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Horizontal grinders?

australian pete

australian pete

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2008
Messages
440
Location
yarramundi.NSW.australia
Occupation
clearing contractor.
hi grindrite,
had a look at that website, it is an interesting site. i have a vemeer HG6000 TX grinder,we mainly do land clearing for subdivisions, i am fairly happy with the machine however the price of parts is expensive, i recently got a quote from the dealer in australia for a 14 foot chain and it was around $30,000 ,i found i could buy it in the US from a vermeer dealer for around $20,000. when i complained vermeer australia dropped the price to $21,000.. i think they were just plain charging what they thought they could get away with. do you know of any one in the US who sells after market parts such as an infeed chain for vermeer grinders ?
 
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quantum500

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 19, 2009
Messages
111
Location
colorado
T

trainwreck

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 26, 2007
Messages
247
Location
oregon
i run a cbi 4800, and i get all of my wear parts from http://www.grinderwearparts.com/ . they have great customer service and have always got me what i need when i need it. the few time i have had some bad parts come from them they were right on it to make things right.
 
australian pete

australian pete

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 5, 2008
Messages
440
Location
yarramundi.NSW.australia
Occupation
clearing contractor.
i have only used it for a day and a half. mill is heaps stronger, it is not feeding material very well, , light material keeps choking up , i think problem is ajustment of feed roller, i have to experiment with feed roller to make it better, i saw an identical machine working in brisbane before i bought mine and it was brilliant.
 
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quantum500

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 19, 2009
Messages
111
Location
colorado
The 765hp cbi is probably a C18 rather than C27 or C32. The C18 passes emissions better and comes on a bunch of grinders recently. I think it had to do with carb and how they classify hp vs emissions. Probably a better motor if it was rated down around 650hp and throw all the acert crap in the trash. I know a 3412 will be much happier rated at 850 or 880 vs 1000 or 1050. Install a pyro and keep an eye on it in tough grinding and see what you think. This one http://www.auberins.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=5_21&products_id=147 can be installed so it will set an alarm or in the case of grinding it will stop the in feed or tub until the egt drops. Depends on how hard you plan on running them, seems to me plans always change.
 
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woodhog

New Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2012
Messages
4
Location
virginia
Occupation
forester
I was looking into buying a horizontal grinder for grinding logging residue and selling the ground material for mulch and or biomass fuel. We are looking into following logging companies after they have harvested a tract of timber. We are going to get the loggers to leave the debris in large piles that would be close by the road used for hauling the timber out. There will be no land clearing of any kind. It is only going to be transferring the debris a short distance from the pile to the grinder. There is a decent demand for the end product at the time and the expectation is for a larger demand in the near future. I'm thinking that a rubber tire front end loader with a grapple to load the slash in the grinder and a large bucket to load open top van trailers with the mulch would be ideal. We would be getting paid $17 a ton to grind and load the material, and looking to do 500 tons a week. I know this is a vivid description, but does this sound at all profitable?
 
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quantum500

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 19, 2009
Messages
111
Location
colorado
Depending on the cost of your equipment that sounds like some excellent pay. Couple things to think about is the mobility of the grinder where you will be working. Is it wet? Steep? Narrow? Getting a wheeled 50ton grinder stuck or worse yet slide it off the road can ruin much more than your day. Next thing to think about is what you want for a finished product. A horizontal can be faster and easier to deal with but it's end product is not as attractive as what a tub can produce. The idea of using a loader to feed the grinder and load trucks is a good one. Double duty for the loader and increased mobility is a win win. Too many operators use excavators to feed grinders causing poor efficiencies. One thing to keep in mind is sizing the loader big. We have a Volvo 110 with a 11.5 cu/yd bucket. If conditions are right we can grinder over a 1000 cu/yds/hr and load a 150 cu/yd trailer in under 10 minutes. Time is money. Don't skimp on equipment. Right now good used equipment is relatively cheap. Probably the hardest thing to find is a big roll out bucket with a trash clamp. Depending on conditions you may pencil out hauling the material to the grinder. Sometimes it makes sense. Having a broken grinder up in the woods really sucks especially in the winter.
 
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woodhog

New Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2012
Messages
4
Location
virginia
Occupation
forester
Thanks for the info Quantum. The reason I was looking at the horizontal was because of the length of the material being fed into the machine. There will be small trees 20-30' long mixed in the debris pile. Is it hard to get a horizontal to produce a mulch quality product? The terrain is not too bad. Although occasionaly we log some tracts that are pretty steep. Its rolling hills for the most part. I know how much of a pain wet weather and heavy equipment can be. We try to purchase tracts close to the public road and on good soil for wintertime work. So I don"t think that is too much of a problem. What kind of grinder are you using? I looked into the bandit beast 3680 and it looks like a good versatile machine. A lot of guys around here use there chippers and are overall satisfied with them. According to bandit you can grind 75 tons an hour with the 3680. I don't know if that's realistic or not. I do know that the 300-400 hp chippers will chip up a 25 ton load in 15-20 min.
 
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quantum500

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 19, 2009
Messages
111
Location
colorado
The quality of the product depends heavily on your local market. If buyers of these products are used to buying material that has been processed through a horizontal you won't have any trouble. If you haven't done so already do some market research. Where are you getting your $17/ton figure? Can you contract that price? What is the specification for that price? Are there other contractors getting that price? If so how are they processing? We run all tubs and never go in the woods http://3xmgrinding.com/index.html. The price of a good grinder is pretty darn variable. One of the best grinders we run cost $20k 3 years ago at auction. If your good at working on things hit the auctions. Right now in Florida there are three of biggest auctions in the world running or getting ready to run. Check http://www.apolloequipment.net/ if you want kind of check market price.
 
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woodhog

New Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2012
Messages
4
Location
virginia
Occupation
forester
Thanks again for the info quantum. I'm not positive the price can be contracted but I believe it can. The price is what a local mulch bagging plant was willing to pay. There are some other contractors in the area that are doing it and they appear to be doing really well. The other contractors have both horizontal and tub grinders, morbark and peterson pacific.
 
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