Land clearing tips needed

[MikeVincoli]

Wanted to get and opinion from some of you that may tried this before. I have an acre or so that was clear cut about 2 years ago. It is full of sweet gum and Virgina pine stumps as well as lots of debris from logging; limbs and small dead trees about 5 to 10 inch in diameter. What I am thinking of doing is cutting a fire line around the outer edge of the area and burning off the debris, then come back with my 955L and digging the stumps up. The last area I cleared like this without burning, I tried to push as much of the debris in a pile as I could and then dig the stumps, but this was tough because I couldn't get all the sticks and limbs up without hanging the bucket up on all the stumps and then all those sticks just got ground up and mixed with the dirt making the final grading a PITA. I bet I loaded 10 or 20 bucket loads of sticks and roots by hand on the last acre I cleared. Is burning the area prior to grubbing a good idea or will this cause to much harm to me and the machine due to working in all the ash? My Cat loader has a GP bucket and an aftermarket cab. Thanks.

 

[DMiller]

Check on local fire codes, some regions won't allow it in any form certain times of year. I prefer to work green and drag as much out of the wood as I can building brush piles to burn as I work in. Ash is caustic, literally is caustic soda, you don't want to be rolling track in much of it.

 

[MikeVincoli]

OK, thanks for the reply. I agree with trying to stay out of the ash. So if stacking brush before digging out the stumps is the preferred method, does anyone have any tips on how to do it with out hanging up on the stumps so bad? Is it better to try and get the debris up or is it better just to go in digging stumps and then worry about the trash after the knots are gone? If I had an excavator and a dozer with a root rake the answer to this question would be simple, but a GP bucket loader is tough. I hate to invest in a root rake just for an acre worth of work. I may be able to hire and excavator for less than the cost of a rake anyway.

 

[Scrub Puller]

Yair . . . MikeVincoli. I am half a world away and I'm becoming hesitant to comment about clearing because you blokes in the US have such different conditions, machinery setups and ideas.

Large scale land clearing is what I did for much of my working life and I must say I have never had to deal with a block of clear-cut.

Ash (to me) is not a consideration and any preliminary stacking and burning I think would be an advantage reducing the volume of material at the final clean-up and help expose the stumps.

Digging stumps out is a pain as you end up with root balls and ideally I would shear them/bust them with a cutter-bar ready for the rake.

Cutter-bars don't seem to be very well accepted in the US but they are very simple to make and effective . . . I weld them onto ripper boots, they look like this . . . http://www.homan.com.au/manufacturing/content06c6.html?varPageID=8

Cheers.

 

[gwhammy]

I wouldn't want to work in a burn area. Way to nasty. What is your plan for the area after you are done? Stumps are a problem. We just dug a pile of them, the land owner couldn't believe the pile we had. I don't put them in the brush piles anymore you just have to dig them out later. A deep pit to bury them in. One acres not a lot a of room to work. I would start cleaning where you want to bury them and dig and sort as you go across the area.

An excavator is the trick, you can clean and dig a hole right in front or beside the stump then role it upside down in the hole. Just have to remember it will be there if you want to change the landscape later. Try to get at least three foot of coverage.

 

[CM1995]

What do you want to do with the land later? That will dictate on how you tackle this.

If it's just going to be pasture and nothing built on it, I would grub everything at one time and stack it in a burn pile. Keep it as clean as possible, burn it and bury the rest. If you ever plan to build a structure on it, don't bury the stumps/debris anywhere you plan to build later as it will cost you double or triple in the long run.

 

[Randy88]

I have a skid steer with a grapple, an excavator and thumb is my primary tool and a track loader, I seldom take a dozer to a grubbing job till everything is gone and only the leveling is left to do.

As has been stated check fire codes, here we can burn it if its in a pile, to burn like you mentioned is illegal, its classified as setting a forest fire and can be thrown in jail, but its legal to burn off grass with a permit, don't ask me, I've given up trying to get an explanation from anyone that makes sense. But I will say this much, to pile it up does a better job of burning the stuff and you won't have odd pieces to go pick up later in the ash, in piles it'll burn hotter and quicker and burn more completely than having it lie around like it is now. I don't like to do clean up after a fire like that, it helps to have a rain on it to settle the ash but its still a total pain in my opinion to slop around in the ash later on.

I'd either use an excavator and thumb to pick the debris up, put it in a pile and burn it or use a skid steer and grapple to do that, then use the excavator to dig out the stumps and pile them up too and burn them, I've never had a problem burning any stumps and I'd forget digging a hole to bury anything, if its dry use the debris to get the stumps to burn and use the bucket on the loader if its got teeth on it to back drag the site and your done. When to jobs done and everything is burned up, we flip the fans around on my dozers or crawler loaders and spread the ash piles out over the site, but do it a way to keep yourself out of the ash as much as possible then take the machines home to wash off. I seldom bury anything on a job like you mentioned, mainly because I'm the one to tile the land later on or do the landscaping for developing it or something somewhere on the property eventually and it never fails to have to do something where the debris was buried and re bury the junk again which isn't a fun job by any means.

