Tools for Land Clearing

Land clearing is the process of preparing a site for development by removing existing materials such as trees, vegetation, roots, weeds, brush and stumps. Eliminating this native vegetation through land clearing allows landowners to make essential adjustments and prepare the property for use.

If you’re facing a development project, consider relying on your existing machines and purchasing brush clearing tools to get the job done instead of investing in new land clearing equipment. Land clearing attachments are key resources in removing hardy undergrowth from a property.

Land clearing tools are powerful, efficient and user-friendly, making them popular tools in industries ranging from agriculture to construction to utilities. Whether you’re looking to tackle tough weeds, eliminate rugged roots or anything in between, you can do so with high-performing brush clearing attachments for your fleet.

Through this comprehensive guide, we’ll discuss the different types of machinery and tools for land clearing, along with how to clear brush from a property.

Table of Contents

Hand Tools for Clearing Land
Attachments for Clearing Land
Machinery for Clearing Land
How to Clear Overgrown Land
Purchase Top-Quality Land Clearing Attachments at Stinger Attachments

Hand Tools for Clearing Land

Hand tools are vital components in land clearing. These implements are used for manual operations and are applied directly to pieces of material to shape them into their desired forms. Hand-held brush clearing tools cost considerably less than heavy equipment but are still highly effective in cutting through overgrowth.

If you’re looking for hand tools for your next land clearing project, consider the following solutions.

Chainsaws

No land clearing project is complete without a chainsaw. These tools are ideal for chopping down bigger trees or even large tree clusters.

The key to efficiently removing brush with a chainsaw is ensuring that you secure a durable and dependable chain for the job. Be sure to purchase a chain designed with your intended application in mind, such as clean cutting, power or heavy-duty usage. It’s also a good rule of thumb to have a backup chain on hand in case your original begins to dull.

Axes and Hatchets

Axes and hatchets are age-old land clearing tools that have been around for centuries. With a sharp ax in hand, you can easily remove small branches or even fell small trees and saplings.

One of the main benefits of brush axes is that they don’t produce loud noise like chainsaws do.

Spades

Though saplings and small trees may appear delicate and easy to remove, their root systems are usually more deeply embedded into the ground than you realize, making pulling them more challenging than expected.

Spades are brush clearing tools that facilitate this process by loosening the base of a young tree, making it easier to remove. You can also use hand-held spades to dig beneath firmly grounded shrubs and bushes.

Pruning Tools

If you’re working on a property where the trees are unkempt, but you still want to keep them on the site, you can clean them up using pruning tools such as shears, loppers and saws. These implements are excellent for trimming tree branches that are dead, diseased, unsightly or hazardous without damaging the tree itself — in fact, pruning can improve tree health by defending against pest infestation and generating greater flowering and fruit production.

String Trimmer

String trimmers, also referred to as brush cutters, are often used to smooth out fence lines and clear grass and thin weeds. These hand-held tools deliver a well-manicured look to any property and can access narrow areas where lawn mowers cannot easily reach. You can use string trimmers to remove weeds and polish any job site.

Attachments for Clearing Land

If you’re looking for something a little heavier-duty than hand-held land clearing tools, brush clearing attachments pose the ideal solution. Heavy equipment attachments enable machines to perform various tasks aside from their base purposes. Land clearing attachments connect to a compatible machine using a coupler or quick coupler and are controlled hydraulically from the cab.

When you add any of the following attachments to land clearing equipment like skid steers and tractors, you can remove thick brush and trees from your job site with ease.

Brush Grubbers

Brush grubbers are land clearing attachments designed to remove small trees, brush and stumps. These tools feature metal jaws with spikes that impale solid materials like stumps and saplings. They are most useful for pulling trees 5 inches or fewer in diameter.

On the opposite end of the tool is a chain that you can use to attach the grubber to a utility vehicle, such as a tractor, truck or all-terrain vehicle (ATV) to pull out the foliage. Once you hit the gas, the tree will begin to lift free of the soil. The harder you pull, the tighter the jaw will dig into the vegetation.

