Does any body do tree work in North NJ on this forum. Do you know if you can rent a tub grinder for a day and what it might cost.
Come on guys I know you know something.
im not in NJ but we have used tub grinders a few times. When we do it we just bring in an outfit and they usually bring in a grinder and an excavator, unless we have a machine there for them. Last time we used them they actually hauled off all the chips, i guess a sawmill around here uses the chips to power the place. If i remember right they bid it for $13,000, and they thought it would take a week. They also had a 300 hitachi there as well.
Its the same way around here the tub grinders are usually run by a company that does that kind of work. I forget the rate but its around 1000 dollars per hour for them to come in and grind wood debris. The excavation contractor has to supply the excavator to load the chipper while the guy that works for the company with the chipper operates the chipper. We are lucky its cheaper and easier to burn.
Yeah, to have a contractor come in with a tub grinder, you are talking major money. Thank god we have a place to dump them.
Grinding company = $8,000 + 1 excavator + 1 operator :spaz 1 well placed match = 1 penny :yup Down here you just get a burn permit from the Forestry Dept. and then light the match. As long as it is permitted you can burn just about anything except trash and hazardous material. Might not be the same in your area.
I'd give your local vermeer or morbark dealer a call and see if they know of a company that rents out tub grinders. They should know someone you can rent from. I wish we had a smaller one like the Morbark 950 for rent around here. It'd allow me to work year round and not have to deal with burning. This year we had a burn ban that ran around 5 months. In the long run, grinding may actually be more cost affective.
just say that you are interested and need a demo :wink2 ....but yea call the dealer and see if he knows of any rentals, that is your best bet. Around here you have to hire the contractor who brings the grinder and a excavator, haven't seen any rentals.
Tub grinders are expensive to run the debris you load in has to be clean because rocks,steel or any other hard object wreaks havoc on the parts in the grinder.
True story, that is where stump splitters come in handy.
Yup, last time we hired a grinder they bid the work at one week, and ended up taking a little over 2. i think they broke down 2-3 times. that 800HP engine sure seems to break stuff. between the grinder, having a 300 sitting there for 2 weeks, fuel, 2 guys sitting there, trucks hauling chips out, I wouldnt be suprised if they lost money. edit: and had a stump splitter when we cleared, and the guy that did it left a real mess on the ground and left lots of roots, meaning the brush was pretty damn clean.
Last year I was on a job with a grinder I was moving away the chips the wood waste had some metal attached to it you could hear that clanging and banging in the grinder. I know when a few other contractors in the area had a tub grinding service the tub grinders were maintenance pigs. A good excavator operator with a good eye can watch for debris in the wood that isn't supposed to be. The old stumps around here can be pretty big some weigh 3 ton.
Nac PM sent.
DONT CALL VERMEER!!! The biggest they have is the TG 525. Its 525 horsepower and is not built for anything more than kindling. I rented one for a job in Lubbock and turned it in a week later. We bought a Hogzilla on tracks to get the job done. It had a 14' tub and 1000 horsepower. It did great until it burned to the ground. Our next purchase was a Diamond Z 1400 Series. I have done over 2 million yards with it so far and was even working it with the Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans until they banned all tub grinders and went with horizontal grinders. They are absolute maintenance pigs!! I plan on a 12 hour day and we usually get 8 hours of grinding in. I have seen rates vary from $250/hour to $1300/hour depending on age of material and what kind of foreign debris might be hidden. Our tub grinding crew has a dedicated tractor to haul it, an excavator to load it, a loader to clean-up after it and a water truck to keep it all from burning down! We are ready to travel. PM me if I can be of any more help.
ON EDIT: I just learned that Vermeer does make a bigger machine. Something in the 1000 horsepower range. Still, I would not deal with them. Their maintenance techs are not very knowledgable about the machinery they are working on and the customer service that I received was horrible. In fact, they took the machine right out from under me. I was trying to decide whether or not to make the change to the Hogzilla. I did not run the Vermeer for about a week during this time because it cost more to operate than I was making on the job. After a week, I went back to the site only to find that the Vermeer was gone and my Peterbilt was broken into. I called the police to make a report (you should have seen the look on the officers face when I told him it was an 80,000lb yellow machine worth half a million) and went through that hassle for about 3 hours only to find out that Vermeer had sent one of their drivers to pick up the machine. They used MY truck to haul THEIR machine back to their yard!! Then they brought MY truck back and parked it for 3 days with the windows rolled down. I had a very polite discussion with the office manager and stood there staring their salesman in the eye when he got FIRED! Vermeer offered me a free month of rent on the machine (worth $10,000) to avoid a lawsuit. I declined their offer and told them that I wasnt taking them to court but that the salesman would have to detail my Peterbilt and fill it with fuel! They accepted the offer and I havent dealt with them since. :Cowboy
Why did they ban the tub grinders?
They banned them because tub grinders have a tendancy to throw debris hundreds of feet away from the machine. I once had a 20-30 pound log fly out and land about 700 feet away. The Corps of Engineers went with horizontal machines because they would sometimes have 5-6 of us grinding in one yard. Nobody kept glass on their machines very long!! In fact, most of us went with wire mesh after seeing where they were having us work. Great for debris, horrible for the mosquitos and gnats.
I didn't think of the close quarters with the flying debris. :thumbsup