vah1941,

Shredders with large throats are going to be large themselves, and they will have large prices. This "Big Brute" MacKissic shredder-chipper has a comparatively large throat for its 48-hammer shredder, and it sells for $4479.95, but I doubt that even its large throat could swallow one of those huge West Texas tumbleweeds. I've seen those things, dodged a few with our minivan, and some of them are like small trees!

I think you are going to have to "pre-process" those huge tumbleweeds to knock them down into pieces small enough to feed to a more affordable shredder-chipper. I guess you could drive over them with a Monster Truck, but who has one of those?

I would probably just attack them with a big lopper pruner and cut most of the individual limbs off of the central "trunk". I do the same thing with the tops of large bushy trees that I feed to my MacKissic shredder-chipper. I actually would feed some of them to the chipper chute, with the rest going into the shredder chute.

If the lopper-pruner approach was too slow, you could attack the tumbleweeds with one of those buzz saw blades on a weed whacker or brush cutter tool. Actually, I would use one of the Stihl trimmer blades because I would probably use one of the Stihl trimmers or Stihl brush cutter/clearing saws. I have been very impressed with my Stihl MS-361 chain saw, so I would tend to choose another Stihl product.

MM

Good ideas Maineman! Out here in the high desert area of Southern California, we got a bumper crop of these tumbleweeds. I used your idea of lopping them off at the
base (root). Let them dry out (in about a week) and then crush (brittle by this time) or shred them. Then you can bag the debris in trash bags easily and haul them away.

Have you seen this Youtube solution for tumbleweeds in NM? There is a phone number given at the end of the video which you might try to see if they have commercialized their specialized tumbleweed chipper by now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT8w7D1apwU

i just step on them crush them up. of course i wear heavy pants (like canvas) and boots. this year i think i'll dig a hole for them, corral them into it, then tamp down with a hoe or something. idk what yet, something with a flat surface so i can just crunch them down easily vs. stomping on them. to be continued... but in the hole i think they'll also be easier to compost, you can keep wetting it with the hose easily at least.

Could you use a weed eater with a brush blade? Cut it up with the brush blade and then dispose of per local ordinances.

I have found the brush blade can cut small trees, and large diameter weeds. I have no experience with T.W. but for small sticks and weeds, I mulch them with my lawn mower once I have cut them up with the mulch blade.