Dozer or mulcher starting out?

   / Dozer or mulcher starting out? #1  

STx

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If you were going to start offering land clearing services, would you buy a dozer or a forestry mulcher first?

I think a dozer is a little more versatile in that it can also be used for building site prep, pond digging, etc. but the forestry mulcher seems to command a higher hourly rate in my areas.
 
   / Dozer or mulcher starting out? #2  
"I think a dozer is a little more versatile in that it can also be used for building site prep, pond digging,"

I would lean towards dozer.many times land owner will want this or that done,and good chance he'll call for more work to be done.
 
   / Dozer or mulcher starting out? #3  
A dozer is just about the worse machine you could think of for clearing land. Mine is a Case 1550 that weighs 40,000 pounds and is 170 hp. I can push over all sorts of stuff with it, but then cleaning up that mess is a nightmare. The trick is to just push over a small area, or work in a line, then come back and clean it all up before tangling up all the trees. Then come back and smooth out the dirt that is tore up from the dozer.

I've found that I can take out trees faster and cleaner using my backhoe, then carrying them to the burn pile, or where I cut them up into rounds with the grapple I have on instead of the bucket.

My neighbor is a big fan of hiring a mulcher to clear his trails. It's a mess when they done with debris all over the ground. They are just trails, so he is OK with everything on the ground to drive over.

In his pastures, he hired a guy with an excavator and a loader to take out all the trees and haul them to the burn pile.

Last year he had loggers take a bunch of trees opening about 50 acres and thinning every third row of planted pines. They did a fair job of keeping it all clean, but he is still left with a dozen massive burn piles, plus enough branches and tops laying around for several more burn piles. With all the stumps everywhere, it's very hard to get to anything. A dozer is worthless there. Nothing stops a dozer faster then a stump!!! He has hired a guy with a 45 tonne excavator to pull the stumps out at $180 an hour with a budget of $30,000 to get it all done. I'm curious to see if that happens or not. Right now, the weather has been too wet to get anything done except burn a few of the piles. After he gets the stumps out, he will have to grade the land before planting it. That's when a dozer comes in handy.
 
   / Dozer or mulcher starting out? #4  
If you were going to start offering land clearing services, would you buy a dozer or a forestry mulcher first?

I think a dozer is a little more versatile in that it can also be used for building site prep, pond digging, etc. but the forestry mulcher seems to command a higher hourly rate in my areas.

Have you considered a Mulcher on an Excavator? Might be most versatile option. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SV9LG-NOS0
 
   / Dozer or mulcher starting out?
  • Thread Starter
#5  
Eddie, we hired a mulcher for our roads and a dozer to dig a hole and push a house into it. I much preferred the results of the mulcher but, a dozer could have created those roads if we'd wanted it to. We would have had burn piles to deal with, like you said though, and that wasn't really what I wanted.

My point is, I know everything you're saying is accurate but, if you only had one machine to use and had to choose between a mulcher or a dozer, which machine will you be able to keep busier?

I can actually do a pretty good job of clearing most of the brush in South Texas with a rotary cutter, it's mostly smaller stuff that's easy to push over with a tractor but, the cutter leaves a real mess on the ground that needs to be dealt with. Not as much as a dozer would but definitely more than a mulcher does.

In a perfect world, I'd own a mulcher, a D5 or D6 sized dozer and an excavator but, I can only afford to do one thing at a time and whatever I buy needs to be able to earn it's keep. I really have more use for a dozer on my own place because I'd like to put in a tank and need to do some building site prep so I kind of lean in that direction but looking at it from a longer view, I want the next machine I buy (which is probably about a year away) to be the one that I'll be able to earn the most with, even if it's not the one I would have more personal use for.

In South Texas, it took me 2 months to get a mulcher on my place and I paid $275/hr for it. It took 2 weeks to get a dozer and I paid $150/hr for that, so I know they'll both stay busy and the mulcher has a higher hourly rate but, the mulcher also needs more maintenance and so it costs more to run.

