Farms & Farm Machinery #401

Review
An aerial view of the Vigolo taking out mature
tobacco weed trees
The large
273mm-diameter
rotor is the heart
of this machine
The large tobacco weed trees were
no match for the Vigolo
Vigolo Eagle-DT
Width 2.5m
Weight 1,450kg
Belts Eight
Horsepower 100–240hp
Flails Triple Y flails (hammers optional)
Pluses
Large 273mm diameter rotor
Dual drive, four belts on each side
Double row of front chains
Heavy-duty construction
Triple Y flail
Rotor protection plates
Wide skids standard
Large rear roller
1,000rpm PTO speed for greater momentum
Adjustable rear door for maintenance/spread pattern
Minuses
For bigger trees a forestry bar would be in order
66 Farms & Farm Machinery
which goes to show the amount of steel in the
machine.
The large rear roller (with scraper) is great for bulldozing.
Combined with the heavy-duty lid (which is
5ml steel and much heavier than a lot of its competitors),
this allows you to push the tree over, do a
first pass while it’s been pushed, run the mulcher
over it, then forward again to create workable size
woodchip. This can then be easily cultivated and
breaks down quickly in the ground for farmers like
Polglaze, who want to use this fertile ground as an
area to grow crops.
For this rugged work, either the optional hydraulic
rear door or forestry bar would have been a
welcome addition to further protect the machine
and manage the size of the chip.
OTHER FEATURES
Additional features include heavy-duty stands for
when the machine is not on the tractor. Combined
with a large hook to keep the power take-off haft ff
the ground and out of harm’s way, this also made it
easy to grease the shaft.
Speaking of greasing, there are external grease
nipples for the bottom bearings, on the rotor
tucked away up front. This is a great feature because
if you had to take those guards off ll the time, the
grease nipples would either not get done at the
recommended intervals or possibly at all.
SUMMARY
Standout features for me are the overall build quality
and impressive results in what would be considered
tough going for a multipurpose mulcher, not a
forestry spec machine. Big timber or simple grass
mulching is all in a day’s work for the Vigolo Eagle-DT.
Polglaze has been around mulchers for more than 20
years, so knows a thing or two about what’s required
in the tough volcanic Northland soil, Vigolo got rave
reviews from him.