Disc Mulcher or Drum Mulcher -Which is better for forestry work and land clearing

Heat. [Music] Now, forestry mulching looks like an exciting industry to get into, but before you jump into it, you've got to know a few things. One, it takes specialized equipment. Meaning, you can't just go ahead and pop a forestry kit on the front of any old skid loader and think it's going to actually operate it the right way. The second thing is, it takes a high level of skill. These guys that are out working inside the forestry industry make it look easy when nothing is further from the truth. These guys understand the terrain they're getting into. They know their equipment by feel. It's like an extension of their arm and they know where they can go and where they can't go. And I know that you guys are looking at getting into this thing. you want more information, just look in the comments down below because these guys have a wealth of knowledge and they're willing to share it in the comments down below. So, if this is something you're thinking about getting into, look no further than below this video. What we're going to be concentrating on today is some of that specialized equipment. There's two typical kinds of mulching kits. There's a disc muler, which you're going to see today, and there's certain advantages and disadvantages to a disc muler. And then there's a drum mulure, which we're going to do a video on down the line. So, make sure you come back if you're thinking about getting into this industry. But without wasting any more time, let's go make some trees pop. Holy shame. Yeah. How much does that thing weigh? About 2500 lb. Holy crap. I mean, just the hydraulics on this machine alone are going Yeah, it it it's quite a load. You need a high flow uh skid steer definitely to run it. Okay. So, and you're one of the engineers for Quick Attack, right? Okay. So, you're one of the guys that actually builds these things. Yeah. I want to know what technology you've put into this thing to make it, you know, the best possible version that you could. Well, the main thing is building it heavy. So, structurally, we built it extremely strong. The deck and uh the drivetrain also is extremely heavy. But when you say heavy, I'm I'm looking at just the framework of this thing. I mean, and the feel this is a 185. you'd never run. No, you would never run this. So, how not to run a forestry kit, not with a 185 and not with an open door. Right. Right. So, we're going to actually talk about some of the ways some of the ways that the guys should spec off their unit and what they should look for when they're looking at buying one of these things because the two have to be married together, right? You can't just go and grab any attachment and plug it into any machine and think that it's going to operate the way that this needs to be operated. Right. Right. As you have already seen the just the weight of the the machine is very heavy. So you can't put it on any light duty uh carrier. You need to be able to safely carry that weight uh for stability. And then hydraulically you need the power to run it because this is takes an extreme amount of power to mulch up a tree in 2 seconds. And so the gallons per minute is where the power comes. So you need high flow and hitting 36 gallons per minute or higher. Y and then where does the horsepower of the the skid steer? You said 80 horsepower or more. Where does that come into play? Well, it's a combination of the uh flow rate times the pressure. Okay. So those two together will give you the hydraulic uh horsepower. Okay. So hydraulic horsepower and that's what's measured at the hydraulic horsepower. That's a big that's kind of an important thing. Your combined hydraulic horsepower combines the gallons per minute, the flow rate with the horsepower of the unit to run the attachment, right? And then what about the rest of the machine? I know we need to have a forestry door on the front of the machine. So, don't run a glass door. And is there a reason why you can't run your standard glass door? Right. Yeah. It's for safety because it it sends uh debris flying. So, you don't want it in your glass. Can you tell me exactly what FOPS and the two or that's been rated? So, it's falling object protection and uh most skid steers have a basic structure. They That's level one protection for small objects like bricks and rocks. So, the cab the cab. So, the cab right there, that's your level what one. Yep. But, uh what we want is level two. They're in the case of Bobcat, they add an extra structure on top that stiffens the top and protects you from like huge trees falling on you. Some skid steers will have actually what's called the forestry package on them. Yep. And that's where they actually protect the lights on the front and the back and the rear and then they have a a more protective shroud on the cage on the the skid steer as well. So this would be reinforced as well. Yeah. Some of them have uh coverings that fill in open areas because as you get uh sawdust and leaves and stuff in the engine compartment, it becomes a real fire hazard. You are literally going through the forest grinding everything up that you can imagine and you'll get you'll get chips. I mean mulch. And what'll happen is kind of like a lawnmower when you cut grass and you get all the dry grass clippings on it and if you forget to blow them off, you can start a fire. Well, you can not only start a fire, but you can suffocate your engine. So, it's really important that if you use these attachments that you keep your engine compartment clean. Let's go to the actual working end of the machine. Now, this is a disc. Yep. Now, I've seen them as wheels. What's the