Baumalight Brushcutt CP560

[Overtaxed]

For those who are following along, my search for a PTO mulcher has finally resulted in a purchase of.. Not a PTO mulcher. After a bunch of research, I spoke with Baumalight (about both their mulchers and their rotary) and settled on the Brushcutt. I got the Brushcutt last week and was finally able to get it out for some testing this weekend. Here's the original discussion that led me to the Brushcutt:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/394381-pto-mulcher.html

And here's the unit I purchased:

BaumaLight - Brush Cutt 3 Point Hitch Models

I'm running this on a Kioti NX6010 (50HP PTO), and have an EA 72" rotary already, which I mention as a comparison only because both are rotary cutters. The similarity stops there however, I love my EA, but, at less than 1/2 the price, it shouldn't compare to the CP560 and it doesn't.

I bought the cutter from James River Equipment, a big dealer in my area, and they were great to deal with, but had never seen one of them in person, so couldn't offer a lot of feedback on the quality or capabilities that wasn't already online. The guy I bought from, however, personally had a Baumalight generator and was very happy with it, so that gave me a little comfort in the purchase process. Also, I'd spoken to Baumalight at length, including sending over pictures of what I wanted to clear and how I expected to use the device, so I was pretty confident that it would do what I needed.

This unit is nothing like a "normal" rotary, or at least no normal rotary I've ever seen. It's very heavy for it's size, and the thickness of everything is much higher than the EA cutter I have already. Also, it has a big push bar in the back and chains in the front (with an open back), it's really designed, IMHO, to be used in reverse primarily; it works fine pulling it forward too, but the whole point of this is to cut down trees that I'd prefer not to run over with my tractor, so "reverse" is the order of the day with this unit. I would typically back over the tree, cut it, knock it down, and then reposition to get it in the right spot to eat it up.

Eat it up? Yes. If you hit stuff with this right, it does a darn acceptable job of "mulching" the remains of the tree. If you've ever seen how a Diamond Mower works, it's like that (but, of course, on a smaller/less terrifying scale). You get the tree in the right spot (which is the right hand side of the mower when your looking at it from the back) and it'll just suck the whole thing in and out flies pieces of tree. First, it's really fun, but second, it leaves a very reasonable size of debris, they will be gone in a year or 2, not years like if you just left tress on the ground. Basically turns a tree into sticks. Most of the trees I'm taking down are 10-15' high, you can see some idea in the pictures I've attached; mix of hard and soft wood. The area I'm working was logged about 15 years ago, so all of these trees are the regrowth from that logging operation. I'm mostly cutting trails and opening the canopy, trying to make room for the biggest trees to grow up faster and make the area more walkable; I'm not trying to make this a lawn, think more "right of way" than front lawn.

Overall, I'm very happy so far, this isn't a mulcher, but, for my purposes, it seems to be a perfect tool to do the work at a fraction of the cost, both initial purchase as well as the consumables (no carbide teeth, just big steel blades to replace). I've only used it about 5 hours so far, so take this as an initial impressions, I'm sure I'll get better at it and be able to comment more on the reliability as I put more time on it. I'm clearing the undergrowth across probably 10-15 acres, so I'll spend some time with this machine, and always do my best to break things, so I'll do my best to give it a good run and provide my opinions.

 

[coldsteelva]

It looks sweet. Is it too much of an imposition to respectfully request video? Ground level or drone video is acceptable. It looks like it does an admirable job.

 

[Overtaxed]

Not at all, I'll be uploading some video as I pull together the best clips. One thing I will say, from looking at the video, you don't want to be in the zip code of this thing when it's running. From a drone, you can see the shrapnel blowing out the rear of this thing with some serious force, it really picks up stuff and throws it, and the pieces it's throwing aren't always small, some of them would do some real damage. So, while my original plan was to capture video from a tripod of the CP560 from the rear, I'm thinking I like my camera too much for that, so I think all the videos will be from a drone, it doesn't throw high, just far.

 

[Overtaxed]

Some video of the Brushcutt in action.

Brushcutt CP560 clearing some land - YouTube

 

[rd_macgregor]

Baumalight should give you a rebate for posting that video; it is better advertising footage than their own online stuff.

