New subscriber here. The amount of information you put out to help other is very good. Me i just like watching machines working no matter what it is. I have played in farming, construction, land development and logging feilds it may sound strange but, i liked to work hard but the body says no more lol. Thank you for yours videos
John Huntington Thanks for your comment John. Glad you enjoy my videos. I make these videos geared for both informing customers, and also for people interested in the business side of things. I'll have to make sure to make future videos visually interesting for people like you (and me) who just like watching equipment and people in action.
I live in northern KY.. My question is do you have plenty of work down in TN to keep busy? I think if I went into this type of work my customer base would be similar type of clients. I would imagine you need at least 1000 hours a year to afford the type of investment you have in your business.
I will say that it takes significantly less than 1000 hours per year of revenue hours to cover the equipment costs. There are several variables that go into this calculation, but very generally speaking, you can finance equipment like this over 5-7 years, which lowers the annual operating cost. Every business owners' set-up situation is different, but the First Step to determine if a business of this type would be viable and sustainable would be to crunch the numbers for a detailed Owner-Operator Costs worksheet. The starting numbers I used for my O&O Costs were 5-years to recover costs, and 600 hours per year of usage. These were my assumptions based on my personal situation. The output of this worksheet will give you the Cost Per Hour needed to sustain the business. The Second Step would be to estimate, or guess, the customer demand hours per year you think you will have. There is no "market data" you can find to tell you this at this time, but I will suggest to you, based on my personal experience, is that if you are generally in a rural area (or just not in a city or metropolitan area), and you know that there are no other forestry mulcher businesses within say a 60-mile radius of you, then you should not have any problem finding customers looking for this service. If people in your area know this service exists, and you are priced right, and you provide good service, then your business will work out fine. If you have any other questions on this topic let me know. -Dave Clevinger dclevinger@cfsmulching.com Office: (931) 802-5910 www.cfsmulching.com facebook.com/ClevingerForestServices/
Does this mulcher make your machine overheat? How do you keep this machine from overheating. Or can it run without any problems. How long can you run itm
This machine ran fine with this mulcher, no issues. Only time hydraulics would get hot is when the AIRFLOW was inhibited through the engine deck screen by leaf/mulch debris or the cooling radiators were densly covered by fine debris/dust. Also, if the operator is constantly bogging down the drum to a stop over 15-30 minutes, this restricts the oil flow through the radiator coolers. Dull teeth also cause the operator to bog the drum.
Do you find that you need any other attachments with you at a typical job? Are you only mulching, or do you do other services at a site concurrently? What are you using to transport the equipment with? Thanks for all the information that you post in your videos.
Ryan Quigley Thanks for the good questions, Ryan. I advertise my business as specializing in forestry mulching, with the capability of removing all wood material with diameters of about 8" and smaller. So when a customers calls for my service this is their expectation. I'd say about 10% of my customers goals include removing the few remaining large diameter trees from a building site for example. But the removing a limited number of trees is an easier process that the builder will typically handle and add into the construction cost. Other types of equipment can be found everywhere, but forestry mulchers are still a specialized piece of equipment, and really the most cost/time efficient way to clear trees and brush. The only other attachment I typically use on a job site is a heavy duty root grapple, mostly to remove large dead fall trees that may be on a customers site. I also have a construction bucket and an 80" bush hog, but haven't needed them for any jobs. I selected the size of my trailer so I could carry a max gear gear load including the Bobcat (11,000lbs), mulcher (2234lbs), root grapple (1130lbs), bucket (565lbs). About 15,000. So I got a 20,000 mgwt trailer. Has a 20' deck with 5' dovetail. Two 8000 lb axels. Gooseneck for better load carrying and better maneuvability. I could have probably chosen a shorter trailer without much inconvenience since I don't carry extra attachments often. I just wanted to keep my options open, and the added cost was not to significant.
Clevinger Forest Services, LLC Thank you. I have been using an eight ton crawler loader for clearing brush, but the mulcher obviously produces superior results, and I am strongly considering investing in one.
