Mulcher Heads....What you runnin and WHY?

[jamesn]

i have to agree with you fish on that, i still hate to sharpen teeth:thumbsup:

 

[yellowdogsvc]

I have been mulching since 2003. I started with a brown bear with flail knives, then moved to a Tushhogg (back then it was called a land tamer). I moved up to an extended demo on a magnum and finally settled on a CAT (FAE) mulching head. I have had the unit 6 years and probably have about 3500 hours on it. I have replaced seals and bearings once and teeth once. Other than a few odd and end teeth that I replace, I am not replacing teeth as often as I did with the Tushhogg (but to be fair I used the tushhogg in all types of rock and for milling large oak stumps).

The hammers on an FAE, magnum, Fecon, or seppi may not cut as fast as a Cimaf style head but you don't have to sharpen and they are a lot more forgiving if you hit rock. I routinely pulverize limestone.. but carbide doesn't like flint or harder rocks like granite.

I like having a mulching door for containment and recutting especially when working near others, homes, or roads.

One thing I did like about the magnum, it was low profile. I didn't go with it because it's finished product left a lot to be desired and it had so many teeth that it seemed to bind up on stringy brush more.
I would look for a mulcher with a 2 stage or whatever they call it motor to help power through stringy material that will wrap around your head or bind it. RPM's drop quickly with a skid steer or CTL mulching platform when you get into thick material but you can mulch bigger material if you don't use the head like a battering ram.

 

[deniscimafinc]

[...]looks like a very promising site!
:thumbsup:

Welcome to the site, Highmark. Glad you did joined.


FD

 

[highmark]

such a science...im liking this business the more and more i am educated. i am thankfully for the many great responses and experience. it is all being noted and mulched over..lol

so what i am getting out of this (correct me if im wrong) is it would be beneficial to run BOTH heads. one knife, one carbide?

use them accordingly.

i actually like this idea. not throwing all of our eggs in one basket, so to speak. i big thank you to yellow!

we actually went in to bobcat to look at the t770 but was quickly persuaded to the t870. (being that i was in sales for a number of years, and they didnt have any t770 IN stock, yet had 4 t870's....lol...easy to see why they were pushing the t870)
after your pm i did a fair amount of research on the 2 ctl's. the t770 has 92 hp and the t870 has 99. the gpm is only .5 of a difference as you stated. being that we only have one tons and that the t770 is over 2000lbs lighter....with that and the foot print being smaller...t770 has the vote. not only that its $6000 cheaper!


again, thank you all for contributing. great peeps on here!:thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[yellowdogsvc]

such a science...im liking this business the more and more i am educated. i am thankfully for the many great responses and experience. it is all being noted and mulched over..lol

so what i am getting out of this (correct me if im wrong) is it would be beneficial to run BOTH heads. one knife, one carbide?

use them accordingly.

i actually like this idea. not throwing all of our eggs in one basket, so to speak. i big thank you to yellow!

we actually went in to bobcat to look at the t770 but was quickly persuaded to the t870. (being that i was in sales for a number of years, and they didnt have any t770 IN stock, yet had 4 t870's....lol...easy to see why they were pushing the t870)
after your pm i did a fair amount of research on the 2 ctl's. the t770 has 92 hp and the t870 has 99. the gpm is only .5 of a difference as you stated. being that we only have one tons and that the t770 is over 2000lbs lighter....with that and the foot print being smaller...t770 has the vote. not only that its $6000 cheaper!


again, thank you all for contributing. great peeps on here!:thumbsup::thumbsup:

And that extra hp will just go to moving the mass on the 870. The motors should still be the same v3800 that I had in my s330. That means you can turn the fuel up if you want extra engine power but it will consume more fuel. The motor is rated up to 115 hp, I think, for other applications.

 

[BLCMulcher]

I am running a Fecon FTX 148 in Houston where the soil is mainly gumbo and the terrain is flat. My Fecon head is the smooth drum v-back style. I am currently running knives (as opposed to carbide hammers). The design on the knives is such that when one side is worn out you can flip it over and start cutting with the other side. I got about 65 productive hours (90 total) out of the first side and my productivity is at least 35% improvided over carbide which makes the cost and downtime related to replacing and sharpening a non factor. The chip size is much better than carbides, the ground work goes much faster and they seem to produce with less stress on the head/machine. Problem is the knives are not in full production right now. When I need carbides, and I will from time to time, I will just swap them out - regretfully.

