Mulching - "The Daily Grind"

[Tyler d4c]

The only place I ever worked that had a "spill policy" was at a TVA powerplant. If I was not over a few gallons, it really was not a worry. I have yet to see a hydraulic spill cause barren ground or issues with vegetation. Best thing to do is "don't ask & don't tell".

I do use Panolin biodegradable oil in the Menzi Muck. From what I've been told, you can have a direct spill into a water body and it will not be an issue. Not even with the EPA or the Coast Guard. That stuff is pricey, though, at about $350 per 5 gallon bucket. Hydraulic leaks on that machine bring many tears to my wallet!

Aighead, thanks for the compliment.

I bought a pail of compressor oil today for 200 and was in tears!

 

[aighead]

Holy crap, 350 or 200 is a lot!

 

[cfherrman]

Ive had many leaks, oil is organic fertilizer

 

[Acoals]

What oil?

 

[skyking1]

What oil?

<kicks a little dirt over it>

 

[treemuncher]

Nice day to be by a lake! Just the daily grind and hunting for stumps hidden in the overgrowth.

 

[treemuncher]

I love Fall weather but I hate the dust that it brings with it. My view so much of the day trying to feel my way along for stumps to cut. I feel like Pigpen from the Peanuts cartoon strip - always have a dust cloud following me around. Sometimes it gets so bad that I have to stop to see where I am or what is in front of me after the cloud passes by.

e

 

[treemuncher]

I've gone from too dry to too wet as our winter rains have moved in early. Broke a rib while working on the seat in the machine has slowed me down a bit but not as much as I should.

Finished up this little day job before the rains moved in. Taking back a field edge to where it used to be many years ago.



Called back in for more work on the previous stump & slash cleaning project. I got a good start before the rains hit but damn, did that several inches of water, combined with the trees going dormant, make for a fast return to hazardous conditions. Nearly stuck the machine numerous times. Pictures of conditions do not do it justice. That and the fact that I usually erase my tracks as I back up.



I have also had some large stumps to erase. This one was over 4' at the cut!

 

[treemuncher]

Challenging conditions after the loggers did their thing.


Buffing out the worst of the blemishes.


Still making good headway with what I have to work with. Customer will have a good collar of green grass that he can keep bush hogged as long as the conditions dry out enough next summer. A 4X4 tractor will be required. That timber that was left is in a major swamp. It was too wet for machinery. Even my machine @ 4psi won't stand up in that stuff.

 

[colson04]

Man, I'd love to have a mulcher like that for a week or two. Just reclaiming fence rows and property lines would be a huge help. Cleaning up some of the forested ground would be nice too.

 

[mowingman]

Man, I'd love to have a mulcher like that for a week or two. Just reclaiming fence rows and property lines would be a huge help. Cleaning up some of the forested ground would be nice too.

Yes, I had a leased one for nearly 3 years, doing ranchland. Turned some basically brush-covered, unusable land, into useable pastures and highly desirable real estate. Just be sure to rent one, do not buy one. Maintenance is pretty outrageous. Also, get one that is powerful enough. I have found that for my use, a machine of about 140 HP is good for most anything up to 8" in diameter. The skidsteer-mounted rigs can work, but are limited by the HP of the machine, which is generally under 90HP. I think 4" diam is about it for them. This is just from my experience, others may have had different results.

 

[Tones]

Pretty much on the money as to HP versus tree size but found the ASV RT120 wasn't that far behind my 140hp machine. Skidsteer mulchers still have balance and traction issues which limits were they can go though.

 

[aighead]

I agree Colson, but I just need the kind that attaches to the tractor and swings out to take care of the stuff, like honeysuckle, about 3-10 feet high around the yard and property lines. I don't mind some hanging over the yard, but I've got a few killers if I drive the mower too hard into them. My wife does most of that clearing by hand.

