Information on Rockhound F-H Flail Shredder

[Furu]

Has anyone any experience with a Rockhound F-H flail shredder?

I am looking at site prepping an area that has severe ice storm damage to a 12-13 year old hardwood stand.

Lots of understory and tree tops that are down. Need to get clear enough to replant.

I have been told the rockhound is a good product but it is a flail type mulcher/shredder. Definitely not a Fecon Bull hog either in design or price.

 

[lumberjack1986]

What are you planning on running it on and what size material are you trying to process?

I have the Rockhound Hammerhead, their 40" flail with the hammer style flails, rated for up to 4".

List price on the base attachments runs from $11.6-13k. The 60" is rated for up to 5", the 84" is rated for 3". Being a flail, the faster you spin it the better it does (up to a point). You'll want high flow and high power to run it, especially if you're trying to process to the upper ends of its rated capacity.

The FH uses their traditional style flails which seem to be far better at withstanding abuse than the Hammerheads. I break roughly one hammerhead for each hour in heavy materials on my excavator... My theory is the flow drops off substantially as the pressure rises which causes the hammers to flail about more violently than they would if I could maintain 20gpm at 3.4ksi.

The flail will/can produce a smaller chip than say a rotary mower like the Bradco Ground Shark (which I should be getting Tuesday), but the rotary mower can handle bigger material more easily (I would rather cut 4" trees with a rotary than a flail, unless I required a smaller chip).

 

[Furu]

The remaining trees that are still barely alive and upright will be hack and squirted and allowed to die vertical and degrade/decay over time and due to species will decay from the top down allowing small chunks to fall to the ground. This will limit having to mulch the largest diameter stems They will be planted around using their slow decay to feed the replanted forest seedlings.

The tops that were snapped out however are a major problem and their stems can easily be 4 to 5 inches diameter but not all are that big. Unfortunately the stand was pre-commercially thinned just 2 months before the ice storm destruction and that debris is on the forest floor left to rot back into the soil. Mostly that can be left alone and will be planted over but some is "piled" irregularly due to the way it fell and needs to be knocked down somewhat. Since 2.5 years have passed there is some level of decay starting that makes the dead debris more frangible as far as mulching.
Since the opening of the forest canopy after the ice storm, the understory has gone wild and in this area that means massive growth of Himalayan Blackberries (canes can be up to 2-2.5 inch diameter and 10-15 feet long but are not like wood and shred easily) as well as a lot of vine maple, salmonberry, ferns, red elderberry, and a lot of other brush.

My options for equipment are to either rent a tracked skidsteer (preferably hi flow) to use on a purchased device or to use my existing 58 hp equipment which does not have adequate hydraulics (gpm) for the job and to run a pto driven auxiliary hydraulic system that will give me the required flow. A tracked mini excavator is another option but would require a different type of equipment of course.

I have been doing site prep work on much steeper terrain using Stihl Brushcutters and can do that on this location as well but it is time consuming, slow work that I would like to be able to accomplish a bit faster and more efficiently since this area is so much larger in size.

 

[lumberjack1986]

If you are just looking to knock the material down, a heavy duty rotary mower (bush hog) would be my first pick.

 

[Furu]

I have a Woods Brushbull BB 720 that is very robust and can do up to 2-3 inch stems that are still green. It is very useful but what I am dealing with is a bit more than its capabilities are.

 

[lumberjack1986]

I have a Woods Brushbull BB 720 that is very robust and can do up to 2-3 inch stems that are still green. It is very useful but what I am dealing with is a bit more than its capabilities are.

I was meaning an open front mower on a skid steer or compact track loader. There are options under the Rock Hound.

 

[mulching consultant]

Well, we all know that the Fecon would be the best choice to get the job done quickly and efficiently. However, it does cost more than the Rockhound (for good reason). However, also consider that the Fecon maintains a fantastic resale value so you might be able to buy one, do you job, and then sell it without being out a lot of $ when its all said and done.

 

[lumberjack1986]

Got my Groundshark in a day early. It can easily do what you're looking for, but it requires high flow hydraulics and a carrier that can lift its 2klb weight. Bradco recommends 2200lb lift capacity minimum.





These pictures are 4 minutes apart.

 

[Furu]

So how do you compare that to the FH series Rockhound since you are familiar with and used both?

 

[lumberjack1986]

I've never used the FH, but comparing it to the 40EX Hammerhead is essentially a non start in accessible areas (Hammerhead is on the excavator). The Ground Shark is a beast of a mower, 4" material is essentially nothing. It's rated for 7" material, but that's conservative, based on my experience today. The blade carrier weighs 600lbs, carrying a huge amount of momentum into the cut to knock down larger material.


For knocking down what you described, it would be tough to beat.