 

[coldsteelva]

Thanks for the video. It runs so smooth it looks like it is practically 'erasing' the brush and ground cover. I did see what you were talking about the debris firing out. Nobody should be in the zip code when that thing is running. What is the largest diameter trunk that it can eat?

 

[Overtaxed]

Thanks for the video. It runs so smooth it looks like it is practically 'erasing' the brush and ground cover. I did see what you were talking about the debris firing out. Nobody should be in the zip code when that thing is running. What is the largest diameter trunk that it can eat?

That's a very good way to put it, stuff just disappears under it. You can see it a few points in the video, but if you hit a tree "right" and it goes into the blades and gets sucked through (look at 5:00 on the video, I do a pretty good job on that one) it just disappears. There's like nothing left, no sticks, no nothing. It's just gone. If you hit it wrong, you'll have to take another pass, or, if your lazy, like me, you'll just have to wait for mother nature to do her job. That's the thing I was most surprised about, my original search was for an "affordable mulcher" for the tractor. That doesn't exist, but this looked like it would at least help me get the land back under control, even if it would leave a terrible mess. Well, this isn't a mulcher, but, if you hit the tree right, or take 2-3 passes, it does a reasonable impression of a mulching head on a skid steer. No, it won't go under the ground and you can't "grind" like you can with a skid mounted mulcher, but those cost 4-8X as much, so they better darn right be better (and I'm sure they are). But, for someone looking to clear land well enough to walk through and use again, this is darn acceptable, better than I expected, especially in the ability to make the remains of a tree disappear.

It's rated to a 4" tree. If anything, that seems a little conservative, especially if your using a hydrostatic tractor as a carrier. With a regular bush hog, the cutting isn't controlled when you go over a tree, you get over it, the blade catches it, and "boom" it either cuts it, breaks, or stalls the tractor. This is different, you can ease into it and let it nibble away and then, once the tree is down, move over it slowly to break it down and chip it up. I have no doubt it would do 4", and, because I'm me, I'll probably try 5" to see what happens. Take a look at around 1:46 in the video, you can see clearly the stump from the tree that I cut, that's got to be getting close to 4" and it ate that like nothing. In fact, the only thing that's ever really taxed the tractor with this cutter has been when I start to hit the dirt, that really loads it up. But hitting and eating the trees, that doesn't seem to really eat up the horsepower as much as I thought it would. My tractor lugs harder pulling the 72" cutter through waist high grass than it does sucking the trees you see in that video. I have a feeling here the secret is speed, with enough HP, you could probably do this faster, and with less HP, you probably couldn't do it as fast as I am. But given how I'm using this thing, it's all back and forth work, hit a tree, eat it, move a little, hit another one. That doesn't seem to be HP limited, the internal mass of the cutter (and it's really heavy, I don't remember the stats, but much heavier than a standard stump jumper) seems to make it power through all the stuff you see me hitting pretty easily. I'm sure if you back it into a stand of those trees and just keep it in reverse and eating, you'll start to find a HP limit, just not the way I'm using it.

It's quite smooth, more so than I expected. I thought it would be a lot of "BOOM" and surging the tractor engine. Very little of that. So, I guess you could say, I'm a little disappointed it's not as exciting as I thought it would be, most would probably say that's a good thing. And it's made up for by the way it throws debris, that keeps the excitement level very high; I've already seen things throw dozens of yards, and these aren't "small" pieces, wouldn't kill you, but it would certainly ruin your day if it hit you. As we both said, best to be in another zip code when it's doing it's thing. Very little comes back at the tractor though, which is good, and I should probably shorten my toplink further to make it more "back high" to reduce that as much as possible.

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

Can you please give an approximate price range? Or specific if you're willing. :thumbsup:

 

[Overtaxed]

Sure, it was right around 5K out the door, which included (and I think it still does) a spare set of blades as a promo. The 72" in a bit more, but honestly, it was a smaller uplift than I thought to get another foot, I just was afraid I might not be able to carry it on my tractor. Also, for my use in the woods, smaller is a little easier to deal with, speed is less of a concern than maneuverability and price. I was cross shopping this against mulch heads (20K+), renting a mulcher (3-4K/wk), a Brown Tree cutter (8-10K, depending on the configuration) and hiring it done (~2K/day). So, while not cheap, it's not outrageous either, at least not compared to the other land clearing options that I had available. I guess I also cross shopped a clearing saw and a wood chipper, both of which I already have, so 0 dollars for the gear, but many thousands for the hospital bills that would result from trying to clear acres that way!

