what equipment should I buy?

[smurphy]

I am planning to enter the clearing business in Austin/Central Texas. I would like to keep my investment under 150k to get started. What would be the best route for equipment? It is mostly cedar trees with rocky soil here. By reading the old posts it seems some use a shear and some use a mulcher. What is the best route to take? What brands should I focus on with rocky soil and cedar? Thanks for any input.

 

[Totally Stumped]

Join the crowd...

I guess you have $149,999 burning a hole in your pocket. Do you have any background in this type of work? Do you have a good network of contacts? Are you working in a related field? Have you just signed a huge contract with the county or a utility company for ROW clearing? What type of work are you currently doing?

Yes, some guys use a mulcher, some guys use a shear. You also left out dozers, excavators, tractors and Mexican hand labor. I assume your a skid steer guy. Ever driven one? Ever driven one farther than the dealer's lot?

Its not as easy as the ASV, Bobcat, Cat, Case or Gehl salesman says it is. What do they care? They just want to sell equipment.

What type of clearing do you want to do-residential, commercial, ROW, ranches? Day jobs or overnight travel? One man/one machine operation or fleet? Austin or central Texas?

The type of work your looking at is very weather dependent and Texas is having one of its wettest years on record. If it rains you don't work. Lots of guys went belly up this summer. The equipment payments are relentless.

Forget what I just wrote. You got $149,999 and that will get you a brand new truck, trailer, skid steer, mulcher and shear. Problem solved.

 

[smurphy]

I am not making any purchases until January so I have a little time to make up my mind. I do not have a background in running heavy equipment. We do have a 200 acre ranch with way too much cedar, so I would get some practice before I tried to get any work.

My father in law owns a structural steel supply business and has many builder contacts that he will push my way. However, I am more interested in doing ranch and row work. I live Northwest of Austin and would try to stay within a 100 miles of there but would be willing to do overnights.

I assumed with my budget a skid steer would be my only option. I would be an owner operator until I came up with more money to buy more equipment. I do not want to finance anything. In the beginning I would be limited on equipment but would not be subject to payments when it rains for 4 months straight. My father in law had a tough time with all the rain. The reason I am looking to be an owner operator is that I could just park my equipment and not have to meet payroll each week like he does.

The other business I am thinking about is concrete pumping. My father owned them for 20 years so I have a background in that. My father in law could put me to work day one. My concern with that is it is totally building related. It seems to me that the clearing business is not just dependent on new construction (with ranch and row work). What percentage of your work is building related?

 

[smurphy]

I am not making any purchases until January so I have a little time to make up my mind. I do not have a background in running heavy equipment. We do have a 200 acre ranch with way too much cedar, so I would get some practice before I tried to get any work.

My father in law owns a structural steel supply business and has many builder contacts that he will push my way. However, I am more interested in doing ranch and row work. I live Northwest of Austin and would try to stay within a 100 miles of there but would be willing to do overnights.

I assumed with my budget a skid steer would be my only option. I would be an owner operator until I came up with more money to buy more equipment. I do not want to finance anything. In the beginning I would be limited on equipment but would not be subject to payments when it rains for 4 months straight. My father in law had a tough time with all the rain. The reason I am looking to be an owner operator is that I could just park my equipment and not have to meet payroll each week like he does.

The other business I am thinking about is concrete pumping. My father owned them for 20 years so I have a background in that. My father in law could put me to work day one. My concern with that is it is totally building related. It seems to me that the clearing business is not just dependent on new construction (with ranch and row work). What percentage of your work is building related?

 

[ASD]

i always say "do what YOU do and let others do what THEY do"

if you do not know much about clearing and you go and buy all the toys to do it I hope you are ready for a steep learning curve and i mean STEEP

 

[1953greg]

murf

local advice will be much better than anything you can find here because there are too many variables involved.

hire someone in the clearing business to have a look and give recomendation. probally be the best investment u wil ever make!!!!!!!!!

does your livelyhood depend on this adventure?

