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Utilizing the Caterpillar Skid Steer

11:23
37:02
113.2K views

At 11:23 in

MAJOR Progress! Our 1970s Compound Backyard Clearing Begins!

What happens here

After the initial clearing phase with the small Kubota, the owner transitions to using a 2003 Caterpillar 277 skid steer. This heavier machine, weighing 9,200 lbs and powered by an 80hp turbodiesel engine, proves far more efficient and satisfying for clearing large logs and branches. The owner expresses immense satisfaction at the machine's ability to clear in seconds what would take a person hours. He uses a specialized grapple attachment (root rake grapple) to efficiently pick up and move large amounts of debris.

Goal: Perform heavy-duty clearing and ground leveling with the skid steer.

Tools and materials

  • Caterpillar 277 Skid Steer Caterpillar — Primary machine for clearing large debris and leveling
  • Root Rake Grapple Attachment — Picking up and moving logs, branches, and brush

What they say

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the earth. Like I've even been having fun watching him drive it because I'm just like, "Oh yeah, Run that tree over. It's incredibly satisfying just to know in 2 seconds it can do what would take one human being 2 hours or more to do. God, it's awesome. Whoa, that's a big one. What did he do over there? That Yeah, that's a freaking brute. The capability of a skid steer versus the the little Kubota insane. I mean, you knew it was going to be like that, but it's just to see it at scale. That is our water well head and it used to be in the woods considerably in the woods. Had to clear out some more so the well guys can get back here and change the water pump. Now it's not. For those of you guys out there who are like uh do grading or landscape design, site clearing, things like that. I know the camera kind of distorts this a little bit, but instead of trying to make all of this flat and then have a cliff, would it be better to try to do like a step somewhere to get like maybe maximize usable space? You know, we don't want to take out all of these trees back here, but we could take out a few, like maybe those littler ones over there. I like having them here for the shade. That one that's leaning with the weird jug handle hanging off of it, that one's going to go. If they're really close to the house, they're going to need to go or be trimmed. But like out here, this kind of like a I don't know. Have like some some steps. I don't really know what the what these skid steers and all that are capable of of going down. Like can it drive down this hill? Can it drive back up? Can we get it down there and clear out that stuff, too? If we like put some like a path, carve a carve a road into here to get down there to do stuff down there? Cuz if we could, that would be really cool. This tree is awesome. I don't know why I never really thought stopped to admire trees before, but now that we live here and I've learned about these trees and what they are and what they do and how long it takes them to grow, I've become familiar with trees. I can look at it and say, "Oh, it's a red oak. That's a white oak." I never thought about that stuff before. Now I look at a tree and I'm like, "Damn, that's a nice tree." Part of growing up, I guess. I've I've crossed that threshold. This one right here, the white oak that comes up and forks right there, that's a nice freaking tree. I like that one. Need help moving some bricks? >> Absolutely. I've done like four cart loads.…

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