Bearcat 73454 Chipper/Shredder

[kevinro]

I am considering getting a Bearcat 73454 chipper shredder for my JD 4500 tractor. I live in a forest, and end up with a fair amount of branches and tree tops when I have to take a tree down. I was wondering:

1) Does anyone on TBN have one of these shredders?
2) Would you recommend it?
3) What did you pay for it?

Thanks
Kevin

 

[ronjhall]

Kevin
Try the search feature on TBN for Bearcat.
There are a couple of 73454 mentioned.
One thread list many different manufactures. Click <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.tractorbynet.com/cgi-bin/compact/showflat.pl?Cat=&Board=owning&Number=9959&fpart=1>HERE</A>.
I have a Bear Cat 71020. It is a 20-hp. Self-contained 5” chipper. It works well. But is a lot of work preparing and feeding material to be fed into it.
I bought it a year ago used for $1000.00. It came with a spare set of chipper and shredder blades.

 

[kevinro]

Thanks Ron,

I had already searched for 73454. I did see several references to the machine, but no posts from anyone who actually owns one. I am still interested in finding someone who has one.

Thanks
Kevin

 

[bobnewjersey]

I own the Bearcat 72854 (9") hydraulic feed. I looked at the 4" your asking about. If you can make the move up to a larger machine, do it. I can feed whole 9" trees into mine and walk away with the feed running. Big time saver! At this point I wouldn't even consider going without the hydraulic feed. The Bearcat rep will tell you the other one's "self-feed" when they get running, but it's not exactly true. They can draw a piece in, but only the very small stuff that won't clog up, anything over 2" will slow the cutter head down enough to stall it out. That's where the hydraulic feed helps out......you can set the feed rate so the tractor will not stall. I also decided to go with a new one versus used to avoid any major repair issues. Some of the used one's I saw were well south of reliable. Good luck in your search.