I am needing some land cleared for wildlife food plots. Soil is clay with some loam. 4" top soil and more clay under it. Has 10+ year old hard maple, ash and oak stumps and now trees in the 1-6" range. Larger trees 10" on up will be passed as practical. A guy with a JD 700 has bid on it at 100/hour. Seems like a good deal to me. Sound good to you? Also, on fairly level ground as described with the old stumps plus rocks, how much ground would you expect to be able to push off per hour? Obviously, not exact, but round about how much? Last, what can I do as the wallet man to make his job go faster so he can clear more area per day? More brush piles? Rows of brush and not piles? Drag the rough ground with a 30 hp tractor while he clears? I have a 5 1/2' box blade and can make a 10' long I-beam into a drag. Any suggestions welcome! Thanks! jb
I would suggest you have a look at this thread, it highlights the problems of having work done on an hourly basis. I am not qualified to comment on the price. Will the guy give you a price to do the job, if not why not, how much do you expect him to achieve a day. Has anybody else quoted ?
Atlas, Thanks for the link, but that situation is different. The "issue" was with hauling off the stumps and whatnot. My project will just be pushing off and leaving a level surface. He wasn't sure how much he could get done, but thought that 1-4 acres a day was reasonable. That's a pretty big spread, and really I suppose the conditions will dictate how easy stuff pushes. The soil is moist (not wet) so it isn't a cement substitute and should be workable. One plus is that he WANTS me to be there for the whole job. Will only schedule it for a time that I can be there so that I can see everything being done and can feed my wants into him. I like that aspect! Another plus is that he struck me as an honest bloke. I would like to get some feedback on what I can do to help him get more done per hour. It seems that there have to be some things... jb
Sounds like a decent deal, but definatley call some of his prior customers to see if they got the service they expected.
john bud, sounds like a good deal to me. I do this kind of work all the time by the hr. and if he is honest he will give you a honest hr of work. I personally will not bid jobs like this. I will give a rough est. but not be bound by a bid. I have only done two bid jobs in the last 13 yrs and I have more than I can do. Depending on how thick the trees are but he should be able to get at least 4 acres a day. My D6r will get 4 acres a day if the trees are growing on top of each other, at least the size of trees you are describing. I would have him clear and stack or row the brush (whatever is closest) and then maybe you can smooth the ground. As said early I do these food plots all the time. Hope this helps. You can pm me with any more questions, if you dont want to discuss them here in the open forum.
BTW john bud, Welcome to the forum.
Thanks! I actually joined a couple years ago, but have been watching silently like a fart in an elevator. There have been so many questions already asked and answered, there isn't much need to post up. I have no issue with public discussion, if you don't! Let's others use the search button to learn things without rehashing. In some areas, the trees are light. But in other areas, they are 3" trees on 8" centers! Still, they are small. If he can get 3-4 acres in a day, I'd be happy. I've been pushing the trails wide with my little tractor, but it's just too damaging and too slow. It's time to stimulate the economy! jb
The only thing that concerned me about the job is the maples. I don't know what your maples are like, but the one's we've got here are BRUTAL to tear out with equipment. I finally got to the point in building skid trail that I'd just avoid the maple stumps or burn a chainsaw chain cutting them off low enough to drive over them. They've got a tap root that's something awful, even the little ones. Hopefully that's not an issue.