Does anyone have any experience with the D3K2 mulcher? How much will it do in a day? What do you charge per acre?
Production rates on mulchers vary greatly with the size and density of the tress/brush. That looks like a nice machine and is probably more capable than a skid steer setup. I would work back from your payment/investment and operating costs to see what you need to charge to make a profit. If you're booked out a month or more, up your price. If you can't get work lower it. What is the price tag on that setup?
I have a Bobcat FRC60 head for my skid steer and a Barko 930 on the ranch right now that I'm borrowing from a friend. Your machine is probably between those 2 in size. I can do about 1/4 acre an hour with the skid steer and around 1/2 - 3/4 acre an hour with the Barko, my brush isn't very dense but the juniper trees have thick trunks and I like to go over everything at least 2x so get the mulch finer so it will decompose more quickly. A word of advice, whatever you think your maintenance costs are going to be, you should double it. Mulching is basically a moving earthquake and it's really hard on the machines. Seems like they'll give you 100 - 200 hours of trouble free operation and then you need to spend 10 hours maintaining and repairing them. Also, watch the tracks, it's not uncommon for logs, chips, sticks to get caught in them when mulching and to cause issues. That's why most of them use wheeled tractors as their machine platform.
We paid right at 200k with for a 2020 D3K2, came with the mulcher, a blade, and a winch and fair lead
If it only has 104 hp as listed on Cat's site, unless you are primarily using it as a dozer, it will be an underachiever in the mulching market. I would put my FTX140 at 15k lbs on a job before I considered something like that cat. 69 gpm @ 6000 psi is a good start for mulching and that's what my 140 offered. It is over-pumped for that 140 hp engine size but it is very productive when you learn how to modulate your intake. Blew away the performance of my hi flow skid steer at 105 hp by a factor of 3-4 times time savings. Of course I like coffee and I like it done fast & efficient. Just my opinion.
Welcome to the Forums DHJ! Not being a smart ass but you bought a $200K machine and didn't know what it would do? In my opinion the production rates and what the local market is paying for said services should be the first thing to determine before purchasing an expensive piece of iron. Just my $.03 adjusted for inflation.
That's a good point, the Barko I'm running is 300HP and sometimes even it feels under powered.