Bobcat with forestry cutter?

[Pac Coast]

My company builds homes in a coastal environment. Most of the lots that we build on are very brushy, with brush up to about 4" and smaller, and on some lots, very dense.

Our excavation subcontractor used to use his 200hp excavator to clear the brush and pile it up and we would burn it. There are now burning bans in the area where we are building. We have been paying to haul the brush off, which gets very, very expensive. We typically only clear a 8,000 sqft area or so on each lot.

We recently sold an ASV RC50 that we had a loader bucket and backhoe for. We used it for general grading, digging some foundation holes, and trenching for utilities.

I would like to get a new piece of equipment that would be used mostly for clearing the brush from our lots. It looks like something like a T300 with a forestry cutter may not be a bad way to go. I would like to leave the lots clean enough for our excavation sub to either be able to just dig the foundation hole and final grade after the foundation is done, or at worst, haul off a load of the chips left behind after clearing the brush. Piling the brush into end dumps just isn't very efficient as it's hard to get green brush really packed in. Chips would be much more efficient, if they even needed hauled off, I would think. Some of our lots are mostly dune grass with very little, or very small brush. Will something like the forestry cutter sort of mulch up the top layer of soil/grass as well, or would a tiller attachment be needed?

Thanks in advance for any advice or thoughts. We aren't commited to any one brand, so any other suggestions would be welcomed. I would like the machine and attachment to be small enough to tow with my one ton dually diesel truck.

 

[tlbuser]

A flail mower may do a better job for you. Then again, maybe a full blown mulcher would be best. Or? Price range rotary to flail to mulcher
flail: YouTube - Razor Skid Steer Flail Mulcher
rotary: YouTube - Quick Attach Mini Skid Steer Brush Cutter Mower Attachment
Mulcher: YouTube - Bobcat S330 W/ Denis Cimaf DAF-180D Brush Cutter/Chipper

 

[radman1]

Since you mentioned 4" diameter brush, you should consider a mulcher. However, the grass and small stuff may best be cleared by a bush hog rotary mower. There are some HD mowers that can mow 4" material, but the hydraulic power of a skid steer doesn't have enough power to mow heavy material. You may need 2 attachments.
A mulcher is a very $$$ peice of equipment and needs a good sized skid steer with the proper protection. Do you want to spend $$$ over 100K? Might find something cheaper used. May consider just buying a CUT or skidsteer to mow with and hire someone to do the mulching if needed.

 

[aczlan]

How about a 80ish HP tractor with one of these on the back: Fae Usa - PTO/Tractor Mulchers (the UMM or UML models).

If you have a tractor of that size (or can get one) it could run the PTO version and for occasional (ie: monthly/bi-weekly rather than daily) use it should take care of what you need.
If you are also looking for something to do drain and utility lines you could get one with a backhoe (perhaps something like this: 2001 KUBOTA M9000 40 HP to 99 HP For Sale At TractorHouse.com) then it could do double duty.

Aaron Z

 

[Pac Coast]

Thanks for the info. I talked with a local Bobcat dealer today and it sounds like a Bobcat forestry cutter may be best for what we want to do, mounted to a T300 or T320. There are apparently some deals on leftover units and with high flow, the enclosure, joystick control etc. I can get a new one for about 50k. The forestry cutter is 28k, so about 78k total, which seems really reasonable if it will do what we want. The dealer also mentioned a flail mower that sells for around 10k. I am going to set up a demo and see what works better. Some of the brush is tall, well over 15', and it sounds like the forestry cutter is better at pushing things like that over and processing it.

Is the Bobcat forestry cutter made by Fecon? If so, is it pretty much the same as what is shown on the Fecon website?

Will the forestry cutter till any of the wood debris into the top layer of soil at all, or would a separate tiller be needed for that?

Thanks again.

 

[cann mulching]

Where are you located Pac?? I have a machine for you if your interested!!!

 

[Pac Coast]

I am located in eastern Washington state, but build mostly in western Washington, which is where most of our clearing needs are. What do you have?

Looking at the Loftness Timberax. Looks like a great unit too.

 

[yellowdogsvc]

Thanks for the info. I talked with a local Bobcat dealer today and it sounds like a Bobcat forestry cutter may be best for what we want to do, mounted to a T300 or T320. There are apparently some deals on leftover units and with high flow, the enclosure, joystick control etc. I can get a new one for about 50k. The forestry cutter is 28k, so about 78k total, which seems really reasonable if it will do what we want. The dealer also mentioned a flail mower that sells for around 10k. I am going to set up a demo and see what works better. Some of the brush is tall, well over 15', and it sounds like the forestry cutter is better at pushing things like that over and processing it.