 

[treemuncher]

Finished up the wet job yesterday. I never did get stuck but came close a few times when I drug the belly. Hope to get some photos with the drone in the next day or two. I got all but the biggest stump planed down so the customer should be able to run a bush hog over it once it dries enough next summer.

Initial conditions that I started in. This is what the logging crew left behind after they did their thing.


Finished up enough to keep it mowed down with a bush hog on a 4x4 tractor.






Time to wash out the undercarriage and see how bad it is. This sandy swamp was no treat for it. Pretty sure I have a front idler that went out.

 

[Pixie]

It's a little hard for me to imagine churning up something that looks that wet !! Seems to me like a) it would be a serious load on the mulcher and b) the churning and vibration would tend to suck the whole machine down to china !

I guess I'm trying to say that the wet spots like that that I know well are wet all the way to bedrock and they intend to suck any machine down that far which can be 2 feet or 10 feet...

 

[mowingman]

Finished up the wet job yesterday. I never did get stuck but came close a few times when I drug the belly. Hope to get some photos with the drone in the next day or two. I got all but the biggest stump planed down so the customer should be able to run a bush hog over it once it dries enough next summer.

Initial conditions that I started in. This is what the logging crew left behind after they did their thing.
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Finished up enough to keep it mowed down with a bush hog on a 4x4 tractor.
View attachment 326545

View attachment 326547

View attachment 326548

Time to wash out the undercarriage and see how bad it is. This sandy swamp was no treat for it. Pretty sure I have a front idler that went out.

Back in 2008, I was using a Fecon 140 in property that was that wet or worse. Blew a track motor way out in the middle of the muck and water. W used an all-wheel-drive tractor to drag it onto a high spot. Then we called the dealer we had it leased from. That poor mechanic had a horrible job for about the next 3 days. Plus it was in the middle of the winter.

 

[Tones]

Gezz I don't miss those days at all. 4 times I had to do that on my 140. Got it down pat at the end, 3hrs from stop to the dam thing on the Ute on my own. No mechanical lift available. It's amazing how much strength you get when anger gets involved .

 

[treemuncher]

I took a few photos of the last project via drone

Work area from post #74 as seen from above. The tree line running from far left towards the center is the Obion River - nothing much more than a straightened ditch. I think we had another 1/2" rain after I finished up. It's looking damp, again.



Same work area from opposite direction




Other side of the swamp. My work area was on the left & center, mostly tan & wet colors. The red roads were done by another with a dozer.


One of the wider areas of the "collar" that I cut around the swamp. My job was to seek & destroy all stumps and any remaining chunks of wood (or dirt for that matter) within the work zone to make it suitable for maintenance cuttings with a bush hog.


If my customer gets his beavers evicted, the swamp re-ditched with an amphibious excavator and dries things out a bit, I will put on the wide pads before venturing off into that mess again. I can drop down from 4.0 psi to 3.3 psi with the wide pads on. I would also prefer the leaves to be pulling water out. The later half of Fall can get really soft in this swampy ground. I was pushing limits in several areas.

 

[treemuncher]

Cleaned up my undercarriage after the swamp job and starting inspecting undercarriage, like I always do. I knew that I had 1 bottom roller that was going out about 75 hours ago. Now the left idler and the first 4 following bottom rollers are totally trashed. Add to that, more cracks in the track frames, again. Looks like I will either patch up what I can, quickly, so I can knock out some waiting jobs or pull track frames and do an entire rebuild with lots of custom reinforcements. This will be dependent on parts availability time frame. This machine eats track parts at a record pace, especially when a track pad is thrown off! Not a cheap one to run but it gets a lot of work done.







It won't be the first time to remove the frames. I think I've been through this about 5 times already. It's not a fun process.

 

[mowingman]

Is that a Fecon machine? We had continuous problems with the main frame, and track frames , on the Fecons we leased. Thank goodness we never bought one, just leased for several years. Those were Fecons built by Rayco. Do you know who builds Fecon track machines now?