Land Clearing

If most of what you're planning to clear is 18" or less you would be better off with a small trackhoe.
Leon B

I'm thinking around here its $85-100 per hour but its been awhile since we had any work done so I may be off a little. I'm in south east Il.

central Il. DEERE 450 (big hoe!--and if you don't piss of the owner, his rates are good), he is #1 owner/operator in this area and works fast! rates with other guys are in the $85-- to $125 range for the bigger hoe and don't take them as long to get the job done and move on!--you want a mid to big hoe to get the job done fast so it don't cost as much or take near as long!
Look on you-tube at one of my vids of John and his mighty DEERE and see the nice clean job he is doing for us siding BIG trees in fence row! thanks; ac fleet

 Take  they  guys  advice  hire  some one  that knows  what  they are doing, a trackhoe &  a dozer  with a  brush  rake  can do a clean  job for  you. Plus you can  burn  the  piles .Dirt  won`t  burn.  Have  done  lots  of  acres ,  from  brush  to large  trees .    Tony

Unless you know what you are doing, hire it done
We are gonna have some land cleared this fall
We will be using a large track hoe , and a large cat
both are at 100 dollars per hour
The other option is use dynamite for the stumps
again , I would hire that done

One other option, if you have smaller trees , get the bobcat attachment that grabs the tree vertically , I,ve found this to work real well on less than 6 inch diameter trees , also better in spring
Yes , what you can do per hour varies from field to field

Acres/hour? Probably not going to get that info here? You'll need a local operator to estimate that for you. It depends on what size trees, how many trees, operators equipment size, number of operators, & conditions ( weather). Lots of variables.... Excavator (trackhoe) seem to work fastest.

This happens to be what I do for a living in ky our area a d5 flat track will run about 85hr d6 hi will run 125 hr d8 150hr.A track hoe of any size will be over 100 an hr. If it small stuff 4in or under in diameter a small d5 will do the trick witha 6 way blade if your not pushing a long way you can really cover some ground I'd say I can do 5 acre a day in a good 8/9 hrs. Anything much bigger in size than that 6in mark a track hoe will tack down much faster and will keep it cleaner if you want to burn it. but anything smaller a track hoe will wast a lot of time. Unless you going to have to move trees a long wase a big dozer will work about as fast as a track hoe really the fastest way would be a good sizer d6/8 dozer and a 330 cat or a 350 size jd hoe with a thumb but that be close to 300 an hr for both peaces. And honistly you be much better off hiring it done it you have no exprence. bc you can get hurt fast clearing. Iv knocked out a few windows but I seen people almost knock there heads off and it happens very quickly.

Cleared close to 80 acres in the last few years I figure close to $1000/acre. Dozer will make a big mess fast. Hoe with thumb seems the best. Dozers have a way of finding dirt and it don't burn well. We looking at renting a hoe I couldn't see how I was saving anything.

well I been clearing out 80 acres since last year...Coke's sons machine he made for me is still working great! I still have about 20 acres left, will be working on that this month. I have until June 1st to have it all done or the "stockholders" say they will hire it finished at (they say) my expense! and I know that will be hired out to the highest paid company in the area! we'll see! I may hafta sue em! isn't family great! oh...wait...they said we weren't family anymore...we are stockholders! PffffT! maybe i'll surprise them all and order the farm sold! I am gittin a lot of firewood outta this tho! how many semi loads ya'll wanna buy?

Thanks for all the info! Boy, this is going to be expensive if I do it! I was thinking, and it is a RISK for sure, I thought if I bought a machine, and IF I didn't break it, and IF I could resell it timely, that would be keep the cost down. Those are all very big ifs I realize.

Wow, I just don't know....

My advice is to get some sucker to buy it and clear it and pick up roots for a few years then buy it at his bankrupt sale. unless you really like picking up chunk/roots I would forget it

GARY(OH/IN) wrote: Perfect subject , I have 8 acres to clear when the timber is out. Need to make sure I can even clear it first.

I find asking permission gets you a no answer. I dropped out of all farm programs and haven't had any problems when a line of trees needs clearing or tile needs to be put in. But I just jump on Dad's HD11 and Case 580 backhoe. 

because they are faster and don't hafta reset as often to get different bites on larger trees! is a whole lot faster than my HD5 was

ok