Baumalight Brushcutt CP560

[Overtaxed]

For those who are following along, my search for a PTO mulcher has finally resulted in a purchase of.. Not a PTO mulcher. After a bunch of research, I spoke with Baumalight (about both their mulchers and their rotary) and settled on the Brushcutt. I got the Brushcutt last week and was finally able to get it out for some testing this weekend. Here's the original discussion that led me to the Brushcutt:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/394381-pto-mulcher.html

And here's the unit I purchased:

BaumaLight - Brush Cutt 3 Point Hitch Models

I'm running this on a Kioti NX6010 (50HP PTO), and have an EA 72" rotary already, which I mention as a comparison only because both are rotary cutters. The similarity stops there however, I love my EA, but, at less than 1/2 the price, it shouldn't compare to the CP560 and it doesn't.

I bought the cutter from James River Equipment, a big dealer in my area, and they were great to deal with, but had never seen one of them in person, so couldn't offer a lot of feedback on the quality or capabilities that wasn't already online. The guy I bought from, however, personally had a Baumalight generator and was very happy with it, so that gave me a little comfort in the purchase process. Also, I'd spoken to Baumalight at length, including sending over pictures of what I wanted to clear and how I expected to use the device, so I was pretty confident that it would do what I needed.

This unit is nothing like a "normal" rotary, or at least no normal rotary I've ever seen. It's very heavy for it's size, and the thickness of everything is much higher than the EA cutter I have already. Also, it has a big push bar in the back and chains in the front (with an open back), it's really designed, IMHO, to be used in reverse primarily; it works fine pulling it forward too, but the whole point of this is to cut down trees that I'd prefer not to run over with my tractor, so "reverse" is the order of the day with this unit. I would typically back over the tree, cut it, knock it down, and then reposition to get it in the right spot to eat it up.

Eat it up? Yes. If you hit stuff with this right, it does a darn acceptable job of "mulching" the remains of the tree. If you've ever seen how a Diamond Mower works, it's like that (but, of course, on a smaller/less terrifying scale). You get the tree in the right spot (which is the right hand side of the mower when your looking at it from the back) and it'll just suck the whole thing in and out flies pieces of tree. First, it's really fun, but second, it leaves a very reasonable size of debris, they will be gone in a year or 2, not years like if you just left tress on the ground. Basically turns a tree into sticks. Most of the trees I'm taking down are 10-15' high, you can see some idea in the pictures I've attached; mix of hard and soft wood. The area I'm working was logged about 15 years ago, so all of these trees are the regrowth from that logging operation. I'm mostly cutting trails and opening the canopy, trying to make room for the biggest trees to grow up faster and make the area more walkable; I'm not trying to make this a lawn, think more "right of way" than front lawn.

Overall, I'm very happy so far, this isn't a mulcher, but, for my purposes, it seems to be a perfect tool to do the work at a fraction of the cost, both initial purchase as well as the consumables (no carbide teeth, just big steel blades to replace). I've only used it about 5 hours so far, so take this as an initial impressions, I'm sure I'll get better at it and be able to comment more on the reliability as I put more time on it. I'm clearing the undergrowth across probably 10-15 acres, so I'll spend some time with this machine, and always do my best to break things, so I'll do my best to give it a good run and provide my opinions.

 

[coldsteelva]

It looks sweet. Is it too much of an imposition to respectfully request video? Ground level or drone video is acceptable. It looks like it does an admirable job.

 

[Overtaxed]

Not at all, I'll be uploading some video as I pull together the best clips. One thing I will say, from looking at the video, you don't want to be in the zip code of this thing when it's running. From a drone, you can see the shrapnel blowing out the rear of this thing with some serious force, it really picks up stuff and throws it, and the pieces it's throwing aren't always small, some of them would do some real damage. So, while my original plan was to capture video from a tripod of the CP560 from the rear, I'm thinking I like my camera too much for that, so I think all the videos will be from a drone, it doesn't throw high, just far.

 

[Overtaxed]

Some video of the Brushcutt in action.

Brushcutt CP560 clearing some land - YouTube

 

[rd_macgregor]

Baumalight should give you a rebate for posting that video; it is better advertising footage than their own online stuff.

 

[coldsteelva]

Thanks for the video. It runs so smooth it looks like it is practically 'erasing' the brush and ground cover. I did see what you were talking about the debris firing out. Nobody should be in the zip code when that thing is running. What is the largest diameter trunk that it can eat?

