lets talk forestry mulchers for skid

[kingranch]

Who has owned or used a certain brand? Looking at purchasing one. FAE seems to stand out above the rest but so does their price point.

Looking for something that will take a beating in the hill country, will likely bump into rocks and some heavy cedar action.

Any input appreciated

[dclifton]

you looking for drum style i assume? If so i would go with a Dennis Cimaf and never look back.


I have a Prinoth head. And although it does a great job mulching and is equivalent to a Cimaf in production. The Prinoth welds on it are junk.

FAE heads are tanks i do know that. But I cannot comment on the rock and hill country. As Im in ETX where all we do is mulch big trees. We seldom have to worry about rocks.

[Kruger14]

We have been through several different heads. In the past gyro trac was our main head. We’ve recently gone to mastodon and been very happy. The mastodon has the best depth control system by far. I would highly suggest looking into them. They are out of Oklahoma.

[dclifton]

We have been through several different heads. In the past gyro trac was our main head. We’ve recently gone to mastodon and been very happy. The mastodon has the best depth control system by far. I would highly suggest looking into them. They are out of Oklahoma.

Mastodon has the bcs and tooth all in one piece right? how has that held up in rock and how expensive are they? Just curious as i have seen them and that seems like a weak link and costly to replace?

[BrianL]

What size machine? Assuming you have high flow and 90+hp. Fecon is a good one at a good price point.

[El Paisano]

Back in the 90's I was the Technical Service Mgr for the outfit that imported FAE heads. We had fits with them coming apart, but I believe most of the problems were from putting them on marginal HP tractors. If you can't maintain the RPM of the rotor when cutting and the speed gets too low they will self-destruct.
I remember having a conversation with the Italian engineers who told me that they figured the service life of the head to be around 2000 hours. Coming from a CAT background I thought that was pretty crappy. They explained that in Europe the machines would only average about 400 hours a year due to government operation restrictions.

[JonW]

I haven’t had mine long, but I researched and decided to go with FAE. I run it on a smaller high-flow machine.

I run knives in SE Texas but have heard very good things about the carbide teeth on FAE in particular in the hill country compared to other mulchers as far as quality of mulch (and of course durability).


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Kong]

I’m assuming high flow? If so when you said rock and anyone recommended anything but a Fecon that tells me they don’t have a clue what there talking about. You want a Fecon with an FGT rotor with double carbides, anything else won’t hold up and the off brands are pure junk so don’t waste your money. I’ve owned over 20 different heads in the last 10 years and when the word “Rock” comes into the equation their are zero options other than a FGT. Toss a Cimaf in their and report back after the first week LOL

When it comes to mulchers the weekend warrior types are all about whatever heads there familiar with but after tens of thousands of hours beating them to death ive learned a lot of expensive lessons over the years and if you don’t buy quality from the start your going to pay for it on the back end I can 100% guarantee ya.

[Kruger14]

Mastodon has the bcs and tooth all in one piece right? how has that held up in rock and how expensive are they? Just curious as i have seen them and that seems like a weak link and costly to replace?

Yes it’s all in one piece. I was skeptical about that as well when I first saw them but after looking at the the holder and how the tooth mounts it would be pretty hard to break it. I’m sure it’s possible but we have had no issues so far. The teeth are around $70 each. The direct drive with the depth control tooth makes drum rpm a lot more consistent than the belt drive with rib depth control. Also haven’t been able to stop the drum while mulching which seems to be pretty common on the belt drive heads.

[kingranch]

I’m assuming high flow? If so when you said rock and anyone recommended anything but a Fecon that tells me they don’t have a clue what there talking about. You want a Fecon with an FGT rotor with double carbides, anything else won’t hold up and the off brands are pure junk so don’t waste your money. I’ve owned over 20 different heads in the last 10 years and when the word “Rock” comes into the equation their are zero options other than a FGT. Toss a Cimaf in their and report back after the first week LOL

When it comes to mulchers the weekend warrior types are all about whatever heads there familiar with but after tens of thousands of hours beating them to death ive learned a lot of expensive lessons over the years and if you don’t buy quality from the start your going to pay for it on the back end I can 100% guarantee ya.

great info guys

yes high flow bobcat

[Kong]

If you have any questions feel free to pm me and I’ll give you my number, your welcome to come run one as well if you want to demo it before you drop 30k on one. I’ve currently got Cimaf’s and Fecons with FGT and DCR rotors on 110-380 hp machines. I can show you what the FAE’s and other off brands look like when they don’t hold up. I have a salvage yard expensive lessons learned out back LOL

[mmoses]

Waiting on a Cat 299D3 XE Land Management with an HM416 head.

cant get here soon enough

[Kong]

Waiting on a Cat 299D3 XE Land Management with an HM416 head.

cant get here soon enough

Best Wishes

[Bowtech38]

What ever you decide on make sure the hyd cooler can handle it and come up with a good system to keep the inside of the machine clean. Mulchers are heck on a machine for debris build up.

[scotth89]

Check out shearex. Off shoot of cimaf. Great heads.