re: Bobcat land clearing

I have a Bobcat t870 with a 60" bandit mulching head on it that we bought after running the #'s on what contracting and/or renting out land clearing was costing us on real estate that we buy and develop.

You can come out way ahead getting mulching done, or you can come out smelling like chalky dog chit.

Often we'll buy a property and get it to phase 1 of development and move on for awhile to more pressing matters. On properties where mulching is a viable method, it has saved us thousands. We also use it for all sorts of maintenance tasks. It was/is a fabulous investment, and I love the Bobcat platform. *See the fyi way below if you'd like; whereby I give my .02 cents to refute the suggestion that you ought to key in on contractors who only run Cats. That is poor advice, at best.*

I do it for the public some, not because I don't want to, but because we need it on our own projects, so I turn jobs down more often than not due to ROI and TIME. I charge $140/hour with a $500 minimum and a transport fee of $100 per 100 miles, but I'll usually work with somebody if it's a profitable job for me on the transport costs and if they're reasonably close and I have time to devote to it. I'm somewhat unique (not totally unique) in the fact that hourly overhead is a bit less than some because a) my machine was paid for in full with cash b) I am the owner AND operator who also utilizes it for other revenue-making purposes outside of contracting it for mulching services. I say this because even though I don't technically depend on mulching services as my bread and butter, I still don't lowball because it hurts the other guys who do depend on it, and also because I simply can't due to hourly overhead.

Anyone charging under $100/hour should be vetted carefully, IMO. I could somewhat understand if they were in a unique situation like myself, but I will never understand why they do it to themselves and to the market that they will have a short life in. Also, it might mean they're just a baw who has one for his own uses and may or may not run it much. That is FINE, make no mistake about it, but it must be mentioned because an inexperienced, "diddling around" operator can cost you A LOT more money than he saves due to rock bottom hourly charges.

Overhead for me while mulching is minimum $70/hour (upwards of $50/hour before the machine is even cranked up) and that includes everything from grease to insurance.

Someone mentioned drum mulching due to proximity to your home and that is very sage advice. Drums also leaves much more aesthetically pleasing results. Disc mulching is really out of the question in your case, going by your pics.

I wouldnt recommend dozing unless it was the only option. Nothing, imo, is as efficient as mulching when it's a viable option. Assuming slash must be dealt with, bulldozing requires it. Added cost right there. A fairly underwhelmingly-sized stump can stop a big dozer dead in it's tracks. Now you're paying for a hoe to pop the stumps out while dozers push. Now you're haemorrhaging money.

Finally, if there's ANY slope on newly dozed, bare soil land, then immediate deployment of erosion control methods gotta take place to preserve your topsoil (or what's left of it after dozing) and it must be done RIGHT the 1st time. Preventing and/or stopping and slowing topsoil loss is costly, but the costs to reverse it can be astronomical.

There's pros and cons to all the methods, but a good, experienced, reputable mulching contractor charging fair market prices starting at at least $100/ hr, or preferably, minimum $120+/ hr will give the best ROI, IMO over other methods.

*As an aside, but a very important one to me because I saw mention of folks being better off to hire a mulching contractor with a Cat and Cat only*:

Just because someone has a Cat does not mean you can take it as the gospel truth that they're more reputable than those who do not. A full time mulching-only guy will almost always have a purpose-built mulcher and the ones that I personally know and who've been in it the longest have a Bobcat brand or two for the smaller or private landowner type jobs.

Caterpillar track loaders are at the bottom of the barrel for what I'd own and I don't like saying that. Cat doesn't put all of their own engineering into their CTL's but outsources it; thereby getting their piece of the CTL market pie, and it shows with the machine. I cannot begin to describe the things that turned me off on the 299D2 XHP and the intercooler is a classic example of why: it is full of crutches. With all due respect, that intercooler doesn't mean sh*t.

Mulching is extremely hard on a machine and cleanliness is critical. With the voids and lack of protecting from debris entering inside the engine compartment of the machine, they are tinderboxes waiting to happen.

If cat would devote 100% of their engineering into a CTL, it'd be an awesome machine, but few could afford it for what they'd charge. I'd buy it though. And to extend an olive branch: Lord willing, we will be buying a D5 this fall because that is a Cat product and Cat is king to me, but Cat compact track loaders are for the birds- and that comes from a guy who wanted for them to not be sooo bad.

I just wanted to say that you shouldn't look for a contractor who has a Cat and only a Cat because it will somehow equate to better results for you. That is just not true.