Is the Bobcat forestry cutter made by Fecon? If so, is it pretty much the same as what is shown on the Fecon website?

Will the forestry cutter till any of the wood debris into the top layer of soil at all, or would a separate tiller be needed for that?

Thanks again.

You can get a new T320 with highflow, a/c and joysticks for $50k? Can you tell me where that deal is? that would be a great deal.

 

[Pac Coast]

I was talking with a sales rep from the Yakima dealer. He said that there are some incentives on units that have been in dealer inventory for a year or more, plus the rebates. Talking about a T300 with high flow he said that he thought one could be had for the 49/50k range. He was not clear if that was with the joystick controls, but since that is what we were talking about, I assumed that it was. I am sure it didn't include the suspension upgrade. In speaking with a sales rep from another store the pricing was quite a bit higher, so this guy may have been way off base.

Yesterday I talked with one of our concrete subcontractors that owns a couple of newer Bobcats. He hasn't been too impressed with the reliability. He said getting fast service to fix problems hasn't been a problem, but he said they have experienced quite a few different failures.

I'm currently looking into some other options as well. It looks like I will be able to rent a Cat, something like a 299C with a mulcher on it to see if the density of the brush on our typical lots poses a problem for these kind/sizes of units. Right now we're currently clearing an area of about 8,000sqft per building lot. Clearing and hauling off of brush is currently costing us $2,500-$3,000 per lot. Ideally we would like to clear a little more of each lot, but are not doing so because it adds to the cost. If one of the 100hp size range units and a mulcher are capable of clearing the lots it would not take long at all for it to pay for itself.

Even though I've read about some of the problems, a used RC100 may end up being of interest as well. In talking with a couple dealers, and one owner that runs one with a FAE mulcher on it, it sounds like if they are owner operated and some caution and care is used that one of those may work for us. We only need to be able to clear 3-5 lots per month, so it's not like we're talking about running a unit 8 hours a day, every single day or anything.

Any additional thoughts or advice would certainly be appreciated.

 

[ralanb]

Hey Pac, if that is all the land you will be currently clearing, I would look at the machine Cann has. You cant really go on what you read about the asv's. Most of that is operator mis-haps. A used machine for mulching is probably better because most of the bugs are worked out. There is a lot of stress on a skid steer mulching cause its not made for it. you will save a lot of money using a mulcher and be able to till it into the ground more if you use the carbide teeth. I have not used knives so i cant speak for them. 8000sq ft is nothing when you can do an acre a day. Seems like you have no competition whis is sort of good right now you can charge your price; however buy a used machine. Sell it once you build up finances and lease or purchase a newer machine and you will still be on top because you will have experience and competition. BTW it takes a while to learn HOW to mulch without tearing anything up.

 

[Pac Coast]

Hey Pac, if that is all the land you will be currently clearing, I would look at the machine Cann has. You cant really go on what you read about the asv's. Most of that is operator mis-haps. A used machine for mulching is probably better because most of the bugs are worked out. There is a lot of stress on a skid steer mulching cause its not made for it. you will save a lot of money using a mulcher and be able to till it into the ground more if you use the carbide teeth. I have not used knives so i cant speak for them. 8000sq ft is nothing when you can do an acre a day. Seems like you have no competition whis is sort of good right now you can charge your price; however buy a used machine. Sell it once you build up finances and lease or purchase a newer machine and you will still be on top because you will have experience and competition. BTW it takes a while to learn HOW to mulch without tearing anything up.

Thanks ralanb. I am not looking to go into the mulching business. I am a developer and builder. The property/lots that we are clearing is property that we own. Until recently we were able to clear with 200hp and 300hp excavators with thumbs, pile and burn. Now the burning has been pretty much shut down and we're having to pay to haul off the brush. We build 30-50 houses per year, and some of the lots are just full of dune grasses, but the majority have quite a bit of really dense standing brush.

Nobody close to where we are building is offering mulching, or we would consider hiring it out. Since it will save us 2-3k per lot I am not too worried about a machine paying for itself fairly quickly. What I do want to be sure of is that a machine in the 90hp range with a mulcher will do what we need it to do. Tomorrow I am going to contact the nearest Cat rental place and see if they have a mulcher that can be rented with a machine, just to get a sense of if it will work. If it works, we may consider buying something like the HM315 mulcher and renting a machine when we need it. Since we're only talking about a few days per month of actual work I'm not sure having a depreciating machine setting the majority of the time makes too much sense. Though I think it's probably a good business, at this time I'm not interested in doing mulching for anyone other than ourselves.