As for burying it, I'd have at least six feet of dirt cover over it, not just three feet but that's me and I've never dug up a pile that was buried deep enough. We also try to bury the junk along the property boundary seem most area's have a set back law along property boundary's so we dig a line along them and bury the debris there.

 

[td25c]

Yeah, Cleaning up ground that has been timbered can be challenging . Treetops everywhere on top of the stumps. My advice is just go at it slow & steady. Dont get in a big rush plowing through a fallen treetop only to get your teeth rattled after hitting a hidden stump. No shame in using cable & chockers to pull tops out and make a pathway through the area to be cleared. Clear off all debris then go after the stumps. What works good for me if you have room is rather than making one big pile and burning is to make a series of small piles & push them into the edge of the treeline and forget about them,let mother nature work on them and in 8 to 10 years there same as gone.

 

[gwhammy]

Stumps in our part of Mo. are a pain. The clay stays forever it seems and really hard to burn. No real good answer for them. Most of what we work on is large farm ground so burying them along a holler works decent. Some trees like hedge shed dirt real good, others you can't do anything with.

 

[Stump Knocker]

Has anyone tried a root rake on a track loader.
You should be able to roll brush and stumps a lot easier than using a straight blade or 4 in one bucket.
http://www.solesbeesequipment.com/dozer_rakes.php
http://www.anbomanufacturing.com/?gclid=CMWsyYril7sCFe3m7AodFTcA5A

 

[Heavey Metal]

Figure out the wind with it to your back start a windrow when you get enough open to start digging stumps do it roll them up in the windrow also.

Never ever push anything roll it a loader is perfect for this.

When you get all that you can roll get on the other side and roll it back off the stumps.

When everything is clear of the stumps dig them and start rolling a windrow from the otherway resist the urge to burn til you get a windrow that you can barely roll.

Do your best to lay the long wood lengthwise in the pile.

Best to find a hill and cut a slot in it and roll the windrow into it the banks will reflect the heat and burn everything

When you get a fire going leave it alone and when it burns out cary the big pieces to the next fire.

Most important keep the wood in front of you

 

[MikeVincoli]

Thanks everyone for the tips. What most of you described is basically what I did on the last section I cleaned up; just pick thru it slow and try to keep all the sticks in front of the tractor. These areas are at the edge of a 30 acre field that I am trying to square off for pasture land. It doesn't have to be perfectly clean, but I don't want to be hitting stumps when I bush hog during the year. As for burying stuff, I don't really like to, but I did have to bury a couple large root balls on the last section that wouldn't burn up. They were sweet gum stumps that I had to dig out all the way around almost 6 feet deep to them to let go. Had about 8 trees like this. They were about 36" to 48" across at the stump; which was almost flush with the ground. I learned a lesson with these in regard to burning them and that is instead of trying to burn them up, next time I will push them out, but then dig the hole a little deeper and then roll them back in upside down and cover them up. It took forever to try and rake the extra dirt off the balls with the bucket teeth and roll them and pick them up and drop them; forget that, they are getting buried this time. I really like the root cutter bar that mounts to the ripper, but I don't have a ripper on my tractor. Nice to read that I shouldn't be ashamed to have to get off and drag some stuff out with a cable now and then. I don't know how many times I had to get off the tractor on the last section to pry out a big piece of root that was wedged in between the teeth and screwing up my finally grade efforts. Thanks again to all for the ideas and advise! Who would have thought that something so aggravating could be so much fun!

 

[DMiller]

What I do for root balls is place them upside down in a pile separate from other burn goods, leave them there for a few rains or a season or two, the soils will wash away while the stumps dry out, placing them on top of a additional burn pile they will then burn up. Be careful where you buried the others, as they rot they will decrease in area, many times a buried stump will rot almost completely away leaving a 'bridged' section of ground and as you drive across it sink holes. Saw a almost new tractor lose a front spindle to one of these on a previous farm, previous owner had buried a 'few' piles of organics where they had rotted away, most were exposed but a couple were bridged, took awhile to find them all and collapse them.

 

[gwhammy]

Now that makes me mad I didn't think of that. Putting them upside down puts them in the weather. That's a real good simple idea. Thanks

 

[MikeVincoli]

Here are a coupe pictures of my progress the other day. I used the bucket of the tractor with the teeth pointed down and in the float position in reverse. This worked pretty good as the bucket would just float over the remaining stumps. After I got the majority of the debris pulled into the middle I worked it all up into 4 piles moving forward. I tried not to get a bunch of dirt in my piles, but it was tough to do not having a rake. I guess I'll let them set this winter and try and burn them in the summer, then go after the stumps.

 

[OldandWorn]

Thanks for the pics and update. I will have to do the same someday, most likely without a rake.

 

[DMiller]

Looking good so far, I wouldn't expect too much better from the loader as it isn't really designed to remove scrub. Get it as thinned out as you can then a farm tractor and a disc to finish cutting up and in the smaller stuff it should be fine.

 

[MikeVincoli]

Good to hear about using the farm tractor, cause that's how I finished up the last section I did. 66 JD 4020 with a 12' Ford 243 cutting/finish harrow and a 12' x 8" I beam drag. It worked pretty good. I tried a chain drag, but it clogged to easily. Had to get off and dump it about every 50 feet.