Fellas,

I'm having some land cleared via mulching this week in Waco and since this topic has come up several times on the OB I'd thought I'd mention that you're welcome to drive by and take a look while the machinery is working (Wed/Thurs/Friday - 1/11/12/13) if you happen to be in the area and are interested in this sort of thing.

First, I'm taking a little risk by using a company with a mid-sized machine (120 HP) with high flow hydraulics and a Gyro Trac mulching head rather than the 240+ HP Barko/Prentice hydro ax with Fecon mulching head that I'm familiar with.

The big machines are beyond impressive and will flat tear it up, but I had trouble getting one this time, either due to a long lead time (company in Bryan had a fair rate, but is 3 months out), or due to good business driving up the rates to more than I wanted to pay. (e.g. - I got a quote on a Barko 930 for $500/hour + the significant transportation costs for the beast.)

This machine goes for $250/hour, and I'm told that 12" diameter hardwoods won't be an issue, and that bigger stuff is workable, albeit slower.

I do know that most of the 85-100 HP mulchers are hiring out at $150/hour, but they usually are limited to 6" diameter material, so I'm hopeful (but not yet convinced), that the extra HP/flow and the Gyro Trac head will pay off.

Anyway, this property is on the north side of Waco in the 600 block of East Loop 340 in Bellmead (76705). Since it's on the backside of the site the best vantage point will be on the rear road which is Cove Drive/Holmes Street.

BTW, the contractor is Organic Land Clearing, based in Frisco, Texas.

Brief update after day 1 --

The machine turned out to be a 120 HP ASV/Terex Track Loader with the forestry package, but it didn't have the high production Gyro Trac mulching head on it like I thought it would, which bothered me at first.

Instead, it had the latest model Fecon Bullhog mulching head, which has what they call a 'Depth Control Rotor' (DCR) and steel 'Samurai' knives for teeth.

This appears to be Fecon's attempt to replicate the productivity of the Gyro Trac and Denis Cimaf heads, and I have to say, it performed pretty well.

We got 3-1/2 acres of dead mesquites and hackberries cleared, although probably only about an acre and a quarter of that was thick. It didn't quite get everything done that I'd hope would get done today, but there's always tomorrow - at $250/hour unfortunately.

On day 2 we'll tackle a thick acre of living elm trees. We'll see how that goes.

I noticed a few folks did stop by for the 'show' on Wednesday, but they might have just been locals seeing what was tearing up so many trees, kicking up so much dust, and making so much noise.

Any chance I could come by and pick up a few short hardwood logs for milling into lumber?

I'll swing by either way, I'm hitting Waco for work today/tomorrow anyway.

Terk,

Sure. Take whatever you'd like. The stuff that's left (hardwood) is elm, if that's OK.

I wish I had talked with you yesterday morning. We had a 10' high by 30" wide mesquite 'hulk' that I couldn't get the chainsaw boys to take for cooking wood (they took the rest) and the mulcher made it into dust in about 8 minutes.

BTW, the bigger stuff will be on the Williams Road fence line. Stop by the office (605 East Loop 340) and I'll show you where it is.

In any case, we've got to stay clear of the mulching machine while it works. It's a bad bad mofo.

I went West loop instead of East, so I missed you guys, but if you run another project anytime soon, drop me a line!

Hydraulics

There is a guy here in Gatesville running the big hydro-axe machine that has rates in the neighborhood of what your paying. He's does pretty good work as we've subcontracted him to do a lot of work for us over the last 10 years or so. The name of the company is E-Clear and the owner owns the hydraulic shop in Gatesville, Quality Hydraulics.

Might obviously be a little late but maybe in the future if you need to do anymore work he might be an option.

HammerStump,

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There is a guy here in Gatesville running the big hydro-axe machine that has rates in the neighborhood of what your paying. He's does pretty good work as we've subcontracted him to do a lot of work for us over the last 10 years or so.

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I wasn't aware of them and I'm most appreciative for your passing on that contact info to me.

Horsepower seems to be the name of the game in the mulching business, and if a 250+ HP machine is charging out not too much higher than a 120 HP machine, I'm definitely interested, as more power equals quite a bit less time in most cases.

Since you're local to the guy (Gatesville), do you know how he handles (and charges) out-of-town transport to job sites? I'm only 30 miles away, but still, I'd imagine that he wouldn't want to drive that beast all the way over here.

Final update --

Well, the job's done and everything's cleared and mulched, even some of the 20" elms that lined the fence lines. We had to finish in the dark (the machine has lights) but I checked it this morning and everything looks like it's supposed to look.

I'm pleased with the job, although the initial estimate (24 machine hours) was short by 4 hours, and so I'm out another grand.

What's that old joke about construction jobs being on time and on budget?

The operator had several years of experience with mulchers, and it showed. He made pulverizing trees look easy.

I've seen some Youtube videos of inexperienced guys who just bought mulchers and are advertising their services. They'll struggle to mulch a 4" tree in 10 minutes, and really aren't doing themselves any favors with those videos. I imagine they'll get better with time, or find another line of work.

