Tractor expectations

[fwc]

Me and my wife have some land (8.8 acres) that we plan on building on as soon as we can decide on a plan that fits us. I know long term a tractor will come in handy doing landscaping and maintenance.
The property has a large number of small saplings 1-2 inches sizes that I can usually hack down with a ditch bank blade.

Our Land - see typical growth pix

Not growing up around tractors and farms, my question is this => Is it reasonable to expect a 30-40 hp tractor with FEL (possibly toothbar) and 5ft bush hog to clear growth like this. We really want to leave as many larger trees as possible.


Thanks for your thoughts.
fwc

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Is it reasonable to expect a 30-40 hp tractor with FEL (possibly toothbar) and 5ft bush hog to clear growth like this. )</font>

Yes. My cousin did a lot of similar clearing with a New Holland TC29D and a Bush Hog SQ600 with no apparent damage to either, although I might be inclined to recommend a slightly heavier duty brush hog.

 

[Soundguy]

Congrats on the land. I would go with the smalle rof your range.. 30-ish hp.. to keep the tractor size a bit smaller for maneuverability. I would suggest 4wd as well.. looks like there is a bit of up and down terain.. also will make life with the front end loader easier.

My guess will be a 5' rotary cutter... sure a 30-something hp model will pull a 6'.. but if you get a 5' it will be closeer profile to your tires for getting around those trees. FEl will make taking those sappling out easier.

To answer your question.. will a rotary cutter cut a 2" sappling? yes.. in most cases.. though the woody 2" ones you have have alread mady it to juvenile growth.. quite a bit to chew. If ya did run one over.. I'm sure you could chew it.. but you wouldn't want to run over a thicket or stand of them.. just to abusinve on the cutter and your pto drivetrain.

I would clear them out, and then maintain it with the cutter. You could push them over, or cut them out... they are probably small enough to push out.. stump/root and all.

Also.. a fel will make manuvering even tighter.. but I see it as a necescary evil.. as you will need a fel.. or at least want one.. in that woodlot. I also wouldn't hesitate to dip as low as say a ford TC 29D... (That may drop you to a 4' cutter.. I'm just not sure. ) though I think a 29 will pull a 5' if you don't have 4' grass to cut.. which looks like you don't.. just nuisance grass.. and undergrowth which is easy to cut, once you get the sapplings out of there. The 29d will be more agile, and you can get hydro and 4wd.

Now if you want to slash-n-burn and log it.. a heavier tractor might be in order... or even better, a rental bulldozer to conture the land.. but then.. I don't get tthe impression you want to do that...

Good luck

Soundguy

 

[Soundguy]

I see we must have been 'copying' off the same page.

Soundguy

 

[Dave___in___CT]

Hi...


A 30hp or less tractor is adequate... I recommend getting a backhoe for it... especially when clearing and building new... you won't regret it...


Dave...

 

[Thomas]

A good dozer operater will save you time and $$'s, in which you may not need 30-40hp tractor w/heavy duty attachments to keep your land up to par...just a thought /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[Bob_Skurka]

I'll echo Thomas. Rent a dozer (and possibly a driver for it) for clearing and then you can look for a smaller tractor to maintain the land, maybe something in the low to mid 20hp range. It will be faster to clear the land with the right equipment the first time and the smaller tractor will make mowing around the trees an easier chore in the future.

 

[fwc]

Bird,
The dealer has an SQ600 (I think) hooked up on the tractor I was looking at. I was thinking an older style model 12 Bush Hog might be better suited because of increased cutting thickness capacity but I think it needs at least 25 PTO hp to do its thing so thats why I was considering the higher hp tractor.

Thanks,
Floyd

 

[fwc]

Soundguy,
I agree on th 4wd - Hydro is on the list as well. - I was thinking I would need the HP cuz of the loses in the hydro and also as noted in my response to Bird above. For close up cutting to the house, I have one of the small 16 hp Scott/Deere(sabre clone) to precision cutting. If I end up with a lot of grass, then I may change my plans, but my wife loves trees so much we may not have a lot - just leaves to grind... - From what I have read, some folks have used FEL w/toothbar to kinda dig and push out the small ones.

I probably should be spending my time getting the house going and quit playing with the land and start living on it..we surely like it when we are there.

