Free tool

Land clearing bid calculator.

Most land clearing calculators tell a property owner what the work costs. This one tells a contractor what to bid to hit a margin. Put your own cost per machine hour in and it works out the number.

Run a bid Then go find the work

Your machine, fuel and tooth costs Haul-off trucking and tipping built in Margin you set, not a rule of thumb

What it does Price, not cost Cost is what the job takes out of you

Price is cost plus the margin that keeps the business alive when a hydraulic pump lets go. This starts from your cost per machine hour, adds mobilization, then applies the margin you want. Change the margin and watch the number move.

Built for the person sending the bid

The job

Machine class sets the fuel burn, the production rate and the size of stem you can actually handle.

Machine class

Acres

Largest material you are cutting

Stem density

Terrain

Rocky ground. Triples the tooth budget, which is the single biggest driver of wear part spend.

Debris handling

Haul off detail

What is actually going on the truck

Hauling unit

Round trip to disposal, miles

Trucking rate per hour

Minimum hours billed per load

Loader cost per hour

Excavator or wheel loader with a grapple. Separate machine from the mulcher.

Loading rate, yards per hour

Where it goes

Your machine

Ownership cost worked from what you paid, not a rule of thumb.

Purchase price with head

Hours before you sell

Resale, percent of new

38 is realistic for mulching. 50 is optimistic for severe duty.

Full set of teeth

Tooth life, hours

300 to 500 in clean dirt, 100 to 200 in rock.

Maintenance per hour

Oil, filters, hoses, undercarriage. Not teeth.

Diesel per gallon

EIA national average, week ending 27 July 2026. Gulf Coast was 5.09.

Productive hours per day

Truck and trailer

Truck and trailer price

Miles before you sell

Resale, percent

Miles per gallon

Maintenance and tires per mile

Round trip to the job, miles

Hours loading, driving, unloading

Minimum mobilization charge

Set a floor if you charge a flat mob fee. Zero uses the calculated cost.

Labor and overhead

Operator wage per hour

Labor burden multiplier

Payroll tax, comp and benefits on top of wage. 1.25 to 1.45 is normal.

What it costs you to exist before a machine turns

Insurance

Liability, equipment, auto, workers comp, health.

Marketing

Leads, ads, website, SEO, signage, truck wraps.

Shop, yard and utilities

Rent or note, power, water, storage.

Equipment finance interest

Interest only, and leave it at zero if you own outright. Principal is already in depreciation, so counting it here charges the machine twice.

Admin, software and compliance

Accounting, legal, CRM, invoicing, permits, licenses, DOT, phone.

Small tools and consumables

Chains, straps, saws, fluids, PPE, shop supplies.

Unbilled and downtime days per year

Weather, breakdowns, quoting. Reduces the hours your overhead spreads across.

Billable machine hours per year

Revenue target per year

Target gross margin, percent

Bid this job at

Your cost per machine hour$0

Depreciation

Teeth

Fuel

Maintenance

Operator, loaded

Insurance

Marketing

Other overhead

Production rate0

Machine hours0

Days on site0

Clearing cost$0

Mobilization$0

Total cost to you$0

Gross profit at target$0

Effective day rate$0

This is a sanity check, not a quote. A twenty two year mulching operator put it plainly on Heavy Equipment Forums: there is no formula that is 75 percent accurate. Production rate is the biggest number in this model and the least knowable before you walk the site. Run your last five jobs through it and adjust the rates to match what your machine actually does.

Built for the person sending the bid

Every other calculator is aimed at the landowner.

Search for a land clearing calculator and every result is aimed at the landowner asking what this will cost me. None of them help the operator work out what to charge, which is the harder question and the one that decides whether the job was worth running.

This one starts from your cost per machine hour, adds mobilization, then applies the margin you want. Change the margin and watch the number move.

This is a sanity check, not a quote. A twenty-two year mulching operator put it plainly on Heavy Equipment Forums: there is no formula that is 75 percent accurate. Production rate is the biggest number in this model and the least knowable before you walk the site. Run your last five jobs through it and adjust the rates to match what your machine actually does.

What it will not doPrice species, stump grinding, haul distance for merchantable timber, permits, or erosion control. It will not tell you whether the access road holds a lowboy.
Walk the siteThis is for catching a bid that is obviously too thin before it goes out, not for replacing the walk.

How the numbers work

Straight answers.

Where do the production rates come from?

They are acres per machine hour on a CTL with a dedicated mulching head, then adjusted for your machine class, terrain and debris handling. They are calibrated so the output lands inside published per-acre benchmarks rather than above or below them.

Why is this higher than the cost calculators online?

Because those calculate cost and this calculates price. Cost is what the job takes out of you. Price is cost plus the margin that keeps the business alive when a hydraulic pump lets go.

Why does rocky ground change the number so much?

Rock triples the tooth budget, which is the single biggest driver of wear-part spend. Tooth life runs 300 to 500 hours in clean dirt and 100 to 200 in rock.

Should I count equipment finance in overhead?

Interest only. Principal is already in depreciation, so counting it in overhead charges the machine twice. Leave it at zero if you own outright.

Bid priced. Now go find the work.

Real jobs posted by property owners, and subcontract work where we hold the contract and you run the machine. No account needed to look.

See the leads Subcontract work