Mulching: Has anyone had to re-mulch a job due to mulch size being to big?

[Gamma]

I'm still unsure whether I want to go with a carbide cutter or a blade cutter, although I'm leaning towards a carbide cutter with a mulching door. But I had someone tell me the following yesterday and it's got me wondering of course.

I had a Gyrotrac salesman tell me that he's had carbide cutter owners/operators complaining that they've had to return to completed jobs and re-mulch the jobsite after the customer had complained that the final mulch was too large. So according to him they are switching over to blade cutters such as the Gyrotrac.

So, have any of you using a carbide cutter head had an unhappy customer complain that the resulting final mulch on the ground was too big? Did you return to the jobsite and re-mulch it? Do any of you wish you'd of purchased a blade cutter head instead of a carbide cutter head?

Comments and advice is certainly appreciated.

 

[tlbuser]

Sounds to me like the blade cutter has a higher profit margin

 

[cddva]

You may get more response if you post this question in the Heavy Equipment forum on Lawnsite.com.

 

[deniscimafinc]

The whole carbide vs blade debate really comes down to what kind of contracts you forsee you'll get.

Some contracts like land reclamation projects might require to mix the mulch into the ground, and slash roots at the same time. Then a carbide-hammer-equipped rotor is best suited for that. But such contracts are usually quite expensive for the customer.

For contracts where only ground-level-and-above mulching is required, then a fixed-blades rotor is more productive. Sure, you'll be able to do it with hammers, but at a larger energy cost. After all, aren't axes preferred to hammers when it comes to cutting trees? And the knives on the Gyrotrac, or the DENIS CIMAF models (from which Gyrotrac borrows the technology), or Loftness, (and soon models from FAE or Fecon), are sharpenable, which means you'll stay productive throughout the life of your tools (carbide hammers aren't sharpenable).

If you haven't made up your mind yet, I'd suggest you try both technologies (carbide vs knives). Contact the manufacturers to see if you can get your hands on one model for a few hours...


Fred

 

[jmfox]

The whole carbide vs blade debate really comes down to what kind of contracts you forsee you'll get.

Thanks for this insight. Would you recommend carbide/hammers for slash piles? I'm thinking this would be better because of the probability of dirt in a slash pile.

jmf

 

[deniscimafinc]

Well, I have a customer from the next town who did slash pile with a fixed-knive brushcutter (DAH-150) mounted on an excavator (Komatsu PC220) for the municipality. He did it in one day instead of the three originally planned by the municipality (who was previously hiring a mobile grinder). My customer admitted he took his time

See, normally, on an excavator-mounted model, the blades from DENIS CIMAF should last around 300 hours (disclaimer : that's in average conditions, average operator, average everything). Good operators will get more hours out of their set of blades than that (600 h and more).

On a front-mounted model, like those to go on a skid steer, customers are reporting average between 80 to 120 hours per set of knives, because of the dirt. Again, that's for DENIS CIMAF blades, I can't tell for Gyro Trac blades since they aren't made anymore by DENIS CIMAF. However, the customers reportedly saw increases in productivity over 50%. At 35$ per blade, compared to more or less 70$ per carbide hammer, it's a matter of doing the maths to find out which technology is more profitable for your application(s).

Since these are public forums, I don't want to get too much into the sales pitch But if you need references about the fixed knives vs carbide hammers, just let me know : I'll put in contact with land clearing contractors who tried both.


FD