PIERCE
LAND
CLEARING
Most of what is written about the Tigercat M726G is spec sheet copy. We own one and run it across Texas, from Blackland pasture to solar sites to Rio Grande Valley brush. This is what the machine is actually for, where it shines, where it is the wrong tool, and the documented jobs it has done.
The Tigercat M726G is a purpose built, wheeled forestry mulcher: a four wheel drive carrier with a dedicated hydraulic mulching head on the front and nothing else. It is not an attachment on a skid steer and it is not a tracked machine. Wheels are the whole point. On open, firm ground it moves between work areas at a pace no tracked mulcher can match, and on a big tract that speed is most of the productivity.
In our fleet it sits between the skid steer mulchers, which handle lots and tight ground, and the Weiler M860A, our flagship tracked mulcher that takes the heavy timber and the steep, soft and rocky ground. The Tigercat is the open country machine. Pasture reclamation, fence lines, right of way, commercial tracts on flat ground, brush pile grinding: anything where the acreage is big and the ground will carry a wheeled machine. The full lineup and how we choose between them is on the equipment guide.
This is the M726G’s home. Mesquite, huisache, hackberry and light cedar over a pasture that was open twenty years ago. The machine covers ground fast, the head handles anything up to the size the dedicated mulchers are rated for, and the wheels do not chew up the pasture the way a tracked machine turning on wet ground can. Our 125 acre Elgin pasture reclamation, 37 machine days at $120,000 to $130,000, is the kind of job it was built for.
A wheeled mulcher can run a fence line or a utility corridor for miles without the transport and repositioning a tracked machine needs. It goes down the corridor, turns around, comes back. Our Lometa fence line job was a one day cedar fence line clear at $5,000 to $6,000, and corridor work is covered on the right of way clearing page.
Old clearing piles, storm debris, and the windrows a dozer job leaves behind grind well under a dedicated head, and the Tigercat’s speed between piles matters when there are dozens of them across a tract. Our 5 acre Austin tree pile job, three days at $12,000 to $13,000, and the 6 acre Morgan job clearing large downed trees, two days at $8,000 to $10,000, were both this machine.
On a flat commercial tract with no keeper trees the question is acres per day, and the wheeled machine wins. The 38 acre Brownsville commercial clearing ran six days at $22,000 to $25,000, which works out to a little over six acres a day on South Texas brush.
Honest equipment pages say this part, so here it is. Tight lots. On an acre with a house going in and oaks to keep, the Tigercat is too big and too fast; the skid steer mulcher fits between the trees. The Cleburne homesite is about the smallest job it makes sense on, and it did that one in a day. Steep, wet or rocky ground. Wheels lose to tracks on a hillside, in a saturated creek bottom, and on broken limestone. That is Weiler and skid steer country. Heavy timber. Big hardwood and old growth cedar breaks slow every mulcher down, and on that material the Weiler’s weight and power make it the better tool. Grubbing. A mulcher, any mulcher, cuts at the ground and leaves the root. Mesquite that has to be gone permanently is excavator and dozer work, not Tigercat work. The mulcher vs bulldozer guide covers that decision.
A fair share of the people reading this are contractors or landowners thinking about buying or renting a dedicated mulcher, not hiring one. Three things from the seat. First, a dedicated wheeled mulcher only pays if you have the acreage to keep it busy; on lots and small tracts a skid steer with a good head does the same work for a fraction of the capital. Second, the head and the carrier are separate decisions, and the head wears; budget for teeth and rotor maintenance as an operating cost, not an occasional surprise. Third, transport. A machine this size moves on a lowboy, and the transport cost per job is real, which is why our high horsepower rate is quoted plus transport while the skid steer rate includes it. If you would rather hire the machine than own it, our published rates are $3,000 per day for the skid steer mulcher with transport included and $4,000 per day plus transport for the dedicated machines, and the forestry mulching page covers what a day buys.
A purpose built four wheel drive forestry mulcher carrier with a dedicated hydraulic mulching head. It is a wheeled machine, built for speed and productivity on open, firm ground.
Wheeled. That is its advantage on open pasture, fence lines and rights of way, and its limitation on steep, wet or rocky ground where a tracked mulcher is the better tool.
It depends entirely on the brush. On South Texas commercial brush our 38 acre Brownsville job ran a little over six acres a day. On dense Blackland pasture reclamation the 125 acre Elgin job averaged about three and a half. Solid cedar is slower for every machine.
Pasture reclamation, mesquite flats, fence lines, utility and pipeline right of way, brush pile and windrow grinding, and flat commercial tracts. Anything with acreage and firm ground.
Tight homesites with keeper trees, steep or saturated ground, broken rock, heavy timber, and any job where the roots have to come out, which is grubbing rather than mulching.
Our dedicated mulchers are $4,000 per day plus transport. The skid steer mulcher is $3,000 per day with transport included. The day count comes from your photos and acreage.
Open ground and real acreage is what this machine is for. A few photos and we can tell you the day count and which machine is coming, usually the same day.