If you're within 100 miles of the Metroplex and have some land you want cleared (and want less money in your pocket), you may want to consider these guys. They'll provide an on-site estimate of hours, but remember, it's just an estimate.

Organic Land Clearing

Ribeye-Rare said:

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HammerStump,

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There is a guy here in Gatesville running the big hydro-axe machine that has rates in the neighborhood of what your paying. He's does pretty good work as we've subcontracted him to do a lot of work for us over the last 10 years or so.

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I wasn't aware of them and I'm most appreciative for your passing on that contact info to me.

Horsepower seems to be the name of the game in the mulching business, and if a 250+ HP machine is charging out not too much higher than a 120 HP machine, I'm definitely interested, as more power equals quite a bit less time in most cases.

Since you're local to the guy (Gatesville), do you know how he handles (and charges) out-of-town transport to job sites? I'm only 30 miles away, but still, I'd imagine that he wouldn't want to drive that beast all the way over here.

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He is setup to move his equipment wherever. I dont know how much if any extra he'd charge but he's pretty accustomed to working all over. He does jobs all over the state.

We are in Belton and land clear with skid steers w/fecon heads for $120/hr and an excavator with a grubbing attachment for $150/hr. If you can't burn the piles, we can run the trees with stumps thru a horizontal grinder 850hp on tracks, leaving you a nice, huge pile of mulch for an added $375/hr. We haul our own equipment so if it's a long enough job, no mobilization is charged. Currently grubbing cedars and mesquite at a ranch in Youngsport. Just finished one in Jarrell. We've done small jobs in Waco but it's been a while. We used to have a tigercat m760 but it burned up. That's what sucks about mulchers. No matter how well they're maintenanced. And they are expensive. Let me know if you'd like more info. I'll put you in touch with husband. There's more pics on Facebook.

http://brushsolutions.biz

mazzag,

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We are in Belton and land clear with skid steers w/fecon heads for $120/hr and an excavator with a grubbing attachment for $150/hr.

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Thanks for passing that on, as I may (crossing my fingers) have another job coming up. Do you know offhand how large of a tree you're productive mulching with those skid steers?

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We used to have a tigercat m760 but it burned up. That's what sucks about mulchers. No matter how well they're maintenanced. And they are expensive.

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Wow! That must have hurt. That Tigercat runs 400+ horsepower, and could probably take down the Empire State Building. I've talked to a lot of guys in the mulching business over the past couple of years, and to a man/woman, they all bemoan the beating the equipment takes, and what a pain (and how expensive) it is keep it maintained.

So when are you posting the videos?

Nah, videos really don't do what's happening justice. That's why I invited folks by to watch the show for themselves if they had an interest in or a need for such things. If after 15 minutes a guy's not impressed, then he's a hard sell.

Now I'll admit that I'm easily entertained, but watching what a (relatively) few gallons of diesel and some clever machinery can do is pretty satisfying, particularly when you consider what they had to do in the 'old' days whenever burning wasn't an option for clearing land.

Besides, look what videos did for Bob Crane. I'll pass. :-)

i looked into getting a Kubota track loader and mulching head last year to do jobs here around B/CS. Was looking for a business I could eventually transition into full time where I could work outside and work for myself. After doing a lot a research I decided the reward wasn't worth the risk. There are seemingly a lot of guys trying to do the same thing right now. While those machines are awesome, the upkeep on them sounded like it would have been a full time job itself. The guy in that one video that was cleaning up by running those mulching heads on the ground like that must have a good source for cheap replacement teeth. The couple guys I talked to said that did the best job of getting a good finish but running a bunch of soil through that mulching head wore everything out twice as fast as just wood. If I had an extra $100K burning a whole in my pocket I might have been willing to try it out but the potential to loose a lot of money fast was too great.

The size depends on the density of the tree if that makes sense? A 20" cedar vs 13" hackberry, live vs rotted etc...
But sometimes we cut the tree with a ground guy and mulch the rest to the ground to not waste time. We've owned 6 of these things, we started with a JD skid steer and mulch head that constantly caught fire, a franklin and fecon that that were flooded in the 2010 rains at Lake Georgetown, then we got the tigercat that spontaneously caught fire at 5am and burned, the bobcat skid steer and the asv. So lots of experience since 2010.

We are in central Texas and the rocks kill us. We see a lot of folks getting into this with skid steers and I just laugh. Go ahead. Welcome to my world. There is no such thing as cheap teeth. Our Beast horizontal grinder uses about $150/day in red diesel. Fortunately the skid steers and excavator are multi-use so we're not tied to one thing. And we haul our own equipment so we're not dependent on other folks time and prices.

Bump. Looking at some land near Victoria, Tx that would seem to be a perfect candidate for mulching. Lots of small Yaupon, and underbrush among nice Live and Post Oaks. Would not plan on mulching any large trees but need to clear out the brush just to see the land and get a plan for the homestead. I'm guessing we would want to clear 10 or so acres with a machine. It's still early in the process.

Any recommendations for this part of Texas, or Ags in the business down here?