REVERSE ROTATION MULCHER

Eagleview · Nov 22, 2010

Finally someone has built a mulcher head that runs bottom forward and as I suspected , is very efficient . No having to reverse back every few feet to reprocess cut material , just power on in one pass .

It also has the added benefit of throwing the chips forward and not covering the machine which blocks filters/radiators and creates fire hazards . This guy is mulching with the door open .

YouTube - Tre-etas mulching machine for landclearing

YouTube - Armageddon the mulching machine

YouTube - Tre-etas mulching machine for forestry clearing

fishfactor · Nov 22, 2010

I'm not convinced on the how efficient they are. Those machines were huge and I don't think they were any faster than my GT-25. They may even be slower but I'm not familiar with how hard those type of trees are so I couldn't make a accurate comparison.

This I do know. Fecon has a opposite rotating head they put on a 440 as part of a biomass collecting system. They recommend keeping the trees under 6" because the head is not as efficient. It doesn't have the ground to use an an "anvil" and thus cannot process large trees. Bio-Harvester - Fecon

There would be benefits of the rotation. Safer for the driver and machine and it would throw any large pieces in front of you so you could mulch them again. But it may also throw chips much farther which would be bad in some areas around houses or customers that insist on watching.

tonyoz · Nov 23, 2010

I am in the process of doing this with our spare Fecon head to go on my C140:thumbsup:

Eagleview · Nov 23, 2010

I am also doing this with my head .

I have even been studying my FAE excavator head that works far better swung from left to right . It appears to have a reversible drum and mounts for the motor on the other side so it can rotate the other way .

If anyone can show me a machine that rotates from the top forward that can process scrub that dense and that tall to a depth of around 6" in one pass at that speed please put up a video . I have seen every video on youtube and nothing can work as fast as that machine . He needs to modify the feed opening a little as some material is catching and not being fed in .but this is just fine tuning . The engine is a 525 Cummins .

tonyoz · Nov 23, 2010

Iron Horse has the FAE head got a hyd control box with counter balance valves relief valves? if so you will have to change the hoses coming out of it to the hyd motor. I have noticed in lighter going by reversing over it i can chop it real fine in one pass.Hence the reason for changing my other head.On a single pass even at a slower speed to my mind is far more cost effective than doing multiple passes

fishfactor · Nov 23, 2010

Iron Horse said:
I am also doing this with my head .

If anyone can show me a machine that rotates from the top forward that can process scrub that dense and that tall to a depth of around 6" in one pass at that speed please put up a video .

I should have watched the video a little closer. In the first video, it looks like he is skimming 4-5" above the ground. In the second video, you can see that the teeth extend well below the side plates on the head. I didn't realize he was going 6" down below grade.

I would still check with fecon. There must be a reason they only recommend 6" trees and under on a 440hp mulcher with bottom up rotation.

Treemow · Nov 23, 2010

tonyoz said:
Iron Horse has the FAE head got a hyd control box with counter balance valves relief valves? if so you will have to change the hoses coming out of it to the hyd motor. I have noticed in lighter going by reversing over it i can chop it real fine in one pass.Hence the reason for changing my other head.On a single pass even at a slower speed to my mind is far more cost effective than doing multiple passes

Wouldn't this just cause you to be grinding with the back of the tooth and tooth holder?

Robbie Hegwood · Nov 23, 2010

Treemow, you turn the rotor around, not just run it backwards. There are some advantages to a reverse rotation,and some drawbacks, but I'm not giving up any engineering so I'll put it this way.There is a reason Loftness swithed from the Timberax {reverse rotation} and the new Quickax {standard rotation}. I owned a Timberax and have run a Quickax. Each one has a certain function it does well.

Eagleview · Nov 24, 2010

It's just that I find the mulcher mows scrub far better and with one pass if I swing left to right(but I can't see what I'm doing) , in effect the drum is spinning bottom forward . It works like a big flail mower . Also , any saplings laying down get sucked into the mulcher this way . Once the teeth get under the sapling , it lifts it up and combined with the vacuum created , just sucks it in . If you try this the other way the sapling either gets spat out from under the head in one piece or it misses it completely because the skids wont allow the teeth to reach it , or it buries itself in the soil .

Also , when grinding stumps in the normal manner , the rotor acts like a wheel and when it bites into the stump it tries to drive over the stump to the left . When I engage a stump from the left , it just chews away at the stump without pulling on the dipper stick . It will take all day to turn the rotor around and relocate the motor but for my kind of work it would be better .

Anyone in the know about FAE's is welcome to let me know in advance if the rotor does not swap end for end .

Yes Tony , I will need to turn the rotor around as well as I have fixed teeth and not the swinging hammers you are thinking of that would run both ways .

Treemow · Nov 24, 2010

Iron Horse said:
It's just that I find the mulcher mows scrub far better and with one pass if I swing left to right(but I can't see what I'm doing) , in effect the drum is spinning bottom forward . It works like a big flail mower . Also , any saplings laying down get sucked into the mulcher this way . Once the teeth get under the sapling , it lifts it up and combined with the vacuum created , just sucks it in . If you try this the other way the sapling either gets spat out from under the head in one piece or it misses it completely because the skids wont allow the teeth to reach it , or it buries itself in the soil .

Also , when grinding stumps in the normal manner , the rotor acts like a wheel and when it bites into the stump it tries to drive over the stump to the left . When I engage a stump from the left , it just chews away at the stump without pulling on the dipper stick . It will take all day to turn the rotor around and relocate the motor but for my kind of work it would be better .

Anyone in the know about FAE's is welcome to let me know in advance if the rotor does not swap end for end .

Yes Tony , I will need to turn the rotor around as well .

It won't swap end to end.