New guy wanting to clear acreage

[Cunningham]

Clearing acreage in southwest Georgia, USA​

My wife inherited several acres in SoWeGA (southwest Georgia, USA). We'd like to clear out about 3 acres (initially) that used to be horse pasture when my wife was younger (there's a barn in all this mess as well). It's currently overgrown with 25+ years of privet, chinaberry, hackberry, cedar, wisteria, greenbrier, etc. We hired one guy that said he could do the job, but when he showed up with a 50 hp John Deere tractor, I knew he'd bitten off more than he could chew. I'm generally a do-it-yourselfer, but have never tackled a job this big, and I'm thinking I just need to pull on my big boy pants, rent the equipment, and get it done. I've spoken to folks at two different national equipment rental places to get advice on what I'd need for the job, and got somewhat conflicting information:

The first person recommended an 18,000 lb. mini-excavator to dig up and knock down the large chinaberries, hackberries, etc. (25 yr old trees 12"-18" diameter trunks in some cases), then get a 79 hp crawler to push up the privet and smaller undergrowth, and then push everything up into a pile to burn (we just had about 100 acres adjacent to this spot of volunteer pine and hardwood clear cut and will be having it prepped and burned for replanting within the next year or two, so all this stuff will be pushed over to the clear cut for burning). The next couple folks agreed with that strategy, but one guy thought that the excavator would be a waste of time and to just get a big enough dozer to push everything down and out of the way all at once and be done with it. However, that particular sales rep, said that I wouldn't be able to rent what I needed without a contractors account with them, and that the biggest piece of equipment I could rent without an account would be a 12,000 - 14,000 lb. mini excavator, which he admitted probably wouldn't get the job done.

So my questions to you folks is: What do I need to rent to get this job done? And, is there any reason why I wouldn't be able to rent the necessary equipment without a contractor's license?

Additionally, although we're starting out with rehabilitating the barn and 3 acre horse pasture, there's nearly 10 more acres surrounding the home farm that needs clearing, not to mention revitalizing woods roads and overgrown drainage ditches, so being able to rent the proper equipment and do it myself, will be the most economical way to tackle this.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Seachaser]

We just had that done two years ago. Unless big stumps, a bulldozer will do the trick. Privet is my most hated invasive species. Easy to push up, but you may have to spray afterwards. A guy charged us $100 an acre. Money well spent and a bargain. We had quite a lot done.

 

[Cunningham]

We just had that done two years ago. Unless big stumps, a bulldozer will do the trick. Privet is my most hated invasive species. Easy to push up, but you may have to spray afterwards. A guy charged us $100 an acre. Money well spent and a bargain. We had quite a lot done.

Like I said, we hired a guy, quoted us $2k for less than 3 acres, and showed up with a 50 hp John Deere tractor. He did clear some of the privet, but needless to say he did not get full payment. And it's not the first time I've hired someone to do a job out there and be sorely disappointed. I'm done with hiring incompetence. What size dozer (there is a range of sizes, ya know) "will do the trick"?

 

[Seachaser]

He had two. One was what I consider small. About 6 foot blade. The other was a big one. 8-9 foot blade. The big one was for the real work and the small one for tight places and pushing in piles.
Talk with your District Forestry department. (In phone book). They have a list of reputable people. I would never hire a tractor guy. And if they have an excavator it will cost you. They have a delivery fee, they’re slower and about double the cost per hour. The Georgia Forestry district office and the local Georgia Forestry unit should be on your speed dial if you own land.

 

[Cunningham]

He had two. One was what I consider small. About 6 foot blade. The other was a big one. 8-9 foot blade. The big one was for the real work and the small one for tight places and pushing in piles.
Talk with your District Forestry department. (In phone book). They have a list of reputable people. I would never hire a tractor guy. And if they have an excavator it will cost you. They have a delivery fee, they’re slower and about double the cost per hour. The Georgia Forestry district office and the local Georgia Forestry unit should be on your speed dial if you own land.

I understand what you're saying, and I have hired people that were definitely not recommended by the NRCS ('cause that would be illegal for a federal agency to recommend a private business ;-). ) But like I've said, twice now, I DO NOT WANT TO HIRE SOMEONE. I would like some actual advice about what size heavy equipment I should rent to be able to do this job myself from someone that actually knows what they're talking about. Now don't get me wrong, Seachaser, I'm sure you know all about hiring folks and calling GFC on speed dial, but that's not what I'm asking. Although I gotta admit, $100/acre seems ridiculously cheap, would you be willing to pass on this guys information???

 

[wildwes]

If you have the funds to do it, you might be better off to buy an older dozer and then sell it once you're done with everything.

 

[pdqdl]

Although I gotta admit, $100/acre seems ridiculously cheap,...

I get more $ per acre to just mow lawns. I'd never consider that rate for brush clearing, not even if it could be done with my batwing mower on the tractor.

