Here is my land clearing project, at least a small peice of it. I have only about six hours of time in it so far as we have had so much rain everything turns to mud. The 580 LT I bought does a great job. In fact, I have used the backhoe very little, the Case pushes those trees right out of the ground. If the weather is such that the ground does not freeze soon, I may start working on cosmetics of the machine for now.
Nice pics. Looks like pretty dense vegetation. Did you ever get your hoe controls switched over?
The areas are really overgrown. I have done the best I could to maintain the area with a Bush Hog but after the ice storm a few years back, the lumber on the ground really limited where I could go with it. You can see where I have mowed as the area looks like grass as opposed to brier patch The larger trees I will be taking down with a chainsaw so that I can save the wood for my stove. There are two areas I want to concentrate on now, the one in the pictures and another one near the road. I am ordering pines to plant there in the spring so I need to be able to maintain with the hog after I plant. I will post some more pictures with the Case in action if the weekend permits. As far as the controls are concerned, the dealer called me relative to the part numbers that were posted here and indeed verified that the kit was available. Funny, a long standing dealer did not know this but at least they admitted the error. I am assuming the parts were ordered. I am getting used to the way they are now but it still is unnatural to me and I still make mistakes like skinning the bark off that large tree in the picture :Banghead . Don
On the larger trees,if your machine will do it, it is faster to push them over whole as it will take the stump with it. After it is down I like to pull on the stump with the backhoe bucket to get the tree off the ground for easy cutting. It also saves you from having to dig stumps out later.
I have not tackled any larger ones yet but thanks for the tip. I have a relative that gets laid off after the construction season closes so he is going to help me cut and haul the wood. I can get in with my Kubota without stirring up much soft ground so that will be a good winter job.
What kind of tree is that in the first pic? The large one with the smooth bark, branches down low.
I believe that one is an ash.
Just looked a bit odd with the the way the branches are growing out of the trunk.
I know. That property was not maintained very well and after I started to get in front of the job a bit the first ice storm hit and limited my ability to get to some areas to mow. I simply did not have the ability to move all that lumber that was down. Now I am going into areas that have been overgrown for years yet you can see the grass in areas where I was able to mow with a bush hog. The property was once used to grow grapes and blackberries. There are still many of the vines and bushes in there but unfortunately I can not distinguish them from the brush. It is a real mess. Some areas I will be able to save the berries.
I have been doing the same here. I picked up a JD 450 track loader a while back and did some of the major work. Recently I've been clearing brush with an old MF203 loader since I sold the crawler earlier this yr. I'm currently looking at a backhoe to move some of the trees I want to save and do some trenching... I have about 16 acres of ash, oak and walnuts. Then there's an area with no trees at all. I've found the best time to move/remove trees is about three days after a good rain. The top soil is dry enough for traction, sub soil is soft enough to dig.
I have some big black walnuts in another area, squirrels love it here
Great Pics I am doing the same thing with my land in Vt. I have a 555 but right now is in Rhode Island. I plan on shipping it up to Vt. once I get my sons land cleared in RI. He has 75ft. plus White Pines straight as an arrow on his land and quite a few of them. I have a portable saw mill I'm bringing down to his land to sell finished lumber to the locals. The 555 picks up 18ft long X 25 to 30 inch butts like nothing. I have them stacked. You could never get this kind of work done without the proper machinery. Thats for sure. :usa:usa:usa
Wow, thought this thread was pretty well buried. Good luck with your project, love Vt.
Final, Where in VT is your land at, if you don't mind me asking?
Didn't know this post existed. Where are the backhoe pics?
Can we see some more pics of your awesome 580, please. PS: I am one of those picture lovers.
+2 id love 2 see the pics
Clearing project with pics: Hello Bayrat, This very good advice from Cat420... and, if you can't do a direct push over, dig around the tree butt with your hoe and cut the roots a little. One other thing... be careful about running through heavy brush unless you have under belly guarding... you'll get the hoses and a lot of other stuff... And... be real careful about breaking the tree tops if you get a bit aggressive when you're pushing... they'll fall right on top of you. Looks real good... kinda fun too. OCR
I do have pictures of the machine but they are on my other computer. Will work on that. For now, I have another thread about "selling advise" with a picture. Not sure if I will be moving due to the job change but it is a possibility.
Check this site out... http://www.howtoclearland.com/ This has more useful info about clearing with a loader/hoe that anything else I could find. It's also kind of entertaining. Frank
Interesting, love the bucket rake!