Brush Clearing

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Subject

Author

Date

Brush Clearing

T. McQuinn

09-07-2008

Re: Brush Clearing

Art

09-07-2008

T. McQuinn

willshak

Posted by T. McQuinn on September 7, 2008, 9:33 am

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I have never really cleared much brush. What little I have done has
been done with a chainsaw, loppers, and what I used to think was a
pretty big chipper/vacuum. I live in the 'burbs but I have a 1.2 acre
lot with, maybe, half of it wooded and wild. Actually, it's worse than
wild, I have cut limbs and honeysuckle (Lonicera L.) for years and piled the brush
back there out of sight. My bad, but I did it. I want to reclaim this
property and put up a real fence. But the brush, the brush is
challenging me. I just got a bid from a guy who has enough mechanized
equipment to invade Poland and he will clear it, haul it away, and leave
me with nothing but the large trees and dirt for five grand. I'd love
to do it but I have to reserve enough cash for a six foot solid fence.
So I'm looking for alternatives. I have a chipper but it will only do
up to 3 inches (from memory) and it is easy to get it clogged with
leaves and crap if you try to put too much into it. Fine, I can rent a
real chipper. But some of this brush is brutal. The former owner
didn't maintain it either and it is rough. So I have two questions:

How capable are these babies? Has anyone ever used something similar?
http://tinyurl.com/6xxogg
http://tinyurl.com/6awo7f
I can rent something similar locally but I have never used one. I
realize it aint' going to be a day at the beach but can you tear into a
pile of brush with one of these and have it chop/mulch most of it?
Honestly, I've never even seen one of these in use (city boy).

I is there any reason that I should rethink chopping all this brush,
chipping what I can, and letting it return to the soil? I mean, that's
basically what has been done for decades here, just probably not as
quickly as if it gets chopped/chipped/shredded.

Tom

Posted by Art on September 7, 2008, 10:14 am

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T. McQuinn wrote:

> I have never really cleared much brush. What little I have done has

> been done with a chainsaw, loppers, and what I used to think was a

> pretty big chipper/vacuum. I live in the 'burbs but I have a 1.2 acre

> lot with, maybe, half of it wooded and wild. Actually, it's worse than

> wild, I have cut limbs and honeysuckle (Lonicera L.) for years and piled the brush

> back there out of sight. My bad, but I did it. I want to reclaim this

> property and put up a real fence. But the brush, the brush is

> challenging me. I just got a bid from a guy who has enough mechanized

> equipment to invade Poland and he will clear it, haul it away, and leave

> me with nothing but the large trees and dirt for five grand. I'd love

> to do it but I have to reserve enough cash for a six foot solid fence.

> So I'm looking for alternatives. I have a chipper but it will only do

> up to 3 inches (from memory) and it is easy to get it clogged with

> leaves and crap if you try to put too much into it. Fine, I can rent a

> real chipper. But some of this brush is brutal. The former owner

> didn't maintain it either and it is rough. So I have two questions:

> How capable are these babies? Has anyone ever used something similar?

> http://tinyurl.com/6xxogg

> http://tinyurl.com/6awo7f

> I can rent something similar locally but I have never used one. I

> realize it aint' going to be a day at the beach but can you tear into a

> pile of brush with one of these and have it chop/mulch most of it?

> Honestly, I've never even seen one of these in use (city boy).

> I is there any reason that I should rethink chopping all this brush,

> chipping what I can, and letting it return to the soil? I mean, that's

> basically what has been done for decades here, just probably not as

> quickly as if it gets chopped/chipped/shredded.

> Tom

DR mowers are not very high quality machines. I doubt you will find
anyone renting them as they would not hold up to rental use for more
than a day or two.

You're going to need a few different pieces of equipment to deal with
the various sizes of growth. If I were you, I'd start with renting a
backpack brushcutter like a Shindaiwa BP35. Get one with a saw blade on
it. With that you can cut an 6-8 foot wide swath though just about
anything 3" thick or smaller. It's versatile enough to work around all
the trees you want to save and you can clear right up to them. Then you
just make piles based on size and work the piles down. Chainsaw for the
big stuff, chipper/shredder for the medium sized and If possible burn
off the smaller stuff. If you can't burn where you are then put it
through a shredder.

