Forrestry mowers?

[treeman82]

How many of you guys have ever used a forrestry mower like Rayco produces? Have you ever rented one, or bought one? What are its limitations? Also what about the stumper that you can put on it? I would like to clear some land this winter and am wondering how much time a forrestry tractor w/mower could save me. Smallest parcel would be no less than 15 acres.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

They hydro stumper will mow 12 inch trees, and if you dont have too many obstructions you would get 15 acres done in maybe 4 days. The stuper head melts through evrything.

Biggest drawbacks are the machine hight and the flails can be expensive. Hit a big rock and you loose a couple. best to mow high and then walk through before back mowing. Take regular streaches and scout your path marking any piles or out cropings. If you cut limbs off you can pile them up and then run over them with the mower.

I think a week costs 4200 here, 1400 a day.

They have a demo video

 

[treeman82]

Now when you talk about mowing a 12" diameter tree, are you talking about just the trunk and canopy, or are you including the stump with that? Also, any idea as to how much for a month, and a site where I could locate a rental dealer type person?
-Thanx - Matt

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

The mower gets pretty close to the growund, but will need to get the stump grinder on to get the butts out. They say you can mow small stumps, but the flails break rather fast especilay in rocky soil.

The machine will push the 12 inch trees right over then chew them up.

I think the month is around 15 or 16k.

Allied Equipment in my area has several that they ship all over the country. Dont know what the FOB would cost.

Allied Utility Equipment Inc (262) 255-6161

If you do call them.....

 

[treeman82]

JP- I talked with Opdyke's today over the phone. Rayco Mfg told me to call them. I talked with a guy named Tom. He told me that for the month is $12,000 payable before the machine leaves their place. That is for the month, and also only for the T175 w/stumper head. They are no longer sending out the mower head as far as he knows because the last 3 times they sent it out it came back beaten to all holy heck. Also I would have to pay for the trucking charges in addition to the machine rental, seeing as how they do not provide trucking. I am not sure if I would be better off doing the stumping with the T175, or going and getting a tub grinder and excavator. They said that they will send a big box of bullet teeth or whatever for it, but if the pockets that the teeth go into break, they have to be welded. Also I would need to get a separate insurance policy for this... So what would you suggest if I can't get it with the forrestry mower?

 

[treeman82]

Oh yeah, the guy said this machine can put out 2 acres of stumps in an 8 hr day. Also the machine can only be used for 40 hrs a week, if I go over that then I have to pay more The one way I look at it though is... T175 = 12,000 + trucking... just about all stumps done.
70K lb excavator = 15,000$ for the month?
tub grinder at 4,000 a day so I think the T175 may be better, but I don't want to get it without the forrestry mower.. what do you guys think?

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

Most of those companies dont do OTR trucking X-contry. The monthly price I got from Allied was with both heads. The site was only like 10 miles from their shop so they were doing the transport.

All of them base price on the hour meter, cant get around it. If I was renting a $100,000 machine out I would want it covered too.

Give Allied a call and see what they can do for you. My guess is FOB will be less then two K for the round trip.

They sure beat a big crew! You know those tree guys, none of them are sober.

 

[treeman82]

Thanx JP- Now I will have another call to make while I wait for my arb test on Friday The thing about the hour meter with me though is that when I rent equipment from my dealer, I get it at whatever time in the morning, and return it 24 or so hours later. I will use a machine well into the night, if given the opportunity.

 

[treeman82]

Ok, well I just talked with the guys from Allied. They want about 50 - 60 thousand dollars to send out a T175 w/ mower head and stumper, plus maintenance equipment, plus operator, for a month. The guy really was pushing the operator thing and I don't think he would send the machine out without the operator. He also said that the machine will only do trees 5" and less in diameter, which still is a good amount of trees, but 5" compared to 10" or even 12" is a big difference. He did say though that the machine with the stumper will knock out some serious stumps real fast. Any opinions?

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

They must have changed their policy. They were talking both types of rental a month ago.

Wierd. That won't make you much dough.

 

[KevinM]

Check out a machine called the Gyro-Trac which is very similar to the Rayco model T-175 but the Gyro-Trac wont do stumps. I own two models of the Gyro-Tracs and my employees do about two acres a day with these machines and when I say these machines dont do stumps but they will grind out the stumps about 4 inches below the ground though. These machines leave the ground flat as a board and the ground looks like it has been mulched after we have gone through the acreage. We routinely do about 75 acres a month with our two machines and they are pretty durable if you hit a rock or metal etc. These machines have cutter heads instead of flail mowers like the Raycos which I also like about them too. If you got any questions email me [email protected]