Ground clearing is not my line of work, but from what I have seen (and hired), a bulldozer or track loader clears ground faster than anything else. A 60,000 lb chunk of steel can just push the average small trees up like twigs. Track loaders are better at pushing trees over, but not nearly as effective at setting the blade low and sweeping the trees into a pile, roots and all. That being said, it can be materially unsafe to take out large trees with a dozer. Expertise is required to not end up covered with trees. Even loaders can screw up and have trouble.

If you have a bunch of trees too big for your dozer/loader, NOTHING can beat a large excavator for ripping large trees out of the ground. I watched a team of excavators wiping out large row of cottonwoods on a 2:1 slope once. They spent more time digging their way up the slope to the huge cottonwoods than they did popping each one out of the ground. It took maybe 5 minutes maximum to send over each tree, and the excavators could pass those trees around like twigs to the bottom, where one of the excavators would snap them into truck sized rubble and haul them off. It was quite an operation. The only time the dozer got any action on that job was to re-grade the slope when the excavators were done.

Depending on your time available and your situation, you might wish to consider a large skid steer loader with a tree shear attachment and a brush grapple. A good shear can take out trees up to 15 inches diameter, and then the brush grapple will handle moving the materials into a pile, The best ground clearing machine of that nature is a tree saw, but they are prohibitively expensive for a single use, and nobody "rents" the attachment.

I think it can take out trees up to 34" diameter, and leaves a consistently low stump. They even have a stump treatment option to prevent regrowth.

 

[pdqdl]

I couldn't afford that contraption, so I got this tree shear:

https://www.shoule.com/tree-shear-ts16-treerex.php

It does a nice job of cutting trees all day and will run away from a guy with a chainsaw in the long run. That being said, I can cut down 3" - 6" trees a bit faster with a chainsaw, providing they aren't in a thicket and I don't take a break. Get up into the 10+ in, trees, and the chainsaw runs behind. Plus, the shear & skid loader just mashes its way through the underbrush and makes a heck of a big mess of trees on the ground in a big hurry. You'd need another machine, maybe two just to pick up and pile what it cuts off each hour.

Tree shears do leave a bit of a stump, that will require a grinder if you want to grade or mow over the stumps. About 3" above grade is usual for a larger tree. The root flare prevents each tree from getting cut below grade.

 

[ATpro]

We used a Bobcat Forestry Cutter for some fire-lane work and it did good work where a big machine would have problems with soft ground and such.

​

 

[Cunningham]

NOTHING can beat a large excavator for ripping large trees out of the ground.

What would you consider to be a large excavator? Looks like I might be able to rent an18k lb. mini-excavator for a week from United Rentals. We do have several large trees.

 

[Cunningham]

We used a Bobcat Forestry Cutter for some fire-lane work and it did good work where a big machine would have problems with soft ground and such.

Could use that in other spots, but for this job gonna need something bigger.

 

[pdqdl]

What would you consider to be a large excavator? Looks like I might be able to rent an18k lb. mini-excavator for a week from United Rentals. We do have several large trees.

18k is a really good machine size if you are digging water lines. Uprooting 120' trees or doing some building demolition calls for BIG machines.

Caterpillar has a page that should explain it rather nicely.
https://www.cat.com/en_US/products/new/equipment/excavators/large-excavators.html



Any of these will quickly take out the tree of your preference.

 

[pdqdl]

You could always find the local utility clearance contractor. They probably have something like this, which is quite effective:

 

[Cunningham]

18k is a really good machine size if you are digging water lines. Uprooting 120' trees or doing some building demolition calls for BIG machines.

Caterpillar has a page that should explain it rather nicely.
https://www.cat.com/en_US/products/new/equipment/excavators/large-excavators.html

View attachment 1181891

Any of this will quickly take out the tree of your preference.
View attachment 1181894

See, this is what I'm talking about. Thank you, pdqdl!

 

[Cunningham]

You could always find the local utility clearance contractor. They probably have something like this, which is quite effective:

Also, I could make use of one of those for a month!

 

[pdqdl]

3 acres would be just one day.

 

[pdqdl]

See, this is what I'm talking about. Thank you, pdqdl!

I occasionally get a call from a demolition contractor. He gets trees that he cannot take out with his excavators, believe it or not.

When the tree is over utility lines or up adjacent to high power, he's gotta cut them down rather than dig them out. His machines will casually rip out the roots of a 4' diameter pin oak and crash it to the ground in a couple of minutes. Then they drive the excavator onto the tree and shred it up and load it into semi-dumps. His excavators will casually rip 20 inch thick branches off a big trunk and then into pieces.

The buckets on his excavators are four feet wide. Compare that to your 18k machine.

 

[Cunningham]

3 acres would be just one day.

oh, we have much more than 3 acres to tackle...

 

[jimrb]

I think the $100 an acre was to spray glyphosate.

 

[jimrb]

If it was me I would be tempted to clean out all the small stuff with appropriate equipment. Maybe rent a Bobcat with the shredder and mulcher attachments. Then you can see what is left for big equipment. I do not see the mulcher as a fast tool the few times I have seen an operator running one, but I did not hang around much to watch. Gives you time to find a dozer.