 

[ericm979]

That looks like it works pretty well! I agree that your footage is better than the manufacturer's. Your land and the stuff you're clearing looks well suited for it too.

Are the blades on a pivot like a rotary, just bigger and exposed and more of them?

 

[Overtaxed]

That looks like it works pretty well! I agree that your footage is better than the manufacturer's. Your land and the stuff you're clearing looks well suited for it too.

Are the blades on a pivot like a rotary, just bigger and exposed and more of them?

Thanks! Photography is a hobby of mine, so glad you guys like the footage; like all things, when you get too "into it" you start to see tons of flaws in everything, and I look at the footage and only see what I did wrong. Glad it's helpful though!

Yup, blades "swing away" just like a rotary if you get into something too deep. And the blades are short, maybe a foot or two long, my rotary blades are 2-3X the length. That's because the "stump jumper" on the Brushcutt is bigger (and much heavier) than the rotary, it's small blades on a big jumper, rather than big blades on a small jumper. Probably gives you more force because you're swinging a huge stump jumper around instead of just blades. Also, the blades look very strange compared to a rotary. They are only sharp at the ends, there are two "teeth" cut into the ends so that it chips away at the tree instead of smashes the entire blade into it. Basically, most of the cutting of the tree happens at the very tips (2 tips per blade, and 4 blades on the cutter, rather than 2 like my rotary). There's no "cutting edge" at all like you'd see on a rotary blade, it's a flat piece of steel with just those tips on it. Very strange looking, I'll try to get a picture of them at some point, but, let's put it this way, you're not going to accidentally put them on your rotary, they look totally different. One thing I do want to ask Baumalight about, how do you know when you need new blades? I'm not really sure, and not sure if you can grind them if you lose the tips. They aren't that expensive, so it's not that big a deal, and with maybe 10 hours on the machine now, the blades look almost new still, so it's "awhile" anyway before you need to replace them. I have a feeling this is going to be an "it depends" answer, so I'll just need to see for myself; most mulch heads are good for a few hundred hours, but those are made to run in the dirt and are made of carbide, so I doubt that's a good comparison.

Edited, Baumalight has a great picture of the blades already, you can probably see what I'm talking about better here:

http://baumalight.com/cutters/img/features/3-point-hitch/cp560-feature04.jpg

 

[Overtaxed]

Video of the action from yesterday. You get a better view of the land here and of what it looks like working, but these trees are a little smaller than the first video. I am selectively pruning the area, so the big trees that you see me avoid, it's not because I don't think the machine can take them down, it's because I want those trees to stay there. I'm getting better at finding that "sweet spot" where it sucks the trees in and just leaves chips, you can see it do that a few times in the video, the trees will disappear under the deck and look like they are fed into a wood chipper.

This is an impressive piece of equipment; I'm honestly surprised that others haven't taken the plunge before me on TBN. But this is a common problem, and it seems like "mulcher" is the typical answer. And it's probably the best answer, but this is certainly a "very good" answer that's far less expensive. If your land/clearing needs are anything like mine, I'd have this high on the list for consideration.

Brushcutt CP56 working on some smaller trees - YouTube

 

[BLSXJ]

how close to the ground does it cut?

 

[Overtaxed]

You can get the tree trunks down to "near ground" level. Maybe 1/2" or so. But I'm using it to clear land, and have my hand on the 3PT the entire time. If you were using it differently and didn't want to constantly adjust, you'd probably want it to float about 2" off the ground so that the blades didn't wind up in the dirt. I have a hydro top link on the way, and I think that'll change things a bit, allowing me to set the 3pt lower because I can lift the back higher. But, easiest way to say it, "close to ground level" if you're willing to stop and chew with it. You'll see me do that a few times in the video, drop the deck down on top of stuff that's already cut to get as low as possible.

