Say you have to cut through 500 ft of trees to make a road.....

[Steve G.]

Hello fellow tree fellers (literally),

Say you had to cut through 500 ft feet of trees to make a road - what equipment would you use?
I know obviously I'm gonna need a chainsaw - but what would you do with the stumps?
Grind um'   Pull um' out with a dozer
What kind of equipment will I need?

Thanks in advance,

Steve

[joasis]

You use one of these:

[Steve G.]

And just chain it to the tree and pull???

btw, is there a way to edit post here?

You use the "modify" button.

[joasis]

That machine is a 150 International Harvester Drott Crawler....a real antique, 1959 model. I just bough 20 acres of land, thickly wooded, and with the crawler, it is a matter of pushing the tree over and then sinking the shovel in under the root ball and pushing it out, roots and all. If you look close, you can see it is a clam shell bucket, so it can grip a stump, or a log and pull or pick it up. I use this machine for demolition work in our construction business, but it serves duty at the farm. Cost was $5000...a real bargain.

If you plan on sawing the trees for lumber, you do not want to push them over...it strains the logs and breaks the fibers....hard to believe, but true...that isn't to say you can't get good logs out of trees that were pushed, but it is best to cut them. If the trees are large, look forward to a lot of work, and you won't be using a chain to pull them out.....rent an excavator or dozer for a weekend...and plan on it being a long weekend. And always, clear as you cut...don't just shove brush piles up.

[Frank Pender - AKA "Tail Gunner"]

Welcome a board, Steve G.  I would use a trackhoe.  First I would dig around the root ball and gently pull up the root system and lay the tree down.  That way I would not be damaging the fiber structure in the main stem of the tree and perhaps some species would produce some burl in the root system that could make for a great turning project or just market for someone else.

Grinding the stump would make for some pretty loose material in the roadway.

[Steve G.]

Welcome a board, Steve G.  I would use a trackhoe.  First I would dig around the root ball and gently pull up the root system and lay the tree down.  That way I would not be damaging the fiber structure in the main stem of the tree and perhaps some species would produce some burl in the root system that could make for a great turning project or just market for someone else.

Grinding the stump would make for some pretty loose material in the roadway.

My dad was planing on renting a backhoe for the week and doing exactly as you said - after all he did grow up in the tree business from when he was a boy.
So will a backhoe work?
What's a trackhoe?

[Frank Pender - AKA "Tail Gunner"]

Yes, a backhoe will work, perhaps not quite as well as a good sized trackhoe. 

A track howe is basically the same, only on tracks like a dozer.  A trackhoe comes in all sorts of sizes, like a dozer.

[Kirk Allen]

ALWAYS keep the tree on the boom side of the tree.  NEVER let you cab get exposed to the tree during felling.  I have seen two different situations locally where the operators were killed by trees crushing the cabs.  Trackhoe is the way to go as a Back Hoe offers very little protection for felling.

I do just as Frank suggested.  Standing tree, dig around the root ball, lay it over, then I cut the logs out of it

[Kirk Allen]

Hey Steve, neat avatar!

[Steve G.]

Hey Steve, neat avatar!

Mucho Gracis!

[Steve G.]

We were planing on cutting the trees down and then getting the stumps out with a backoe, so I guess were on the right track there.

Now, have any of you made a road before?
Is it ok to leave it just dirt?
Should we rent a roller and press it down?
Should we put gravel or rocks down on it or is it not required?
We're definately not paving it but we don't know exactly what we should do. Any suggestions?

Steve

[Frank Pender - AKA "Tail Gunner"]

First qwuestion is contingent on if the road is summer seasonal or year round.  Any such road should be crowned so that that the water runs easily tothe sides.  Secondly, compaction can/is determined by the type of material you have for soil.  I would strongly suggest that you put in an culverts as you are building the road, where necessary.  If you have any soft spots or spungy areas I would strongly suggest a road fabric to help maintain the rock when and if you use rock.  Road fabrics allow water to move through them and help keep the rocked area from becoming a thing of the past.  In other words, disapear into the soil. 

If you decide for put rock down, I would always use a quary rock out here that is called 3'minus.  The smaller rock tightens in with the larger and acts as a great base.  If you have some real spongly areas you might consider larger and then working down to putting a coating of 1 1/2 on the top of the 3' minus.  Some folks like to have a coating of 3/4" minus for a finished coat.  For me, I have such heavy trucks going in and out all the timem only use an 1" 1/2 as the top coat.

Again all this is determined by the use of the road.

[Steve G.]

What is quary rock?
The use of the road will be occasional.

[Kirk Allen]

It is much easer to get the stumps out of you dig up the roots around the tree and let the leverage of the tree roll the stump out of the ground.

If you cut the tree first, then you loose the leverage and it will take a lot more work to get the stumps out. 

[Frank Pender - AKA "Tail Gunner"]

Quasrry rock is rock that has to be mined first with the hillside being blasted and then the rock is sized, with a crusher, depending upon demand.

[Kirk Allen]

Its the good stuff  

[Steve G.]

...and what about trenches? Do I have to dig trenches on each side of the road?

[Kirk Allen]

That is going to depend on the terrain your building the road on. If you have natural runoff then as long as the road is high in the middle and slopes down to the sides your road will drain. The key is where that drainage goes to once its off the road.  Culverts from one side to the other may be necessary with trenches (ditches in Illinois )but again, it depends on the lay of the land. 

[Frank Pender - AKA "Tail Gunner"]

If you put in culverts and use the pvc type, make sure you leave at least 18 to 20 inches of surface material on the top to prevent culvert crushing.  When yo deal with the downhill side of the culvert, make sure you place large enoughrock to help cut down on erosions.  I always try and place about 4 or 5 feet of a half culvert as a catch to help prevent such an event and washing out under the culvert itself. 
wilth a half culvert you can also clean out the area much easier.




Oh, and another thing, I spoke about putting down fabric.  Well I have been using lumber wrap aas a base for some roads and it has worked out great.  It is also much less expensive.

[Steve G.]

Where could I get lumber wrap? or fabric? I know I can get the 3' by 100' at HD but I asume it's gonna have to be 8' wide??? right?

btw, thanks for all the help you've been giving me - it's great!

Steve

[Kirk Allen]

Its what a forum is all about!  People helping people!

[Frank Pender - AKA "Tail Gunner"]

I have abouit 12,000 lbs. of the material here on the Left Coats.  Do you want a roll sent to you?  Tell me how many feet you need and we can send it, general freight, UPS, whatever. you wish.  You would have to pay the freight as well, please.

[Steve G.]

Well we just got back from visiting our property up in port jervis!

[Steve G.]

Well we took a look at the road we would have to cut and it looks like there are only a few trees and some brush to go through. The land is on a slight slant downward wich is really nice.

[Frank Pender - AKA "Tail Gunner"]

So, Steve, it sounds as though youmight just have a chance for good drainage off to the sides of the road.