Silvic
Gold Member
Want to say hello. I have been reading the posts for a while and thought I needed to join.
I have had a rather large increase recently in my forest work and am finding that previous methods of site prep are too time and labor intensive for the additional acreage. I have been told for some time that I was nuts for doing it the old way and I finally agree. Thus I am looking at moving up.
I have pretty much narrowed down my search for a CTL to the Deere 333 (think the 323 is too small for the mulcher heads), the Cat 299XHP and the Kubota SVL 90-2.
I need to have high flow and power to reliably run without bogging down and frustrating myself with underpowered operations.
As to the mulcher.
I do not need landscape quality output of chips. I am prepping forest areas to replant and reclaiming areas that have undesirable vegetation choking out the desirable seedlings. Moderate debris size is actually a better more desirable output than a fine shredded material such as lot of you folks need in your work.
I have been looking at the Cat HM 315, Fecon and Bradco mulchers.
Actually the Bradco Extreme Ground shark while not technically a mulcher looks very interesting as well.
Does anyone have specific experience with a combination that they thought was really good or bad. And how do the three CTL's listed work out. I heard that the 299D requires the operator to keep the thumb on the switch to keep the hi-flow going to the mulcher. Seems odd; is that true or not? Dealer has been less than clear on several details.
I am renting a 299 XHP with a HM315 for a tryout this week (no demos available here).
Well a bit of a long initial post. Hope to get some input from all the folks out there with the same equipment that I am looking at.
I have had a rather large increase recently in my forest work and am finding that previous methods of site prep are too time and labor intensive for the additional acreage. I have been told for some time that I was nuts for doing it the old way and I finally agree. Thus I am looking at moving up.
I have pretty much narrowed down my search for a CTL to the Deere 333 (think the 323 is too small for the mulcher heads), the Cat 299XHP and the Kubota SVL 90-2.
I need to have high flow and power to reliably run without bogging down and frustrating myself with underpowered operations.
As to the mulcher.
I do not need landscape quality output of chips. I am prepping forest areas to replant and reclaiming areas that have undesirable vegetation choking out the desirable seedlings. Moderate debris size is actually a better more desirable output than a fine shredded material such as lot of you folks need in your work.
I have been looking at the Cat HM 315, Fecon and Bradco mulchers.
Actually the Bradco Extreme Ground shark while not technically a mulcher looks very interesting as well.
Does anyone have specific experience with a combination that they thought was really good or bad. And how do the three CTL's listed work out. I heard that the 299D requires the operator to keep the thumb on the switch to keep the hi-flow going to the mulcher. Seems odd; is that true or not? Dealer has been less than clear on several details.
I am renting a 299 XHP with a HM315 for a tryout this week (no demos available here).
Well a bit of a long initial post. Hope to get some input from all the folks out there with the same equipment that I am looking at.