Mulcher or Flail Mower 4 Track Loader...?

[budcampo]

Hey All,
I recently took over my grandfather's business. I've been working with him for 12 years. We do weedabatement/tree work in a pine forested area. We do about 300-500 hours a year in mowing, and mulching, except we've been using a gearmore flail on a 36 hp kubota, not the best tool for mulching... but I'm a good operator
I just sold the L3600 and got a Kubota SVL 90 (90hp Track Loader). Haven't bought a mower/mulcher yet. I'm new to the track loaders, so I need advice on what to get.

Do the mulchers mow weeds as well as a flail mower? Would you use a mulcher for mowing?

Are they worth the extra 10 grand over a good flail mower?

How long do they last? I don't want to buy one of these things every few years? 10-15 years would be decent, but with that kind of money I'd hope for more...

How do the Mulchers hold up to hitting a rock, or hard object? Does a tooth have to be repaired every time? Our flail with hard faced hammer knives would last a while hitting objects like that.

Help on the questions would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I'm a little overwhelmed at all the options, so many to choose from. I'd like something with a overall width of 77"-86".

Help, help, help.... I hate buying stuff and then regretting it later.

Thanks a bunch!
Bud

 

[leonz]

Standard Flail Mower or mulcher or ...................


Since you sold your PTO UNIT................ you are kinda *&^%$#%^&*

Whats your definition of a mulcher?, A flail hammmer equiped flailmower

or the "munching" "grinding" heads with permanent welded tooth segments

or the mulching heads with the replaceable carbide bits?


The issue is and of total utility


You can purchase hardened flail mower grass slicer knives and overseeding shredding blades for flailmowers

from:

www.flaimaster.com

Hard Hitter, Wear Parts With Muscle

www.CSIproducts.com

Avid | Video Editing: Home


The folks at hard hitter are located in California so you can buy your blades from their foundry sales office



I will very strongly suggest that you do two major improvements with your tracked skid steer loader though that wont jeopardise your warranty:

Install a turbo precleaner with an oil bath precleaner prior to the air filter inlet on your Kubota tracked loader. this removes 99 percent of the dirt and debris before it enters the paper element air filters and they will last much longer in use and you will have better performance in dusty conditions.


The Mann precleaner filter dealer is in California also I believe











The folks at SEPPI M. - Mulching Equipment Specialists, Trinciatrici per intenditori, Mulchgerte fr Profis have a herd of forest service mulchers that

they have offfered for many years and with your units horse power

you will be limited to the "MINIFORST" model size that will shred up to 12 MM

material (4.8 inches)and the decision as to type of rotor will be your choice

whether you want hammers or a one piece rotor.


I have attached a link


SEPPI M. - Mulching Equipment Specialists, Trinciatrici per intenditori, Mulchgerte fr Profis

The Seppi folks have a dealer network in the USA and I am unsure if the Ferrari tractor folks in California sell Seppi machinery but it is easy enough to check with them as they import a lot italian farm machinery

The Seppi home page has a contact page to find your closest dealer.
















Disclaimer:

I have no interest financial or otherwise in Ferrari USA or Seppi machinery

 

[budcampo]

Thanks, haven't heard of the Mann system, looks great! You said 2 major improvements, and listed just the Mann system. Did you forget something?

Seppi looks nice, I've looked at them and quite a bit of other sites. Like I said before, there are a lot of options... Still wondering if the fixed knives will mow weeds like the swinging. I figure it would be the same, but just want to make sure. Also still wondering if the fixed are more of a problem than the swinging with hard objects like rocks.

Thanks!

 

[leonz]

Thanks, haven't heard of the Mann system, looks great! You said 2 major improvements, and listed just the Mann system. Did you forget something?

Seppi looks nice, I've looked at them and quite a bit of other sites. Like I said before, there are a lot of options... Still wondering if the fixed knives will mow weeds like the swinging. I figure it would be the same, but just want to make sure. Also still wondering if the fixed are more of a problem than the swinging with hard objects like rocks.

Thanks!

Hello Bud,

The Mann oil bath air cleaner is number one.

The periscope type precleaner with the dust holding cup or the Mann cylonic precleaner which attaches to the top of the Mann oil bath precleaner share number two.

