Catbuster
Roadbuilder Extraordinaire
- Local time
- 12:41 AM
- User ID
- 15169
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2020
- Messages
- 284
- Reaction score
- 1,545
- Location
- Lou, KY
The reason I ask is because for long and skinny an excavator wins every time.
For production, it’s hard to beat an 80,000 lb class machine with a 36-42” bucket and a progressive link hydraulic thumb. Wider buckets make it too hard to dig through roots while you’re stumping and you move a lot more dirt than needed, which makes for more cleanup. You don’t need the width, because branches and trees are long anyway.
A 65,000 pound class machine (Cat 329/330F, Komatsu PC290, Deere 270/300, Link Belt 290/300X4) works too, and has plenty of power. But going up to a 336 Cat/350 Deeretachi, Link-Belt Case, etc or Komatsu PC360 nets you almost 10’ more reach. A 100,000 pound class machine (Cat 349, Komatsu/Link-Belt 490, Deeretachi 470) nets you a lot more power, but also weight on not that much more undercarriage…Especially with a 349, meaning… Stuck much easier, and harder to get out. And They have a lot larger counterweight overhang to hit stuff with.
For 1/4 mile wide, if you really want it cleared quickly, you may want to look pairing a 336 with a D6 size machine. You will damage a six-way (VPAT) blade clearing with it. I usually paired a 336 with a 953 or 963 track loader (or as we call them in central KY, a high lift) with the loader chasing/rolling piles, cleaning up and raking loose stuff up. Crawler loaders are kinda hard to find out west for some reason though.
If you have all winter, you could conceivably cut the trees down with a chainsaw, process them into logs, stack them with a much smaller excavator, then also stump with a much smaller excavator, more or less logging the property and then digging the stumps out and handling the slash piles (chipping or burning, dependent on what your air authority will allow) but not replanting trees.
I hope that helps and is understandable.
For production, it’s hard to beat an 80,000 lb class machine with a 36-42” bucket and a progressive link hydraulic thumb. Wider buckets make it too hard to dig through roots while you’re stumping and you move a lot more dirt than needed, which makes for more cleanup. You don’t need the width, because branches and trees are long anyway.
A 65,000 pound class machine (Cat 329/330F, Komatsu PC290, Deere 270/300, Link Belt 290/300X4) works too, and has plenty of power. But going up to a 336 Cat/350 Deeretachi, Link-Belt Case, etc or Komatsu PC360 nets you almost 10’ more reach. A 100,000 pound class machine (Cat 349, Komatsu/Link-Belt 490, Deeretachi 470) nets you a lot more power, but also weight on not that much more undercarriage…Especially with a 349, meaning… Stuck much easier, and harder to get out. And They have a lot larger counterweight overhang to hit stuff with.
For 1/4 mile wide, if you really want it cleared quickly, you may want to look pairing a 336 with a D6 size machine. You will damage a six-way (VPAT) blade clearing with it. I usually paired a 336 with a 953 or 963 track loader (or as we call them in central KY, a high lift) with the loader chasing/rolling piles, cleaning up and raking loose stuff up. Crawler loaders are kinda hard to find out west for some reason though.
If you have all winter, you could conceivably cut the trees down with a chainsaw, process them into logs, stack them with a much smaller excavator, then also stump with a much smaller excavator, more or less logging the property and then digging the stumps out and handling the slash piles (chipping or burning, dependent on what your air authority will allow) but not replanting trees.
I hope that helps and is understandable.
