Hi,

I got a survey from NRCS and they say the soil is good in the east part of my land. So now, I have a couple acres behind a trailer and chicken coop I want cleared. Land was timber logged about 7 years ago so now a good bunch of it is already thinned out but there is a good amount of underbrush. Well, you can take a look at the video. The soil is sandy and most of the trees are pines. This is East Texas (Harrison County) afterall.

On another forum a guy recommended this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxfw...ature=youtu.be

Which is something the Kubota dealer offered to rent me for $3,000 for a week (Kubota SVL90 with mulching attachment)

Here is the land in question: http://tinyurl.com/twoacres

I start out at the backdoor of the trailer.
20 seconds in I pause at the chicken coop
45 seconds in I show the fence post where I want to begin the clearing
clear a 2 acre square from that post out into the thinned area you see

1. If I were going to buy something to do this what should I get?
I only need these two acres cleared and that's it. I'm not trying to get into the land clearing business so I will be selling the machine afterwards.

2. If I were going to pay someone to do this, how many hours do you think this should take? To clear everything in this 4mins video? I know hourly rates will differ around the country so I'm looking for the number of hours/days it should take and I can go from there.

Thanks.

I get a message that the video doesn't exist.

Look into a skidsteer with a fecon head. That clears brush and small trees and turns them into mulch. I can rent one here for around $750/day plus tax and delivery/pick up. The bobcat is large, and it'll burn 5 gallons of diesel an hour when it's working.

I used one to clear brush and trees up to 4" dia a few years ago and could do about 1/2 acre a day, but there were a LOT of trees on the place. It all depends on the sharpness of the teeth, and the skill of the operator.

IIRC Bobcat makes one that will chew down trees up to 12" dia. I was told the skidsteer with fecon head retails for over $100K.

http://m.youtube.com/?reload=7&rdm=1cbzr13w4#/watch?v=FIHFD-SXMrE

Try that link for my walk thru

And yeah the Kubota SVL90 is a skidsteer that can have a mulching head attached.
I guess $3k for the week is the same as buy 4 days at $750 get the 5th day free.

and thats with me doing all the work
Im scared to know what a pro will charge me to do the job

Texasfan

Check in your area folks with D-4 size dozer. They can clear several acres a day and pile it up to burn. Check it out first.


Pat W

Another Harrison Co. Guy! that's cool. I just cleared 6.5 acres in Harrison Co. for a Pond. We used a track hoe and a dozer. This was clearing out a 12 yr old clearcut area, so the brush was pretty thick, and it had some 12 yr old trees in the mix. It took about 3 days to clear and stack it. And last summer I used a Bobcat mulcher to clear about six acres and I would stay away from that type of equipment if I was going to clear a spot for a pond. I used it to make me an area for wildlife food plots. I think the Bobcat is cheaper per hour but the track hoe and dozer was much faster time wise, so it may be a wash in cost. And when the bobcat mulcher was done it left a lot of trash (mulch) on the ground. I hope this helps

I would also hold off and talk with some guys that you get prices from for building the pond. They may clear it for you(with a dozer) for less, instead of someone coming in special as a in&out job.

If your really looking to buy something and resell it, consider the dozer. It will help you thru the whole pond building process. However, most of the time its just cheaper and better to pay someone.

I'm starting to think a chainsaw and a holiday weekend might be my best bet

I only have to think about how to get these stumps out.
Most will be in the 2 to 6 inch range

From my experience, if you cut the trees with a chainsaw, you will still have to clear the dirt down to the clay, and the clay on my place in Harrison as about 4 feet down below the surface. It was hard fro me to see in the video what type of pond you are planning to build. Are you damming a wash of creek? Or a water shed using runoff water to supply?

Using watershed runoff.

Simple third acre pond but I want to clear these two acres around it as they will be part of the feed into the pond and I want to keep the edge clear of trees

This initial clearing is preparation to clear the top soil sometime next year.
I also will be planting pine trees on the outer edges of this two acres plot right now it is just shrubby brush

In the water shed pond I built. I had to dig out the pond area using a track hoe. This was after the land was cleared of the brush. This material was used to build he dam around the hole. So if I would have used a chain saw, it would have been a waste of time and energy because they removed everything with the track hoe in the process of digging the pond. I hope this helps.

