I am looking to buy an excavator for doing a lot of land clearing, and about 3/4 of a mile long road down my property so I would like to know what size of machine that may be a good to purchase. I plan on using this machine later on to start a land clearing business of my own when I have the experience. your opinion would help a lot
15-20 tonner i would think, Im guessing you would want to know what brand also, Hitachi,Cat,Komatsu,Kobelco are all great machines, a low hour newer machine would be the way to go but depends on your price range. i would get one with a thumb (will save ALOT of hassle) or put one on later, and if land clearing is what you want to get into then a brush cutter wouldn't be a stupid idea either.
Really as long as it has a hyd thumb, good product support, stability, and good power in the 15-22 ton range, you cant go wrong, deere, cat, link belt, volvo, komatsu are all good
Got to have a thumb . Try drinking your coffee with your's folded back .
Guys, are you serious?? Hydraulic thumb Well, I have used it few times, but it´s either waste of money, and productivity than without it! Sure if you wanna bull up big rocks or etc, but otherwise no. Everything depends on operator whose behind those billets. It depents on what kind of landscaping are you going to do. Best choise would be 18-25 t- big enough to handle every work in field (short radius would be a good too when working in limited area). Smaller - 12-17 t - well their extent of excavation is small - if you´re digging a ditch for sewage canal and wanna install it with 6 m long sewage tubes, then 12-17 t machine couldn´t handle that job - not enough extent, etc. Biggers than 25 t - well if you wanna do mining then it´s ok, but to do different kind on landscaping then it´s waste on money - ingreased fuel cost, maintenance, limited working area etc. In Estonia(Europe) we mostly use Kobelco 21t excavators - low fuel consumption (6cyl Mitsubishi - full throttle 14 l per hour), reasonable price for parts, low maintenance costs, high aftrmarket value (if wanna sell) etc. Other brands - JCB: 6cyl Isuzu - full throttle 20 l per hour, joystick are controlled with electric - bad for precision work. All hydraulic lines beside hydraulic motor are located so badly - if some hyrdalic lines break down and you wanna replace it, then it´s pain in your a**. Cat, Komatsu, Doosan, Volvo - high cost, full throttle 20-25 l per hour. High price for replacement parts.
You don't need athumb for rocks . If you are going to remove trees, brush ,etc , they are PRICELESS .
first off I don't live in Europe and I'm not landscaping, I'm land clearing
Know that you live in Canada . Yeah then it´s okey when needed in land clearing - sorry for my mistake, i somehow read it out "landscaping"!:beatsme Hope you find best solution for yourself!
As with many situations, the size and accessories required for an excavator, strongly depends on its intended use and the experience of the operator. Also keep in mind that if your are intending to start a business clearing land, you have to think about mobilization. All this makes it a difficult decision. Granted that I mainly use and excavator for digging basements, and installing sewer and water amongst other things. I have cleared roughly 35 acres of land. Most of the time the equipment I use for clearing include ; a Komatsu Pc160Lc no thumb, Bobcat T180 with a grapple if available otherwise long forks and a brush cutter, and of course a Stihl chainsaw. I fall a few trees with the chainsaw, then buck and section them, for large trees obviously. The hoe or bobcat really help when the bar gets stuck. The hoe can remove the brush by curling the buck all the way in where a thumb would help.but its not as efficient as the bobcat with a grapple especially traveling longer distances. On the smaller trees I just push them over with the hoe and rip'em out. Then I use the brush cutter to finish up. The stumps a pulled out by the Komatsu, the large stumps I just dig around the base chewing up roots and gain access to the underside for leverage. Only once have I need to completely dig around the stump, which measured 42 inches across, but once broken free the Pc160Lc had no problem lifting it. Now back to mobilization, all this equipment is move by a single trailer at one time behind a dump truck. Shoving the T180 backwards all the way to the front leaves enough room for the hoe jump on a felling 50T pintle hook trailer. the brush cutter sits in the bobcat bucket and luckily fits between the tracks on the hoe. The grapple is slid under the other side of the hoe. I believe the total weight of it all said and done is just shy of 80,000 lbs.
I think I need a hyd thumb though because the trees in clearing are mostly mature maples and I'm going to sell them for fire wood. I'm going to dig a big pond that will be 1.5-2 acres in size and about 15-25 feet deep and I don't think a 160 or 200 will do the pond because there is a lot of blue clay a it is super heavy.
Clearing land , a track loader works well. You can push up in a pile and grade the stump holes , haul dirt to fill in holes etc. Well thats what we do anyway.
I'm not informed on the road restrictions and other laws in Canada, but here most anything larger than a 160 and maybe a 200 requires a low boy trailer to transport.
A progressive link hydraulic thumb is a must in my opinion for any excavator that is used for land clearing, moving logs, piling brush, etc. A 15 to 20 ton sized machine would be great for this (as a weekend warrior) and far easier to move. Regarding your pond, depending on the side slopes you may be moving upwards of 32,000 cubic yards for a 1.5 acre pond that is 20 feet deep. You will want to think about where the material is going to go, how you are going to get it there, stockpiling topsoil to cover your blue clay, etc.etc. before tackling this with just an excavator.
hmm i don't know, you'd be surprised what a 15-20 ton machine can accomplish, a 20t machine can lift round about 3 ton
I own a 320D and we do alot of land clearing. I have a rigid thumb because the machine was used when I bought it and I wasn't going to pay 10K to have it plumbed etc. In my opinion there is no better way to pluck, move and pile trees other than a hoe. As far as ponds go the only thing we use the hoe for is clearing the trees, digging the key and placing the discharge tube. We use our D6 for pushing dirt.
In my opinion,the CAT320 or PC200,You may consider them,if it is convenient for you to get the service in your local place.We do excavator parts business, and know that they have a lot of backup replacement parts,help you to save the cost.