Pretty excited. I just rented a mini excavator, Kubota KX121 for 3 days over Memorial weekend to clear some food plots in Northern Wisconsin. Will clear about 4-5 1/2 to 3/4 acre plots. Does anyone have experience using a mini x to clear plots? I've seen videos of these things plucking small trees out so i think it should work pretty well, all things considered. Hoping someone else has some experience with this type of equipment and can provide some insight/feedback. I'll be clearing trees that are between 2-4 inch in diameter and thick as can be. We clear cut our property about 15 years ago and there's 2''-4'' trees every 3 feet (popples).
2"-4" saplings will be no problem with a machine like that. Does the one you got have the thumb on it? That will make things a lot easier for pulling the saplings up. The blades on the front sure come in handy too, especially if you have a briar thicket or something to clear out. One thing to watch for, make sure you don't pop a track off. They can be a real hassle to put back on, you will need sockets, pry bar, and a grease gun.
A mini-ex is a great tool for removing trees roots and all. For trees that small it would be faster using a tractor or a skid steer with a root grapple. My tractor is equipt with a backhoe and a root grapple. For larger trees, I break the roots with the backhoe then push it over with the grapple. Push them in a pile and grapple them up and put them where you want them. It's kind of fun!
Thank you all for the replies. Really appreciate your comments. I do not have experience operating a skid steer or a mini-ex (we have a small kubota b6100, but no experience with 2 joystick type machines). Truthfully, i'm pretty nervous about something going wrong with this machine and getting nabbed for a repair. Popping a track was definitely a concern of mine. What are the best ways to avoid popping a track? What other advice can you give me for operating? I was told I need to grease it often, as iHUNT mentioned.
Also, i made darn sure this machine had a thumb on it! I would think that if i just pushed these small sapplings over so that they were more horizontal but not laying flat on the ground, i could come around perpendicular to them, squeeze them with the thumb, and swing the boom to rip them out. is this a good technique? Any other recommended techniques?
Depending on how big the machine is you shouldn't have any trouble with the trees your wanting to remove. We have a Doosan 55x mini and just took out a tree on the job we're on noe that was probably 10-12" in diameter. They are handy little machines and you can do a lot if you take your time. Good luck.
Whenever I'm on ours, I just try not to spin around on a dime. If it happens it's not a big deal, just takes a little bit to put it back on. It's really easy to figure out how to run one if you have any background in machinery.
This is good to avoid slipping a track. Also if your really working the machine some people want to sit with tracks sideways and your better off sitting with tracks head on and using the blade for leverage. Although I slipped a track about a month ago because I was pulling into the tracks and then tried to turn a little and move. Good way to end the day. Just take your time until ya get used to it.
Be sure to pay the damage waiver...if you tear a track you may end up footing the bill....tracks wear and if you turn the mini wrong and bind the track on a hard root it could come apart...
Great machines, just keep the tracks taught and don't try to turn on a dime in loose soil and you'll be fine unless it's wore out. I push the tree over and away from the machine then curl the bucket into it and clamp the thumb down on it (if you have a hydraulic thumb.) Either way just a bucket with teeth will work fine too. I have a few thousand hours on mini's and full sized machines.
Had an absolute blast last weekend renting the mini x. It only took me about 3 hours until i was throwing trees into nice brush piles. We doubled the size of 5 food plots, each about 1/3 acre. I expected these to be bigger and was hoping for bigger, but boy oh boy, when you actually walk off the size of the plot, you'd be quite surprised at how big an acre is. I will post pics as soon as I am able. We also set up the Go Pro Camera in the cab of the mini x which was pretty cool... We only rented the machine for 16 hours of run time. I will definitely be renting this machine again in the future!
nice! nothing as fun as clearing out food plots, wait till that first buck cruises through it when your sitting on stand! Its awesome!