Buckets

Buckets are multipurpose brush clearing attachments used for material handling and soil leveling and grading. You can attach these tools to machines like excavators, skid steers, tractor loaders, wheel loaders and compact tractors. Known for their versatility, skid steer buckets have high sides that make them ideal for cutting into large matter and handling sizable loads of loose material.

Common bucket attachments used in land clearing include:

Stump buckets: These tools tear stumps from the ground using a toothed cutting edge.
Rock buckets: As their name suggests, rock buckets pick up rocks and other debris while filtering out loose materials like dirt.
Tine grapple buckets: A tine grapple bucket clears land by grabbing or scooping trees, brush, rocks and debris.
Material buckets: Material buckets dig into and transport loose materials.

Tree Pullers

One of the biggest obstacles when clearing land is removing trees. Tree pullers get the job done with the capability to remove trees up to 10 inches in diameter, along with other materials like brush, shrubs, weeds, stumps and even fence posts. They accomplish these tasks using a jaw opening that digs into the ground and clamps onto the tree. These land clearing attachments are ideally suited for skid steers.

Land Planes

Land plane attachments have blades that pass beneath materials from front to back, lifting them from the ground by skimming the earth. Aside from these land smoothing and grading applications, these tools can also clear sod and weeds, break up compacted ground material and aerate soil. Whether you have a tractor or a skid steer in your fleet, you can optimize it with land planes for brush clearing.

Grapples

Grapples are land clearing tools that grasp materials and components using a grappling action. These attachments are designed to handle loose material, remove brush and sort debris in land clearing applications across various industries, including agriculture, construction, demolition and landscaping. These components come in many sizes and styles designed to fit equipment with large or small frames.

Grapple buckets are particularly useful for site clearing, as they can hold and secure large quantities of material and debris for hauling.

Machinery for Clearing Land

If you’re looking for a land clearing machine, you have plenty of options to choose from. There are many types of versatile heavy equipment optimized for removing tough brush and trees on job sites ranging from industrial to residential.

All of the following land clearing equipment options can provide reliable choices for your next project.

Skid Steers

Skid steers are all-stars of the heavy equipment world. These lightweight, versatile machines resemble miniature bulldozers and can come with either four tires or two tracks. The operator controls each side of the machine separately, causing the opposite side to skid along the ground as the equipment makes a tight turn — this iconic movement is what gives the skid steer its name.

Skid steers come in three sizes:

Small-frame: Agile and compact, these machines are perfect for squeezing into tight spaces. You can use a small-frame skid steer for applications like light demolition and landscaping.
Medium-frame: Modest in size but not in horsepower, a medium-frame skid steer is a valuable addition to any job site. You can use it for applications like heavy material transport and debris removal.
Large-frame: Of the three, the large-frame skid steer offers the highest horsepower, making it the perfect choice for heavy work like hauling and dumping.

Of course, to get the most out of your skid steer, you’ll need the right attachment. Tree pullers, land planes and grapples are great attachments for land clearing, while a broom attachment can help you sweep away any remaining debris to finish the job.

Brush Mowers

You can rapidly clear underbrush, small trees, tall grass, brambles, saplings, weeds and berries from any job site using a high-powered brush mower. These machines are essentially a heftier version of a traditional lawnmower with more powerful capabilities.

Brush mowers can mow across uneven surfaces, making them ideal for navigating rough terrain and wetlands. Brush mowers come in walk-behind models for more walkable areas and tow-behind configurations for tackling larger sites like meadows and fields.

Tractors

Every farmer is familiar with the tried-and-true tractor. However, these machines are useful for applications beyond the agricultural sector thanks to their compatibility with a broad range of attachments.

You can use a tractor with a front bucket to eliminate brush or add various tow-behind attachments to a model with a power take-off (PTO) shaft. If your land clearing demands aren’t too extensive, a tractor and a couple of well-chosen attachments may be all you need.

Backhoes

Backhoes are the jack-of-all-trades, with capabilities ranging from excavation to digging to landscaping to demolition. These machines comprise a front bucket and a rear, loader-style digging bucket at the end of a two-part articulating arm.