 

[Overtaxed]

Thanks for the video. It runs so smooth it looks like it is practically 'erasing' the brush and ground cover. I did see what you were talking about the debris firing out. Nobody should be in the zip code when that thing is running. What is the largest diameter trunk that it can eat?

That's a very good way to put it, stuff just disappears under it. You can see it a few points in the video, but if you hit a tree "right" and it goes into the blades and gets sucked through (look at 5:00 on the video, I do a pretty good job on that one) it just disappears. There's like nothing left, no sticks, no nothing. It's just gone. If you hit it wrong, you'll have to take another pass, or, if your lazy, like me, you'll just have to wait for mother nature to do her job. That's the thing I was most surprised about, my original search was for an "affordable mulcher" for the tractor. That doesn't exist, but this looked like it would at least help me get the land back under control, even if it would leave a terrible mess. Well, this isn't a mulcher, but, if you hit the tree right, or take 2-3 passes, it does a reasonable impression of a mulching head on a skid steer. No, it won't go under the ground and you can't "grind" like you can with a skid mounted mulcher, but those cost 4-8X as much, so they better darn right be better (and I'm sure they are). But, for someone looking to clear land well enough to walk through and use again, this is darn acceptable, better than I expected, especially in the ability to make the remains of a tree disappear.

It's rated to a 4" tree. If anything, that seems a little conservative, especially if your using a hydrostatic tractor as a carrier. With a regular bush hog, the cutting isn't controlled when you go over a tree, you get over it, the blade catches it, and "boom" it either cuts it, breaks, or stalls the tractor. This is different, you can ease into it and let it nibble away and then, once the tree is down, move over it slowly to break it down and chip it up. I have no doubt it would do 4", and, because I'm me, I'll probably try 5" to see what happens. Take a look at around 1:46 in the video, you can see clearly the stump from the tree that I cut, that's got to be getting close to 4" and it ate that like nothing. In fact, the only thing that's ever really taxed the tractor with this cutter has been when I start to hit the dirt, that really loads it up. But hitting and eating the trees, that doesn't seem to really eat up the horsepower as much as I thought it would. My tractor lugs harder pulling the 72" cutter through waist high grass than it does sucking the trees you see in that video. I have a feeling here the secret is speed, with enough HP, you could probably do this faster, and with less HP, you probably couldn't do it as fast as I am. But given how I'm using this thing, it's all back and forth work, hit a tree, eat it, move a little, hit another one. That doesn't seem to be HP limited, the internal mass of the cutter (and it's really heavy, I don't remember the stats, but much heavier than a standard stump jumper) seems to make it power through all the stuff you see me hitting pretty easily. I'm sure if you back it into a stand of those trees and just keep it in reverse and eating, you'll start to find a HP limit, just not the way I'm using it.

It's quite smooth, more so than I expected. I thought it would be a lot of "BOOM" and surging the tractor engine. Very little of that. So, I guess you could say, I'm a little disappointed it's not as exciting as I thought it would be, most would probably say that's a good thing. And it's made up for by the way it throws debris, that keeps the excitement level very high; I've already seen things throw dozens of yards, and these aren't "small" pieces, wouldn't kill you, but it would certainly ruin your day if it hit you. As we both said, best to be in another zip code when it's doing it's thing. Very little comes back at the tractor though, which is good, and I should probably shorten my toplink further to make it more "back high" to reduce that as much as possible.

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

Can you please give an approximate price range? Or specific if you're willing. :thumbsup:

 

[Overtaxed]

Sure, it was right around 5K out the door, which included (and I think it still does) a spare set of blades as a promo. The 72" in a bit more, but honestly, it was a smaller uplift than I thought to get another foot, I just was afraid I might not be able to carry it on my tractor. Also, for my use in the woods, smaller is a little easier to deal with, speed is less of a concern than maneuverability and price. I was cross shopping this against mulch heads (20K+), renting a mulcher (3-4K/wk), a Brown Tree cutter (8-10K, depending on the configuration) and hiring it done (~2K/day). So, while not cheap, it's not outrageous either, at least not compared to the other land clearing options that I had available. I guess I also cross shopped a clearing saw and a wood chipper, both of which I already have, so 0 dollars for the gear, but many thousands for the hospital bills that would result from trying to clear acres that way!

 

[ericm979]

That looks like it works pretty well! I agree that your footage is better than the manufacturer's. Your land and the stuff you're clearing looks well suited for it too.

Are the blades on a pivot like a rotary, just bigger and exposed and more of them?