Mulching Project

[Robbie Hegwood]

Everyone has to have a business plan. So what if it includes year round sun,beautiful sun and surf and I bet we could find a market down there for these tractors. It would be easier talking the wives into that setting than here!!!!

Fecon advertises those tree shears alot, they look cool. I'd be interested to hear from someone who has owned or used one. But that's been dicussed before, paper companies would cut for free for anything over 10" material anyway. But it is good for you to be flexable with your services. For me it has led to several more hours of work with grapple and bucket.

Robbie

 

[HeyUvaVT]

Got a few pics here of a small job I just did with our RC100/Timber Ax Robbie

Have had the machine awhile now and I can do nothing but echo your statements about how good the Timber Ax works....how do you handle the blade sharpening? I usually try and sharpen every day as they seem to lose their edge after a full day's work

 

[Robbie Hegwood]

Welcome to the site. Very nice work. You cleaned it up very tight around the remaining trees. I like your forestry package also. They came out with it shortly after I bought mine. oh well.

I try to keep them out of the dirt and only sharpen once a week. But if I've been hard on them I will sharpen as needed. Just killed a set with 100 hrs on them. I have found a guy locally that is making them for me. Were going with a set similiar to the originals of regular steel not the new alloy. Alittle cheaper then loftness and quicker. He's checking into making me a set of the "alloy" type next. We have also tinkered with having multiple sets and just swapping them and let him sharpen on his CNC machine. This would allow me to go from job to job day after day without the two hour "grinding party". This route would have a few drawbacks like the cost of machining and time to take them. My wife said she could take them so i might try a time or two if there really bad and sharpen myself if not super dull.

I do love my timberax. And as you know 100's run them very well. I would like a carbide head for bigger stuff and to save the timberax from "abuse" but money will tell.

As you know after a few times of sharpening we get a little technique going and it's not to bad.

How's business for you? Good to hear from another Timberaxer.. Robbie

 

[HeyUvaVT]

Business has been steady..the whole idea of mulching hadnt really been known to alot of people in my area when we started but after a few demo jobs people really started getting excited about it...i am also blessed in that i am one of only two mulching services in my area so there isnt alot of competition at the moment...i think that can be attributed to the initial cost of the machine and the cutter...

Ryan

 

[Robbie Hegwood]

Hey Ryan. I'm glad business is going well for you. You say "we" run the tractor. Who all is we? Do family members run it with you. Around here it's usually solo operations.

I wish I were one of a couple running these tractors around here. There are a good many. Joe Mitchell on here runs a mulcher as part of his business and we cross paths from time to time. Good guy and there's plenty of work for both of us. He should be getting his new tractor soon, a supertrak 120. A strong tractor.

The mulching idea is fairly well known around here just most people already use someone and are comfortable with there setup. We'll teach them yet that there is a more cost effective way.

There's nothing like seeing our heads suck up a 20' tree in a few seconds!!!!!

Later Robbie

 

[HeyUvaVT]

There are 3 of us...myself...my best friend...and his father...we have the RC100...a John Deere 110TLB...and just bought a CAT 939c Tracked Loader for some of the bigger things we cant timber ax to oblivion ...we use the grapple bucket on the RC100 the 4n1 on the 110 and the 4n1 on the 939 to clear out any real big trees that have fallen and any unwanted stumps then we go in and use the cutter head to clean the place up! I usually run the RC100 and the 939c....my friend uses the pole saw and clearing saw and rigs anything we need to rig and runs the 110...his dad handles the business end of everything so we really luck out on that end of it

Ryan

 

[Gamma]

Robbie,

How do you keep 'on track' so to speak when you are mulching a path through those pine trees?

Do you walk through ahead of time and tie survey tape on the sides of the desired path and just clear everything in between them?

 

[Robbie Hegwood]

When your mulching you do a ton of backing up, in doing so you'll "see" the path you want to take. It's not as hard as it looks but with experience it will come easy. Tieing ribbon is a good idea but very time consuming and just not feasable in everyday running. Some of my customers will go ahead and tie ribbons for either paths they want run or trees left and such. Most of the time the customer is there and we do custom work with them inputting as we go. It's easier than me trying to inturpret what they want.

You rarely have the chance to walk the entire property before mulching for its just too time consuming. You will see right of the bat the general condition of the area your working and what kind of obsticals lie ahead. Robbie