PTO mulcher?

[Overtaxed]

Anyone have/used a PTO powered mulcher? I have a lot of land I'd like to clear, and while I can rent a skid/mulcher combo, it's mighty expensive (close to 4K/wk). I was wondering if anyone made a PTO powered mulcher that would work, I'm sure it won't be cheap, but, compared to the rental, perhaps not that bad if I figure a few weeks to get the job done. I'm also sure I'll wind up hurting bad from looking backwards so much! But, before I rent it out, I just want to make sure I've considered my options. Have 50HP at the PTO, in case that's a big constraint.

 

[Code54]

UML/ST - FML/ST - Forestry mulchers

Beaver Valley Supply Company - Baumalight Brush Mulchers

MINIFORST small forestry mulcher 6-1 HP | SEPPI M. - Seppi M.

 

[Overtaxed]

UML/ST - FML/ST - Forestry mulchers

Beaver Valley Supply Company - Baumalight Brush Mulchers

MINIFORST small forestry mulcher 6-1 HP | SEPPI M. - Seppi M.

Anyone use any of these? Seems like they are pretty niche offerings, none of the major names seem to make one (Woods, for example).

 

[mark02tj]

I've been looking into options for clearing land as well. I have about 3.5 acres to clear of honeysuckle and buckthorn. Not to mention a ton of dead ash trees that have fallen. Hiring it done is about $2500/day and I was told a good operator can clear about an acre a day. Like you, I've found that I can rent a skidsteer setup for about $3500-4000/week.

THANKS Code54 for posting those links - I wasn't aware that a PTO driven implement was an option. But for me, they're not an option as they look to require 60+ HP at the PTO and I have a little more than half of that.

Last week, I was taking about brush clearing with the park manager of one of our large MetroParks. They have a mulcher that gets shared among their dozen or so parks. The problem with the mulcher is that it only gets down to just a hair above the surface. That means that it leaves the roots of the invasive species which then causes them to be able to grow back - often with a vengeance. The mulcher also leaves little "stumps" which are good at puncturing tires on mowers and tractors.

I'm not sure what kind of conditions you have, but I'm still not sure that a mulcher is going to give me the finished results that I want/need. I will be watching this thread to see who else chimes in!!

 

[nybirdman]

I have been working on my 100 acres of over-grown farm land for ten years.Land had not been touched in at least a hundred years.Lots of thick brush;honeysuckle,red alder and all kinds of trash type trees.So thick in spots a beagle had a hard time going through it.
1.hired a small dozer to open a road in
2.hired two different fellows with 100 HP.tractors and large bush-hogs.
3.purchased my own tractor;first a 32 HP then a 44 HP(both with new bush-hogs)
4.last year hired a skid steer(65 HP) with a rotary head type cutter
a.cleared about 4 acres in two days but left a lot of scrap/pungi stakes.
5.last year;hired a skid steer (90 HP) with a FECON mulcher
b.cleared another 5-7 acres in three days,minimal clean up
6.Bottom line,hire it done with the proper equiptment

 

[Bill Stecik]

Look on my U tube channel . I have videos of my clearing stuff . I can turn any bush into dirt in no time .GT25XP Gyro-Trac Mulcher - YouTube .918 Fendt and Seppi 25 Multiforst - YouTube .Caterpillar D6c cold start and V brush cutter demo - YouTube

 

[Overtaxed]

Look on my U tube channel . I have videos of my clearing stuff . I can turn any bush into dirt in no time .GT25XP Gyro-Trac Mulcher - YouTube .918 Fendt and Seppi 25 Multiforst - YouTube .Caterpillar D6c cold start and V brush cutter demo - YouTube

Wow, those are some impressive machines. None of them look like they would come close to fitting anything resembling a "budget" for this project though. Of course, I'd only need to rent that GyroTrac for about 4 hours and I'd have all 50 acres down to dirt!