Backhoes can break up rocky soil and transport loose materials, making them useful for land clearing. You can also enhance their abilities by pairing them with brush clearing attachments for further functionality.

Bulldozers

Bulldozers are distinguished by large front blades that enable them to scrape, push, level and dig into materials like dirt, sand, rocks and earth. These machines have numerous functions that make them ideal for land clearing, such as root removal, land reshaping and debris removal. Dozers make downing small trees, uprooting stumps, gathering brush and pulling roots in large areas seamless and efficient. They’re also compatible with various brush clearing work tools.

Excavators

With an excavator in your fleet, you’ll be well prepared to clear land containing fallen trees, debris or shrubs. These earthmoving vehicles feature a bucket, arm, tracks or wheels, and a rotating cab, which work together to deliver superior digging power. Their capabilities range from material handling to demolition to digging to brush cutting when paired with applicable work tool attachments.

How to Clear Overgrown Land

If you’re getting ready to undertake a land clearing project for the first time, you must learn the best way to clear brush from that land to deliver the best results. The land clearing process requires more than a heavy machine and a reliable attachment — it’s important that you go into it with a strategic plan to ensure that your job goes as smoothly and efficiently as possible.

When approaching your upcoming brush clearing project, try breaking up each task into the following phases to ease the process.

1. Evaluate Your Land

Before whipping out your hand tools and revving up your machines, take the time to scope out the job site and create a game plan. Do a thorough walk-through to determine the best way to clear the overgrowth from the scene, paying special attention to any spots that may be more challenging to navigate due to wet, rocky or uneven terrain.

Next, make note of any areas that look particularly thick with brush and decide which tools will be best to clear them. It’s also helpful to physically mark any trees you plan on removing.

2. Clear out Overgrowth

Once you have your plan of action, start the process by clearing out overgrowth. Begin by removing mid- to large-sized shrubs either by hand or using tools to dig out the roots. Then, remove the surrounding undergrowth, such as bushes, grass, weeds, brush and vines.

Getting rid of the overgrowth first frees up room for you to bring in the heavy equipment needed to accomplish larger tasks later. You’ll also have more space to use manual hand tools like axes and chainsaws. Lastly, this step prevents trees from getting tangled up in brush after they fall.

3. Cut Down Trees

Next, revisit the trees you marked when evaluating the land. Cut them down and remove the limbs using your ax, chainsaw and pruning tools. Cut a 45-degree angle about a foot above the ground, then cut a third of the way through the trunk parallel to the ground to meet it. Then, cut a 45-degree wedge on the other side about halfway through the trunk, slightly higher than your first cut. Finally, push the tree from the same side as your second cut.

Once the tree has fallen, you can use a shovel to dig out the roots and cut the stump loose using your ax or pruning shears. You can also back your pickup truck or utility vehicle into the area to remove the trees and their remaining stumps using your brush grubber. After uprooting the stump, be sure to fill the hole with topsoil or dirt to create a flat surface.

4. Clean up the Area

The last step to clearing overgrown land is to clean up the area. You can rake and load the severed brush and debris into your vehicle or wheelbarrow by hand or consider using a grapple attachment to facilitate the process.

Load the trees and branches into your vehicle to haul them away from the site. You can make this process easier by chopping the trees into smaller logs for easier loading and hauling. Once you’ve rounded up and prepped all the debris, haul the materials to a disposal spot.

Purchase Top-Quality Land Clearing Attachments at Stinger Attachments

You can carry out land clearing processes with ease using powerful brush clearing attachments from Stinger Attachments. We pride ourselves on providing customers with products that reflect our superior quality and design standards while delivering unbeatable customer service. Our American-made skid steer attachments excel at land clearing and see use in many industries, including commercial agriculture, ranches, construction and hobby farming.

Customer satisfaction is our greatest priority — that’s why we offer reliable attachments with excellent pricing, quick shipping and a one-year warranty. When you come to us for your next purchase, you can expect us to go to great lengths to ensure you have the best possible experience.