All, I have about 20 acres of cedar trees I would like to clear. The trees are mostly between 4-8 inches in diameter. Once cleared I plan to use the land for cattle pasture. It will need to be bush hogged but not tilled. I'm thinking about buying a 8000-10000 pound mini excavator to accomplish this. I would use it to push the trees over which will then be limbed and cut into eight foot sections. I will stack them onto a trailer to be hauled off for sale and then pile the brush up for burning. I plan on getting one with a thumb and grader blade on it. My question is this. Would that size excavator do all I wish to accomplish? Do I need a bigger one or will a smaller suffice? What brand and model would you recommend? Thanks in advance for all the suggestions.
Well for this size of job I would look at a bigger machine. I have a 35 series machine and it would probly do this task but would take a bit longer. I think if I was looking to buy for a job like this, I would look at a 60+ series machine or bigger. I think it would be easier to get done quicker with a bit bigger machine than a 4 to 5 ton. My machine is about 8200 lbs iirc. I can do a fair bit of clearing in a day but a bigger machine would make it easier.
Pardon my ignorance but who makes a 35 or 60 series machine? Time is not a big concern to me as I'm doing this on my own property and if I did say 5 acres a winter that would suffice. I would be doing this after work and on weekends.
I have done this with a 1.5 ton machine....takes time though, the bigger the machine, the easier it is!! 5 ton would be good for the job.
I have a Komatsu PC40-7. With patience you can move a mountain with a tea spoon. If I were to buy a machine again I would prefer a 6 to 7.5 metric ton machine but the 40 does what I need to do now so I'll keep it. Most Eastern Red Cedar is brittle so the idea of pushing higher up sometimes does not work but when it does they come out easy. Even with my 8 ton dozer I can almost windrow and "mow" 4" cedars. The problem is the branches on the bigger trees are treacherous for radiators and oil coolers so the trackhoe is best of course. Some of the old hoary trees that get into double trunks are real bears. You'll have to strip limbs and dig around them. You can buy a big serviceable machine for less cost than a smaller one in good shape but you'll also have bigger things to fix. The PC40 is just handy and friendly to use. Nice little motor, sips fuel, quiet, pleasant to operate and good therapy for a troubled mind. I have done some shocking things with my little machine such as digging out oak stumps that will fill a dump truck bed and horsing them out of the hole then pushing them to the burn pile. They were sure bigger than the machine. I've also picked up 8 to 10 foot sections of 24 to 30" oaks and moved them with the tracks on their tip toes. We even demolished a trailer house and wadded it and three old cars up to load it on a trailer to take off to the scrap yard. By cutting successive benches I've even cut a 20' high pond dam to drain and rebuild. Not production work and I don't like to do this kind of thing with the little machine but it will get the job done in a pinch. You can have all the Eastern Red Cedar fence posts you want. I won't have them on the place. The sap wood rots out too fast. The only good Eastern Red Cedar is a dead and burned one where I cam concerned. They don't even make good Christmas Trees. Auctions are the cheapest place to buy if you know what you are doing. Machinery Trader is where to look to become familiar with the machines available. I target machines less than 3000 hours though the life of a well maintained machine is 2 or three times that before major maintenance starts showing up. You're dealing with machines that have piston pumps and motors. These hate oil contamination and poor filter maintenance. The clearances are just too fine to tolerate dirt. Once the back plate is scratched the things are on the grenade path downhill. Repairs are horribly expensive. $3 to 5k for a motor or pump rebuild. I'd be thrilled if someone could tell me where it can be done for less since I have a Bosch A4 pump and A6 motor that need rebuilt. If you get a machine I recommend putting a brush guard cage on it for the amount of work you'll be doing. If you don't you'll eventually end up with something in the cab with you like I have and it is not safe. You don't need a hydraulic thumb but you do require a thumb. An excavator without one for what you plan to do is just short of useless to me. In the size of machine that I would ever buy I will never be without a blade. Kobelco even has blade runners up to about 13 tons. Good luck.
Thanks for the replies guys. I have about a 100 acres that needs to be cleared but I would like to get the 20 in cedar done in the next two years. I've thought about hiring it out but most people say it costs 1000 an acre to clear land for pasture. If I was going to pay that I would simply buy another farm already cleared. How many acres of small trees can a big dozier or excavator clear in a a days time?
You are going about this all wrong. I just completed a clearing job just like yours in late August. I used a rented forestry mulching machine. Rayco makes a 100HP track model that will clear about 2 acres/day,in the conditions you stated. Other companies make similar machines, and, you can go with a higher HP machine to increase productivity. Just depends on what is available to rent in your area. These machines love Cedar and eat it up into nice fine mulch. The 100HP tracked machine I used, was capable of taking down and shredding 12" diameter Cedar trees, flush to the ground, in less than 1/2 minute. When done, you end up with a nice mulched field that can be seeded with grass or mowed with a brush hog in the future. You will not have holes and rough ground all over the place like you do when using a hoe or dozer to uproot trees. The mulched Cedar will protect the ground from erosion until grass/weeds regrow and cover the ground.
With that acreage I might be looking at a small to mid range dozer to clear with Tnwalkingred. Something like a Cat D4 to D6. I understand your thoughts about using the mini excavator to load the cedar logs on the trailer and you may have other uses for the excavator on the farm. Do you have any other equipment now that would load the logs like a farm tractor & loader with forks? I just favor a dozer for clearing ground.
It seems to me that you're not gaining much with the excavator. If you're limbing these by hand then there's not much more work at all to load the logs by hand, you pick up the light end and lever them up onto a wagon in less time than it takes me to type this. A mini excavator wouldn't be my first choice to pile up light brush like that, a big loader bucket would work fine if there's no root balls in the mix. Maybe it comes down to how much you dislike letting the stumps rot in the ground?