Clearing a lot

Baz · Sep 7, 2006

I'm clearing a 60' x 180' lot. Rough ground, mix of maple, ash, locust, honeysuckle, grape vines, old tires, etc. Would you drop everything first, then limb, buck & chip, or clean up each tree as you go? I went with the first way to minimize rental fees for chipper, but would appreciate other points of view. Thanks.

begleytree · Sep 7, 2006

LOL
I just finished a 1.5 acre job just like this last week (rough terrain). If you have to underbrush, do that first so you can see and so you don't have to fight wood and brush through it. Rent a billygoat mower (walk-behind bushhog) and clear it all out, then drop what you must, stack the brush where you can get to it easily. I too had to rent a chipper as mine would go into the area, but wouldn't come out without a large tow truck with lots of winch cable and blocks for redirects, and I couldn't get my tractor and bushhog into it. On mine, the wood stayed and the brush could be blown as chips. Maybe yours is a total removal of all debris? I pulled the rental vermeer 625 toy behind my 4 wheeler to the brush piles.
I had 3 days on it, sorta. 4 hrs underbrush, 9 hrs felling, bucking, and stacking wood, 6 hrs playing with the toy chipper with the insane autofeed 'feature'.
By your measurements you're looking at 1/4 acre, should be a cake walk unless you have a lot of big stuff comming down.
-Ralph

Kneejerk Bombas · Sep 7, 2006

WHy are you clearing the lot?

begleytree · Sep 7, 2006

Mike Maas said:
WHy are you clearing the lot?

I know you didn't ask me, but we had a big ice storm in '03. opened up the woods for crap and briars to grow. This was a nice hardwood forest area, all oaks, hickories and a few sugar maples. now its open on the ground, all trees left, all dead ones removed. now the guy can get thru it and enjoy his property again. makes for a nice area to relax and take walks. instead of a big thorny brushpile like it was.
-Ralph

Kneejerk Bombas · Sep 7, 2006

I only asked because if he were building a house, I give some tips.

clearance · Sep 7, 2006

Mike Maas said:
WHy are you clearing the lot?

Who cares why, listen up Baz, a 200 or slightly smaller excavator (hoe) with a hydraulic thumb, bin the crap, branches, stumps, tops, culls etc. out of there. Get the hoe to deck any decent logs. Anyway else is a freaking huge waste of time, this is 2006, not "Little House on the Prarie" old days, pulling stumps with horses time. Cleared means cleared, raw earth left, everthing gone.

DDM · Sep 7, 2006

Forget binning it, bins cost money just dig a big hole and bury it all. :blob2:

Kneejerk Bombas · Sep 7, 2006

clearance said:
Who cares why, listen up Baz, a 200 or slightly smaller excavator (hoe) with a hydraulic thumb, bin the crap, branches, stumps, tops, culls etc. out of there. Get the hoe to deck any decent logs. Anyway else is a freaking huge waste of time, this is 2006, not "Little House on the Prarie" old days, pulling stumps with horses time. Cleared means cleared, raw earth left, everthing gone.

Developers even scrape off the topsoil.

Baz · Sep 7, 2006

I get to leave the stumps for the dozer, but all wood & brush go. I think the site was a construction dumping ground 30 yrs ago. Now that most of the brush is out, the ground looks like the mogul section on a ski run, minus the mountain. There's no way I'm getting anything with wheels in there! I might try cabling armloads of brush together & towing it out to the adjoining parking lot to chip it there. Hiring a squad of the local high school football team to carry the wood out- maybe I can sell the idea to their coach as conditioning...

clearance · Sep 7, 2006

Mike Maas said:
Developers even scrape off the topsoil.

Yes they do, and then sell it, guess who buys it back to landscape the yard it came from?

begleytree · Sep 7, 2006

Mike Maas said:
I only asked because if he were building a house, I give some tips.

dang Mike, don't hold out on us. tips are always usefull, I file them away in the ole brain for the day I need them.
Never knew you to post bad info.
-Ralph

DDM · Sep 7, 2006

Hmmmmmmm Football team & Liability.

Kneejerk Bombas · Sep 7, 2006

DDM said:
Hmmmmmmm Football team & Liability.

Did I give bad football team liability advice? Or was that aimed at somebody else?

Kneejerk Bombas · Sep 7, 2006

begleytree said:
dang Mike, don't hold out on us. tips are always usefull, I file them away in the ole brain for the day I need them.
Never knew you to post bad info.
-Ralph

Do the little stuff first. You can use a weed eater type tool with a metal blade. They cut 2, 3, 4" stuff, no problem.
Don't cut the big stuff until you have a building permit and it's staked out. Then, only cut what's needed.
Before the rest of the contractors come in, it's real important to set up root protection fences for any trees you hope to save. Not a row of stakes with caution tape either. You'll want a good fence, that contractors will be afraid to knock over.
Communicate with all the contractors too. Establish fines for crossing the fence.
It's good to preserve existing trees, they're free. :heart:

jazak · Sep 7, 2006

Saw a BIG job just done here, NOT by me though. About 1/2 an acre full of full mature trees the guy had 2 tractor trailer logging trucks FULL + more trees still on the ground and a Sterling tandem axle dump with a Morbark 18. Big job for around here.

DDM · Sep 7, 2006

Baz said:
Hiring a squad of the local high school football team to carry the wood out- maybe I can sell the idea to their coach as conditioning...

Must have missed this mike.

Ax-man · Sep 7, 2006

What weedeater type tool witha metal blade can cut 4" dia. material???? Cockleburrs, thistles and horseweeds yes, but woody trees ??? They would have to be awful softwooded trees like Basswood and Populars I think I better ask Sthil for a refund on my 550 clearing saw if a weedeater with a metal blade can cut 4" dia. hardwood tree brush.

Larry

begleytree · Sep 7, 2006

yeah ax, I started my job off using a weedeater and metal blade. takes way too long, too hard, and leaves a lot of brush that a walkbehind bushhog mulches up for you, no mess, no more touching it.
all I could get was about 2" dia material with my setup
-Ralph

Baz · Sep 8, 2006

Mike Maas said:
WHy are you clearing the lot?

A business wants to expand their parking lot.

Kneejerk Bombas · Sep 8, 2006

Here's the weedeater we use. It handles 4" stuff no problem. The only limit to the size you can cut is the distance from the blade edge to the center hub, which is about 4". If you come in from both sides, you can even cut bigger stuff.
You just wind up the motor and swing away. A 3" tree doesn't even slow down the swinging motion.

We cut the little stuff first, then start on one edge and cut the medium stuff, then do the big notch and drops last.
You definitely want to clean up, or at least organize the brush, as you go. There's not much worse than trying to pull apart a big tangled mess of brush. We call it staging the brush. Put it in rows, with the butts all facing one way, where you can easily drive to with the chipper. Don't make big piles, spread them out in "arm full" piles, then just drive along shoving the stuff in the chipper.
If you wan to reduce the time you have the chipper, cut the small and medium stuff and get it staged, then bring in the chipper. It's nice to do the big trees with the chipper there.
Make sure you cut the stumps low and flat, they will pop a tire.

Clearing a lot

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