 

[Bill Stecik]

Best way to clear on a budget....Use a cat to cut and pile the trees. when regrowth starts spray . Use a breaking disk to work the land and chew up the stumps which should be rotted in 1 to 2 years. All the stuff can be rented and the breaking disk doesn't have to be a monster. We clear 100s of acres a year on our ranch. A D6 can cut 1 -2 acres an hour . It can pile 1 acer in 2 hours . You can disk about 1 acre an hour going slow. Forestry tillers can till 1/2 an acre an hour. I believe that I owned the first seppi forestry tiller in North America . I use that old Vee cutter because it cuts clean and dirt free in both summer and winter.

 

[NC419N]

I have been working on my 100 acres of over-grown farm land for ten years.Land had not been touched in at least a hundred years.Lots of thick brush;honeysuckle,red alder and all kinds of trash type trees.So thick in spots a beagle had a hard time going through it.
1.hired a small dozer to open a road in
2.hired two different fellows with 100 HP.tractors and large bush-hogs.
3.purchased my own tractor;first a 32 HP then a 44 HP(both with new bush-hogs)
4.last year hired a skid steer(65 HP) with a rotary head type cutter
a.cleared about 4 acres in two days but left a lot of scrap/pungi stakes.
5.last year;hired a skid steer (90 HP) with a FECON mulcher
b.cleared another 5-7 acres in three days,minimal clean up
6.Bottom line,hire it done with the proper equiptment

EXCELLENT Advise
There is almost no way one person can have every piece of equipment needed to Clear your property. Also don't get in to much of a rush and space out project areas to help keep you from getting burned out by the size of the total job

 

[Overtaxed]

That forestry tiller looks like the cats meow for what I'm doing. Need a smaller one, my tractor is only 60HP, but most of the clearing I need to do is brush, 10 years of overgrowth after a logging operation, so at most, trees that are 15 feet tall and maybe 2-3" around. Most of it is much smaller than that; which is why I thought a mulcher would be great, but the rental prices on them are so amazingly high that I start thinking "what if I could just buy one". What did that Seppi look like for pricing?

I'm seeing around 3500/wk for a skid steer forestry setup, which seems really high to me, I'm generally of the thought that if buying it costs less than 2X the cost of a rental, buy it. And I'm not sure I could finish everything I want done in a week.

 

[nybirdman]

Please read my post #5;you will have plenty to do after the Mulcher is done.Post #8 has huge equiptment and looks like a business mulching;can't compare that to a compact tractor.What do you do with the purchased mulcher after you are done?
Mulchers are tough on equiptment.I like my tractor too much to beat it to death running one.Replacement parts are not cheap either.

 

[ericm979]

Baumlight makes PTO mulchers. They have a chart that shows what size material it can handle based on the tractor's power. They're not going to perform like a skid steer mulcher. And you have to operate backwards.

Another option would be to buy a used skid steer + mulcher, clear your land with it and sell it. You're taking risks that it won't have an expensive breakdown and that you can sell it for less of a price difference than the rental would have cost. Plus the money up front. A while back I looked and found some in the $60k range, plus shipping. A skid steer can operate in a lot more places than a tractor. I could clear my lower property that's mostly brush with one but a lot of it is too steep for the tractor.

 

[Piston]

If your cutting 2-3” material, why not just buy a heavy duty rotary mower like a Brown 416?
Obviously it doesn’t compare to a mulcher, but you’d be surprised with what you can do with one.

How many acres do you have to clear? Is the property littered in many high stumps that you can’t drive over or around?

Do you have a grapple for your tractor? If not, that should be your first purchase

Another cheaper option is to purchase a Stihl FS560 or similar brush clearing saw and take down all the saplings with that. Then pile the, with the grapple.

However, you could do 2-3” all day long with a Brown 416 mower (or similar)

Another fun tool that would make quick work of anything up tp 8-10” is the Brown Tree Saw (or Daugherty Turbo Saw). For $6k you could buy one, cut down all the trees you want, pile them with a grapple, and sell the tree Saw for a couple grand less than you paid, at worst.

 

[Overtaxed]

If your cutting 2-3 material, why not just buy a heavy duty rotary mower like a Brown 416?
Obviously it doesn稚 compare to a mulcher, but you壇 be surprised with what you can do with one.

How many acres do you have to clear? Is the property littered in many high stumps that you can稚 drive over or around?

Do you have a grapple for your tractor? If not, that should be your first purchase

Another cheaper option is to purchase a Stihl FS560 or similar brush clearing saw and take down all the saplings with that. Then pile the, with the grapple.

