Root Raking

[Mathieu18]

Looking for advice, info, tips, pointers basically everything… I’ve talked to a couple folks about doing the work but it keeps falling through so I guess I’m going to try it myself. Had 3+ acres forestry mulched last year. Don’t regret getting it all chopped up. But wife wants to plant sunflowers later this spring and I’d like to put in some vegetables. So I need to get the dirt ready. We want to build in the near future too so figure I’ll smooth a driveway and bring in some crush and run. I bought a Deere 755 that could probably till or disc it once the tree and shrub roots are gone and it’s smoothed out, but that’s not up to the task of getting the gum/pine and shrub roots. No big roots, most trees were less than 6” trunks and maybe 15’ tall.

Anyway, thought is a small dozer with a root rake. A couple questions, I’m worried about the finished land being low and becoming a swamp. A friend (that fell through) talked about using the blade to cut swales to mitigate some of that. Easy to do with the dozer? Figure the outline and maybe make a couple fields. The ground has a couple fire breaks and is a bit bumpy, I want to level it as best I can as well… how long should I expect it too take for 3 acres? Do I need a week or can a day or two get it done? How far can I push a pile with a dozer? I know it’s not really made for that, but I’d love to push it all into a berm, but that’s 200-300 yards down a path to the back of the land. Any concerns if I rough it with the dozer than smooth with combos of disks and box blades on the 755?

Probably 101 things I’m not considering, that’s why I’m here. Any advice appreciated, and if there’s anyone in the Wilmington area (Bolivia NC, Brunswick County) that does this kind of work please PM me.

 

[Scsmith42]

Root raking can take some significant HP. I would not want anything less than a D5 size and a D6 or D7 would be much faster. The amount of time that your work will take is directly proportional to the size of the dozer and skill of the operator.

For shaping land, a 6 way blade is ideal due to it's versatility. However, it's not the strongest option for something like a root rake.

A dozer is definitely the best option to smooth land and cut swales. Usually your best push distance is no more than 100'. 1000' (300 yards) is way too long of a push to be practical for most dozers.

 

[Mathieu18]

Good to know, they do have D5 and D6 available. Same guy that fell through talked about just scraping top 1’ off, but I assume that doesn’t use any less power, and again concerned about creating too much of a depression. On the plus side, most of the roots are smallish.

Question, say I got a D5, how many acres could you expect in a day? The lowboy to transport is a big part of the cost here, just trying to “right size” the rental (time and equipment). Guess I need to forego my berm…

 

[Jp8819]

A dozer or you could try a large skid steer with grapple but both take a bit of learning curve to be fast with which will affect your timeline also size of items your dealing with would effect my choice. The final product you want will affect time as well. If just skimming trash off top the skid steer would likely do that but if you need to dig remaining roots its going to depend how much they have rotted to how fast it will be. Pushing long distances will slow either down but it can be done you just have to take smaller piles which adds to the time of the job. I would say if your just toying with the idea pick a small area and rent something for a weekend and see how much progress you can make before you go crazy and spend big money for fuel and equipment you may not need.

 

[Mathieu18]

@Jp8819 Appreciate it. I talked to another place about their skid steer with grapple, they didn’t think it would be good a removing roots, just moving what might already be loose. They aren’t big roots, but they do need removed. The biggest of what was forestry mulched was 5-6” pines that were maybe 15’. The rest was 1-3” gums and smaller pines. So they aren’t going to be huge root balls, but they are there. The goal is to rent something for a weekend or a week if needed and get the big stuff knocked out. I don’t mind taking more time later to smooth it. Hence why I wanted to ask here to hopefully get it at least closed to right the first time.

 

[Jp8819]

@Jp8819 Appreciate it. I talked to another place about their skid steer with grapple, they didn’t think it would be good a removing roots, just moving what might already be loose. They aren’t big roots, but they do need removed. The biggest of what was forestry mulched was 5-6” pines that were maybe 15’. The rest was 1-3” gums and smaller pines. So they aren’t going to be huge root balls, but they are there. The goal is to rent something for a weekend or a week if needed and get the big stuff knocked out. I don’t mind taking more time later to smooth it. Hence why I wanted to ask here to hopefully get it at least closed to right the first time.

The roots and stumps will be your time consuming and aggravating item. Another thought besides a big dozer if your doing it on the weekends or side is get a skid steer to skim all the loose off quickly so you can see problem stumps/roots and then rent a mini ex to come back and dig the the stumps and roots. And then rent a skid later to do final clean up. Many different ways to go about it just probably depends your budget and how quickly you want it cleaned up. A skid steer alone wouldn't be the best option for digging roots but paired with something works well for clean up and moving dirt. The dozer will be costly to rent upfront and fuel wise to run if your using one hard and its a larger dozer. Theres also little learning curve to be quick with it. With heavy equipment it doesn't take long to realize paying someone might not be the priciest option if your not efficient in your task.

 

[Scsmith42]

Typically a weekly rental is about equal to 3 days of daily rental. A monthly rental is about equal to 2.5 weeks of weekly rental, etc.

Clearing land can be time consuming. In order to burn the roots (after drying), you will want to get as much of the dirt off of them as possible. So that takes extra time to work the roots across the ground after you've uprooted them.

Leveling land, cutting swales, etc. - the rough work may go fast but the finesse work will take time. Offhand I would estimate no less than 1/2 day for root raking, and probably no more than a full day. Getting the roots, stumps, etc. cleaned up and piled neatly will take another 1/2 day or so (presuming a 3 acre radius).

