I am considering buying a tub grinder. I will have several thousand dirty stumps to get rid of. These will be hardwood. There will be clay and some rocks trapped in the roots. Stumps will be from up to 40" diameter trees. What is the best cutting head style for this application? I have seen I have seen drum mulcher style And I would assume they make the same style as tire or steel shredder machines, low speed bypass teeth
Most of those options might not like rocks (depending on the density of the rocks etc) Unless you like to do a lot of fixing. Less expensive might be using a hydraulic rock cutter/ grinder head on an excavator to break up the stumps with root ball rocks, screening the wood and loose rocks before further processing. Ask Bucketmouth, FAE, Komptech, Barko, TC, and material screen makers etc for their suggestions. Other options look for some type of mulching crushing unit with 'stone and rock' in the design description. FAE PT-475 (forestry mulcher, subsoiler, rock crusher or stump cutter) The older Tigercat model is a bit slower compared with the 760. See if an FAE or other stone head can be mounted on a used Tigeract, Barko etc. Tigercat 760B mulcher
^^^^^^^^^^ Thanks for the response. I will be cutting a lot of elevation out of the places these stumps are. Grinding in place seems to be counter productive. I will have these stumps in huge piles and need to process them 'after the fact'. I am looking for the best style of tub grinder.
Komptech Crambo (dual shaft) Shredding so does not rely on the close gaps of the chippers. Match the screen size to the size of the rocks? Crambo animation - auto-stopping and reversing drums. Olson - rock/ wood separator. (water tank) If the komptech shredded wood/ bark can float and rocks sink in water, screen a clean wood/ bark product that could be reduced in size via standard chipper/ screens. Clean rock in a separate pile.
Diamond Z was the most common around here for years. Those were drum munchers and handled the dirt and rocks the best. Chippers are only for things like whole trees and make chips that can be sold. The knives just hate rocks and tramp steel. I have a client with a shredder and asked him about trees and stumps in the past. He says the stumps just sit on top of the teeth and don't get pulled in. Basically the rotor teeth wouldn't grab and take bites so the stumps had to be busted up before loading them in. The other grinder I have some experience with was Universal Refiner. Slower unit but less expensive to run and maintain. It works differently and you will have to check out their web site to understand it. https://www.universalrefiner.com All these grinders are maintenance and repair nightmares. The label on the self destruct button says Start.
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Production models of Tigercat grinders have started. Cat C27 1050hp or Cat C32 1200hp engine options. https://www.tigercat.com/6900-grinder-news/ West-Tech have a range of excavator mounted wood splitters. Austrian Westtech Wood Cracker R900 on a Cat 320E, ripping out stumps. There is a larger R1300 model. (Split the stump in the ground, rip out and shake out dirt)
URC TDR90 primary grind (350hp+)