Tub Grinders

osborneconst · Feb 8, 2007

I am thinking of buying a tub grinder, but I have no experience with them. What is the major maintainance and wear parts? Who here owns one and what brand is considered the best? I am thinking of buying a used one, but I need to know what to look for there too. Any help is appreciated.
Thanks

tylermckee · Feb 8, 2007

Ive never ran one, but we hire a company to come in and do our grinding after we clear. I can tell you that you should be prepared to pay for fuel, maintainance, and repairs. Seems they break down every other day.

Ford LT-9000 · Feb 8, 2007

You won't be finding many used ones that are not beat up and worn out. Tub grinding is a money loosing proposition if your doing mixed debris grinding. All it takes is some steel or a rock in the tub and that wreaks havoc. I know many tub grinders that work for couple hours fix for a couple hours then work again.

What do you plan on grinding ?

Tub grinding is okay if your working with clean material that is easy to keep track of what your putting into the tub.

osborneconst · Feb 8, 2007

We want to set it up so people can haul stumps and trees to use to grind. Someone would be there to make sure there was no junk in the loads when they were dumped. Any junk and it goes back on the truck it came in on. We would grind the material up and mix it with turkey litter and let it decompose and sale for topsoil. The idea sounds good, but I wanted to hear from someone that has been around a grinder or owns one.
Thanks

Ford LT-9000 · Feb 8, 2007

Unless you have a stump splitter stumps are the worst for dirt and debris they are the hardest on a tub grinder. Around here we try burn stumps before grinding them. You know when you have a rock in the grinder when it makes a whole pile of noise then you have to try clean out the tub and start repairing.

You need a excavator operator with eyes like a hawk to spot the ungrindable debris. You need to be fussy and carefull when loading the debris. The guys that do grinding are close to 1000 dollars a hour.

Dwan Hall · Feb 8, 2007

I looked into it about 10 years ago. at that time the cheapest one I could find was around $750,000. Just could not pencel it out even if it ran 10 hours a day. And that is without a brake down. Sure would be nice but I think you could buy sawdust cheaper to mix with your turky dropings then useing a grinder. I just wish I had access to sawdust. LOL

Ford LT-9000 · Feb 8, 2007

You may want to contact your local tree services about chips I know those guys have troubles getting rid of it. If you get them to dump off chips from species of trees in your area that rot fast would be cheaper deal.

We also get sawdust from the guys with woodmizer mills they get quite abit of it. The people with horses are after that for bedding for their horses.

seastrike · Feb 15, 2007

grinders

What will be your tipping fees? How much volume? Where will you sell the mulch? How far do you have to haul the mulch? Do you have competion? Have you priced subbing the work out?? Everytime I run into someone in your shoes I convince them to hire us, and avoid the risk

I've run tubs and currently run horizontals going on about 15 years, and still learn something new every job.

Be careful, unless you have a real nich market I cant imagine a quicker way to go broke. By all means hire some to run the machine with alot of experience, no matter what the cost

seastrike · Feb 15, 2007

Sorry I did'nt get the part about turkey litter and topsoil. You might want to consider get other grinder operators to haul mulch to you. Folk in the the grinding business are always looking to get rid of some dirty mulch. For you use the look of the material, or grit content should not matter. Even if they 20 bucks a ton you will be way better off, unless you are talking ALOT of volume

osborneconst · Feb 16, 2007

I am not sure of the volume. I would charge people to dump. Around here you get about $45 for a tandem and $75 for a dump trailer. Then I would grind and mix it. I would then be able to resale this after some decomposition for $400 a tandem load. There is not any place really close to get rid of stumps. The closest place is about 30 minutes away and where I live is really booming right now.

seastrike · Feb 16, 2007

sounds like you can get 2-2.50 a yard in tipping fees. I would imagine there are pleanty of guys you could hire to grind for 1.50 a yard if you stockpiled 20,000 or so yards. I would say this debris would reduce 3-1. You say you can sell the topsoil for 10 bucks a yard. Do you have to haul the topsoil, or do they pick it up and pay you ten bucks. Do you get paid to take the turkey litter??