Smoothing out the land, cutting swales, etc. can take 1 - 2 days depending upon your skill set and the terrain.

If I was really trying to do it nicely, I'd opt for a weekly rental and then ask the rental company to switch to daily if I was done in less than 2 days.

New-ish equipment is nice to use when it comes to finish grading. I cleared quite a few acres with this machine and although it was great for destumping, root raking and bulk dirt moving, it sucked when it came to finish grading.



For me, a skid steer would not be on my desired list for root raking or land grading. This is mainly due to the fact that I can do it much easier, faster and have a better end result with a good dozer. For comparison purposes, a D5 Cat dozer weighs around 10 tons; a D6 weighs around 22 tons, but a large skid steer is less than 5 tons. That D8 pictured above weighed over 40 tons with the ripper and root rake.

JP8819's suggestion about using a combination of a mini-ex and a skid steer is not a bad option, depending upon how many stumps/roots you have and how thoroughly you want it cleared. For me, I tend to get impatient and want to get clearing done as fast and easy as possible; which is reflected in my advice.

Operator skill is another thing to take into account. It took me a lot of hours on a dozer to get where I could push a nice, flat fill. It's really easy to make a roller coaster with one until you get the hang of it. A 50HP+ farm tractor with a box blade may be another option for leveling land and putting in swales if you opt for mini-ex / skid steer combo for clearing.

YMMV.

Scott

 

[Burt Gummer]

Aside from the roots, the mulching remnants will hold moisture and be desirable to your sunflowers for that reason when tilled under

 

[Mathieu18]

Aside from the roots, the mulching remnants will hold moisture and be desirable to your sunflowers for that reason when tilled under

But how do I till it? Not sure I have anything big enough to run the tiller through it without striping the roots etc out first.

 

[HawgBonz]

FWIW I used to live in that grey/maroon and white houses on Dosher Cutoff near the nuke plant end. When we moved in the brush was so thick we didn't know a 20x12 portable building was on the lot (later had it moved to the White House). And that cleared smooth section of the lot in front of the big garage (grey house) was a mess of saplings and some bigger trees but nothin huge. I got Scott to come in with his skidder/bush hog/mulcher to do the heavy lifting. After that I picked at it with a lil 3016 Mahindra with b/h attachment, grapple rake(The Rake Shop, Fla.) and the landscape rake. I used the scarifiers on the scrape to rip the smaller roots up. It took a bit but I got it smoothed out enough that I could fly on the lawn mower.
Mr Haire used a decent size backhoe to clean out the back part. And again, I picked at the smaller stuff with my machine.
I dunno if I'd worry a lot about swampin up if ya clear off the root mat. The only place we held water there was in the ditch where the "jungle junk" rotted and clogged up the sand. And even there it was just slow draining.

 

[Mathieu18]

Had a friend with a Deere 110 that wanted to do it. But had a heart attack then triple bypass so he’s out for a bit. That was my most recent miss which got me looking dozer. I prob would leave any big stumps for him…

 

[Scsmith42]

But how do I till it? Not sure I have anything big enough to run the tiller through it without striping the roots etc out first.

Multiple passes by a large farm tractor pulling a bottom plow, followed by a disc harrow is what I'd use to till in the mulch after raking and leveling.

 

[Chdamn]

I’m gonna be honest with you. If you’ve never run equipment like a dozer, or only enough to know what the controls do, this is probably not the task to learn on, unless you have a lot of free time and money to rent the equipment for three times the length it would take a skilled operator.

I don’t say that to be mean because I’m in that boat. I can run a dozer, skid steer, loader, excavator, compactor etc but not well at all.

Running them well takes many months if not years.

Now I can tear a building down with one or dig a hole or push a pile from one place to another. But cutting swales correctly, rooting an area without going too deep and then leveling to avoid a swamp.

Yeah ask around on here and pay one of our members to do it. Or at least come out there and help you out.

 

[Culper]

I may have missed the end goal of the all land, but if you're not in a rush, another option may be to cover crop the 3 acres or at least where you are not trying to build, and see how it goes. Little to no tillage required.

Watching how the water flows, you could then make adjustment to those areas versus tackling the whole area. The less it is messed with, the cheaper it is for you, and the better it is for the ground.

Keep in mind, unless the hardwood stumps were burned good enough to kill them, expect a lot of sprouts. Those may need to be managed. No telling what is in the "seed bank," you could end up with some awesome native grasses and flowers popping up on their own. It'll be an adventure either way!

 

[Mathieu18]

Much prefer honest feedback than “yea man you got this” and $10k in equipment rentals later I just have a mess.

@Culper Plan is to plant an acre or two of sunflowers in the spring. So need to get some dirt I can work with.

Anyone do this work in Brunswick County?

 

[chocolate lab84]

I just had some areas mulched October 2022. Haven't done anything to them but run a heavy ass section disk over them a few times and plant cereal grains to stabilize the soil. Without additional earth works or some heavy landscaping raking by a tractor, I don't know if I could have row cropped this past year like your intended plan. I chose to try to save some money and give it a few years prior to planting my sunflowers in those areas. We have a dove field that was mulched and it took about 3-4 years of heavy offset discing and millet planting to really get ready to run a row planter through.

 

[Ikarus1]

I work for a mulching/land clearing company, and our Bobcat T86 with root rake removes all the roots I run it across. But with over 100HP and 14K lbs running weight, its on the larger side of a skid steer.

We mulched 4 acres on my property in 2018, and by 2020 I was able to mow down any resprouts with a brush cutter, use a ripper plow and till planting areas with a PTO tiller.

The goats and pigs do most of that work now 🤣