How do I do this job?

[cderekbower]

Hi,
I want to make a botanical garden/zoo in Belize specializing in fruits and birds. I am well short of the funds needed to do this with professional help, but I can afford it by doing the work myself and then reselling the equipment at its depreciated value. Information from professions like yourselves is hugely beneficial to me and I am very thankful for it.

I have 50 acres of fairly big trees (1-3ft diameter 70 to 100 ft tall and all joined together with strong vining plants.)

Felling these trees is different from felling in my country, Canada, where trees actually fall to the ground. To give you an idea of the trees' resistence to falling in Belize I have had to cut as many as 25 trees before any would fall, and have often floated trees with 1' diameters vertically. However, a big tree left on its own will often blow over once the surrounding trees are down.

I want to transform this piece of land to a graded, mowable surface with perhaps 5% of the blowdown resistent trees left standing.

The majority of these trees are of no use, making poor lumber or poor charcoal.

In addition to having a graded, mowable surface on this 50 acres I must do 1 to 2 months of earthwork with an excavator.

I have been advised on this forum that an excavator itself may be the best tool for pushing over trees to remove the stumps. I do not want to dig out stumps and I do not want to use a chainsaw to fell if I can use the trees as levers to uproot and fell in one go. For the most part, the uprooted trees will be burned a few months later.

What I would like to know from those of you who know about heavy machinery is:

1. Can an excavator really push over a big tree? What size do I need?
2. How should I learn to operate an excavator?
3. I have no idea how to fix anything with moving parts. If I buy an excavator that is new, it is too expensive... If I buy one that is very old I may never be able to start it. I would like to sell the machine after using it for a year. What should I buy?

 

[Torquin]

If you get a large enough excavator, it will have no problem pushing over most anything, unless you have a giant sequoia. That said, you may not want to get one quite that large. If you have an excavator you will be able to dig around the tree a little to loosen up the soild and break the larger roots before you attempt to push it over. Fortunately you have a "satey catch" in place in that the vines to the other trees will hold the tree up so it doesn't fall on you when digging around it. The drawback, of course, is it will be harder to push over when it come time. You migh consider looking for an excavator with a long boom, which may allow you to be able to reach into the vines and yank some out as you go, to make the tree easier to push over. You would be wise to look for one that has a substantial roll cage built around the operator's compartment, or build one there after the purchase.

As far as operating it, you can read manuals all day long, but sitting in the operator's seat and running it will teach you more than any book can. When I first got my back hoe I was jerky and confusing the directions of the controls for about 2 days. After that I became much more smooth and after a couple of weeks I was very good at it. For you, I'd suggest to play with the controls for about 2 weeks, and don't try to take down big trees at first, until you are used to how the excavator works, and its limitations.

As far as fixing things goes, make friends with your local heavy machinery repair shop, or learn to do it yourself. Sites like this one exist for just about everything out there and there are a lot of good people that will be glad to help you out with your difficulties. If you do it yourself you may need to purchase/borrow/rent some pretty large tools to be able to actually do the work on the unit. If you get a unit in good shape though, you should just be able to get away with regular maintenance, greasing, etc. and this usually can be done with regular tools.

Chris

 

[cderekbower]

I had not thought about the need for specialized tools. I am glad that you mentioned that. And thanks for such a great piece of advice.