Flail mower for grinding up brush piles

[shooterdon]

I have used a chipper before and hand feeding it gets old quick as does having to remove the Y on branches to get them to feed. Not going down that road again

My brush pile is 35’ in diameter and 7’ high. I am taking down another 20 trees so more stuff to deal with.

In hindsight, it was dumb to make the pile that large.

 

[Mtsoxfan]

lol... I did the same, as my plan was to rent a chipper for a weekend. The pile got so large, twisted together, it would have been a PIA. I ended up having a huge bonfire, one so large, I would never do that again. Now, I usually have a fire going when I cut a tree down where a brush pile would be seen from house. Burn as I go. Other areas, I just push into piles out of the way and they will rot. May take more years than I have, but I don't care...

 

[CoyPatton]

Will a flail mower work to grind up brush piles with a maximum of 2” diameter sticks?

In a pile, in a word—NO!
If you can spread out the pile, the thinner the better and the fail has hammers and not knives, it may take a few passes, but it will do a decent job of chopping up 2” or smaller stuff, I would not call the results shredded.
How long has it been piled up? If several months, I would burn it. Last week I burnt a pike from early April, I think I raked it 2x to get the ends of limbs into the hot coals.

 

[2manyrocks]

Smaller brush piles are safer and easier to burn provided you have a clear area to burn them and have a source of water to make sure they are extinguished. It's added work to feed a chipper when you could just pile up the brush with a grapple and then burn it.

I bought HF's 79cc clear engine pump, their intake suction hose, and their 100' commercial water hose at HF. https://www.harborfreight.com/1-in-79cc-gasoline-engine-clear-water-pump-35-gpm-63404.html. The water pump had a metal intake strainer in the box that fit the intake hose. They also have a good hose nozzle. https://www.harborfreight.com/lawn-...nectors/no-squeeze-firemans-nozzle-56711.html. I bought a brass 1" to 3/4" hose adapter on Amazon. Once the pump is properly primed, it will provide a pretty good stream of water flow provided you have a pond, creek, pool, etc with enough water capacity. It's relatively lightweight and has good run time on a little tank of gas.

 

[CoyPatton]

I have used a chipper before and hand feeding it gets old quick as does having to remove the Y on branches to get them to feed. Not going down that road again

My brush pile is 35’ in diameter and 7’ high. I am taking down another 20 trees so more stuff to deal with.

In hindsight, it was dumb to make the pile that large.

Do you have forks for your tractor? Or even better a grapple? If yes, use them to make several piles to burn or make the pile to burn smaller with a pile you will feed from as it burns down. For large burns, I have used my FEL bucket to push tips into the coals—you mush be careful as I have know people to set front tires on fire. Personally I try to keep my burn piles smaller, coal will restart a fire for days without rain or soaking with water.

 

[shooterdon]

Do you have forks for your tractor? Or even better a grapple? If yes, use them to make several piles to burn or make the pile to burn smaller with a pile you will feed from as it burns down. For large burns, I have used my FEL bucket to push tips into the coals—you mush be careful as I have know people to set front tires on fire. Personally I try to keep my burn piles smaller, coal will restart a fire for days without rain or soaking with water.

I have a grapple and agree that making a smaller burn pile and feeding it is smarter.

As is waiting for six or more inches of snow.

 

[SPYDERLK]

I have used a chipper before and hand feeding it gets old quick as does having to remove the Y on branches to get them to feed. Not going down that road again

My brush pile is 35’ in diameter and 7’ high. I am taking down another 20 trees so more stuff to deal with.

In hindsight, it was dumb to make the pile that large.

What I have always done is use an old JD 127 5ft bushog I have. Driven by 45ptohp it does a pretty good job chomping up 10' diameter man hand assembled piles almost instantly. Material up to 3" or reconsolidate and go again for bigger stuff. No stump jumper on this old mower, just a 40" bar with swinging knives. - - No way to attack a 7' high pile tho.

Farmowner size chippers are a lot of work. Fine if youre massive and 30 I guess.

 

[DieselBound]

I've got a cheap Chinese Nova, but support is great from Jack. Mine is the BCRM, medium duty ditch mower with the hammers, not knives. I don't have a lawn to maintain.

It's not a chipper, but it does 80% of the chipper work in about 5% of the time. I also burn the big stuff.

I wouldn't necessarily call these things "cheap." I've got a heavy duty one (MZ series) and it's been an insane workhorse; I doubt anything else would be any better. I think I'm on the 4th year of ownership and still running the original belts (and have never even adjusted them!). The only real issue has been the tines tend to take a beating, bend up; these things are what are supposed to help cycle debris so that it gets chopped up.

As others have said, the flails will tend to break things up into pieces but not necessarily grind things up. I'll chop stuff up and then pick up (and toss or whatever) the larger chunks.

Rotary cutters are probably better (no concern as they're more robust) but you'll end up chasing the debris all over the place.

No getting around it, clean-up is always time consuming. I deal with a lot of branches from maples in which case I'm pretty well versed in all this: if I have a lot of debris I pile it then cart it off with my grapple to an out-of-the-way place.

 

[CoyPatton]

I have a grapple and agree that making a smaller burn pile and feeding it is smarter.

As is waiting for six or more inches of snow.

I usually just wait for a heavy rain enough to have everything around the burn location fairly wet, then burn in the morning. Often by 8:00 or so, all that is left is some coals and a scorched area. A week later snd weeds are growing. Another week and I’m starting another pile of limbs.

 

[Torvy]

I usually just wait for a heavy rain enough to have everything around the burn location fairly wet, then burn in the morning. Often by 8:00 or so, all that is left is some coals and a scorched area. A week later snd weeds are growing. Another week and I’m starting another pile of limbs.

I do it the other way around. Start burning before the rain hits. That way the rain helps to put it out, but doesn't obstruct getting it lit.

It's almost always damp here except for maybe in August.