Ryan Quigley Its an efficient machine for clearing. The customers do like the finished results. Although, it doesn't get rid of the big trees if that is something a customer needs. Do you clear land for customers with your track loader? Do you push it into piles, or do you haul it off?
Clevinger Forest Services, LLC Yes, I use the track loader to remove brush and trees as necessary. I push the brush and small trees into a pile to burn, if able to burn, or somewhere out of the way. Large trees that are removed get lined up near the brush pile to get cut up for firewood or lumber, then the stumps pushed into the pile. I don't often haul anything away, too expensive. Where I am working we can usually burn, or leave it to decompose. The loader works well, but inevitably removes some top soil with the brush, sometimes even when using the root rake.
Ryan Quigley It seems like a forestry mulching machine would be a good compliment to your track loader. The mulcher gets rid of everything up to 8" diameters, and you could clear everything else with your loader. I think this would also open up a wider group of customers too. A lot of customers don't want their soil disturbed. Skidsteers are very manueuvable in tight spaces between trees too. Lots of my customers want a "park" look. Honestly, I need to get a big piece of equipment to take out larger trees to add to my business capabilities. How long does it normally take you to clear an acre with your track loader?
No, I don't have over-heating issues with this T770. I run this machine within its engineered specifications: I stick to mulching material up to the 6"-8"-diameter range, like it is designed for, I keep all of my air intake screens and radiators clean, keep reasonably sharp teeth on the mulcher, and I don't repeatedly bog down the mulcher drum. Not all skidsteers are designed for the rigors of mulching, either.
Flat tires are not the main reason, but it is definitely one of the advantages of tracks over tires. One thing a farmer will never mow down with his tractor are trees called Honey Locusts/thorn trees. They grow thorns as big as 8-penny nails and are just as hard that will puncture tractor tires all day long. I'd say some reasons that you want tracks instead of tires are: 1) Stability- tracks put a solid foundation under the machine. Mulcher heads generally weigh 2000-2300 pounds, so when you raise the boom with that kind of weight it changes the machines center-of-gravity dramatically, especially when operating on slopes. The more stabile the machine is, the safer you are. 2) Floatation- these machines normally operate in forests or fields where the soil has never been compacted and is therefor softer. Track flotation means the amount of ground pressure the machine put on the ground. You don't want to sink into soft ground. A T770 with 17.7" wide rubber tracks that weighs 10,400 lbs has a ground pressure of 4.2 PSI. What does that mean in understandable reality? I calculated the are in square inches of the sole of my boots. I divided that into my weight, and came up with about 3 PSI. So in real life, when I'm walking over the ground I'm going to work on and I if my footprints sink into the ground at all, then my machine will also sink into the ground. 3) Traction- this is an obvious advantage of tracks vs tires. More surface area contacting the ground. Also, operating in forest and fields soils is not as abrasive on rubber tracks as other contruction environments can be. I have put just over 1800 hours on a set of tracks and still have about 40-50 tread life remaining. So I expect to get close to 3000 hours out of a set of tracks working in this environment.
Mustang power Honestly, It was the brand that makes the head for Bobcat, so when I purchased the Bobcat I bought their forestry mulcher with it. I demoed both the Bobcat T770 w/forestry mulcher, and the CAT 299D XHP w/a different brand of forestry mulcher. They both performed great. The CAT mulcher had knife cutter teeth and we were cutting pine trees. I don't know the manufacturer of it. The Bobcat/Fecon mulcher had the carbide cutter teeth. The carbides are just more durable and maintenance free, until you change them out at 300-400 hours of usage. And Fecon has been the leader in industrial size forestry mulcher equipment for decades. I haven't had any major issues with mine and its got about 2300 hours on it. So, I'd say when I first
HJW81253212 When I demoed these machines in 2013, the doors just seemed like something else to break, so I got my mulcher without it. Glad I made that decision. The fact is that you want a mulcher head to be as streamlined and built like a tank as possible. A 92 HP machine pushing steel against trees will cause one or the other to give. Main reasons not to have the fold-down door: 1) better cutter visibility without the door 2) don't really need the finer mulch that a door reportedly makes 3) don't really need to control the throw of the mulch when working mostly in forests 4) knowing how brutal the working end of the mulcher is, I believe the folding door would be extremely susceptible to being repeatedly damaged
Joe Sternhagen That's very true. A good majority of my work is for farmers/ranchers who are opening up new ground for their livestock (cattle, horses, goats). Not having the pointy tree stumps sticking up is important to them, both to protect their livestock and their tractor tires and equipment.
