Suburban mulcher

Discussion in 'Designing, building, making and powering your life' started by derek, Dec 22, 2008.

  1. derek

    derek Junior Member

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    Hi,

    I'm just after some advice on mulchers. We live on a suburban block but have several well-established trees so we have a lot of prunned material. We are thinking of getting a small-scale mulcher. Is it worth owning one? Had anyone had good or bad experiences with small-scale mulchers? Are there any companies you recommend?

    Thanks for your help
     
  2. gardenlen

    gardenlen Group for banned users

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    Re: Suburban mulcher

    g'day derek,

    about the best garden variety shredder around id the greenfield peacemker, if you have a lot of work the 10hp or so model would be the better, but generally the 5hp model does. whether you buy with a honda or briggs and stratton motor (they may have another make of engine in use now as well?), is up to the new owner but all will do the job.

    now for the average gardener even with some extra pruning, is it worth owning one, that is a huge question i'd suggest with maintenance and storage and having this machine sit there to be used 1, 2 or maybe 3 times a year might not be seen as good money management. we have this sort chat turn up a couple of times a year on various boards and groups and of recent times one gardener who also amassed a lot of prunings once a year could see that the real best option was to pay a bloke to come who had a big chipper that would do the lot (keep in mind common garden type shredders are exactly that shredders not chippers so they don't handle all prunings) , so for at outlay of around $22 odd bucks a year he sees that as better way of spending funding and the bloke who does it also takes any rubbish to the tip in the cost frame. this means he doesn't do any of the chipping just the prunning and if bigger branches need to be cut (ie.,. chainsaw work)the operator does that as well.

    or another option you could consider (and i realy don't want to do greenfield out of business it is damn fine machinery), is to hire a mcahine at those times of teh year that you need it, that way wear and tare isn't your cost responsbility. i never had any negative issues with the greenfield i owned but then my background probably give me a head start in how machinery should be treated from the first time it is started. and after 5 years of ownership i was able to sell it for 1/2 the current retail price which was about 2/3 what we paid for it.

    len
     
  3. derek

    derek Junior Member

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    Re: Suburban mulcher

    Hi Len,

    Thanks for the detailed reply. Your post has given me a lot of things to think about. It probably would be better to hire the machinery once or twice a year rather than buy one myself.

    Derek
     

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