 

[stumpjumper83]

One thing that has be concerned is that you dont have a background with heavy equipment. It isn't as easy as it looks. The one thing that is easy is ruining good equipment due to lack of knowledege or inexperience. Probably the best thing that you could do is get hired by someone else already in the business and get a leg up on whats going on. Invest your 150k in something that will become 175k in a year or so and go get some experience at someone else's expense. See how and why they do it the way they do. A decent excavator equiped with a thumb and a seasoned operator can thin alot of woods in a day, especially if he has a grapple skidder cleaning up after him. Or at least thats how we do it back east. Last but not least dont forget about the bulldozer, a lage cat ( d-8's and up) with a good operator can be impressive.

 

[cantcutter]

I have always been good at operating heavy equipment, but I started young....(about 8 years old) that being said I know plenty of guys who make their living logging or trucking and are really bad at equipment operation. I think it has to do with hand/eye cordination and knowing what the limits of your machine are.
I would start with smaller stuff like a bobcat before trying your hand on anything like a wheel loader.... Nice thing about land clearing is that you will be in the wide open most of the time and really can't hurt anything except yourself and the machine. Make sure you get ROPS.

 

[cantcutter]

The other business I am thinking about is concrete pumping. My father owned them for 20 years so I have a background in that. My father in law could put me to work day one. My concern with that is it is totally building related. It seems to me that the clearing business is not just dependent on new construction (with ranch and row work). What percentage of your work is building related?

You cant buy a good concrete pump for 150 K......

 

[deakin]

Machine depends on what you are doing. You can learn how to run heavy equipment if the contract allows the time. If you are on flat ground and can run a machine of any type you can learn heavy equipment, I did.

Never been on a really big dozer ever. I was hired by a landowner for a 30 day project. He asked if I could run a dozer ALWAYS ask for the definition of running a dozer. I could start and move the dozer which in my mind was running it.

First week I took out several acres of Juniper, mesquite. He then told me that the North ranch needed a new road and to just follow the safety tape and viola. I found my calling that week. I put in about 12 miles of road in the Palo Duro canyon. I cut roads through areas that were more narrow than the D6 Cat that I was running. The canyons were from 12' to over 250' and that my friend will set the pucker factor near max. I can now witness that I can pick up a D6 dozer seat with the cheeks of my posterior.

Moving through brush cutting roads down a canyon wall I would build a wall on the down hill side so that the 46,000 lb $ 250,000 leased dozer wouldn't wind up in the bottom of the canyon with me inside.

If you are building roads, use a dozer. If you are clearing cedar a skid loader will work unless the ground is really dry. You will tear up a skid loader in my country unless you have a shear. We use a track hoe with a finger on the bucket. It is hard to pile junipers and mesquite with a dozer blade. I can't use a skid loader here because of the mesquite.

Lease some equipment at first to see if you like a particular type. They do the maintenance if it is the equipment's fault. Secure the work then lease the machine. Try it out for a month and you will make money without the investment.

It is a hard job with a lease though. Usually 30 days and they allow 170 hours on the machine. Doesn't seem like a big deal until you have to sit on the hammer seat for 8 hours a day moving brush. Takes about an hour to service in the am or pm. Greasing and fueling. An hour to and from the job. 10 hours a day 5 days a week and two Saturdays in the 4 weeks. Have to count on at least 3 or 4 days of down time for repairs if the machine breaks down. Rain on a dozer isn't too much of a problem if you can get to the machine it will work.

If you are using heavy equipment do not cross any water crossing unless it has a solid bottom. Took two days of sweat and labor to get mine out on that mistake.

But make no mistake a good piece of heavy equipment will move some brush and in a hurry. Putting it in a pile is hard with a dozer as they roll under the blade.

If you use a skid loader find a good grapple with a C shape and 1/2 inch steel fingers. You can move to the cedar drop the lower tines in the ground and move forward rooting the tree, grab it with the grapple and pile it if the ground is soft works like a dream.

You will need the biggest skid made and that can be a chore if you have any terrain. 10,000 lb loader and trailer will tax even a one ton.

Sorry to be so long winded but I wish someone would have told me. Experience is the best teacher but it sure takes me a long time to learn.