difference? The main difference is that this will mulch an entire tree in one shot. So, it's faster. You come up to the tree. I usually come up at at about a 45° angle, maybe 6 ft off the ground. Uh move into the tree forward and the top of the tree will just uh be sucked in because of the rotation. And the teeth on top grab the tree then and then pull it in. And it happens like blink in your eye. It just sucked it right in. That sounds scary and fun and exciting and something that I've wanted to try for a very long time. Yeah. So, that is a 4-in output shaft, right? Correct. Why do people want to know about that so much? When you push brush mowers or any kind of mulch to the limit, usually what ends up breaking is the the shaft when people abuse equipment. So, it's kind of a common denominator when they want to compare how one machine compares to another is they'll ask about the output shaft. So that's there to knock debris down that comes out cuz this is the exit. Mhm. Okay. And anything that comes out will just hit this very heavy door and get knocked down. So now I'm looking at the the the carriage or this structure right here. What is this called? Oh, we just call it the push frame or the push bar. So it's built very heavy. It's heavy gauge steel tubing. So this is 2x4, 2x3. I haven't seen other forestry mulchers utilizing this system. What I found during testing is that uh you'll have trees sitting at different angles and sometimes they fall over the top. Top. Yeah. And if they lay on top of the machine, you can't get them off. Right. And so that requires the operator to get out of the cab, pick up the debris, and throw it off. Well, with this type of uh machine, with that much stored energy, it takes several minutes for it to stop rotating. Okay? And so during that period, we don't want you outside the cab. It really hurts your productivity to have the debris fall on top of the machine. So this is designed to allow the debris to slide off. So this protects the expensive stuff inside here, but also this is actually protecting it now versus just having this. Okay. So we come up to a tree 45° angle 6T up. We shred that. Then what should we expect after that? Uh you can then uh lower the disc on top of the remainder of the stump and the carbide teeth on the bottom will mulch that break that up into bits. Yeah. So, these are carbide tip teeth, so they're actually as hard or harder than most of the rock that we're going to be hitting, and so they last longer. Uh, these teeth here are just uh hardened steel, and so they're they're more like a knife edge. Uh, they're very sharp and very efficient at cutting, whereas carbide teeth are little less efficient at cutting, but they're much more robust. For the new guy coming in, what should they look for if they're trying to buy a forestry mulure? the unit themselves for the first time. Shane, in terms of reliability, uh you want to know that you have teeth that are easy to change, easy to buy. What are you going to use it for? Um are you going to be out in the woods? Are you going to be near structures like homes or people? Uh this type of machine, you just don't want to be have people around or any kind of property uh because it is so dangerous. Even disc or drum style mulchers are dangerous. Um, but but this one is even more so because it can it has the ability to throw material. All right, let's take her over. And I think Xander's excited. I like Look at Look at the look on his face. [Music] That thing bounce. That bounces just from the weight of the attachment, doesn't it? So, when you have one of these without an attachment, they do wheelies. And when you have one of those, it does endo. [Music] up here. Stay way back. I'm afraid that chain can break. Okay. We're not exactly doing what's uh factor recommended here, I'm certain. [Applause] We definitely got that jammed up. [Applause] That is not good. That's not good. When the ASB forestry guy comes out and says, "That is not good." [Laughter] That's probably one of the worst jams you've seen, isn't it? It is the worst jam I've seen. It's not budging. And we got 12,000lb hammer going here. So, only at my place, guys. Only at my place. Hey, Buck. Do you think that 24in log we could take down? Let's try. Well, I think we answered that one. So, plan A didn't work quite the way we wanted it to. Plan B didn't work quite the way we wanted it to. Plan C we haven't created yet. Buck doesn't have a plan C yet. He's thinking. That's his thinking face. I've been hanging out with him all day long. I know his thinking face. I've got plan C, but I don't want it on film. All right, guys. We'll let you know how this goes. We'll see you later. Well, we're not going to say what we're going to do. But we got plan C. All right, guys. Well, you know what? We had some success, but we also had some setbacks while we were out doing it. And we showed you where with a disc muler, if you ram into a tree too hard, too fast, without being able to kind of feel your way into it, you can jam it up. And that's part of that skill that these guys that are inside the industry almost intuitively understand and realize. So as you get into it, just understand that there is this learning curve, this hump that you got to get over before you actually start to be really successful at it. Next video that we're going to be working with with Quick Attach will be an extreme brush cutter. And then we're going to also be looking at some other tools and attachments. And one of those is going to be a drum muler. and we're going to show you the benefits and some of the drawbacks with that system as well. Hope this video's helped you out. Let me know in the comments down below what you think.