP=fun.
Bob

 

[Highbeam]

Do you intend to burn the slash or just pile it as part of clearing? How many stumps? How big? Are you converting the timberland to pasture?

Your schedule is very short. 9 acres is large enough to justify buying a purpose machine and selling it when you're done or hiring the job out. Assuming you are converting timber to forest, I would highly recommend either purchasing or hiring an excavator equipped with a grapple to move along and pluck everything out of the ground and stack it into piles for burning. You don't have time to fuss with a tractor. The excavator will be ideal for burning the slash as well.

It takes forever and is hard on man and machine to do this kind of work with a tractor.

I can't wait to see the pictures. There is very little information about converting timber to pasture on the net. I'm doing it too and it is taking years.

 

[sandman2234]

Welcome Bill,
I would go for the tractor, as it will continue to have uses long after the current mess is cleared up. You will need some way to maintain the nine acres and a 40 or 50 hp tractor will come in handy.
On a differnent note, what was the outcome of your dozer? I was aware of the search for a new motor, but never heard if you found a viable replacement.
David from jax

 

[horse7]

...
It takes forever and is hard on man and machine to do this kind of work with a tractor.
...

I think it is harder on the man than the machine... and all I am doing is clearing about 6 acres of overgrown field full of bushes and smallish trees. Some of the bushes have 18" bases (I am cutting everything off flush with the ground and hoping not to rent a stump grinder). The trees though are generally relatively small, no more than 10" (2x at the base sometimes) but mostly 4-6". Anything up to 2" is just bush hogged, and some bushes pop out with the FEL. The area is hogged every 30 days during growing season to help the grass take over, looks like it might take a few years to choke out the weeds. Still have several heavy clumps and edges of bushes and trees (and a scattering in the field itself).

Several months of weekends and vacation time will not finish off 9 acres. If I was in a hurry for the 9 acres, I'd go the bull dozer/excavator route, and use a tractor to contour the ground and cut the weeds/grass to help the grass take over. An SS with a tree shear could clear the trees, but then you need to grind the stumps, and IMHO the stumps are the hard part, 1/4-1/3 of my time on a tree is the flush cut. Leaving the stumps is not a good option, you probably can't bush hog and will end up with 9 acres of bushes and saplings. So you would need something like an ASV with a tree shear, stump grinder, and bucket (and chain saw etc.), then trade them in at the end for a tractor...

 

[john_bud]

An ASV RC100 has 14 inches of clear space under the machine. That's pretty generous.

I really haven't seen that a skid is cheaper than a tractor in PTO power compared to hydraulic power available to do work. The 100 hp RC100 has about 65 hydraulic hp available. There is also fairly high loss in the hydraulics when powering the implement too. A 65 PTO hp tractor is cheaper and has 65 pto hp. The attachments are cheaper for the tractor too.

Depending on what you need to do to clear the tractor or a tracked SS may be best. Depends on the land. If it's mowable with 2" or less brush / trees the tractor with a mower wins hands down. If you have to pull out lots of stumps with a BH, I would think the tractor also wins. If it's steep, the tracted SS probably wins.

 

[AKfish]

I'm faced with a pretty similar decision. Need to convert about 9 acres of trees to pasture-hay fields (out of current 20 acres). Longer term --- negotiating with California owner on 35-48 additional acres that are also forest.

I have a different time-line schedule to complete the necessary work, however. Retired and looking forward to the next 10 years if need be to cut, dig, and plant.

Can't afford a skid-steer and an excavator or a small dozer and excavator combo.

So, I'm zeroing in on a Kubota L48 or the JD 110 TLB. Not likely to find a new L48 (or a good used one in Alaska..) and I don't think the new L59 is in my price range; so, that leaves the JD 110 as the lead horse.

Hydraulic thumb, front grapple, belly pan, optional lights, and 3pt hitch with drawbar. Since this machine is gonna have to do the job -- start to finish -- I might just get the top n tilt to make the soil preparation work the easiest I can.

My $0.64 cents.

AKfish