Bobcat with forestry cutter?

[Pac Coast]

My company builds homes in a coastal environment. Most of the lots that we build on are very brushy, with brush up to about 4" and smaller, and on some lots, very dense.

Our excavation subcontractor used to use his 200hp excavator to clear the brush and pile it up and we would burn it. There are now burning bans in the area where we are building. We have been paying to haul the brush off, which gets very, very expensive. We typically only clear a 8,000 sqft area or so on each lot.

We recently sold an ASV RC50 that we had a loader bucket and backhoe for. We used it for general grading, digging some foundation holes, and trenching for utilities.

I would like to get a new piece of equipment that would be used mostly for clearing the brush from our lots. It looks like something like a T300 with a forestry cutter may not be a bad way to go. I would like to leave the lots clean enough for our excavation sub to either be able to just dig the foundation hole and final grade after the foundation is done, or at worst, haul off a load of the chips left behind after clearing the brush. Piling the brush into end dumps just isn't very efficient as it's hard to get green brush really packed in. Chips would be much more efficient, if they even needed hauled off, I would think. Some of our lots are mostly dune grass with very little, or very small brush. Will something like the forestry cutter sort of mulch up the top layer of soil/grass as well, or would a tiller attachment be needed?

Thanks in advance for any advice or thoughts. We aren't commited to any one brand, so any other suggestions would be welcomed. I would like the machine and attachment to be small enough to tow with my one ton dually diesel truck.

 

[tlbuser]

A flail mower may do a better job for you. Then again, maybe a full blown mulcher would be best. Or? Price range rotary to flail to mulcher
flail: YouTube - Razor Skid Steer Flail Mulcher
rotary: YouTube - Quick Attach Mini Skid Steer Brush Cutter Mower Attachment
Mulcher: YouTube - Bobcat S330 W/ Denis Cimaf DAF-180D Brush Cutter/Chipper

 

[radman1]

Since you mentioned 4" diameter brush, you should consider a mulcher. However, the grass and small stuff may best be cleared by a bush hog rotary mower. There are some HD mowers that can mow 4" material, but the hydraulic power of a skid steer doesn't have enough power to mow heavy material. You may need 2 attachments.
A mulcher is a very $$$ peice of equipment and needs a good sized skid steer with the proper protection. Do you want to spend $$$ over 100K? Might find something cheaper used. May consider just buying a CUT or skidsteer to mow with and hire someone to do the mulching if needed.

 

[aczlan]

How about a 80ish HP tractor with one of these on the back: Fae Usa - PTO/Tractor Mulchers (the UMM or UML models).

If you have a tractor of that size (or can get one) it could run the PTO version and for occasional (ie: monthly/bi-weekly rather than daily) use it should take care of what you need.
If you are also looking for something to do drain and utility lines you could get one with a backhoe (perhaps something like this: 2001 KUBOTA M9000 40 HP to 99 HP For Sale At TractorHouse.com) then it could do double duty.

Aaron Z

 

[Pac Coast]

Thanks for the info. I talked with a local Bobcat dealer today and it sounds like a Bobcat forestry cutter may be best for what we want to do, mounted to a T300 or T320. There are apparently some deals on leftover units and with high flow, the enclosure, joystick control etc. I can get a new one for about 50k. The forestry cutter is 28k, so about 78k total, which seems really reasonable if it will do what we want. The dealer also mentioned a flail mower that sells for around 10k. I am going to set up a demo and see what works better. Some of the brush is tall, well over 15', and it sounds like the forestry cutter is better at pushing things like that over and processing it.

Is the Bobcat forestry cutter made by Fecon? If so, is it pretty much the same as what is shown on the Fecon website?

Will the forestry cutter till any of the wood debris into the top layer of soil at all, or would a separate tiller be needed for that?

Thanks again.

 

[cann mulching]

Where are you located Pac?? I have a machine for you if your interested!!!

 

[Pac Coast]

I am located in eastern Washington state, but build mostly in western Washington, which is where most of our clearing needs are. What do you have?

Looking at the Loftness Timberax. Looks like a great unit too.

 

[yellowdogsvc]

Thanks for the info. I talked with a local Bobcat dealer today and it sounds like a Bobcat forestry cutter may be best for what we want to do, mounted to a T300 or T320. There are apparently some deals on leftover units and with high flow, the enclosure, joystick control etc. I can get a new one for about 50k. The forestry cutter is 28k, so about 78k total, which seems really reasonable if it will do what we want. The dealer also mentioned a flail mower that sells for around 10k. I am going to set up a demo and see what works better. Some of the brush is tall, well over 15', and it sounds like the forestry cutter is better at pushing things like that over and processing it.

Is the Bobcat forestry cutter made by Fecon? If so, is it pretty much the same as what is shown on the Fecon website?

Will the forestry cutter till any of the wood debris into the top layer of soil at all, or would a separate tiller be needed for that?

Thanks again.

You can get a new T320 with highflow, a/c and joysticks for $50k? Can you tell me where that deal is? that would be a great deal.

 

[Pac Coast]

I was talking with a sales rep from the Yakima dealer. He said that there are some incentives on units that have been in dealer inventory for a year or more, plus the rebates. Talking about a T300 with high flow he said that he thought one could be had for the 49/50k range. He was not clear if that was with the joystick controls, but since that is what we were talking about, I assumed that it was. I am sure it didn't include the suspension upgrade. In speaking with a sales rep from another store the pricing was quite a bit higher, so this guy may have been way off base.

Yesterday I talked with one of our concrete subcontractors that owns a couple of newer Bobcats. He hasn't been too impressed with the reliability. He said getting fast service to fix problems hasn't been a problem, but he said they have experienced quite a few different failures.

I'm currently looking into some other options as well. It looks like I will be able to rent a Cat, something like a 299C with a mulcher on it to see if the density of the brush on our typical lots poses a problem for these kind/sizes of units. Right now we're currently clearing an area of about 8,000sqft per building lot. Clearing and hauling off of brush is currently costing us $2,500-$3,000 per lot. Ideally we would like to clear a little more of each lot, but are not doing so because it adds to the cost. If one of the 100hp size range units and a mulcher are capable of clearing the lots it would not take long at all for it to pay for itself.

Even though I've read about some of the problems, a used RC100 may end up being of interest as well. In talking with a couple dealers, and one owner that runs one with a FAE mulcher on it, it sounds like if they are owner operated and some caution and care is used that one of those may work for us. We only need to be able to clear 3-5 lots per month, so it's not like we're talking about running a unit 8 hours a day, every single day or anything.

Any additional thoughts or advice would certainly be appreciated.

 

[ralanb]

Hey Pac, if that is all the land you will be currently clearing, I would look at the machine Cann has. You cant really go on what you read about the asv's. Most of that is operator mis-haps. A used machine for mulching is probably better because most of the bugs are worked out. There is a lot of stress on a skid steer mulching cause its not made for it. you will save a lot of money using a mulcher and be able to till it into the ground more if you use the carbide teeth. I have not used knives so i cant speak for them. 8000sq ft is nothing when you can do an acre a day. Seems like you have no competition whis is sort of good right now you can charge your price; however buy a used machine. Sell it once you build up finances and lease or purchase a newer machine and you will still be on top because you will have experience and competition. BTW it takes a while to learn HOW to mulch without tearing anything up.