Thank you TSO, I'm familiar with the undercarriage damage/ problems. Been running a compact John Deere with shredder. And problems with dust. The tractor I go with will do about 50/50. Mowing, dirt work, and brush clearing. Been doing tractor work for 17 years now and hope to do it another 10. Don't want to spend too much money retirement money. Lol ,,,,what size mulcher were you using on your Massey ? How big was the brush you were clearing ? What gears did you run in ? **** I'm full of questions huh ? Just trying to get some info so I can make a better decision. Thank you for your kind help.
I believe it was the FAE model "UML/LOW" and is rated for 60-100 hp. It is a 60" Cut, 72" overall, weighs around 2100 lbs. This mulcher belongs to another TBN member, KenB2920, and we had joined forces on one of our clearing jobs. His L5240 was down at the time so he ran the mulcher on my machine. My machine was likely underpowered to get the full potential out of the machine. On my tractor, it excelled at "under 3" sized material. It has more and "smaller" teeth than the skid-steer "Bobcat/FECON" model you see in the picture. The more/smaller teeth on the FAE produced a finer chip bed result, but had the tendency to dull faster. In the picture, you will see half of what we were mulching. Those are mostly soft wood trees (aspen, river-birch, poplar, etc). They were the left-overs that were too large to safely use the brush-hog mowers on. However, not-pictured was the other half of the material we were cutting, which was a mix of ash, oak, and other hard varieties. Both machines moved substantially slower through the hard woods (not surprisingly), especially when trying to "fine-mulch" what was already taken down.
For that job we didn't take down anything 6" and above (that was the particular requirement for that phase).
Without a doubt, the skid-steer unit was much more productive than the tractor unit. Having it mounted on the loader offered much better flexibility and functionality, and because it was larger and had more power behind it, it tackled larger material much easier. Also, you could safely take it into places that the tractor unit would/should not go, simply because you'd present hazards to the rear of the tractor. But with that said, the tractor mounted unit was very efficient once you learned what type of material you should use it for, and the best method of attack.
My Massey 1652 is a Hydrostat. So it was mainly used in Low range and occasionally in Medium range.
The point of particular danger with this unit... is that if you have a small tree/branch that ends up getting under the unit, it actually propels it forward (toward & under the tractor, towards the front of the tractor). And it propels it with substantial force. It can cause some serious injury or damage if the conditions allow.
Here's the link to the FAE models:
UML/LOW
