okay ill give a backstory the customers dint listen to a word I said after I told them they were being overcharged and if I could do it within their time frame id do it for half that. all it was doing was clearing a small area of 2-inch pine trees and piling them up in the corner of their property. so now yeah my first clearing job is this so I guess imma go rent an excavator for a day and do it. this is not how I thought my first clearing job would be won but Kubota is up the road and can rent a mini for 300 dollars for the day so it should go fine
Out of curiosity, how big of an area to clear? And how much you bid?
not very big at all maybe a 20x100 with just small trees back of a new subdivision that was an afterthought at some point my bid was 2k figured it take about 4hours and the rental machine will cost me 300 dollars for the day
How many trees ? I think you’ll find out you got more work ahead of you than 4 hours.
Yes them little pines are a pain in the azz. We just cleared 5 acres of them to build a duck pond on. No good way to get em up. We did it with the corner of the dozer blade basically
No doubt. 2" sized little pines are one of the most aggravating tree to clear and grub. Their root system is strong enough to keep it in the ground and the trunk is not strong enough to withstand the pulling against the roots. Leaves you with a bunch of pine spikes sticking out of the ground. However NC I think you'll be alright with a $2,000 bid depending on what you describe. You're not going to make a killing but every dollar of profit counts, especially for a small start up.
Absolutely correct and the ones we cleared looked like a head of hair they were so thick lol.
SM13 what we've found to be the most effective with those little PIA pines is a forestry mower. We renting one from the Cat house for one of our 279D's and it mowed them down like a Honda mower cutting 1" tall bermuda grass. The aforementioned job was about 2 acres with most of it being a retention pond that was entirely overgrown. 2-4" pines, mimosa trees and all the other re-growth we get in the south. 2 days of mowing and it looked like a freshly bailed pasture. Op could've done it in one day but the pond bottom was wet and required the mow down, climb out the shallow end and mow down again until it was done.
How about some before & after pics, nothing like that grows here so I'd like to see how it goes. Joe H
Towing a disk behind a dozer then, going back to rake up those small 2 inch things is the way to go. Go one way with the disk then cross with the rake.
about 25-30 from what I counted
well I figured at a 300 dollar rental and fuel I'm not gonna walk away any poorer than I am now
will do I'm terrible at remembering to take pictures I stopped advertising a few months ago because I kept getting more work than I could handle so today was one of the first days in while I've taken a picture of the before and after still just mowing grass though
Bring a dozer pulling a disk for a job 20x100?
25-30 2" pine trees? I'd do it with a chainsaw for $500. Someone bid $4k??? Wow, proud they are.
That's what I'm thinking. That's not many trees. And the area is pretty small. Cant you just cut them and drag them by hand to the corner, and pocket all the money? Perhaps rent a wood chipper, and offer them to mulch the trees.
Forestry mower or mulcher would be the ticket. I hate the smaller tree's that want to just bend over instead of breaking. You'd need a heavy disc to chop them all up and probably have to go over multiple times.
This guy is going big he's looking for street pads for a 583 tractor. Bob
Yeah I knew a forestry mower would eat em up cause we cleaned another 5 acres of them on the same job. We went through and thinned them out and made rows. I was concerned if we did that about how much debris and roots we’d have mixed in with all the topsoil we were going to scrape off and reuse. Didn’t want to make a big mess so we just popped em up and then raked em and burnt them.
i asked if it was my buddy bidding it sounds like a price he gives someone's gotta pay for that new machine
well they gonna put up a fence so gotta get the stumps out and there is one dead tree that's actually larger that needs to be pulled but everything is going into the corner of the property. plus imma try to grade out the yard a little better to have any water from their neighbors flow into the woods instead of whats gonna happen is it pool up in front of the backdoor
that would be nice but I don't own a skid which still makes me sad
i mean it make it quick the kubota dealer does a have d5 for rent
Really a perfect size first clearing job cant go to wrong even if it takes to long you will know better how to judge the next one
think a kx71 would do it or a 33 or should I just rent the 57? or they also have a 312 cat to rent
What are the rental rates for each one?
300 for a 71 or 33 then 450 for the 57 then 900 for the 312
The 312 is overkill are you going to trailer it or is delivery same rate on all of them? I would think any of them would do the job is the 12000 pound machine going to be much more productive than the 7400 pound yes but given the learning curve and inexperience not by much if it ends up taking 2 days that's 300 more in your pocket I guess thats why I said its a nice size job you get to make some decisions and even if your wrong you wont lose to bad and come out more knowledgeable
my trailer will hold it and delivery for the smaller machines is 2.50 a mile 4 way trip so 100 bucks for those then the 312 is a lot more and well the reason I ask is because I wanna buy a machine soon I got a price for the 71 brand new
Get a 80 lol. I want one there there just too much money for a new one and used ones are ridiculous as well. Not only that o don’t like DEF. plus we just can’t justify one. We have a 200 Komatsu and 290 Volvo. I’d just like to have the biggest little one I could get. I could haul it behind a pick up long as I wasn’t going too far. Excavator is a valuable tool
well I plan on doing a lot of backyard projects and I wanna be able to fit in the back yard that's why I want a 57 or 55 I just don't wanna buy one and be underpowered but I don't wanna go to big and cant fit for jobs I wanna do and have to rent a small machine
No better way to know what you need then renting a few different ones
i wonder if I could get some demos
Worth trying.
yeah I'm gonna call and ask my local Kubota dealer is gonna say no because they say they don't believe in demos
I don't think my Cat dealer would let me demo a new excavator on a clearing job...
At least they would say no to the clearing job local Kubota is straight no for anything
In 1987 I bought property including two small meadows neglected 40 years. Upper meadow maybe 5 acres was a jungle. they had cut 10" Cherry trees flush with the ground & left them to rot. Each stump sprouted 10 suckers by 1987 they were 4" diameter each. They radiated from the stump laying on the ground 3 or 4 feet, then were 25' tall. Any bits of sunlight hitting the ground was filled with a bushy growth I never did figure out what to call it. I bought an old tractor & Bush Hog & proceeded to break every part that could break. Never got a full day without breaking something more. Starting with junk didn't help. I spent 15? days repairing or cutting. I agree, my machines were not best choice, but all I could afford. More recently, I own a bulldozer. The lower meadow is more Pine mixed with some Maple & other hardwoods. They had an extra 30 years to grow. This clearing involved pushing trees down with a backhoe, usually uprooting the stump. Once trees are gone, flattening the ground is another chore. Millions of roots & sod make it difficult to smooth it out. I expect you'll have some time in your project.
well, i went today to my local dealer just to look because of rain. they had a u27 i liked it a 55 and 57 then the kx71 all had cabs all where nice. the 71- would run me 53k then 55 and 57 about 70 then the 27 would be about 45k really tempted i could use it at my house
I got me some 52s & 15 29s