However, you could do 2-3 all day long with a Brown 416 mower (or similar)

Another fun tool that would make quick work of anything up tp 8-10 is the Brown Tree Saw (or Daugherty Turbo Saw). For $6k you could buy one, cut down all the trees you want, pile them with a grapple, and sell the tree Saw for a couple grand less than you paid, at worst.

I have an EA 72" cutter, I think the cutter could take it except that the deck bends when I hit bigger trees with it, so I'd need to figure out some way to build some reinforcement. I need to have a way to back down on stuff because my tractor will get torn to heck if I go in front first; it's heavy brush, I need to lead with the rotary, and, I've already bent my EA rotary doing that (so much that the blades contacted the housing, let me tell you, that made a really bad noise!). But I have been thinking about welding something up like you see on a mulcher or rotary cutter for a skid steer, basically a pushing frame that extends beyond the rear of the rotary to push the trees over and protect the housing. Are Is something like a Brown 416 that much tougher that I can back it into trees like that and not mangle it? That's a pretty reasonable price, especially when I consider that it would probably service my other bush hog needs, so I could sell my EA. But it needs to be a lot tougher to take that hit from the trees, not sure I've ever seen anything like that for a tractor. The EA cutter, no doubt, it would eat those trees like lunch, but I don't want all of them pushing up into the underbelly of my tractor!

The FS560/grapple combo is a very interesting idea. I'd still probably need to rent a skid to level off the ground a bit, but the 560 looks like it would make pretty quick work of cutting a 10' swath through the woods. I'm going to look at that a bit more, thanks for the suggestion. Like most people here, in order of preference, more tools/toys > renting > hiring it out. I was actually looking today at a PTO hydro power pack to run a skid steer mulcher on the tractor, doesn't look like I have the HP to do that well though. If I did, that would be a reasonable option; buy a used mulch head and a PTO power pack, get my work done, then sell it. But with all these options, I do worry about tearing the h**l out of the tractor. Skid steers for mulchers have bullet proof glass, there has to be a reason for that!

 

[ruffdog]

These seem to work and it is called a Hydro-ax.

 

[Overtaxed]

Sorry to reply to my own thread, but was looking at the Brown site, and see something called a "tree cutter" that looks perfect for my use. Even setup to back into the work with spring loaded pushers. It's not cheap though, anyone ever use one of them? Wonder why it's so much more $$ than their heavy duty brush hogs?

 

[Piston]

I have an EA 72" cutter, I think the cutter could take it except that the deck bends when I hit bigger trees with it,

As far as I'm aware (I do not own any EA equipment) they are more designed as a value brand? I do not believe they are equivalent in quality and strength as the Brown cutters. I could be wrong here, but take a good look at the comparisons. The Brown 472 that I own has an open back design, which allows me to back into heavy brush, this is pretty essential to taking down bigger saplings/small trees. The Brown 416 is the updated version of my mower, I consider it a "truly medium duty" mower (Still heavier duty than EA's super-duper-extreme-duty, which is why you can't go by their ratings). Brown (and others) also make what I consider "truly heavy duty" mowers, which includes the Brown 672, which if you are looking for the holy grail of rotary cutters (aside from stepping up to an actual tree cutter) then this is it. It has the reinforced open back design but is still a standard style rotary mower. Brown 672HD Extra Heavy Duty Brush Cutter with 72" Cut | 145 HP @ 54 RPM | Single Tail Wheel | Brown Manufacturing | 8.633.899
I have bent some of the skirt on my 472 taking down trees and backing into boulders, but I don't think you could bend a 672. This mower is too heavy duty as a one time use piece of equipment, in my opinion.
Here is a quick time lapse video of an 'overgrown' field that I cleared. Kubota Tractor Reclaiming Fields With Brown 472 Rotary Cutter - YouTube

And a photo for fun...

The FS560/grapple combo is a very interesting idea. I'd still probably need to rent a skid to level off the ground a bit, but the 560 looks like it would make pretty quick work of cutting a 10' swath through the woods. I'm going to look at that a bit more, thanks for the suggestion. Like most people here, in order of preference, more tools/toys > renting > hiring it out.

