I can rent a small/medium sized excavator. not a mini, but not a huge one....will use it mostly to dig out stumps and move some boulders, but do you know if its capable ot pushing over pines and birches up to 6 to 8 inches in diameter? Id love to just level clear an acre or so..... Thoughts?
If your aim is to clear an acre, you should invest in a good chainsaw,preferably 18-20 inch bar.Once you have downed the trees, rent a stump grinder for a week (or more) and remove the stumps. Then rent the backhoe for the boulders. A backhoe is not the ideal choice for all of these assorted tasks.If you have never downed trees before, I would have some one along in case of an accident and to assist in lining up where you need to cut the tree to have it fall where you want it. Suggestions: to have a tree fall in the correct direction, take a walk around it to see which way it leans (if at all) and if there is anything in it's falling path (vehicles, people, etc). The proper way to do this is to make your first cut on the front side, this will be a V cut (falling side) up to 1/2 to 3/4 of the diameter of the tree. Then on the opposite side cut straight through to about 1 or 2 inches of the the first cut and move directly back away from the tree as it falls.Wear eye. ear, hand protection.
You don't say where you are or what kind of soil you are in, but you should be okay getting them out with that equipment. Most of the roots will be in the top couple of feet of soil and mostly within the dripline of the tree (some pines spread out a little wider, but not enough to make a huge difference). I would start by ripping the roots and digging a hole on the side where you want the tree to fall, then moving to the opposite side and pushing the tree down with the arm.