Will the carbide type heads, like the HM315 sort of till grass. like dune grass, into the top of the soil? On dune lots in the past we have hired a guy with a tractor and a tiller, but he has since moved out of the area and nobody else is tilling in the area at this time. If a mulching head could turn up the top of the soil, that would be great. This is on the coast. The soil is all sand, no rocks whatsoever.

 

[ralanb]

Yes the carbide teeth will till into the soil and last 3 times as long as metal. I use my mulching head to bush hog lots as well, it actually does a better job than a bush hog. The rocks will not effect the carbide teeth. I have accidentaly mulched chimneys and cinder blocks.

 

[ralanb]

Also to add, I think you may get better use out of a wheeled unit with steel over the tire tracks, less to wear out and better traction.

 

[Pac Coast]

Also to add, I think you may get better use out of a wheeled unit with steel over the tire tracks, less to wear out and better traction.

We previously had an ASV RC50 that we used quite a bit and it seemed to go better in the sand than our concrete subs wheeled units with over the tire tracks. The sand at the beach can get pretty mucky when it's wet, which it is pretty often. Do you think the newer over the tire tracks are better than a tracked unit?

 

[Mulcherman]

Your Mulcher with carbide teeth are your best bet. The Bobcat mulcher is made by fecon with bobcat drum specs. It is not a true fecon mulcher. The teeth are very expensive on the bobcat and you have to get them from a bobcat dealer. The bobcat heads have a lot of issues with drums cracking. The fecon with their drum design will out perform the bobcat and the fae heads. It will cut grass, scotch broom, brush and small trees very well. It is US built!! The Cat head is an fae head, built in Italy. The Fae and the Bobcat round drum mulchers will not cut with a Fecon. What ever carriers you decide on, buy from a reliable dealer that willback up what he sells you. If I was buying a rubber track skid steer I would look at the Takeuchi TL150 or new mode TL25o. They are built like a tank and very reliable. Asplundh Tree Service in Western Washington runs a fleet of Takeuchi Loaders with Fecon Heads.

 

[ralanb]

If you spend a lot of time in beach sand, then you may want to use the rubber ott tracks. Look into the loegering steel tracks. The tracked skid steers are verry expensive to repair the under carrige from 300- 8000 dollars or more.

 

[southernmulcher]

I would also look into the warrnty that is offered from the manufacture, most are eonly 6 month to maybe a year. FAE has a 2 year warranty on everything they manufacture, pretty strong!

 

[BOBCAT BILLY]

I HAVE HAD 2 T 320 S AND I JUST BOUGHT A NEW TL 250 HIGH FLOW FROM TAKAHUCI AND AM VERY IMPRESSED. IT RUNS MY BOBCAT HEAD BETTER AND I HAVE HAD NO DOWN TIME.

 

[ultraglide62]

Mr. Pac:
I have a ASV RC100 with a Tushogg. It is a rotating drum unit with carbide teeth and cutting cups. You can go to the Tushogg website to see the specifics. I recently retired and also have a 341 Bobcat excavator and I use all of this stuff I mean I play with all of my big boy toys on my 20 acres on Whidbey Island WA. I live in fear when they stop burning in our area but at least I am prepared.
I have cleaned up most everything on my property and it is becoming "park like"! The guys are right a muching head on a skid steer is very taxing on the machine. You need to know what you are doing when you operate the machine and the only way you learn is by doing.
Feel free to contact me for more info. I am sure the Tushogg would work fanatastic for what you need to do.

Ultraglide62

 

[DVR]

I know this is an old thread. I'll start a new one if needed.

Considering the purchase of a new bobcat 770 with 60" forestry cutter. I went to the dealer today and got a quote. I was able to get in the seat of a new 870 being ready for delivery. I did not operate the cutting head. They have some attractive leasing and purchase options.
For those of you who have owned and run this type of equipment I am seeking some input.
to save debate the 770 is the largest model that meets my requirements. This dealership owns most of the surrounding territories. With this type of use I am sure I will need support.

Here is a list of options. Any input would be helpful. It costs more than my first house!

770 compact loader- tier 3
36mo protection plus plan
joystick controls
A91pkg:
cab with heat and a/c
high flow hydro
sound reduction
hydro bucket positioning
power bob-tach
deluxe instrumentation
keyless start
block heater
attachment control kit
cab accessories pkg
2 speed travel
3 pt seat belt

roller suspension
60" forestry cutter
engine compartment seal kit
forestry applications kit


Seeking any input from users considering options, financing vs. leasing, protection plus plan...

TIA