The FS560 will cut true 4" diameter trees without losing barely an RPM on the (sharp) blade. I can easily cut 6" a little bit slower. This brushcutter is not to be confused with a circular saw blade on a weedwacker, it's an absolute beast of a brushcutter and can make quick work of small standing trees. I use a carbide blade on mine.

I was actually looking today at a PTO hydro power pack to run a skid steer mulcher on the tractor, doesn't look like I have the HP to do that well though. If I did, that would be a reasonable option; buy a used mulch head and a PTO power pack, get my work done, then sell it. But with all these options, I do worry about tearing the h**l out of the tractor. Skid steers for mulchers have bullet proof glass, there has to be a reason for that!

This is a good idea in theory, but it stops there. Aside from the fact that most tractors don't even have the lift capacity to even lift the mulcher off the ground, they also are not even remotely designed to deal with the stresses of a mulcher. It's a good idea that many of us have dreamed of, but it stops there.

Sorry to reply to my own thread, but was looking at the Brown site, and see something called a "tree cutter" that looks perfect for my use. Even setup to back into the work with spring loaded pushers. It's not cheap though, anyone ever use one of them? Wonder why it's so much more $$ than their heavy duty brush hogs?

The tree cutter's are incredible, and also very dedicated pieces of equipment. I'd love to have one, but my tractor is not big/powerful enough. They are incredibly tough, heavy, and very capable. Check some of the youtube videos of them behind a john deere 5065 which is pretty similar to your PTO hp. It's a lot of mower for your tractor.

What I was originally recommending as a possible 'ultimate' clearing setup for your tractor, is not the Brown Tree Cutter, but the Brown Tree SAW. TSG-2 Tree Saw with Grapple | Brown Manufacturing | 8.633.899

(This is a photo of member "My Gym" Daugherty Turbo Saw. The Brown unit comes with a safety screen.)

The tree saw on the 3 point hitch, and the grapple on the front end loader, would make quick work of taking down the trees and piling them up. The nice thing about the Tree Saw (as opposed to the Tree Cutter) is you can cut the trees flush with the ground (or even slightly below ground level) and it can be used on a much smaller tractor. In addition, you can cut considerably larger trees in a single pass. The problem will be that you are left with stumps, but this will be no different than if you had a mulcher as well.


You have the advantage of having an HST transmission, which makes using any one of these implements many times more efficient.

Do you have any pictures of the land you want to clear? How many acres are you trying to clear? Is it level? Rocky?

 

[TSO]

We use a 3pt PTO mulcher, 60" cutting width, made by FAE
UML/ST - FML/ST - Forestry mulchers...

Use it on my Massey 1652 and "KenB2920"s Kubota L5240. It does a really great job with small material, 3 inch and under. Shreds it very nice. We will use it in conjunction with a skid steer mulcher on a skid steer. The skid steer Mulcher does the bulk of the work and this Mulcher cleans up the piles nicely. The downside is that you can't lift it very high so it's not good for taking down large material, but It's very good for brush and small saplings.

Not cheap tho... I think $17k.

If you think you can make money with it, go ahead and buy it. But it's a lot of money to spend, might be better off to spend that money hiring someone who does it for a living. There are a lot of breakdown and maintenance costs that go into land clearing work, every job I've done, we run into some kind of mechanical headache because mulching is very rough on equipment.

 

[TSO]

Here it is on the back of the L5240... Next to a Takeuchi TL-12 we had been leasing

 

[Overtaxed]

As far as I'm aware (I do not own any EA equipment) they are more designed as a value brand? I do not believe they are equivalent in quality and strength as the Brown cutters. I could be wrong here, but take a good look at the comparisons. The Brown 472 that I own has an open back design, which allows me to back into heavy brush, this is pretty essential to taking down bigger saplings/small trees. The Brown 416 is the updated version of my mower, I consider it a "truly medium duty" mower (Still heavier duty than EA's super-duper-extreme-duty, which is why you can't go by their ratings). Brown (and others) also make what I consider "truly heavy duty" mowers, which includes the Brown 672, which if you are looking for the holy grail of rotary cutters (aside from stepping up to an actual tree cutter) then this is it. It has the reinforced open back design but is still a standard style rotary mower. Brown 672HD Extra Heavy Duty Brush Cutter with 72" Cut | 145 HP @ 54 RPM | Single Tail Wheel | Brown Manufacturing | 8.633.899
I have bent some of the skirt on my 472 taking down trees and backing into boulders, but I don't think you could bend a 672. This mower is too heavy duty as a one time use piece of equipment, in my opinion.
Here is a quick time lapse video of an 'overgrown' field that I cleared. Kubota Tractor Reclaiming Fields With Brown 472 Rotary Cutter - YouTube