I cleared out my ravine with the chainsaw approach, but my trees were big enough I wanted all the firewood. It took all summer. Those trees that were in the way when the pondbuilders arrived and expanded the work zone, they flicked them out with the track hoe. It was nothing to them. I ended up with a pile of broken trees/logs/roots in a huge tangle off to the side. The pond guys wanted all the roots and stumps gone, so even what I cut they dug out the root ball.

Talk to your pond builder. They'll have to bring equipment in for that. Much less hassle to spend an extra day clearing than hiring a separate job to bring in heavy eqp to clear.

Update.


Got three quotes.

1. Just knock everything down and leave where is, 1 day and $1500

2. Same as 1 but also push into burn piles then burn and bury in corner of property. 2 days and $2,200

3. Same as 2 but it will take 3-4 days and costs $3,500

All three quotes were from different companies.

I'm going to make myself and option 4 which is buy a $150 Stihl 170 and spend two full days Sun up to Sun down chopping these trees down then raking the remnants into burn piles myself.
Most of these trees are 3 to 6 inches in diameter so it should not take too long to bring them down.
Hard part will be raking all this stuff into piles.

Yes I will have stumps but I can deal with those later.
The stumps will be so small should be easy for me to burn them individually.

Thoughts?

TF,
Cut it up into 4-6' lengths, stack it high, and it'll burn clean...you have access to a tractor with a loader?

It's a LOT easier to get the stumps out when they are still attached to the stems of the trees (trunks) than if they are cut off near ground level.

When I mean a lot, I mean that they can be pushed higher up with a smaller piece of equipment, tipped over and then stacked up to be burned.

Can you rent heavy equipment anywhere nearby? For under $1,000 you should be able to rent something that will do the job in one day, maybe 2 at the most including any time needed to learn how to effeciently use the equipment. If you go the equipment route, get something with tracks vs. tires. Tires have a tendacy to go flat when running over sharp objects, even accidentally.

Some food for thought...Not sure what kind of trees you are cutting down but many stumps don't die cause you cut the tree down. They just sprout. Hard to burn a green tree stump.

I'm thinking by the time you drop all those trees, cut them into manageable lengths, drag them to a central location, and pile them up and burn em', you'll be wishing Andreas Stihl had never existed. Dropping those trees will be the easiest, quickest part.....dealing with them once they're on the ground will be the killer. And, you're still left with the stumps.

I'm all about doing it myself when I can, and I do most of the time. But that is quite a project...it would be child's play for a small dozer, however.

Comfortable running a saw? Brushy, thick areas are where accidents happen due to kickback.

I seriously doubt you will save any money. As previously mentioned, get your potential pond builder to look at it and ask him if it will help. My guess is it will be just as easy to build the pond with the trees standing as with the stumps left behind.

If you have lots of time on your hands and a couple years before building the pond, you could cut the trees as your talking about and treat the stumps with stump killer chemical as you go (treat fresh cut stumps, don't wait till "later"). On those small trees the treated stumps will prevent regrowth and within a couple years the hair roots will at least be rotted and the stumps easily pushed out by your pond builders dozer. But you need at least a couple years for this process to work and do much good on the stumps.

Years ago, an old man told me that the best way to clear land was to get a part-time job flipping burgers or something, and use the proceeds to pay a dozer operator. He guaranteed me that the part-time job would be much easier than clearing brush with a chainsaw................ Though he was only half kidding, I wish I had listened to that old man.

I agree with what others have said, let the same contractor who builds the pond, clear the land.

As others have alluded to, an operator would much rather push over trees than dig up a bunch of stumps. Digging up stumps is more time consuming than is pushing over trees with a dozer. The dozer operator will use the tree trunk as leverage to pry out the root ball.

I cleared a 100' fence line with a chainsaw. It was mostly brush and 2"-6" pines. Took me half a day, and by the end I wanted to throw my chainsaw in the pond. I watched our builder clear an acre of the same stuff in no time at all with his dozers. I understand the anxious aspect and you want to begin your project but take our word you can''t even put a dent in 2 acres of clearing.

Finished up my pond a few months ago. All the pond contractors (total of 7) I talked to wanted the trees cut down to about 3 feet off the ground so the dozer (D62) could clear them easily. Cleared about 100 trees (4-6") in about 2 semi-easy days with my father-in-law. He cut them, I dragged them. Burned all the brush stuff as we were going with a pretty hot fire and stacked the rest as firewood. I would not say it was easy but also wouldn't call it back breaking. When the dozer started through the stump area, I don't think he was at full power and it didn't miss a beat. There was also a cottonwood stump (3 ft diameter), I think the dozer laughed at it before pushing it out! May be different in other areas based on soil but wanted to share my experience.

