Okay, here we go.
Timberax is good, its makes the best use of
hyd. H.P. of any head. As long as there aren't many rocks your good. You'll have the sharpening issue that me and Uva cover in the Mulching Project thread. I can give you ideas on that later.
Okay the cutting issue. It can handle 6" material with 38
hyd H.P. ASV's put out something like 77
HYD H.P.. That's where the extra capacity comes from.
The intermediate statement comes from how much material you engage. Look at the pictures on Mulching Project. When I started the path I encountered a wall of pines. I was mulching multiple 6-8" pines at once. That would be the continues duty part. If there was a larger pine (10") I would isolate the larger tree and mulch it by inself. Multiple 6-8" trees and the 10" together would bog the head down to much.
Know onto size. Realisticly the max is usually 6-8" hardwood and a 10" pine. Anything bigger and the base of the tree is just to dense, about the last 3-4' of the base. Know the reserve comes into play like on the pictured job he wanted a path exact. so if I encountered a larger tree it needed to go. But at that size your at the limit of the head, you can push the head some to complete the job just wouldn't want to do hours on end of it.. A carbide toothed head can SLOWLY deal with a 8-10" hardwood and a 12" pine. Maybe a slight bit bigger in a pinch. It's in the forward rotation and smaller teeth bite size that allows this. It grinds down where a timberax cuts at 90 degrees to the tree.
But a summary. Our market is brush up to 6-8" material. If you regularly encounter larger material and jobs, there are larger tractors that suite the job better. I can elaborate later. I hope all of that made since.
As a saftey margin you might consider figuring at 125.00 per hour. If I were in your area and hiring someone to do this work, if two people are the same price I will go with the one who has been in business longer and heard of more. They would be more productive than an novice. That's just my .02 cents.
Your best financing is going to be at the dealership. Banks are hard to sell on equipment. Been there done that. Get everything you want/need upfront to give yourself the best chance. I had to purchase a grapple recently and that
cut into profits abit.
you know your operating cost and payments. I am still working my full time job at night and running the mulching business during the day. In the startup faze you'll do good to make the payment each month. There is a ton of stuff you'll need down the road. As in my case and sounds like yours, somthing needs to be payed off to make a comfortable profit. Just the beast. My wife and I agreed to do both for 1 year and see where we were at that time.
A 40 hr month is a good number. Here's a few numbers to keep in mind. Blades for the head 1000.00 a set. They wear pretty even. If you have a problem with the high flow hoses (it happens) 350.00 a set. My dealer included a set of blades with the purchase which helped alot.
Sounds like your getting a plan going. Just remember this, if you plan for the absolute worse and can get by in that case, you have a good plan.
Several of us have learned these lessons the hard way and were making it. Didn't find this site until months after I started. Oh well.
Let me know what you think of all this and talk later. Robbie
Re: Business plans for Mulching 
) Next service due at 150 hours..nothing too major...just oild and filter change and checking the hydro...they change it at 50hrs because of break in...you need to figure in the cost of air filters..they need to be checked/cleaned with compressed air daily...they are good for a few cleanings...i cant recall how much they are off the top of my head robbie may know....there is not much that needs to be checked on the timber ax accept the blades and the bolt torque...you will also need to take the cover off the hydro pump on the timber ax and clean the debris out of it....I would recomend financing through ASV...we got the timber ax on our John Deere Farm Credit plan...the interest rate will be different for the ASV and the Timber Ax even if they both go through ASV financing through your dealer because of the TImber Ax being a non-asv product....I would STRONGLY recomend the Forestry kit..or and the MINIMUM the rear end guards...I have a buddy that backed his into a tree while grading a drive way and crushed the whole engine cover and radiator to the tune of $5000.00 he had no rear guarding...just my .02
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