I have never really cleared much brush. What little I have done has
been done with a chainsaw, loppers, and what I used to think was a
pretty big chipper/vacuum. I live in the 'burbs but I have a 1.2 acre
lot with, maybe, half of it wooded and wild. Actually, it's worse than
wild, I have cut limbs and honeysuckle for years and piled the brush
back there out of sight. My bad, but I did it. I want to reclaim this
property and put up a real fence. But the brush, the brush is
challenging me. I just got a bid from a guy who has enough mechanized
equipment to invade Poland and he will clear it, haul it away, and leave
me with nothing but the large trees and dirt for five grand. I'd love
to do it but I have to reserve enough cash for a six foot solid fence.
So I'm looking for alternatives. I have a chipper but it will only do
up to 3 inches (from memory) and it is easy to get it clogged with
leaves and crap if you try to put too much into it. Fine, I can rent a
real chipper. But some of this brush is brutal. The former owner
didn't maintain it either and it is rough. So I have two questions:

How capable are these babies? Has anyone ever used something similar?
http://tinyurl.com/6xxogg
http://tinyurl.com/6awo7f
I can rent something similar locally but I have never used one. I
realize it aint' going to be a day at the beach but can you tear into a
pile of brush with one of these and have it chop/mulch most of it?
Honestly, I've never even seen one of these in use (city boy).

I is there any reason that I should rethink chopping all this brush,
chipping what I can, and letting it return to the soil? I mean, that's
basically what has been done for decades here, just probably not as
quickly as if it gets chopped/chipped/shredded.

Tom