I'm going to keep looking for a young guy with a D4 on the side of his house with nothing better to do on a Thursday but have me pay him $1,000 for a days work.

I looked over it again and it really is just clearing one acre as the the other acre is already pretty sparse. I can clear that with a machete and a shovel myself.

I cleared about a 1/4 acre on this place not too long after I bought it. I used a CS340 Echo chainsaw. Trees were from 8" dia down to 1/2". They were pretty thick and spaced close together in some areas. It took me the better part of a week working at it 3-4 hours a day, and that didn't include taking out the stumps. I think finding a guy with a dozer is the smart thing to do.

Clearing land by hand can appear deceptively simple and relatively quick, especially if it's not something you do a lot of. It almost always takes longer, and is more difficult to accomplish than what was envisioned.

Texansfan, you mentioned a machete for the sparse areas...I would look into a straight shaft trimmer equipped with a brush blade instead. It's not exactly what I would call easy, but it is pretty darn quick, and there's not as much bending over as there is while swinging a fixed blade tool.

http://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200466753_200466753


Something like that?
I saw one of those on clearance some place last week for $100
it was Stihl tho
Should have bought it but I figured I didn't need it as it was looking like typical lawn care equipment to me

Yep, that's what I'm talking about. I much prefer a tri-blade for brush and saplings, but a four sided blade will work.

Get a good one.... you'll find other uses for it if you're going to own property, it's worth spending a little money on. I like Husqvarna, Stihl, and my favorite....Echo.

I've got an Echo and love it. Starts easy, light weight and plenty of power. If I am going to run into some thick stalked weeds or small trees (1/2 inch) when wacking, I use the blade that looks like a plywood blade for a circular saw. It literally saws thru that stuff. They claim you can cut up to a 2 inch tree with it, but I've never tried it. That blade is almost worthless in grass though!

Bill that's what I have, and also like it a lot. I tried cutting cedars with 2-4" trunks - wasn't worth the time it required - my 14" Echo saw made super quick work of them, though.

I got the 14" Echo saw and love it too!

If you want one blade that will cut it all, from grass to saplings over an inch in diameter, this is what you're looking for:



Take my word for it guys, once you use a tri-blade for brushcutting you will never go back to the saw blade.

Did you build that?

U guys make me laugh at myself. My first yr at wildlife food plotting. I used my grandsons help and using a machete to cut down the big weeds in the plots. They 2nd yr I bought a Weed eater that came with a 3 blade wood cutting blade. My grandson said (after using the weed eater) Pepaw, I wish we would have used this last yr. I am slow to learn, but I always learn the easier way to do things. Next time.

Didn't build this one Dave. These are available anywhere that trimmers and brush utters are sold.

"These are available anywhere that trimmers and brush utters are sold."

I didn't know brush had utters.... is this where your syrup comes from?

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Sorry Spark, couldn't resist.

Darn this tiny button phone!

Cutters ....... Brush cutters!

The right tool for the job makes all the difference in the world!

I'm going to purchase a 3 prong blade. Sold me

Putting it on my Christmas list. Rumour has it Santa is a member of PBF so I hope he reads this...... We would also like to hear about your pond up North! Any good ice fishing stories??

I've probably cleared about 4 or so acres of 2-4 inch trees and heavy gray dogwood brush over the years by hand. Mostly for the cardio and the big bonfire.

Before we got the pond dug, I cleared a large hedgerow that was blocking the view. A massive knot of grape vines, sumac, and various 4"+ trees and thorn-apples all tied together. It took a couple of weekends to tear into that thing and cut stumps out flush. Some of the thorn-apples had several trunks and were impossible to clean up enough to get a brush hog over the top.

Burned it all, and cleaned it up. A LOT of work, but rewarding. Still had those stumps to deal with.

Then we got the pond dug. When complete, I asked if the dozer could get out those thorn-apple stumps so I could mow and knock off the shoots. Took him 15 minutes or so to raze the entire about an acre area into a pile. It went through the stumps like butter. Now it makes a great fox hut and is out of the way.

It was kind of embarrassing to see all that work to be put to shame in 15 minutes.

Imagine if you had paid him at the outset, knocking out the whole trees and lifting the stumps and all, gives you readily cut trunks already on their side, and accessible safely. Not to mention all the overgrowth is shredded to nothing in the process.

Sometimes hiring a specialist is the most efficient and saves time and Money.

ThomasTponds.com