 

[nybirdman]

I recently had some clearing done by Skid Steers;one with a rotary and the other a Fecon head;yours does at least as good as the rotary maybe a bit better.Nice tool for sure.I have thousands of hours on my tractor mounted brush-hogs and I like your unit.

 

[mcfarmall]

That thing is awesome!

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

I like it too! I'm just trying to decide how much more capable it is than a HD rotary cutter. Twice as good? Twice as much. Thought? Have you run a true HD brush hog with 4" blades? One that will cut 4” trees with ease?

I'm truly interested in this thing and not knocking it.

 

[Overtaxed]

No, I haven't run anything more HD than the EA cutter. The blades on the EA, I'm not sure how big they are, but the limit on that cutter isn't what the blades can take, it's what I can get under the cutter, running over a 4" tree with my tractor seems like a poor idea, and backing over it with a cutter is very difficult, it puts a ton of force on the frame and the tractor because you're trying to push it over rather than cut it (because the back isn't open). The "open back" design is just vastly different, you can ease your way into it and use it almost like a circular saw to cut the big stuff, with a closed back, you get the tree under the cutter, it pokes up into the blades and you hold your breath and hope nothing breaks. It's more stressful, at least for me, compared to letting it eat its way though in a controlled fashion.

If you back up slow enough, you could probably cut down a 10" tree with this thing, I wouldn't be the one trying it, but the design and how it works is just very different, you can "nibble" with this design, which really opens up a whole range of things that would be a piss poor idea with a regular rotary.

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

So the blades stick out the back a little and are exposed like a saw?! Awesome! I thought you had to bend over the tree and back over it just like a brush hog. Very cool. :thumbsup:

 

[Overtaxed]

So the blades stick out the back a little and are exposed like a saw?! Awesome! I thought you had to bend over the tree and back over it just like a brush hog. Very cool. :thumbsup:

Yup, that's exactly it. The blades probably are exposed about 6-8" beyond the back of the deck, it's an "open back cutter". So no, no impact at all when you are backing into a tree with the deck, the push bar bends it away from the tractor, and then the blades come at it from underneath. I've been doing nothing but clearing land like you see in those videos with it for 10-15 hours and it literally looks brand new; there's not a scratch in the paint yet. When I tried this same operation with my EA, I had the back deck bent badly doing less than you see in the video and in an hour or 2. I quickly figured out that backing down 2-3" trees isn't the thing for a bush hog like that, it just beats the life out of the deck. And think about the force on it, makes sense why it would be so tough; your trying to push over a tree from 2" off the ground using a tiny piece of metal (the impact area of the tree on the rear of the hog). Yea, it could work, I suppose you could make the deck thick enough, but if you're going to back down a tree, seems like an open back is a much better idea. There are a few out there that work like this, probably the most popular is the Brown Tree Cutter, it's a beast of a machine, and there are more videos online of how it works, but it's very similar to how the Baumalight functions, the blades hit it and chisel away, tree falls, push bar knocks it away from the tractor and then the blades catch the tree and eat it. The Brown was ~2X the price of the Baumalight and is rated for bigger trees, but it's really on the edge of what my tractor can deal with at 60HP. I know it's a good machine, there are quite a few of them out there, and I talked to some owners, they loved it, and that gave me a lot more confidence with the Baumalight because the design is pretty similar, just a bit less heavy duty. If I was doing this professionally and had a 80-100HP tractor, I would have looked harder at the Brown. But for a homeowner, I'm having trouble wondering why you'd even consider spending more than this machine unless you have enough land to clear that it's venturing into "professional use" (100's of acres). Now, of course, if I break this thing or it doesn't hold up, that would be a good reason to spend more, but no indications of anything but "built to last" thus far. By now I'd already had the pipe wrench on my EA cutter (admittedly, because I was using it for something it wasn't designed to do!) and had the paint nicely dinged up.

Oh, just wanted to add, I did hear back, a full set of blades (4) for this thing is about $160. Suggest checking them every 4 hours of use and they are reversible (if you wear away one cutting tip). As expected, the life expectancy is "it depends". I'm probably going to get 25 hours or so on the machine over the next few weeks, I'll take some pictures of the blades after that and see what they look like.