Like I said, lots of pros and cons to both, I'm just wondering of the two, which would the more experienced contractors choose first?
 
   / Dozer or mulcher starting out?
  • Thread Starter
#6  
   / Dozer or mulcher starting out? #7  
I cleared 16 acres with a Bobcat branded mulcher on a T770 that we rented for awhile. With sharp teeth, that thing was a monster. But as soon as the teeth started getting dull, it really slowed the mulcher down. We left all the trees above 6" (future plans for them) and did our best to grind everything down to the ground as much as possible. But it definitely does leave a mess, again especially once the teeth dull.

If we were trying to grind the larger trees over 6" (over half of the property was hard woods) it would have been very difficult with the mulcher.

So... If the material is small, and you build teeth replacement costs into the job appropriately, the mulcher is a great tool.

Ideally, I'll say three machines together would be the best combination... Two track loaders (one with mulcher and one with grapple), and an excavator.

I know your question is, pick one machine. But, it really depends on the material. A Dozer with a root rake would be great for cleaning up downed trees, but you're still just putting them into a pile for burning, which may be a good or bad option depending on logistics.
 
   / Dozer or mulcher starting out? #8  
If you can only have one machine to start out . A 120 - 200 size excavator with thumb , 1 disk , 1 drum mulcher . Chuck blade with tilt , rake , ripper . Dozer on front if you can find one and a dymax tree shear. I have 2 of these rigs . All rigged up they are comparable to a mulcher or less in price . You can do anything with this rig . From there , a small dozer (relatively cheap ,i.e. D4h ) and an 8 yard scraper to go with it . Track or wheel mulcher is last choice . In fact I would get a 200-300 horse fwa ,ivt (Fendt) tractor instead of the track mulcher . I do over a 150 acres a year into farmland with this rig in my spare time and it works great .
 
   / Dozer or mulcher starting out? #9  
I always had work when I had my small dozer, enough call for it that I sold it to stop getting work than pulled me away from mulching. When I got into the mulching business back in '97, I found it difficult to sell the new concept to prospective customers. Mulching services have always been more difficult to sell than dozer services. Today, it is not as difficult as it used to be but dozer services are always easier to sell because there is more that a dozer will do if you wish to work with dirt.

If I was to ever get back into dirt work or work a single machine, I would purchase a Kobelco Blade Runner as it is a full 6 way dozer with an excavator house on the top. I rented one of these for a particular steep, nasty job on a hillside and the machine allowed me to do a variety of tasks with the one machine. As a sole proprietor without employees, this is particularly important for me to be fast and efficient in order to make good money.

After nearly 20 years in the mulching business, the most important thing for any noob to know is that heavy maintenance and exceptionally prolific repairs will be required from any mulching machine. The cutter heads are extremely rough on machines and if the machine is not specifically designed (and designed robustly well) for land clearing cutterheads, your costs of repairs will kill your will to survive in this business. It's not about how good or careful an operator you are, it is about the demands on the machines. If you can not fix it yourself, you will never make it into the black. Your bank account will be drained before you make it through you first season. Machine shop skills, welding, hydraulic repairs, extensive diagnostic skills and business skills will be needed in order to survive this business. Computer skills for the newer engines will also be needed. And don't forget a good insurance policy, especially if you run employees, as these machines have the capability to kill in a fraction of a second with a simple mistake.

Most people find it easier to quit and do something easier than mulching. Me, I love what I do and I can never get enough of it when things are running well.
 
   / Dozer or mulcher starting out? #10  
One can get a blade on just about any make now but the kobelco might have been the first . Six way is also available now . It is still not a real dozer but it sure is a timesaver . You are pretty much on the mark with what you say. Hey ..I checked out your website . Pretty good rigging . I had a 140 but had no end of problems . Mostly due to overwork . Changed it out to a gt25 which I thought I would hate but I really like it .
 
 
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