Old school

[dozr]

This is continuing the debate on whether loaders or dozers are better for clearing trees.

I was at my son-in-laws house 300 miles away from my own home and equipment to help him clear trees and create a building pad. We were picking up some bulls so I had my cattle trailer with no way of hauling either my loader or dozer down there, but we already had the bobcat on site at his house. I had no problem getting trees cleared with the Bobcat. Moral of the story use what you've got...

 

[cattracks]

I'm old school too and...Dozer is the way to go. The only thing faster is a excavator. Pop a couple of surface roots and push it as high as you can, giving you just a little stroke on the blade to raise it up as you are pushing.
Once the tree is on it's side lop, go to the top of the tree and walk down both sides and limb it, lop of the stump and push it into a deck.

Hell, I think a dozer is faster than a loader when digging a basement too.....my 2 cents!

 

[Jojosiah3]

Crawler loader, Best of both worlds.

 

[cattracks]

Crawler loader, Best of both worlds.

Many people (including yourself) believe that and...I won't argue. I've ran 977's loading trucks in Shot rock and they do excel in that environment, for sure. Maybe it's just me but, they really don't seem as versatile as other equipment and I've found them very hard to hold and carry grade. Nice tool, that rear engine 977L?, was a sweet heart and I knew some contractors that swear by them. I've never owned one so, my input is nothing more than from the operator side...limited to say the least!! My forte' is Bull Dozers large or small so, I could be a little biased.

 

[fixou812]

I saw some very large tree's winched over on YouTube
no stump gets the roots and all. YouTube tree winching.
I like the farm tractor set ups. The 3 point lowers a small
blade (anchor) with winch mounted on top.
The blade keeps the tractor from being dragged backwards.

 

[old-iron-habit]

Lots of ways to get trees out. Bottom line is time and money. What works for a dozen trees might not even be an option for ten acres that needs site work after the land is cleated. Or vice versa.

 

[bill onthehill]

Cleared a lot trees with a 953 cat. More expensive to keep running though.

 

[cattracks]

Nice tool for sure...I'm spoiled I guess and love a tilt cylinder for so, so many applications, one of which is popping surface roots or for cutting up and under a big b*****d like a Bull Pine...tap root from hell!! Larch, Doug Fir, Cedar, Grand Fir no problem (not much time spent around Southern Hard Woods..ie. Hickory, Maple or Oak) But a large Bull Pine (Pondarosa) can be tough. I've had some big ones over at a 45, tree attached of course and had to use the corner bit to cut the tap root before it would go!!! To much fun!!! Shoulda just pulled out the Husky and lopped it off.

 

[hmearth]

Its fun knockin out pine trees but most of the tree l get are dirty old red gum tree's most things bounce off so some clowns get the idea cut it down and get a poor sap like me to dig the stump out they get told pretty quick about where they went wrong in getting rid of the old gum tree.
Good job in getting that tree out

 

[hillbillywrench]

i've worked with excavators, dozers, backhoes, wheel tractors, and trackloaders clearing trees. (I was rarely in a seat, usually lugging a saw/skidding logs). They each have their place depending on tree size/type, acres, future land use. We owned a trackloader, so when clearing several acres of large trees for farm ground that's what we used. We got pretty good at pushing out the tree, lopping off the rootball, bucking out any sellable logs, bury the stumps, burn the tops. One time a hired dozer pushed out some trees and lined them up in a neat row for me. The problem was he pushed all the trees from the stump end when lining them up (bends all those strong, oak limbs backwards and loads the tree with horrible pressure and twist). I don't think I got a single one cut off of the rooball without hanging the saw up. He learned that it took more time to track the dozer over and relieve the pressure on the saw bar than to just let me cut it where it fell. (It also filled the bark with dirt/gravel when he moved the trees, OH Boy i love sharpening chain every cut.)

 

[22a]

A dozer with a good tree pusher fitted is the way to go.

 

[ncnswlogger]

A D6-7 size dozer with a good tree spear and a set of rippers would be ideal for pushing out most trees. Add an excavator with a log grab and cut off saw for stacking in to heaps.
For large and hard to push trees a D8 would be required/more suitable.
As for track loaders, good because of the high lift but would not be as stable on slope as a dozer because of the Narrower track gauge and fixed track frames.

 

[gwhammy]

I really like the combo of my 63 pushing the trees over and laying them out for the dozer to push to the pile. On big or hard to push stumps we usually dig around all of them then use both machines to push them out. Some of the biggest ones are all two 40,000 lb. machines can shove out of the hole. I've seen a few one machine had to hold while the other shoved dirt under it several times working it out of the hole. I would like to have an excavator for the wet season to tear out fence rows then pile when it gets dry, also burying stumps would be easier.

 

[oldirt]

ok..