I would definitely leave the chipped and shredded stuff there to
decompose. Use it to fill in low spots. You'll probably wind up with
enough trash to haul away without having to deal with that stuff too.

The DR type of mower works well for a field that has been let go for a
season or maybe two. It can handle small saplings and some brush but
that doesn't sound like what you are dealing with.

Good luck, sounds like a lot of hard work ahead.

--
Art

Posted by T. McQuinn on September 7, 2008, 11:00 am

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Art wrote:

> DR mowers are not very high quality machines. I doubt you will find

> anyone renting them as they would not hold up to rental use for more

> than a day or two.

Thanks. What I see locally is not the DR brand, but the pictures were
tiny that I thought I would use DR to show the type of machine I was
talking about.

> You're going to need a few different pieces of equipment to deal with

> the various sizes of growth. If I were you, I'd start with renting a

> backpack brushcutter like a Shindaiwa BP35. Get one with a saw blade

> on it. With that you can cut an 6-8 foot wide swath though just about

> anything 3" thick or smaller. It's versatile enough to work around all

> the trees you want to save and you can clear right up to them. Then

> you just make piles based on size and work the piles down. Chainsaw

> for the big stuff, chipper/shredder for the medium sized and If

> possible burn off the smaller stuff. If you can't burn where you are

> then put it through a shredder.

Roger that. Can't burn and am limited, at least at this time, by a 4
foot gate in the back. But I will resolve the gate issue if necessary.

> I would definitely leave the chipped and shredded stuff there to

> decompose. Use it to fill in low spots. You'll probably wind up with

> enough trash to haul away without having to deal with that stuff too.

Thanks for the sanity check. And yeah, I will need a little bit of
hauling. But it looks like that's getting pretty competitive around
here and I figure it can't cost too much to do a load or two.

> Good luck, sounds like a lot of hard work ahead.

Yes. And even if I don't end up being the guy to do it, thanks for the
sanity check.

Posted by willshak on September 8, 2008, 4:29 pm

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on 9/7/2008 9:33 AM T. McQuinn said the following:

> I have never really cleared much brush. What little I have done has

> been done with a chainsaw, loppers, and what I used to think was a

> pretty big chipper/vacuum. I live in the 'burbs but I have a 1.2 acre

> lot with, maybe, half of it wooded and wild. Actually, it's worse

> than wild, I have cut limbs and honeysuckle for years and piled the

> brush back there out of sight. My bad, but I did it. I want to

> reclaim this property and put up a real fence. But the brush, the

> brush is challenging me. I just got a bid from a guy who has enough

> mechanized equipment to invade Poland and he will clear it, haul it

> away, and leave me with nothing but the large trees and dirt for five

> grand. I'd love to do it but I have to reserve enough cash for a six

> foot solid fence. So I'm looking for alternatives. I have a chipper

> but it will only do up to 3 inches (from memory) and it is easy to get

> it clogged with leaves and crap if you try to put too much into it.

> Fine, I can rent a real chipper. But some of this brush is brutal.

> The former owner didn't maintain it either and it is rough. So I have

> two questions:

> How capable are these babies? Has anyone ever used something similar?

> http://tinyurl.com/6xxogg

> http://tinyurl.com/6awo7f

> I can rent something similar locally but I have never used one. I

> realize it aint' going to be a day at the beach but can you tear into

> a pile of brush with one of these and have it chop/mulch most of it?

> Honestly, I've never even seen one of these in use (city boy).

> I is there any reason that I should rethink chopping all this brush,

> chipping what I can, and letting it return to the soil? I mean,

> that's basically what has been done for decades here, just probably

> not as quickly as if it gets chopped/chipped/shredded.

> Tom

Get other bids. Maybe from someone that doesn't have enough equipment to
invade Poland.

--

Bill
In Hamptonburgh, NY
in the original Orange County
To email, remove the double zeroes after @

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