Takeuchi TL120 with mulching head

[swanny]

I've got a mulching head built by Alamo that I've used on a half dozen or so machines with flow between 18 and 22 gpm. It's originally built for an excavator since it's only 48" wide, but has an adapter plate on it for the skid. I bring in limbs with the dump trailer and drop them in the corner of a field, then use the Alamo to shred them up...saves a lot of hand work.

Picked up another Tl120 and decided to try the Alamo on it even though it's only maxes out at 15 gpm. I was pleasantly surprised it only took 45 minutes or so to grind up 7 dump trailer loads of 4" and smaller limbs. It really throws the chips a long way out in front of the machine too. Backing over it is more productive than going forwards:





All done mulching:



Pushed up the debris with the skid and bucket:



Question: with every machine (bobcat, nh, cat, takeuchi) the head will sometimes make the auxiliary pump vibrate. I can stop the vibration by either throttling down or by putting a load on the head. Any one else have similar experiences?

[stuvecorp]

That's pretty cool, show some more pictures of it. Did you pick the mulcher up cheap?

[swanny]

Not exactly cheap as these units run around 10 to 12k new, but I've got about 45 cents on the dollar in it. It only had a day's worth of use on it when I got it, but it sat most of it's life and picked up some water/contamination in the motor, so it got rebuilt. Works really well on tall thick grass too.

[KrayzKajun]

Tht is sweet. More pics please, maybe a video. I would love to find an old mulcher head to fix up.
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[bobcat_ron]

The pump vibrates because there is an imbalance on the mulcher head, that transmits through the oil pressure. My brother's 48" disc mower would vibrate everything on the 320CL at full speed with no load, and that disc was severely out of balance from either missing teeth or teeth that were only down to half a tooth.
You might also want to think about getting a case drain line with a small 10lb check valve inline drilled and threaded into the motor to take any excess back pressure away, that might help with the vibrations as well.
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[4 seasons lawn&land]

that is really neat. I have a 120 too. Is the curl down to dump the bucket very slow on your machine? Mine has been like that since I bought it used.

[swanny]

Originally Posted by bobcat_ron

The pump vibrates because there is an imbalance on the mulcher head, that transmits through the oil pressure. My brother's 48" disc mower would vibrate everything on the 320CL at full speed with no load, and that disc was severely out of balance from either missing teeth or teeth that were only down to half a tooth.
You might also want to think about getting a case drain line with a small 10lb check valve inline drilled and threaded into the motor to take any excess back pressure away, that might help with the vibrations as well.
Posted via Mobile Device

Ok, thanks...that makes sense. It doesn't vibrate that often...which makes me think it happens when a piece of wood gets stuck in the drum or something. I plumbed a case drain on it, but no check valve.

[swanny]

Originally Posted by 4 seasons lawn&land

that is really neat. I have a 120 too. Is the curl down to dump the bucket very slow on your machine? Mine has been like that since I bought it used.

Not that I have noticed....that would be annoying.

[JNB Construction]

The bucket dump on all three Kubota SVL75's that I've run were slow to dump and its pretty annoying. Even more annoying was not being able to lower the bucket flat below the bottom of the tracks or curl back far enough to use the heal of the bucket to backdrag material.

[YellowDogSVC]

You won't be sorry having a mulcher. The swinging teeth do a good job but with limited horsepower, they will lay down more. I imagine that Alamo can handle more flow.

If you can find a fixed tooth mulcher, it will keep cutting even as it slows down.

The idea of bringing brush back and shredding to manageable sizes is smart. It takes up less space, can be used in composting, backfilling rocky areas, as a soil amendment in poor soils, or can eventually be reprocessed and mixed with dirt. The more you mow it, the finer it gets. There's a lot of possibilities and it's fun to mulch stuff.