Hello Everyone, I'm a retired (military) Firefighter, I've been working as an EXPAT for the past few years and have recently been blessed with the opportunity of starting a new life in Texas without being away from family as I have been off/on for roughly 20+ years. I'm looking to starting a land clearing business considering our farm needs some work done on it I would start there using a skid steer with forestry attachment (hydro ax, forestry mulcher, this attachment goes by many names) to hone my skills and then advertise out to the local community. Was looking to get some information regarding start-up, insurance, etc. any/all advice, stories of past/present experiences as well as positive/negative aspects of the business in which I wish to start will be appreciated. I look forward to reading your replies Thanks in advance
Hello and Welcome to the Forum There is alot of good advice about land clearing on this site. And it's not something that I do. I don't believe anyone that does this would suggest an newer skid as your first (or only machine) A backhoe would be a much more versatile machine if it was your only machine .... and it wouldn't have to work as hard, get stuck as easy or be as costly and as hard to repair. See you on the Funway Fixo
You can drive a backhoe down the side of the road can you do that with a skid
Ok, so your just getting started. I doubt you will be able to do just clearing jobs, unless your doing this for fun and play money. A backhoe is a good soild one machine does all choice. Now if your going to stick to clearing only, I think your going to want a decent sized dozer or trackloader. Something around 125 - 150hp. It might be best to drive around and see how other contractors are tangling the same type of projects, maybe even try several different machine types before settling on one without understanding what they are capable of.
Are you looking at full on land clearing involving removing large trees and the like or are you looking at trail maintaince, brush trimming, maintain acne clearing. The skid steer set up as you describe is very common around here for maintainance cleaning of trails and residential power lines and the like. For full on land clearing I would agree that you would be better served by a crawler. The skid steer is not going to be efficient in taking out larger trees and stumps.