Can you run the yard for 1.00, if not partner with a dirt pit. He will already have the operator and unloading equipment. If he would unload,stack,and mix for 1.00 a yard, then the volume is not as important.

We generally try to work for 3-5 dollars per GROUND yard, which seems to be about break even, but make a good profit hauling, selling the mulch. This covers 10-60 mile haul radius.

seastrike · Feb 16, 2007

you can sell the topsoil for 18 a yard, that sounds a little better

Copenhagen · May 21, 2007

Check out my page for my tub grinder videos.

The guy in the red shirt is the dedicated operator of that machine. He knows every square inch of it by heart. It was cheaper to hire him to watch what was being loaded and keep an eye on things than it was to keep repairing it.

A set of teeth and hammers can run well into the thousands and your clutch will run you about $25,000.

Our machine is a Diamond Z 1400 series. 1,000 hp CAT. We have owned Vermeers and Hogzillas and the Diamond Z will outgrind the others combined.

If anyone needs mulch, let me know. $10/ton. We cant seem to get rid of this stuff. BTW, most of it is 100% pure Mesquite. Great for smokers!!

You can go broke very quickly with a tub grinder. The very first job we did, the clutch went out. Spent 25K on a 30k dollar job.

Oh yeah, it has twin 400 gallon fuel tanks. That gets really expensive!!

jazak · May 26, 2007

Horizontal grinders are better. I personally like the way Morbark & Brush Bandit machines run. The ONLY way i would sub it out would be if it where MY guys loading it and I knew EXACTLY whats going into it. Lot clearing jobs only.....

Dz3hg5tub · Feb 10, 2010

tub grinder

I have 8 4 1000hp 14ft 1 1675 hp 3 hg 7000 1000hp diamond z is the best it is made where anyone can work on them. all other makes are good mobark.peterson.hogzilla. but a nightmare to work on.or there fire traps.horizontal is the bestway to go same hp. as atub twice the production

adam21584 · Feb 10, 2010

horizontal grinders limit you on size. What ever you put in there needs to go in to the hole. The company I work for has morbarks and diamond z. Also a new cbi. The diamond z seems to grind the best to me. The new cbi breaks down more than the older machines.

tonka · Feb 10, 2010

diamond z makes the best tubs imo

Dz3hg5tub · Feb 11, 2010

DZ 7000 will do a 40inch oak tree. root balls we break them up till they fit.it gets about

littleplows · Feb 23, 2010

I have a 99 Bandit Beast 3680 good machine, reliable, Easy to use. Well thought out machine as far as maintenance goes. They keep making them easier to use and repair as they get newer. But I'll tell ya no matter what machine it is in the grinder catagory they are all expensive to purchase and expensive to run. I can run stumps through my machine but don't unless all the dirt and rocks are off of them. all it takes is one good size rock hidden in the mix and your loosing a couple of teeth. I would definatly go for a horizontal grinder before I go with a tub grinder for grinding limbs and trees. It's a lot easier on the horizontal grinder itself and on the guys running the machine. You have more control over the operation.

dieseldave · Feb 23, 2010

I ran this money pit for a couple of years on and off. The guy that owned it had it all figured out, how much he could charge for it, how much it could produce, how much he could sell the product for, etc... but that quickly went to hell in a handcart when reality set in lol. The thing burned fuel like a fighter plane and had the maintenance requirements of one, too. I used to take my welder and 1" impact to the job every day and some days I'd spend as much time changing teeth and welding as I did grinding. No matter how careful you are, things are going to get in there and cause havoc. We did a job once on the site of an old horse farm, looked nice and clean, simple and easy. Turned out the guy had steel everywhere, all buried under a couple inches of pine needles and rusted to blend in perfectly with it's surroundings. A rusty piece of 1" rebar is very difficult to spot in a load of clearing debris, but the grinder will find it for sure.

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