Skid steer brush cutters
- Thread starter 247Deer
- Start date
Triple C
5 year old buck +
274...My son runs equipment for a living and uses a Bushmaster rotary brush cutter on his Cat skid steer. Bought the Bushmaster in 2011 and that thing has been a beast. He's used it to clear openings for food plots and maintaining firebreaks. It's like a tornado mowing down saplings up to 4". I had an overgrown firebreak on the northwest section of the farm that he cleaned up this summer. You couldn't drive an ATV thru the firebreak before he started on it. Don't think he's ever had any issues with the Bushmaster and it gets used quite a bit in his biz. Here's a few before and after pics of the firebreak he cleaned up on our place.
mikmaze
5 year old buck +
after 9 11 a lot of towns near me wanted vegitation cut from around =water towers so no one could easily sneak in and mess with the water so they hired the co I worked for at the time. we had a bobcat, and rented a brushcutter head for it and went to town, I ran it, and man was that thing a beast, 4 inch trees and under wer gone to near dirt. Not going full speed forward, but with a bit of time it all got done, uphill or down, didn't matter. Keep others away, but a fire extinguisher nearby if dry times as stones could throw quite a shower of sparks. lots of backing up and going forward. I can only imagine they gave gotten better over time.
hillrunner
5 year old buck +
Diamond mowers makes about as heavy duty of a unit as you'll find. They are pricey but they are built tough. I have a forestry mulcher that I normally use for the big stuff but I've used the rotary mower many times for trees up to 6" .
nchunter1989
5 year old buck +
We have rented a few different units over the years, What I have found with the "bushhog" style cutters is that you need a safety door to really utilize it. Down here, scrub oaks & sweetgums grown in clumps, so each sapling is 1.5/2" but you have 4 or 5 coming off a sprout & 12-15ft tall. You have to really raise it & come down on top to cut those up effectively.We have ran Brush Cutter by Mid State, Brushcat by Bobcat & a grinder head by bobcat.
If you go with a grinder head, they are expensive & I recommend the knives instead of carbide teeth.
If you go with a grinder head, they are expensive & I recommend the knives instead of carbide teeth.
JCU Delt Ox
Yearling... With promise
For as much as you'd spend on a high end mulcher, you may be better off with a budget cutter with minimal parts. The only parts to replace are hoses, blades, or pump. I picked up an unused 6' cutter from Ritchie Bros auctions in Columbus for $900 and it has performed perfectly. 3" capacity and the weight is easily managed by my T590. They've got plenty listed in their Dec 11 auction.
Redonthehead
5 year old buck +
Partner of mine has one of these:
Made short work of clearing our swamp of overgrown buttonbush. Flat out amazing. It does require a high flow skid steer which you said you have.
Made short work of clearing our swamp of overgrown buttonbush. Flat out amazing. It does require a high flow skid steer which you said you have.
hillrunner
5 year old buck +
It'll take more than just a high flow skid. You need a forestry package to safely run that thing. Putting that mulcher on a machine that doesn't have a forestry package can very likely end up with damaged/burnt machine or even worse, a dead operator!
MRBB
5 year old buck +
I know its nice having your own tools, but if you got a 100 acres to clear, wouldn;t it be better money spent to rent a larger machine and not put all that wear and tear and HOURS onto your machine, would get it done a LOT faster, as a 100 acres and a 60 inch head says a LOT of seat time to me and then some!
247Deer
5 year old buck +
I know what you’re saying. But to find a place to rent this type of equipment in my area of Ohio is about impossible do too the fact very few places to rent from and the gas and oil companies have it all rented. The other issue is no one has this type of equipment and the ones that do want an arm and a leg Also the skid steer I bought is 90hp which is on the larger side of skid steers
Attachments
MRBB
5 year old buck +
yes a 90 hp skid steer is a pretty large one(mine is only 70 hp)
but a 100 acres is a BIG piece of property to clear with a skis steer of ANY HP
if all things are mostly smaller, I personally would rent a dozer, push into piles, and burn as weather allows
you will save that skid steer a TON of abuse and hard work, and get things done in a way way faster method!