And a photo for fun...
View attachment 549452



The FS560 will cut true 4" diameter trees without losing barely an RPM on the (sharp) blade. I can easily cut 6" a little bit slower. This brushcutter is not to be confused with a circular saw blade on a weedwacker, it's an absolute beast of a brushcutter and can make quick work of small standing trees. I use a carbide blade on mine.



This is a good idea in theory, but it stops there. Aside from the fact that most tractors don't even have the lift capacity to even lift the mulcher off the ground, they also are not even remotely designed to deal with the stresses of a mulcher. It's a good idea that many of us have dreamed of, but it stops there.



The tree cutter's are incredible, and also very dedicated pieces of equipment. I'd love to have one, but my tractor is not big/powerful enough. They are incredibly tough, heavy, and very capable. Check some of the youtube videos of them behind a john deere 5065 which is pretty similar to your PTO hp. It's a lot of mower for your tractor.

What I was originally recommending as a possible 'ultimate' clearing setup for your tractor, is not the Brown Tree Cutter, but the Brown Tree SAW. TSG-2 Tree Saw with Grapple | Brown Manufacturing | 8.633.899
View attachment 549451
(This is a photo of member "My Gym" Daugherty Turbo Saw. The Brown unit comes with a safety screen.)

The tree saw on the 3 point hitch, and the grapple on the front end loader, would make quick work of taking down the trees and piling them up. The nice thing about the Tree Saw (as opposed to the Tree Cutter) is you can cut the trees flush with the ground (or even slightly below ground level) and it can be used on a much smaller tractor. In addition, you can cut considerably larger trees in a single pass. The problem will be that you are left with stumps, but this will be no different than if you had a mulcher as well.


You have the advantage of having an HST transmission, which makes using any one of these implements many times more efficient.

Do you have any pictures of the land you want to clear? How many acres are you trying to clear? Is it level? Rocky?

Here's a picture of some of the land that needs clearing, that's pretty reflective of what I'm looking at, thick, some rocks, nothing huge (that I want to take down anyway).

What's the 472 called today, I can't seem to find anything with that spec on the Brown site. The 400 series now seems to have a closed back, which, unless it's really, really reinforced, I'll probably wind up bending backing down the trees.

I took a look at the tree saw, that's interesting, but looks like it would be slow trying to clear a good size swath and none of my trees are big enough to need that over something like the tree cutter. It's a beast though, man, Brown makes some interesting stuff!

If I thought I could get away with a HD bush hog, that might make sense, especially if I could use it for general purpose stuff too and sell my EA hog. My other thought is get out the welder and reinforce the EA hog, everything seems to be able to take the beating except for the shrouding; so I was thinking of welding some box beam on there to make a "pusher" like you see on the tree cutter to use to hit the trees rather than using the edge of the hog like I'm doing today. I'm wondering though, what else will I break if I continually hit scrub trees; the gear box? Or is the weak link just the shrouding and if I reinforce that, I'll be good to go?

One of my other, slightly crazier thoughts was to get a plasma cutter and just take the back off the bush hog (make it like the Brown Tree cutter) so that blades extend a little beyond the back so I don't have to hit anything with the frame first. Probably not my best idea, but, seems like it would work. Would also though, make that a single purpose tool because I couldn't use it anymore to mow anywhere where something could get thrown (not that i could with a Brown either).

Thanks for the suggestions, let me know what you guys think seeing the land, maybe I'm making this too hard? Just get in the tractor, put on the hog and put the bucket down low and start driving forward? I just hate all those trees coming at the underside of my tractor, seems like a good way to break/puncture something.