OK I fail to see the logic in your advice. Mainly in the leaf blower and extended warranty.
I am of the opinion that you buy a machine that is BUILT for the PURPOSE of MULCHING. If you get the right machine you do not need an extended warranty. If you get a machine that is built for mulching you will have enough cooling capacity to work all day and you can just blow out when you get back to the truck at the end of the day. When you are working on a 500 acre job you can be up to a mile or two away from the truck. These machines do not exactly burn up the mountainside when you have to go back in the middle of the day to blow out a couple of times. You will make twice the money if you get the right machine and you will spend twice the money if you get the wrong one. Tons of guys on this site have gone down the ASV road and almost as many have wished they had gotten a real forestry machine to start with. Where he will be working is a very dry dusty place and at some pretty high altitudes as well, an ASV will not have a prayer working out in NM. Everyone who knows me also knows that I have been running out in NM for right at three years now. The rocks are brutal, the dust is crazy and the high altitudes and almost no humidity for most of the year make it a very tough environment for a mulcher.