I also have a Tak TL250 CTL and I will definetly fit it with the knives when they are available. I have been dissapointed with the productivity of this machine as a mulcher relative to the 148 but feel the knives will improve productivity a great deal. - Good Luck!

 

[AGGIE00]

I am running a Fecon FTX 148 in Houston where the soil is mainly gumbo and the terrain is flat. My Fecon head is the smooth drum v-back style. I am currently running knives (as opposed to carbide hammers). The design on the knives is such that when one side is worn out you can flip it over and start cutting with the other side. I got about 65 productive hours (90 total) out of the first side and my productivity is at least 35% improvided over carbide which makes the cost and downtime related to replacing and sharpening a non factor. The chip size is much better than carbides, the ground work goes much faster and they seem to produce with less stress on the head/machine. Problem is the knives are not in full production right now. When I need carbides, and I will from time to time, I will just swap them out - regretfully.

I also have a Tak TL250 CTL and I will definetly fit it with the knives when they are available. I have been dissapointed with the productivity of this machine as a mulcher relative to the 148 but feel the knives will improve productivity a great deal. - Good Luck!

With our low horsepower machine, I feel the same as you with regards to knives vs hammers. Our solution, as suggested on this site, is to run knives in the middle for taking down the hardwoods and hammers on the outside. This gives us more capacity without having to take too much time sharpening. I hear people saying, keep the head out of the dirt and the knives will last longer, but I haven't found that to be possible. We run in sugar sand most of the time and end up grinding more dirt than brush.

 

[cat 297c]

Fish, is right all depends on the type of terrain you're running in, in my opinion you can't go wrong with the cimaf. Way, way more productive than mulchers using carbide tips, the cimaf will out cut any other head hands down. My Cat 297 with the 180d will hang with 140-150 hp machine with carbide heads all day long No Joke. I couldn't stand the carbide teeth on my Rayco c140 so i went with Quadco chippers on it an man wat a difference like being in a totally different machine, I've been looking for a Cimaf 180e for the Rayco for months now can't find one anywhere, my advice go with chippers at the end of the day your going to have more done an finer mulch, an your machine will last longer.

 

[yellowdogsvc]

Fish, is right all depends on the type of terrain you're running in, in my opinion you can't go wrong with the cimaf. Way, way more productive than mulchers using carbide tips, the cimaf will out cut any other head hands down. My Cat 297 with the 180d will hang with 140-150 hp machine with carbide heads all day long No Joke. I couldn't stand the carbide teeth on my Rayco c140 so i went with Quadco chippers on it an man wat a difference like being in a totally different machine, I've been looking for a Cimaf 180e for the Rayco for months now can't find one anywhere, my advice go with chippers at the end of the day your going to have more done an finer mulch, an your machine will last longer.

Do you sharpen the cimaf knives on the unit or do you just replace? I've considered getting a second type of cutting head. I tried flails with u shaped knives when I first started. Did not hold up well in the rock. I don't work in rock all the time but most of the time so I thought a 2nd head would be a good idea. How are the Cimaf type heads on brush piles?

 

[cat 297c]

Do you sharpen the cimaf knives on the unit or do you just replace? I've considered getting a second type of cutting head. I tried flails with u shaped knives when I first started. Did not hold up well in the rock. I don't work in rock all the time but most of the time so I thought a 2nd head would be a good idea. How are the Cimaf type heads on brush piles?

Yes, u do sharpen the knives on the cimaf but it's not as bad as it sounds. I been using a grinder with flap discs there a whole lot quicker than regular grinding wheels. If I'm mulching in small stuff I may only sharpen the teeth ever 15-20 hrs. In bigger stuff or sandy ground I'll check the edge on the teeth at the end of the day if it needs it I'll put a sharp edge back on them. Most of the time with 40 grit flap disc it only takes Bout 15 minutes to sharpen the teeth.