Lot clearing and root raking

[UrbanLoggerMI]

I have an opportunity to bid on a lot clearing job (about 11 acres) for a developer and was hoping to absorb some wisdom. The site is flat (I'm in Michigan) and theres a lot of trees but its not super dense and theres a lot of underbrush growing up. I have an idea of how I'm going to remove the trees but where its gets fuzzy for me is using a root rake. I'll be honest I've never even heard the term until he brought it up... I've done some lot clearing jobs but got by with a mulcher head for a skidsteer and our Brush Bandit 1990 for the bigger trees but nothing to this extent. You can usually find me climbing trees or riding around in a bucket so this job is a whole different gig for me to get into. Just looking for some advice on using a root rake and any other advice you might have for me. Also, what equipment would you consider my best set up?
Thanks

 

[hanniedog]

Cat D7

 

[northmanlogging]

Big Cat (dozer) or big excavator. Rental rates are probably the same, or pretty close, fuel is probably going to be fairly close as well, the excavator is maybe faster? All depends on what your comfortable with running.

Root rake is a dozer thing, but an excavator can just dig the stump out.

I'm currently in the same boat only my project is only about 1/2 acre, with thick tall ass timber on it.

Check on the type of ground, rocky vs dirt, wet vs dry etc all has an effect on things.

I've seen folks clear an acre with an excavator in about a day, stack the stumps and brush and have it torched to ashes by the next morning.

I've also seen folks using more or less the same equipment take months to clear 4 acres...

If you can get a large excavator with a root rake option, or at the very least a narrow bucket, the smaller the bucket the less resistance the roots will have, some folks will even put a rock rake on the back side of a bucket just for stumping, works pretty damned good on the toughies.

And get the biggest machines you can reasonable afford more power means less time digging each stump, less time digging each stump means less hours you have to pay for.

 

[Philip Wheelock]

Medium excavators with a bucket/thumb around here. Track loader w/grapple rake and mulching head to clean things up. Chainsaws first, then the excavator; other way around turns into a nasty mess of giant pick-up sticks. Skidder if you've got wood for market. Almost never see a dozer locally.

 

[bitzer]

20 or so ton excavator with a frost tooth poppin stumps. D4-5 dozer with a rake in front of the blade. Last summer I clearcut 40 acres of sawtimber in 6 weeks and the hoe and dozer followed (pushed) me. Hoe popped stumps first then the dozer pushed stumps and slash into huge piles. Torched it off and kept pushing them together. We had a deadline. That was ****in hammerin everyday.