Forestry mulchers: drum or disk?

[Rustyiron]

Good writeup pls1911 and welcome to TBN:thumbsup:

 

[Leigh Family Farm]

If one only had to clear a few acres (2-4) of grape vines, saplings, trees, and wood junk, would you recommend renting a forestry mulcher or extreme brush cutter? Or hire it out to a land clearing service?

The project would be in SE PA, outside of Philadelphia.

 

[Rmart30]

If one only had to clear a few acres (2-4) of grape vines, saplings, trees, and wood junk, would you recommend renting a forestry mulcher or extreme brush cutter? Or hire it out to a land clearing service?

The project would be in SE PA, outside of Philadelphia.

Hire it out IMHO. Prices down here for forestry mulchers on skid steers runs about $150ish a hour. I would ask if they are hi flow or low flow machines. Hi flow work much better and faster than low flow

As far as the drum vs disk. If the disk as ya'll are calling them is like a bush hog on the front of a skid steer those do not do near the job a Cimaf or other drum forestry mulcher head does.
I had a couple of thick acres of pines that I needed gone. They ranged about 40 ft tall and from 8" trunks to 20" trunks. I had previously brought in a crew of 4 guys for a half day with a skid steer and grapple, and a tow behind chipper that would take 16" material. 2 of them and myself ran saws, one ran the skid steer and one fed the chipper. The chipper had a winch and you could drag the whole tree to it and it would grab the whole tree and eat it.
After a half days time we made a dent , but nothing spectacular and it cost me $1000.

I then decided to hire a mulcher service to come in. I had the choice of a Fecon 165 hp machine at $1800 a day, or a larger type that looked like a small skidder for $2200 a day. I went with the larger machine. At the end of the 8 hours I had over 2 acres cleared and nothing but a bed of chips remained. He would take the larger trees down and just walk down them length wise and chew them into chips. The disk type cutters do not do that. The forestry drum cutter left me with not a whole lot of clean up at all. A few longer pieces here or there that got covered up in chips that he couldnt see.
Hiring him was the cheapest and fastest way to get my property cleared.

 

[jonas.geston]

I have been contemplating mulching underbrush and small trees with a high flow skid steer. I have been considering using this for hire and during "unhired days", cleaning out the same from 200 wooded acres that I own.

With interest, I have watched all sorts of Youtube videos on the topic, which leads me to a question that I cannot find an answer for. There are many brands of drum-type forestry mulchers, and a few brands of disk-type forestry mulchers. I know I don't want a "mower" - I want something that shreds. It seems that these mulchers run in the neighborhood of $25k. If I start with just one of these, which one should I get?

You would be surprised at how much the newer heavy duty rotary cutters can mulch.

I have been contemplating mulching underbrush and small trees with a high flow skid steer. I have been considering using this for hire and during "unhired days", cleaning out the same from 200 wooded acres that I own.

With interest, I have watched all sorts of Youtube videos on the topic, which leads me to a question that I cannot find an answer for. There are many brands of drum-type forestry mulchers, and a few brands of disk-type forestry mulchers. I know I don't want a "mower" - I want something that shreds. It seems that these mulchers run in the neighborhood of $25k. If I start with just one of these, which one should I get?

You’d be surprised at how much the newer heavy duty rotary cutters can handle. I’ve personally cut 8in trees with it and even mulched 5” trees fairly well with it....... here’s a decent video that shows what they are capable of Videos | JS Land Improvement LLP

 

[Hay Dude]

Just did 52 hours over 7 days in a rented CAT hi flow tracked skid steer with a drum mulcher. Did a good job. Did all I could with my CX 15 rotary behind my M-135X. The skid steer with drum mulcher is great because of the tracks and you can raise the cutter up 8 feet to get on top of trees and brush and mulch it down from above.

 

[Frankenkubota]

I hired 2 different guys. Both had drum shredders.

The first guy had a drum with very sharp blades. The second guys drum had hammers, like little fists.

The first guy broke 2 blades on rocks in the first 45 minutes and left.

The guy with the drum using hammers said it's common and expensive to replace broken blades.

 

[tradosaurus]

Bradco Groundshard

I used this attachment until I got my skid steer stuck. It did well at removing up to 8" trees but it didn't mulch them. So you would still have either burn the cut trees or mulch them.
I would vote for the drum style mulcher.