Productivity of bobcat t770 with bobcat mulching head?

   / Productivity of bobcat t770 with bobcat mulching head? #1  

jca57jd

Bronze Member
Joined
Apr 8, 2010
Messages
59
Location
Charlotte NC
Tractor
Kubota L3430 HSTC 2006 Bobcat T190 (60" CID) Cat 303.5 Bobcat e55 (50" blue diamond mower)
He guys, Im thinking if renting a bobcat 770 with mulcher for a commercial job I'm bidding. This will be 11 acres worth of 3" to 6" sweet gums, grass, and brush for the most part. I mowed 9 acres for them to develop last year right beside this trac with my t190 and CID mower. It took me right at 18 hours to mow it all.

A lot of the stuff was on the limit of what I could handle with my machine before. The question I have for y'all today is how productive (acres a day) do you think I can cut with the mulcher if Im Just mowing them down and skimming over them. Not mulching everything up.

The purpose of this job is to make previously installed man holes visible for dozer operators when they stump it. This track of land is decently flat and it was cleared and graded probable 6-7 years ago when the put the man holes in.

Thanks
 
   / Productivity of bobcat t770 with bobcat mulching head? #2  
He guys, Im thinking if renting a bobcat 770 with mulcher for a commercial job I'm bidding. This will be 11 acres worth of 3" to 6" sweet gums, grass, and brush for the most part. I mowed 9 acres for them to develop last year right beside this trac with my t190 and CID mower. It took me right at 18 hours to mow it all.

A lot of the stuff was on the limit of what I could handle with my machine before. The question I have for y'all today is how productive (acres a day) do you think I can cut with the mulcher if Im Just mowing them down and skimming over them. Not mulching everything up.

The purpose of this job is to make previously installed man holes visible for dozer operators when they stump it. This track of land is decently flat and it was cleared and graded probable 6-7 years ago when the put the man holes in.

Thanks

You could get 2-4 acres a day if it's not extremely thick. Maybe more if you are just skimming but it's going to get tangled pretty quick if the trees are tall. You are right in the zone for the mulcher's capacity but if you don't have a lot of experience running that mulcher, I think you could stall it a lot on that long, straight wood unless you mulch from the top down. Learn quickly from that and adjust your speed accordingly. Soft woods tend to wrap around the drum and if you aren't accustomed to the machine, the rpms will drop and you could have a stuck drum. If a dozer is coming in behind you and you are just skimming as you said, you might get 3-4 acres a day if you can go in long passes and don't have to mow around many obstacles. If the machine has the hand controls, dial it down to about 37-40%, raise the mulcher about 6-10" inches and just go with the door open and you will minimize stalling the drum. Not sure what the stumps will do to the tracks so you might have to lower it mower more. I operate a rubber tired machine and the stumps don't hurt the tires.
The finished product won't win any beauty prizes but the T770 will certainly "mow" that stuff. I'd have a hard time with that job.. at least knowing if it was mulched enough to meet the scope. If they just want it chopped down and out of the way, my recommendation will help you speed up the job.
Mulching is a funny business. Every tract is different. Some look like a jungle and actually mulch rather quickly and some tracks, because of obstacles or save trees, take a long time with small machines even if the trees and brush aren't too bad.
 
   / Productivity of bobcat t770 with bobcat mulching head? #3  
if you don't have to mulch it before the dozers I'd just run a heavy duty rotary like a Diamond or a Davco. Much faster than a mulcher if you don't need to worry about how mulched up it is.
 
   / Productivity of bobcat t770 with bobcat mulching head?
  • Thread Starter
#4  
Thanks guys. I went and looked at it close today and walked it good. I think I'm going to do it all with my mower again. It turned out to be mostly 3" stuff. I figured it had grown more than that. I'm really wanting to get me a mulching job so I can try one out! Thanks a lot for your opinions!
 
   / Productivity of bobcat t770 with bobcat mulching head? #5  
That should save you a lot of fuel $$$ and frustration of trying to half-mulch which is what I was getting at about wrapping the drum up. Chopping with a rotary on small stuff should be efficient and you already did it awhile back.
 
 
Top