treemuncher
Senior Member
PC200LC6. I've been to demos where they showcased mulcher heads running off of the same machines from the machine hydraulics. I laughed and shook my head as they nibbled away. I watched them spend over 10 minutes on a 16" diameter stem and progress through maybe 2' of material. Back then, with my smaller engine and older head, in 10 minutes I would have eaten the entire tree in that amount of time. Running off of machine hydraulics vs a dedicated powerpack is nearly the same as a 5 hp push mower vs a 15' batwing with a 120 hp tractor. If you have the time, you can get it done with less but if you want efficiency, dedicated power is king. I let the excavator engine do what it is designed to do: move the machine and swing the head, that's it. Otherwise you're trying to regenerate rotor speed while picking up the boom or moving stick out. That's just a parasitic loss to the hydraulic efficiency which results in really slow performance. If all you're doing is grass and small materials (under 2"), a powerpack won't make much difference on a larger hoe.That a Komatsu 200? We have a 220lc3 stroke delimber.
Most fecon heads I've seen ran off excavator power.
Example: This section of a job would have been weeks without the powerpack. I was done in a couple of days, even with chain saw time. note the amount of rock outcrop - ate plenty of that too!
When a lot of skid steer mulchers started hitting the market around here, maybe 15 years ago, it started educating the general public. That actually helped my marketing as many people could now see the services that I had been offering for 10+ years at that time. That resulted in more local work for me instead of hunting jobs up to 5 hours from home. Life got easier. Over the years, I've seen countless numbers of people get into this business and bail out of it. They're chasing a gold streak that runs through a really deep manure pit but all they see is dollar signs until they realize how deep that pit really is. They take a hit for $25k-$75k or more in repairs and they are out. I've experienced it, I'm always ready for it and I persevere through all of it no matter what hits. Experience is the best teacher and I've earned my degrees. They were not handed to me.I’d be interest to hear how your industry has changed from ‘97 to now? It seems like every Tom, Dick and Harry with a CTL has a mulching business now, some do good work, but a lot of them don’t. Or they are pushing their services where conventional clearing clearing would be better (Horse pastures, hay ground, tillable farm ground, etc.) Has this had an impact on your business or are you in a different market altogether?
Along with ROW work and new site development, I do lots of pasture conversion work and overgrown field reclamation. Mulching is the best way to convert wooded ground to pasture with minimal evironmental impact and the fastest way to healthy grass. One of my farm customers can usually set his cows out within 2-3 months of me finishing my work. Customers just cast seed directly on top of the mulch that I've mixed into the first 1/2"-1" of soil and nature does the rest. Really thick beds of mulch will retard grass growth for 2-3 years but after that, it takes off thick as can be. Chemicals can be added to compensate the mulch in order to burn it down faster and make it suitable for immediate grass growth.
I've been reclaiming an overgrown golf course in stages over the past couple of years. As soon as I'm done, my customer rechops with a low set flail mower, adds his "secret mix" (likely enzymes, fertilizer & lime) and in 3 months he has a brand new section of his course being maintained and nearly ready to play. I've got another upcoming stint over there very soon. I'll be sure to post some pics of that work.