The use of low pressure grease cups for the rotor bearings are number three.
you can buy them from www.mcmastercarr.com/greasecups/[ur...irnowsupply.com]Air Now Supply - MANN FILTERS

You can obtain all the parts from them directly but you need the paper cartridge intake air inlet sizes for them to get you the right parts.


The fixed hammers-wide carbide cutting surface edges will also mow weeds nicely, I uploaded a picture of iron horses Cabe hammer flail working-you have to remember the slower you travel the finer the shredding and you can reverse and shred some more.


The oil bath precleaners are much better for engines and allow excellent airflow and air cleaning with a paper element filter reduce the loading on the paper filter if you choose to add it to the suction side of the air filtration system.

 

[leonz]

About the engine on the skid steer loader that you have purchased -
does it have a single or twin air intake filter system? If it does have twin air filters you can have 2 oil bath pre cleaners for it to scrub the intake air.

 

[budcampo]

I'll check on the single/duel intake...
Now that you got me going on the Mann system, what trick do you have for keeping my radiator clean

 

[leonz]

Your engine has one air intake and filter.

Which radiator/oil cooler and how soon would you like the solution?


Kubota HAS a diesel engine in a Toro lawn mower that employs a
cooling fan that reverses and blows it self clean by the way............

Perhaps a nice chat over lunch with your dealer whom you just spent
a greate deal of money with can smooth the way to installing on of these
reversing cooling fans to solve the issue.


The best least troublesome radiator made is the Mesabi made by L+M radiator
and it cannot be plugged with debris as the core has individual tubes that can be
replaced one at time if they leak(that cannot be done with a standard radiator:^) .


If it were me that radiator would go over the shoulder to the recycler the minute
your warranty is up, IF they have a frame size radiator for that size engine which will be
easy to check. like anything else they skid steer you own is built around the components.

If you have a oil hydraulic cooler thats no issue for them either etc.

 

[leonz]

I'll check on the single/duel intake...
Now that you got me going on the Mann system, what trick do you have for keeping my radiator clean

Here is one example of a cyclone precleaner without a dust retension basin according to the manufacturer it can be loacated at any angle to preclean the intake air for the units engine as it does not require a retension basin as it uses a hose to discharge the dust and chaff that is trapped from the intake air supply.

These folks are located in California as well.

Centri Air Precleaner Home | Centri Precleaner


You would be able to mount the Centri or Mann cyclone precleaner on the oil bath air filter with no issues.

They also have a bobcat precleaner sheet PDF. for one example in the down loads section.


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With the limited rear mounted field of vision you have with the new skid steer loader you should seriously examine a rear view camera for the new loader as you have a huge blind spot in the rear.

I have two of the Cab Cam units from Web hosting, domain name registration and web services by 1&1 Internet with heated shutters for my truck due to our climate and having huge blind spots from the extended cab.

In your instance you could mount the wireless camera unit model and power it from the skid steer loaders back up alarm 12 volt power source to transmit to the system monitor in the cab. (the wireless unit bypasses the need to run wire and then hang and cable tie the remaining cable as the smallest cable is 20 feet long).

 

[budcampo]

Thinking about a FAE PMM SSL 200.... Anyone have any experience???

 

[mulching consultant]

Fae and Seppi both make a decent mulcher/mower. Productivity is similar but if you are going to encounter those rocks and other contaminants that you mentioned earlier nothing holds up as well as a Fecon mulcher. Take a look at their rotor design (Fecon) then (HDT rotor sytem). Each tool on the rotor is supported by an integral bar system so one tool does not take all of the forces of the rock. The shock load is discipated across the width and around the circumference of the entire mill. I know that in Colorado and other rocky areas they have tried the others and always return to the Fecon solution.
The fixed tool solution with any of these brands is going to allow you to mulch/grind larger diameter material than the flail system. It is also far less maintenance. A typical carbide tool should last you 300-500 hours (even accounting for rocks).
The flail is obviously cheaper but you narrow your job possibilities significantly. I know of people with 20,000 hours or more on theor Fecon mulchers.
So that everything is out in the open here I do WORK FOR FECON. I am proud to acknowledge that fact. :thumbsup: But I would also give you the same opinion if I didn't.