Lot Clearing Tips

Husabud

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I have been in the residential tree removal and pruning service on and off for roughly 23 yrs. I just landed a nice little land clearing project in a dormant development. Nothing major really. One lot at a time over the next few months. Boy I wish I could afford the Gehl right now, but that is not an option, so my Boxer and BMG will have to do.
My question is this, is there a certain way to attack each lot? Most are very flat and nearly all the trees will easily fit through my chipper. I was thinking clear an access and forward everything to the chipper. I'll have a mini ex on site for stumps and loading.
 
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  • #3
All the chips are staying on site. Stumps will be hauled by the contractor. The mini, as I recall, is a 334 with a thumb so handling should be Easy peasy. I am more concerned with the best methods to avoid getting boxed in on site or time savers as thisis not my usual job description.
 
Wish I could help. I'm into clearing these days, just did along a river. Whack everything in sight.....pretty mad cutting. Good luck, Bud.
 
Don't go ape with the saw. Cut, chip, repeat again. I've seen too many lot clearing jobs take too long because guys went nuts with the saws. Pick a starting spot and keep that clean as a staging, fueling, loading area.
 
Work your road... Clean up and work your road and clearings... clean up... repeat. I hate it when people just lay tree over tree or stage brush all goofy... Butt end out towards point of extration. Taking a little time and planning in the up front, saves butt loads later.
 
A larger excavator with a grapple seems to make for quick clean up, not just a mini. I guess you would have to hire out and not in the budget? A larger device can sort things out quick too, not much concern for the order of knocking stuff down. If the cleanup area is large, I think it is the best way to go if allowable. No piddling around.
 
I have been in the residential tree removal and pruning service on and off for roughly 23 yrs. I just landed a nice little land clearing project in a dormant development. Nothing major really. One lot at a time over the next few months. Boy I wish I could afford the Gehl right now, but that is not an option, so my Boxer and BMG will have to do.
My question is this, is there a certain way to attack each lot? Most are very flat and nearly all the trees will easily fit through my chipper. I was thinking clear an access and forward everything to the chipper. I'll have a mini ex on site for stumps and loading.

In addition to your BMG and mini I would suggest a grapple bucket for slash staging for the BMG to chipper action. I would start with the brush/understory first and deal with the big stuff second and the stumpage third.
 
-Work like a logger. Use your Boxer with the BMG as a grapple skidder, skid each tree [or trees in bunches] to the landing where the chipper is located one at a time by the butt. Boxer skidding in reverse of course.
-Your landing will be at the road side edge of your lot that your clearing, preferbably on the opposite direction side from where the trees are leaning with their common lean. In other words the felled tree butts should be facing the landing to make direct straight route skidding easy.
-Skid the whole tree with limbs still on to the chipper if the Boxer is able to. This way every thing can be chipped at one spot and saving wasted time going back for the limbs later and also the problem of covering up your stumps.
-BTW very important to cut stumps ground level as close as you can to make smooth skidding for the Boxer.
-Work felling and skidding off a straight line face of your standing timber. Trees felled into cutover.
-Look at the feasability of replacing the mini ex with a self propelled stump grinder.
 
A larger excavator with a grapple seems to make for quick clean up, not just a mini. I guess you would have to hire out and not in the budget? A larger device can sort things out quick too, not much concern for the order of knocking stuff down. If the cleanup area is large, I think it is the best way to go if allowable. No piddling around.

I just did my first (for free) for the landlord, where I've been parking trucks for 14 years... He brought in a big excavator with a thumb for $165/hr, and made a believer out of me.. That op had only one speed... best to stay out of his way.. WAY FASTER than any crew with saws.... He lined the loose stumps up and I blew through the dirt with the grinder and brought em down to a size that two strong men could pick up. Did the same for the bigger trunks, and moved what was left to the log pile. That 90 hp grinder made a believer out of him... That was a lot easier than hauling stumps... We took (5) 100 yard walking floor trailers out, mostly fluffier viny stuff... Chipped what we could and mixed the stump grindings back into the ground.. PDQ... the place was so thick with 45 years of vines, I couldn't move the skid steer through much of it...

Tough to stay what the extent of your job is.... But if you work well with a big excavator, it pays to use one on the right job... Could cut your time down by 50-80%..
 
Can you get your chipper on site? I use my 4x4 pick up and move the chipper as close to the material as possible. A winch is a worthy investment in these situations.
 
If you are going to root out the stumps leave to whole tree and shove it over .It's a lot easier to shove over the whole tree as try and root out a two foot stump .

If that's in the game plan a decent sized track hoe works better than a dozer .
 
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I can get my chipper to about everything so that is in the plan. I figure I will push over what I can with the mini ex and cut stumps to leave behind. I think I can run the Boxer about everywhere on these little plots so I think I will forward with that. So far I am only looking at clearing an 80x80 or 100x100 area on ten or twelve lots for now, so the budget is small. Two apt helpers myself and machinery. I am hoping to knock each one out in a day less stumps.

I only need enough room for foundation and a crane to set the house sections. I will be referred as their Tree co of choice for any future work.
 
.... go Kill It, when building boom was on up here cleared building sites for septic or sewer. , Cellar Hole. And Driveway a bit. Probably ninety percent of them we had the luxury of burning ..... a certain state permit made the other ten percent Chip and Haul. I don't think on small lots of second growth you could beat burnig for efficiency... becoming out moded as more and more places restrict burning.... can you get burn permits there?
 
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No way. Not for any commercial use other than Blueberries, which there are none that I know of.
 
Stephen said 1/4 acre, is that the size of the lots?

Pictures would make it easier to advise. I understand you can't afford a Gehl currently, but what about buying a HD BMG and renting a skid steer/compact track loader to use it with? When it comes time to make the move to a Gehl, you'll already have the grapple for it. I've done clearing with a mini, and while doable, bigger equipment changed my entire outlook on such jobs. Here a skid steer is under $200/day, or a larger compact track loader (T300) is $350/day. Given it's clearing, I would opt for a tracked machine, although a T190 class machine would be plenty (and cheaper).
 
Burn permits are seldom available here as well, so it helps to know someone way back in the mountains that will exchange favors. Like the old moonshiners, not many folks will venture back there for fear of no place to turn around.
 
Ahhh, just re-re-read and found that! Thanks!


Yeah, those are pretty small lots with corresponding budgets I presume. What size chipper do you have?
 
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