As you said about farmers not liking stumps, There is one person who is on youtube (sorry others I will not state who) that was working a field and he hit a stump that was only a few inches up and cost him $10,000 to fix a item, I think he now wishes he had something like this bobcat.
Shane Haddow That sounds like the nightmare scenario. I had my teeth rattled a few times when I first started. It's important for operators to adjust their driving speed appropriately to how far they can see in front of them through the brush. If you are familiar with the ground you're working on, and still run into obstacles like stumps then that's on you. When you work on unfamiliar ground then you really have to keep your eyes open and move at safe speeds to avoid not only hard obstacles like hidden stumps, but you also don't want to drive into drop-offs like holes, ditches, or ravines that will cause a roll-over or get the machine stuck. You have to stay focused doing this work.
OLF just had an incident , Land owner cut down a tree between fields ,so it could be accessed stump was hidden , OLF went through w/ his bailer and bent the pickup bar. bad day.
It's never a good day when your equipment breaks. Machines are machines and will fail sometimes on their own and there's nothing you can do about that. It's more frustrating when stuff breaks due to miscommunication, inattention, etc. One thing I always think about is risk management. Thinking about what can possibly go wrong, and then doing whatever you have to do to lessen or remove those risks. Hope it wasn't to painful to fix that bailer.
New subscriber here. The amount of information you put out to help other is very good. Me i just like watching machines working no matter what it is. I have played in farming, construction, land development and logging feilds it may sound strange but, i liked to work hard but the body says no more lol. Thank you for yours videos
John Huntington Thanks for your comment John. Glad you enjoy my videos. I make these videos geared for both informing customers, and also for people interested in the business side of things.
I'll have to make sure to make future videos visually interesting for people like you (and me) who just like watching equipment and people in action.
I live in northern KY.. My question is do you have plenty of work down in TN to keep busy? I think if I went into this type of work my customer base would be similar type of clients. I would imagine you need at least 1000 hours a year to afford the type of investment you have in your business.
I will say that it takes significantly less than 1000 hours per year of revenue hours to cover the equipment costs. There are several variables that go into this calculation, but very generally speaking, you can finance equipment like this over 5-7 years, which lowers the annual operating cost.
Every business owners' set-up situation is different, but the First Step to determine if a business of this type would be viable and sustainable would be to crunch the numbers for a detailed Owner-Operator Costs worksheet. The starting numbers I used for my O&O Costs were 5-years to recover costs, and 600 hours per year of usage. These were my assumptions based on my personal situation. The output of this worksheet will give you the Cost Per Hour needed to sustain the business. The Second Step would be to estimate, or guess, the customer demand hours per year you think you will have. There is no "market data" you can find to tell you this at this time, but I will suggest to you, based on my personal experience, is that if you are generally in a rural area (or just not in a city or metropolitan area), and you know that there are no other forestry mulcher businesses within say a 60-mile radius of you, then you should not have any problem finding customers looking for this service. If people in your area know this service exists, and you are priced right, and you provide good service, then your business will work out fine.
If you have any other questions on this topic let me know.
-Dave Clevinger
dclevinger@cfsmulching.com
Office: (931) 802-5910
www.cfsmulching.com
facebook.com/ClevingerForestServices/
Does this mulcher make your machine overheat? How do you keep this machine from overheating. Or can it run without any problems. How long can you run itm
This machine ran fine with this mulcher, no issues. Only time hydraulics would get hot is when the AIRFLOW was inhibited through the engine deck screen by leaf/mulch debris or the cooling radiators were densly covered by fine debris/dust. Also, if the operator is constantly bogging down the drum to a stop over 15-30 minutes, this restricts the oil flow through the radiator coolers. Dull teeth also cause the operator to bog the drum.
