About Mulchers
Take just about any vehicle with hydraulics or power take-off (PTO) and add the right attachment, and you’ve got yourself a mulcher. Excavators, skid steers, and even some tractors are good candidates for use as mulchers. Dedicated mulchers are also available, and these track- or wheel-equipped machines are typically larger and deliver more horsepower (and more hydraulic power) to quickly clear large jobsites or perform tasks where standard-flow hydraulics or lower-horsepower machines might be overmatched.

Barko 930B Wheel Mulcher
Excavator Mulchers
Excavator mulchers typically use a mulcher attachment, or head, mounted to the excavator’s boom. The long, articulated boom allows you reach material such as trees away from the road or vegetation on slopes that might not be accessible with a mulcher fixed to the front end of a skid-steer. An excavator’s vertical reach also allows you to use it on standing trees. Unlike dedicated mulchers that generally feature a front-mounted mulcher head incorporating a wide horizontal shaft, excavator mulcher booms tend to feature a narrower vertical shaft and process less material than a dedicated mulcher.
Skid-Steer Mulchers
Skid steers with a mulcher head provide the versatility to exchange the head for a bucket, forks, a grapple, or one of a number of other attachments as needed. Compared to dedicated mulchers, which are more adept at handling large land-clearing jobs, the smaller size and skid-steering ability of a skid-steer mulcher makes it better-suited for selective tree-clearing tasks in tight spaces, such as clearing bike and hiking trails or clearing storm damage in residential and commercial settings. A skid steer’s lift arms can also enable a skid-steer mulcher to mulch small standing trees.
Track Mulchers
Track mulchers offer greater horsepower, hydraulic power, overall size, and a wider front-mounted mulcher head than machines using mulcher attachments. The track design allows the dedicated mulcher to push its way through trees and vegetation and mulch the growth as the track mulcher passes over it. These capabilities make a track mulcher well-suited for large land-clearing jobs and for working in less favorable soil conditions with less damage to the soil.
Wheel Mulchers
Similar to track mulchers, wheel mulchers are dedicated mulching machines equipped to clear large sections of land. Wheel mulchers, however, are more agile and can travel faster on and off the jobsite than track mulchers. The power of wheel mulchers also lets them push through vegetation with a front-located bar, cutting the vegetation at the stems and then mulching it as the mulcher passes over it.
Find Your Next Mulcher
ForestryTrader.com offers for-sale listings for hundreds of mulchers from leading manufacturers including Barko, Caterpillar, CMI, FECON, Prime Tech, and Rayco.