When felling trees and clearing land, you may encounter a great deal of debris and years ago this was a very time consuming and difficult job. However, clearing large areas is much easier now, thanks to the modern drum mower. Let’s take a closer look at this simple, rugged and very effective piece of equipment that no forestry operation should be without.
What is a Drum Mower?
Standard mowers utilize an engine mounted on a deck and the engine shaft is vertical, with a blade or blades attached. As the blade spins it cuts away everything in its path. This can be very effective for cutting grass, small weeds and very small brush. However, if you are clearing significant brush, your blades will soon become dull and a typical mower simply cannot handle a job of this magnitude.
Drum type mowers are quite simple in concept. Take a large rotating drum and place cutting blades in strategic areas. This resembles the drums on the old player pianos and music boxes of many years ago. However, it is one of the most effective ways to clear brush and small trees.
Benefits of the Drum Mower
Standard mowers usually have a chute so the cut debris can be discharged from the under-deck area. However, when you are cutting thick material like brush, this chute would become stopped up within a short amount of time, so what can you do? Rotating drums have a substantial gap between the top frame and drum, and debris is easily expelled through this large gap. In fact, it is very difficult for brush to jam up the mechanism.
The Beauty of Simplicity
Because drum type mowers are simple in design, there are few moving parts to be concerned with. This leads to far less maintenance and downtime, which can greatly increase operations efficiency. Plus, there is another important benefit when using a drum mower. The best units are very efficient at mulching material. You can go over a large area and only finely ground organic material will remain. This material can be sold or simply left to return the soil.
In many cases, there is no need to go through all the time and trouble of using a wood chipper, if you have a heavy duty, quality drum mower. It can handle many kinds of material like small trees, large vines, and bushes. When you add up all the benefits, drum mowing is usually the best option for land clearing.