LT I don't do much land clearing at all. the machines im looking into getting the Kubota u55 and Kubota svl 90 between those two machines im sure I could find a way to load some stumps and if not id bid in a rental that could handle it. most of the work I see now is tight quarters or a house that is PL to PL , or basement dig. being able to deposit spoils 360 degrees from the work zone is really what I need .
I don't do a ton of land clearing either I just don't like the idea of limiting myself on the type of work I can do. In my neck of the woods you have to be versitle if you want to stay remotely busy.
Funny you should mention the rental..... When I cleared this lot 2 weeks before I rented a Kobelco 170, then after I was done and the ex sent back the property owner decided to move the house about 10'. Which meant this tree had to go. Since this is in a remote location 3 hours from a rental store I opted to give it a shot with the backhoe. It would have cost me about $1500 to get the ex back out to the site for one day.
If you plan to dig foundations 90% of the time and don't want to tackle other stuff, I agree without question the mini ex and skid is the way to go.
For my particular situation the problem is it really takes 2 operators to make this combo productive. I don't have 2 operators, I have...... me, & I use the term "operator" loosely. My Dad (in the picture above) is more than willing to help but isn't happy in a machine. So how much more productive would it be if you had to seat hop? Would it still be 30% more productive over the backhoe with only one machine working at a time?