Tracked whole tree chipper?

[ShearHeadMS]

hey guys, i was wondering where a Whole tree chipper would come into play in the land clearing bisness. i ran a big old Morbark for a while but never did anything more than chip for the mill, but i saw one guy this week clearing 26 acres and he had a some type of Bandit tracked chipper out there, he had one guy runing what looked like a Fecon FTX 330 and a trackhoe with a thumb working together, and feller he was using to cut down some pretty impressive pine, seems like he would drop a whole pile of trees and have the Fecon work on the stumps and uder brush he left. After the Fecon made a good size opening he would bring in the Chipper and trackhoe, the chipper would take care of the stuff to big for the mulcher to handle and the trackhoe just kinda sorted through everything and got the big butt cuts out. do you guys think this is a good way to handle tracts with alot of timber on them, i know the Bron 475 we just got is a beast, but i dont think it could handle 12 inch logs repetively and stil make good production. what im really wanting to know is how is this cost effective and how would you charge to run a machine like this, been busy priceing the machines that do this, cant say ill get one anytime soon, yall give me what yall think!

 

[tonyoz]

Must be the most expensive way of clearing I have heard of. Why not use an excavator/trackhoe to drop the trees then with a horizontal grinder grind the lot up stumps and all, just 2 machines to do the job.

 

[DIRTROAD]

Personally I would haul any marketable timber to the mill first. That way you eliminate the need for a massive whole tree chipper and get paid for the trees instead of just chipping them. Then just use the fecon to cleanup. This would cut his equipment costs by more than half.

 

[ShearHeadMS]

yeah, i went back today and he was already done, funny thing was is that the large pile of chips had vanished! guess he hauled them off. but man that machine was very cool, and i priced a few and they seem to be cheaper than a horizontal grinder, plus i guess you get a moveable machine with a grapple on it. oh and the land he was clearing was for a private land owner, met the guys son and he said he only charged 180 for the fecon and 260 for the grinder, plus he said the feller was only 89 an hour. but for 529 an hour and the fact he was only spent maybe 50-55 hours on it i guess thats pretty good. plus the land looked better than just mulching it! it looked extremely clean, but i doubt my crew will ever get something like that. we get pretty good bis with just the climaf at 120 an hour and 195 for the bron (220 if its a small job). and we stay to busy!

 

[cat 297c]

Shear head im just wondering how u make any money with the bron at 195 I know that things got to suck down $600 plus in fuel a day not to mention other expenses. If u got a secret I'd love to know it.

 

[ShearHeadMS]

Well we dont suck down $600 a day, but we do burn about $500. the main way we can get away with it is that we paid for the machine in full, no notes and no monthly bind. 195 is a little low ill admit, but with the work we have been getting it breaks pretty even at the end of the day, we get fuel pretty cheap around my area. i just bought 3k worth today for the mulchers, plan on re-filling in about 3 or 4 weeks. i spend more on he Dozers than i do the mulchers. plus i do all my mechanic work and it pisses off the dealers pretty good (im not paying 185 an hour for mechanic work). all in all we have so much machinery tied up that we can be a little cheap and still do good work, used some of the money off that 1200 acre job to pay for the Bron up front, its only a 300, plus its got 2500 hours on it. I put some money in the undercarrage and the head was already rebuilt. but how much do you cahrge to do what ya do?

 

[GreensForestryMulching]

Yeah $195hr for a big Bron like that seems outrageously low! If your just breaking even at the end of the day how do you pay bills outside of work or feed yourself? Depending on terrain and type/thickness of vegetation I charge $125-$225hr for my skidsteer mulcher....

 

[ShearHeadMS]

well you guys make great points, and i make pretty good outside of the mulching, do alot of dozer and mineing work. i just charge low for the bron on decent size jobs and decent terrain, now ill charge high if its a crappy job that i know im gona hate. but at the end of the day Half goes to fuel and the rest to the machine, we get paid flat salerys, no over time or anything. but i guess ill start bumping it up to maybe 250 or so, iv just been to afraid to make it to high and make people scared.

 

[fishfactor]

Even if you don't have a loan payment on the machine, you still charge the same so you can save for a new machine. If not, what happens when you need to replace it? I think $250 is still low for the Bron. We run our 240hp gyro trac for $300. The hourly rate scares some people, but after they watch it for 5 minutes all fears are gone. On smaller jobs, we just charge flat rates so the hourly rate is never a concern.

 

[ShearHeadMS]

made it final today, 300-350 for the bron, suprised we still get good work with it, doing a small logging clean up job and the land owner is amazed at how good it looks vs the dozer work we did on his other section, man if i didnt have good people like yall to take advice from my boss would still be burning money! thanks guys!