Big enough to grind orchards. Thinking of developing a side line as burning has been stopped here and there are just a few grinders in the area. The ones I looked at on line Vermeer etc. have a Cat 3412 so fuel consumption is high. I'm wondering what kind of rate you need to make money with one. I think it's done per acre. So far it looks like fuel is the killer, I don't know what kind of maintaince the drum requires or how long the teeth last. Appreciate any input.
Check out the pictures of this one in one of my threads, Hogzilla is the brand name. This company only buys the best of the best when it comes to buying equipment so it may be out of your price range. I watched it work and it's all the excavator cab do to keep the hopper full, this thing will shread some stuff quick, 18" pine stumps, no problem. we quoted one for a job once and the fellow stated that it rented for $400 and hour with a machine to load it. It may be more now that fuel prices have gone up.
I used to fix a lot of excavators that were feeding those things. The most common units I had seen and Washington state were Diamond Z. I have heard of problems on the Hogzilla machines. I don't know if Peterson Pacific is still around but they used to make a fair machine a few years ago. The 3412 Cat seems to be the most common engine in all of them. The biggest problems I saw with all those machines are damage from poor excavator operators. Overheating seems to be the biggest engine problem although Cat warrantied a bunch for awhile. Most of the machines I've looked at had a big compressor for clean out but you had better figure a good mechanic and big truck with a crane to keep any of them running. It also not unheard of that they catch fire if the operator doesn't keep them full. The grates and bits wear out in proportion to how much dirt you get in the tub. Green operators usually dump whole stump wads, dirt and all, in and wear out the consumables in a hurry. I have heard $5,000 an acre up to $15,000 for charge out rates. The housing market up here went real flat and there are quite a few machines sitting around idle. Be real careful on looking at used machines though. I've seen some on repos that still had the tub full of debris when they took it away. Good Luck!
Some charge hourly rates for just the grinder, some bid the job as land clearing, and they do all the work including running a box blade over the site to level stuff up. From the several different companies I have seen doing clearing, the horizional grinders are better than the tub style. When a tub style gets low on material they have a tendancy to shoot missles up in the air, sometimes pretty big and pretty high. Most of the land clearing operations I've been around have a excavator with a thumb set up with forestry package, a log skidder w/ a graple hauling trees to the grinder, and a loader with a root rake cleaning up. Alot of the lean clearing operations sell the grindings as mulch. How large of a land clearing division are you talking of setting up?
Mainly taking a look at cleaning up orchards that have past their prime for production. They range from 10 acres to several hundred . Almond, walnut, pistacio,some citrus all of which we used to stack and burn with dozers now they must be ground. Dirt work has almost stopped here so I'm looking to change gears a little. There are powerplants here which burn the mulch that have been idle and are now going back into production.I believe green fuel is here to stay and burning I know is out permantly. It's a little out of my line so I'm tring to get a grip on what it would take to make money at it. Lot's of research to do.
Well i ran a diamond z in the cen valley for about 2-3 years for ALW (Randy Weaver) they got 4, 2 Diamond Z's, 1 Morebark and a Peterson Pacific. The hammers last about 1-3 days of heavy use depending on the amount of dirt you run threw it. Yes fuel is going to be your biggest concern the diamond Z i ran burns about 4-500 gal a day with heavy use. We did large orchards mind you 200-1000 acres, and ground everything from lemons, oranges, plums, almonds, walnuts to pine... I did a lot of work for centex homes down in visaila we got $5-7000 an acre, walnut mostly... you also can sell the walnut stumps for like $100 a piece. With the Gub Grinder your going to need a loader with a tree rake to push up the trees to the excavator to load the tub. We used old trucks to move the grinder from spot to spot on land we were clearing. http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg3/tonkatoys1/excavator_removal252001.jpg http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg3/tonkatoys1/excavator_removal252002.jpg http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg3/tonkatoys1/excavator_removal252003.jpg http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg3/tonkatoys1/excavator01.jpg http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg3/tonkatoys1/tree_grinding252002.jpg http://i244.photobucket.com/albums/gg3/tonkatoys1/tree_grinding252001.jpg
Oh, one more thing on old orchards. Back in the day they could use some pretty harsh chemicals in the orchards and over time, and in some areas chemical contimination could be a problem. Some people were using road reclaimers to mix the top 2' of dirt up so that the contiminates you but of a low enough level that they could develop the land. Just though I'd mention it, maybe you already know though.
Oh and out in your neck of the woods to build houses on old orchard land you have to get 70% of the roots out. Witch means digging with an excavator and havin 2-3 laborers pic up the roots and put them in piles for you to grab with the bucket and thumb... thats how we did it anyway...
I've got 2 D8K's with dozers that are paid for, they should be able to take the trees out and get them to a grinder. I figure I could get going with a grinder and an excavator with thumb. Not interested if it does'nt pencil though.
Well dozers are good but i can do it faster with an excavator. Break down the trees, dig the stumps and load the grinder. As for moving trees to the piles we used loaders because they made less of a mess, and most guys wanted there orchard floors clean to plant new trees. its going to be a lot of $$$ to start DPete... and there are 5 or 6 co.'s in your area that already do grinding. if you have anymore ????'s let me know! Oh and good luck with whatever you do.....
I ran a couple of morbarks, a 1200 and a 1300. We had a D8K with a Fleco rake- I would knock the stumps around for awhile with it to shake the dirt loose, then load the tub with the attached grapple. Sometimes they'd send an excavator over with a thumb, but I always thought that was a waste of time- I could keep up with the tub with the grapple, plus the excavator usually dumped a bunch of dirt into the machine along with the stumps That twin turbo 3412 was one of the sweetest sounding engines I've ever heard.
i rather load excavtor with out the buket but with grabels