Thanks,
Floyd

 

[fwc]

Dave,
This tractor thing has grown for me. It started out with the thought of getting an old 8n and has mushroomed into something like an "egg laying fur bearing pig" (Soemthing I can do anything I could ever imagine with) - I know I could use the backhoe especially on taking down trees and stump removal, but I suspect we will have the builder contract all the major work. If you looked at the pix, then I will probably spend a lot of time trying to get my self unstuck from the marsh. Maybe I need to get a floating tractor.. option...
The backhoe will be on the wish list, but I suspect it won't happen until my wife gets her pool.... hmmm maybe I could dig it... with the hoe... /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Thanks for the ideas
Floyd

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( The dealer has an SQ600 (I think) hooked up on the tractor I was looking at )</font>

There's certainly nothing wrong with that. In 1995, I bought a 4' squealer myself and never had a problem with it, but I also didn't have much to cut over 1" stuff. When my cousin bought his TC29D, the salesman delivered it with the SQ600 already hooked up, and promptly proceeded to "demonstrate" it by pushing directly into stuff as thick or worse than your pictures. It sure was noisy, and to tell the truth, I thought he was overdoing it a bit. But after that salesman left, I inspected the mower underneath expecting to find it dinged up a bit, but it wasn't.

 

[icat]

I'll concur with Bird and the others. If you spend too much time on TBN you'll likely find me "defending" the Squeeler series. I have the SQ600 (the five footer) on my L3130 and I tend to dive into tree groves as well. I will admit that my overgrowth isn't as dense or as old as yours, but the cutter doesn't seem to care what it cuts up. I've cleared about ten acres with mine and it never even hicupped. Most of the trees I cut were less than an inch in diameter, but there were quite a few two inchers and a couple of 3's as well. If you look at the photo in my sig you can see the "grove" of trees in the back ground - those are all gone now.

 

[normde2001]

I agree with Thomas, for a few hundred $, I paid $200 for 4 hrs. in N. Ga., you can hire a bulldozer/operator to clear your land, push the trees down and into a burn pile and be done with it. Then you will only need a 20-25 hp tractor with a few implements to maintain it. You would pay $6,000 for a backhoe, and after the initial use, it will sit and collect dust.

 

[PineRidge]

Your lot looks a lot like mine did when we purchsed our land. I Purchased a 25 HP 4WD tractor at the time but I was not wise enough to get a front end loader or even a backhoe. I cleared the lot and wore out 2 chain saws in the process. That tractor came in handy for dragging trees to the burning pile and for use with the brush hog.

Now the house and pond are finished and I'm older and a bit wiser for it. I traded up to a 40 HP 4WD and got a front end loader and backhoe to maintain and also help with the never ending new projects.

Don't go too small for your needs and get the right attachments like the FEL, brush hog, and so on. You won't be sorry that you did. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Welcome to the TBN boards, a wealth of free information....

 

[AndyMA]

I agree with everybody who suggested that a small tractor is not the think to cut brush like I see in your pictures. See my post in this section about how to cut 2-4" trees for more of my thoughts.
I disagree on getting a backhoe. I've had backhoes on my last four tractors and they are my favorite attachment. I read about people spending quite a bit of time doing projects on this board with a FEL that would take minutes with a backhoe. I almost never do a project with out using a backhoe. Most times I use a post hole digger, I hit too many rocks or roots and need to dig it out. Remove rocks, roots in a lawn or garden. Dig holes, plant things, break up ice, level hard ground and rip out roots and rocks prior to box blading or tilling. Pile up rocks, trees etc. and the list goes on... Backhoes are great for ripping out brush, Grab it above ground and rip the top out and put in one pile to chip. Reach back in and get the root and swing to the other side and pile up the roots.
Just remember, the backhoe digs and the loader fills...
Just my thoughts.

Andy

 

[RoyJackson]

I've been cutting stuff like those saplings in the "Homeside looking East" and "Typical Growth" pics using a 60" Land Pride cutter hooked to a Deere 670 (16 HP at the PTO) with little problem. The brush I'm working is quite a bit thicker (except for "Marsh" pic).
However, it's taken a while...mostly due to larger trees buried under all that brush.

So, if you're not looking to clear this out over 2 or three weekends, a 20 HP @ the PTO sized machine will do you well. My personal favorite, a Deere 790. Then there's a NH TC24, Kubota B2710 (or used 2400) or B7500 (more work, probably). Probably a little too much for the subcompact tractors, though.


Unlike most of the TBNer's, I think a gear machine is the way to go for most work.

 

[Slamfire]

Do a search on "tree getter" it'll show you an attachment that will pull out small trees by the roots. Brush can then either be mowed with a bush hog or pulled out with an fel. I don't see the purpose in backing over small trees to mow them, when you can pull them out. I started out with an Oliver crawler with a push blade, and was able to knock down trees up to the size of my fore arm, but it couldn't push out much in the way of roots or stumps.