Back in the winter I purchased a tree cutting head that was orginally supposed to be used for a feller buncher but I wondered if it could be mounted to an excavator and use it for land clearing. I got a hell of a deal on the head is another reason I decided to buy it and it was in great condition. I had to fabricate new bushings and a mounting plate to get the head to fit on my excavator stick but I did get it mounted and it works great. Its now down at the hydraulic shop getting all the lines and valves put on the excavator to run the head unit. My excavator is a Deere 892D-LC. The head unit does not have rotate but has grapple arms which need 12gpm I believe and the saw disc needs 30gpm flow and both are to be at 4000psi pressure. Does my excavator have the pump capacity to run the head unit and still have other stick functions though maybe at a slower speed? Or do I need a bigger hydraulic pump?
You can set the saw to have two pump flow and use the thumb circuit to run the collector arms. The stick has two pump flow so at times in the past I have swapped those two valves off the stick and to run the saw. I put the bucket circuit on the stick because you don't need two pump flow for a buncher stick. The other way to do it is to install diverter valves at the pump. It is way more expensive and you leave your machine subject to overheating this way but the head manufacturers all seem to want it done this way. Good Luck!
Whats your thoughts, is the salesman feeding me a line? A timco feller buncher salesman warned me that excavator boom are designed to take a different kind of stress then a buncher. He told me that while the head would function properly, I would see accelerated boom wear and possible stress issues on the boom. That being said it was a salesman, not an engineer. Salesman are predictable, the best thng for you is 1, whatever they have. 2, whatever they can get and make the most profit on. I'll give him this though, pulling a bucket thru a rockpile is different then felling trees with the other side of the stick. But if the boom is strong enough to take all the abuse that a pipe line hoe can dish and not fail after 1,000's of hours, whats a tree going to do that bedrock can't?
man dont ever listen to salesmen, sorry if i sound harsh but, from my experiences, they deserve to be lined up and shot after youre done with them. They act like your best friend, then disappear once you sign the paperwork.
For a long time most of the tracked cutters around here were trackhoes with a cutterhead. A timbco salesman probably doesn't know beans about trackhoes.
The salesman wants you to buy a Timbco. I've seen plenty of those booms broken too.
how big are the trees that you are planning to cut?
most of the trees range from 15"-24" diameter trees. 24" is the maximum the cutter head will go through in 1 pass. I figure if I have a bigger 1 than that I will make 2 cuts and just push it over. Im mainly going to be using it for land clearing, cutting trees along fence rows and ditches/creeks and also on levees.