, as if your planning to do a food plot or?? with a brush mulcher, your still leaving behind a TON of roots that will be a major problem when planting anything down the road
requiring a excavator to come in and dig em out, where, you MIGHT get lucky with a dozer lifting and pulling roots out as you go, saving you a lot of work down the road!, all the more so if you can get a root digger for the blade(or a decen ripper behind it)
THEN if you desire to BUY an attachment for your skid steer buy a grapple bucket, will come in handy a lot more IMO and be a better investment
as what a mulcher is going to costs, for a good one, you can rent a dozer for a few days and maybe even get the whole job done and not put of ounce of wear and tear on your skid steer a decent dozer will have a LOT more weight behind it than your skid steer
and if your NOT great at running equipment, havinga hired guy that is is m,any tims worth the $$$, as they can do ina day maybe 2-3 times what a rookie can as they are just more efficient than others!
MOST can walk on a site and give a full on price of what the WHOLE job will run you
I like doing work myself(maybe too much at times, get carried away and don;t want to stop once I get started) so I get this part,
but in the bigger picture, that skid steer was NOT cheap to buy, why abuse it and take 5 times longer or more and not really save any $$$
just food for thought here
but a 100 acres is a BIG piece of property to clear with a skis steer of ANY HP
if all things are mostly smaller, I personally would rent a dozer, push into piles, and burn as weather allows
you will save that skid steer a TON of abuse and hard work, and get things done in a way way faster method!
, as if your planning to do a food plot or?? with a brush mulcher, your still leaving behind a TON of roots that will be a major problem when planting anything down the road
requiring a excavator to come in and dig em out, where, you MIGHT get lucky with a dozer lifting and pulling roots out as you go, saving you a lot of work down the road!, all the more so if you can get a root digger for the blade(or a decen ripper behind it)
THEN if you desire to BUY an attachment for your skid steer buy a grapple bucket, will come in handy a lot more IMO and be a better investment
as what a mulcher is going to costs, for a good one, you can rent a dozer for a few days and maybe even get the whole job done and not put of ounce of wear and tear on your skid steer a decent dozer will have a LOT more weight behind it than your skid steer
and if your NOT great at running equipment, havinga hired guy that is is m,any tims worth the $$$, as they can do ina day maybe 2-3 times what a rookie can as they are just more efficient than others!
MOST can walk on a site and give a full on price of what the WHOLE job will run you
I like doing work myself(maybe too much at times, get carried away and don;t want to stop once I get started) so I get this part,
but in the bigger picture, that skid steer was NOT cheap to buy, why abuse it and take 5 times longer or more and not really save any $$$
just food for thought here
nchunter1989
5 year old buck +
Every area is different.. down here it’s impossible to rent a dozer unless you have a business. & none of the larger rental shops will rent a mulcher to an individual anymore. So now is simpler & cheaper to hire it out..
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
MRBB
5 year old buck +
yeah renting Heavy equipment is becoming more and more rare, as the prices of things has gotten crazy costly for them to hand over to a unknown operator, who can do damage to a machine that might not show up on return but down the road a ways
its also why many times hiring the job out to an experienced operator is a faster more cost effective way to clear larger sections of land
a 100 acres in a skidsteer is a LOT of work and seat time, I personally think its asking a LOT out of a skid steer and going to be very hard on it
picking at things here and there OK< but if your going to TRY and clear in a fairly non stop deal, your going to kill that nice skid steer real fast! and have a sore a$$ along the ways LOL
its also why many times hiring the job out to an experienced operator is a faster more cost effective way to clear larger sections of land
a 100 acres in a skidsteer is a LOT of work and seat time, I personally think its asking a LOT out of a skid steer and going to be very hard on it
picking at things here and there OK< but if your going to TRY and clear in a fairly non stop deal, your going to kill that nice skid steer real fast! and have a sore a$$ along the ways LOL
Black River Food Plots
Yearling... With promise
If you're a 'buy once, cry once' kind of guy......buy a Davco. Davco cutters are known as the best long term rotary cutters on the market (they're made in Alberta, Canada). I'm in the same boat, wanting a rotary cutter and I refuse to buy cheap....so I'm watching for a used Davco on auction sites and craigslist. They are few and far between on the used market. My brother in law works for a power company up here in northern WI and that's the only brand they use. They have one that's almost 15 years old and still runs like new.