Do you find that you need any other attachments with you at a typical job? Are you only mulching, or do you do other services at a site concurrently? What are you using to transport the equipment with? Thanks for all the information that you post in your videos.
Ryan Quigley Thanks for the good questions, Ryan.
I advertise my business as specializing in forestry mulching, with the capability of removing all wood material with diameters of about 8" and smaller. So when a customers calls for my service this is their expectation. I'd say about 10% of my customers goals include removing the few remaining large diameter trees from a building site for example. But the removing a limited number of trees is an easier process that the builder will typically handle and add into the construction cost. Other types of equipment can be found everywhere, but forestry mulchers are still a specialized piece of equipment, and really the most cost/time efficient way to clear trees and brush.
The only other attachment I typically use on a job site is a heavy duty root grapple, mostly to remove large dead fall trees that may be on a customers site. I also have a construction bucket and an 80" bush hog, but haven't needed them for any jobs.
I selected the size of my trailer so I could carry a max gear gear load including the Bobcat (11,000lbs), mulcher (2234lbs), root grapple (1130lbs), bucket (565lbs). About 15,000. So I got a 20,000 mgwt trailer. Has a 20' deck with 5' dovetail. Two 8000 lb axels. Gooseneck for better load carrying and better maneuvability. I could have probably chosen a shorter trailer without much inconvenience since I don't carry extra attachments often. I just wanted to keep my options open, and the added cost was not to significant.
Clevinger Forest Services, LLC Thank you. I have been using an eight ton crawler loader for clearing brush, but the mulcher obviously produces superior results, and I am strongly considering investing in one.
Ryan Quigley Its an efficient machine for clearing. The customers do like the finished results. Although, it doesn't get rid of the big trees if that is something a customer needs.
Do you clear land for customers with your track loader? Do you push it into piles, or do you haul it off?
Clevinger Forest Services, LLC Yes, I use the track loader to remove brush and trees as necessary. I push the brush and small trees into a pile to burn, if able to burn, or somewhere out of the way. Large trees that are removed get lined up near the brush pile to get cut up for firewood or lumber, then the stumps pushed into the pile. I don't often haul anything away, too expensive. Where I am working we can usually burn, or leave it to decompose. The loader works well, but inevitably removes some top soil with the brush, sometimes even when using the root rake.
Ryan Quigley It seems like a forestry mulching machine would be a good compliment to your track loader. The mulcher gets rid of everything up to 8" diameters, and you could clear everything else with your loader. I think this would also open up a wider group of customers too. A lot of customers don't want their soil disturbed. Skidsteers are very manueuvable in tight spaces between trees too. Lots of my customers want a "park" look. Honestly, I need to get a big piece of equipment to take out larger trees to add to my business capabilities. How long does it normally take you to clear an acre with your track loader?
Did u have over heating problems ?
I'd love to know that doing my first mulching job next week with my new t770
No, I don't have over-heating issues with this T770. I run this machine within its engineered specifications:
I stick to mulching material up to the 6"-8"-diameter range, like it is designed for, I keep all of my air intake screens and radiators clean, keep reasonably sharp teeth on the mulcher, and I don't repeatedly bog down the mulcher drum.
Not all skidsteers are designed for the rigors of mulching, either.
Is the reason mulcher heads are usually on something with tracks like your Bobcat to avoid flat tires?
Flat tires are not the main reason, but it is definitely one of the advantages of tracks over tires. One thing a farmer will never mow down with his tractor are trees called Honey Locusts/thorn trees. They grow thorns as big as 8-penny nails and are just as hard that will puncture tractor tires all day long.
I'd say some reasons that you want tracks instead of tires are:
1) Stability- tracks put a solid foundation under the machine. Mulcher heads generally weigh 2000-2300 pounds, so when you raise the boom with that kind of weight it changes the machines center-of-gravity dramatically, especially when operating on slopes. The more stabile the machine is, the safer you are.
