I rented a 19000 pound excavator to pull my stumps, worked like a charm, within an hour of using machine I was popping them out like popcorn. Now I have a big mess to deal with, not only the ruts caused by the machine but also of course the disturbance caused by removing the stumps. I own a small tractor with a fel and backhoe attached and I've sorta filled the holes back in, I've also got rid of the majority of ruts by dragging a heavy metal grate behind my tractor and going back and forth/over and over. I still have dips and valleys, it's still a mess. I don't know where to begin with my fel assuming it will even help. I am clueless on how to make this approx. 3/4 acre parcel flat and sorta level again. Can someone explain to me what I need to do?
I am assuming from your location you have a sandy soil. Do you have any pictures of the site? 3/4 AC is not that big of an area.
I was just fixing to add I have sandy soil, nothing but sand. I didn't take any pictures but I can, can't post them though till tomm, I'm on McDonald's WiFi and my property is about 10 miles away with no internet signal
The property is 5 acres, I cleared the entire perimeter about 12 feet back, I'd like to make that more level with less dips and high spots. I also cleared maybe 1/2 acre ish in the middle of property for my home. I'm just guessing 3/4 of an acre, maybe it's more when everything is added in
I've owned tractor about 6 months, have only been using grapple until today when I failed misserably with fel
I think I should add that the terrain wasn't level to begin with. It is naturally graded down toward the front of my property
You can dig a quarry with a shovel if you have enough time - What's your budget and time frame? What size tractor do you have? There are all sorts of rental options in the market to get the job done quickly. Also what is your skill level, operator wise?
No rush as long as it makes sense and I'm running out of room in my shipping container to try and buy another implement. Money's always tight. My skill level is low but I'm willing to learn It's a Kubota l2501. Not sure of specs, it's not real small but definitely not big
Gotcha - Well I like to "run what I brung" in other words use what I have. You have a tractor and a FEL so that's what I would use with time and a tight budget. Most of my jobs are tight on schedule and tight on budget.. Looks like you're in for some OJT with your tractor. What size stumps are we talking about and what tractor do you have?
Stumps are already gone. Just bare sand now
Probably the best thing will be a 3 point hitch box blade for your lil kubota. Takes a bit of getting used to, but takes up little space, and levels sand pretty good...
What about a smudge/levelling bar? If you don’t have 4in1 bucket, for a small job, it could be made of scrap and held in place with hooks, lugs and a chain binder or two.
Do you have a 3 pt. hitch on your tractor? Several implements would help to smooth sandy soil. If it's just sand with no big rocks or stumps a landscape rake preferably with gauge wheels would be a good option and wouldn't have too big of a learning curve. Below is just one brand. There are several others, just make sure to get a medium to heavy built one. Some of the less expensive ones are built way too lite. Gauge wheels make a big difference as they stop the rake from digging in too much on uneven ground similar to the way a road grader works. Pulling a chain harrow around afterwards would help too. https://www.farm-king.com/pages/product_le_landscape-rake.php
So you have a handy little Kubota. You're not going to want to big of implements. I'd say a small back blade, and or cultivator/quack digger is all I'd attempt with 25HP/ 2,500lbs. A light 4-5' blade would be easy to find for $100 around here, the cultivator or quack digger might go more because of food plot demand. How are you using the loader now? I think I'd be pulling entirely in reverse with the bottom of the bucket near vertical. If you had a blade you could use that going forward, then back up using the bucket. Once you have it somewhat smoothed, go at a right angle to the first pass, then diagonals. Then get out the drag for final smoothing. If you find a quack digger/cultivator, that would be used before the drag to dig up the compacted and undisturbed soil to get a smoother surface from the drag.
I'm in a very similar boat where I've got huge ruts from my backhoe running around, and the holes where tree stumps were. The most success I've had was to dump a big pile of dirt at one end of the hole, try to scrape back with the FEL, then turn around and smash/smooth it with my backhoe bucket. It works ok but is still real rough on my smallish lawn mower. I've concluded that maybe the easiest way to un-rut the yard is to rut the entire thing by driving the backhoe over every square inch of yard, so the high points become the normal. This isn't really feasible but it made me laugh to think about. I have some throwaways from a neighbor; a mowing deck, and a flail mower, both not in a usable-as-they-were-made state, that I've considered MacGuyvering into some sort of drag. I haven't gotten too deep into those projects and I have an issue with they are too heavy for my mower but not heavy enough to even out my ground. I've been toying with the idea of hiring someone to come out and level out my ground but I presume there is crazy money involved there... Oh yeah, my FIL told me about a jig he set up with an I beam, if you have one handy, that he chained to his FEL and basically let it graze the ground as he dragged backwards. It sounds like that would work well, if all you had was dirt. I'm attempting to keep as much grass around as I can too, which seems like a wasted effort.
Don't worry so much about the grass. A box blade will work very well for knocking off the high spots and filling in the lows. Plus you can shift material. The real problem is replacing the missing volume where the stumps were. I might start digging your house foundation and prepping the driveway for some free fill.
I’m in NW FL, the land of sand and youpon scrub. I’ve had good luck with a disc, box blade, and landscape rake depending on the severity of the rutting. I also have an old cultipacker that helps with a final flattening, especially if you’re planting grass.
Sand? hmm, cut down a tree and get yourself 2 10 foot log sections, hook them together with a couple one foot chains and then two longer chains to hook onto the lift arms on your 3pt hitch, drive around, it'll knock down the high spots but will take a bit of time. Size of the logs depends on your tractor but a couple 1 foot diameter logs should be dandy! Used to level fields starting with a disk harrow and then finishing up with a pole drag, aim for the high spots to take them to the low areas.
In the FL sand here as well. I back drag the bucket of my MTL with decent results. It is definitely no the best tool for the job but it does produce passable results with some patience.