2) Floatation- these machines normally operate in forests or fields where the soil has never been compacted and is therefor softer. Track flotation means the amount of ground pressure the machine put on the ground. You don't want to sink into soft ground. A T770 with 17.7" wide rubber tracks that weighs 10,400 lbs has a ground pressure of 4.2 PSI. What does that mean in understandable reality? I calculated the are in square inches of the sole of my boots. I divided that into my weight, and came up with about 3 PSI. So in real life, when I'm walking over the ground I'm going to work on and I if my footprints sink into the ground at all, then my machine will also sink into the ground.
3) Traction- this is an obvious advantage of tracks vs tires. More surface area contacting the ground.
Also, operating in forest and fields soils is not as abrasive on rubber tracks as other contruction environments can be. I have put just over 1800 hours on a set of tracks and still have about 40-50 tread life remaining. So I expect to get close to 3000 hours out of a set of tracks working in this environment.
What made you choose the fecon over any other brands?
Mustang power Honestly, It was the brand that makes the head for Bobcat, so when I purchased the Bobcat I bought their forestry mulcher with it. I demoed both the Bobcat T770 w/forestry mulcher, and the CAT 299D XHP w/a different brand of forestry mulcher. They both performed great. The CAT mulcher had knife cutter teeth and we were cutting pine trees. I don't know the manufacturer of it. The Bobcat/Fecon mulcher had the carbide cutter teeth. The carbides are just more durable and maintenance free, until you change them out at 300-400 hours of usage.
And Fecon has been the leader in industrial size forestry mulcher equipment for decades. I haven't had any major issues with mine and its got about 2300 hours on it.
So, I'd say when I first
Very well explained , thanks for the video
Mike Holloway You bet, Mike. Thanks for the feedback.
I noticed that you don't have a door on the head. Why?
HJW81253212 When I demoed these machines in 2013, the doors just seemed like something else to break, so I got my mulcher without it. Glad I made that decision. The fact is that you want a mulcher head to be as streamlined and built like a tank as possible. A 92 HP machine pushing steel against trees will cause one or the other to give.
Main reasons not to have the fold-down door:
1) better cutter visibility without the door
2) don't really need the finer mulch that a door reportedly makes
3) don't really need to control the throw of the mulch when working mostly in forests
4) knowing how brutal the working end of the mulcher is, I believe the folding door would be extremely susceptible to being repeatedly damaged
Sapling stumps are also dangerous for livestock hoofs. Ranchers need them cut to ground level.
Joe Sternhagen That's very true. A good majority of my work is for farmers/ranchers who are opening up new ground for their livestock (cattle, horses, goats). Not having the pointy tree stumps sticking up is important to them, both to protect their livestock and their tractor tires and equipment.
As you said about farmers not liking stumps, There is one person who is on youtube (sorry others I will not state who) that was working a field and he hit a stump that was only a few inches up and cost him $10,000 to fix a item, I think he now wishes he had something like this bobcat.
Shane Haddow That sounds like the nightmare scenario. I had my teeth rattled a few times when I first started. It's important for operators to adjust their driving speed appropriately to how far they can see in front of them through the brush. If you are familiar with the ground you're working on, and still run into obstacles like stumps then that's on you. When you work on unfamiliar ground then you really have to keep your eyes open and move at safe speeds to avoid not only hard obstacles like hidden stumps, but you also don't want to drive into drop-offs like holes, ditches, or ravines that will cause a roll-over or get the machine stuck. You have to stay focused doing this work.
Shane Haddow .
OLF just had an incident , Land owner cut down a tree between fields ,so it could be accessed
stump was hidden , OLF went through w/ his bailer and bent the pickup bar. bad day.
It's never a good day when your equipment breaks. Machines are machines and will fail sometimes on their own and there's nothing you can do about that. It's more frustrating when stuff breaks due to miscommunication, inattention, etc. One thing I always think about is risk management. Thinking about what can possibly go wrong, and then doing whatever you have to do to lessen or remove those risks. Hope it wasn't to painful to fix that bailer.
Clevinger Forest Services, LLC
I think it was about $9000
Sicktrickintuner $9000! Oh man. That is a major problem.