New Gas Chippers how are they?

JeremyRedSRT

JeremyRedSRT

Location
Gettysburg
We currently have an 18" bandit deisel been used hard. Looking at buying a new 18" bandit. Salesmen say the gas 18" chippers are cheaper and chip just as well. Anyone with gas chipper experience?
 
JeremyRedSRT said:
We currently have an 18" bandit deisel been used hard. Looking at buying a new 18" bandit. Salesmen say the gas 18" chippers are cheaper and chip just as well. Anyone with gas chipper experience?
Click to expand...
Still some tier 3’s left in Canada if ya can sneak ‘Em across state side! I’ve only used a 12”gasser, not bad but sucked back the gas pretty good.
 
Haven't used one but a buddy just replaced his beat 1590 and went with a new 18" bandit with a gas motor. He loves it. He says it chips faster than the diesel partly because when the auto feed stops a piece it recovers faster.
 
I’ve had my 4.3 gm on a 15” machine for just over a year. So far it has been great for our operation. Less upfront cost (no expensive diesel), and it seams to be plenty of power as long as we don’t feed it wood constantly. I feel if we did I would want the larger gasser. I haven’t run and 18” but if you are going to feed it wood all the time I think the current gasser (165 hp) would be a little short (I haven’t run one). But that’s just my feeling after running a 15” with 130hp.
The only issue I have had with the 4.3 so far is a fuel pump issue, but bandit cam out reset the computer and I haven’t had an issue since. I will say though if you go with a gas get the largest fuel tank available (several threads with my complaints). Otherwise we have been happy!
 
Really happy with my 1390xp with 130hp GM gas engine. I don't feel it is underpowered. The only time I've wanted things to go more quickly is when I have a pile of logs in front of the chipper to run through. I would buy another gas chipper without question. I might actually prefer it over the Perkins/Caterpillar options Bandit has if the price were the same, let alone paying another $20k for the diesel.
 
Not only the up front cost of the diesel but repair cost is also a fraction of the cost with a gas motor. To replace a blown diesel can be 10s of thousands. Replacing a gas motor may be 10k total.
 
How about the cost of the fuel? I've never had a diesel but for a little research, it looks like they burn less gallons per hour to do the same work. So I did some math & the diesel fuel was thousands less per year to operate.

Please weigh in with your actual usage experience since this is just some spreadsheet analysis.

--andrew
 
True; but the refineries have also uped the price of the diesel to more than gas, even though it is a by product of gasoline production. They'd probably tell you iy's because they now have to refine it more now, and that it's so popular...yadda yadda.
 
kiteflyingeek said:
How about the cost of the fuel? I've never had a diesel but for a little research, it looks like they burn less gallons per hour to do the same work. So I did some math & the diesel fuel was thousands less per year to operate.

Please weigh in with your actual usage experience since this is just some spreadsheet analysis.

--andrew
Click to expand...

I have not run the new diesels but my intuition says the new emissions crap is going to rob much of that so called “fuel efficiency”, I know it does on my trucks. Chippers fuel consumption are highly variable on what you are chipping (wood vs brush, softwood vs hardwood), the condition of the knives and anvil and the pace of the job. With that in mind we are running the 130hp 4.3 L GM and getting on average of 2 gallons per hour. Of course you set the crane up and stuff wood to it all day with dull knives you are going to more like 3 gph. And at better than 35-40 cents cheaper per gallon the gas is going to be cheaper cost of ownership in the end (except for larger chippers 18” plus where more hp is needed).
 
flyingsquirrel25 said:
I have not run the new diesels but my intuition says the new emissions crap is going to rob much of that so called “fuel efficiency”, I know it does on my trucks. Chippers fuel consumption are highly variable on what you are chipping (wood vs brush, softwood vs hardwood), the condition of the knives and anvil and the pace of the job. With that in mind we are running the 130hp 4.3 L GM and getting on average of 2 gallons per hour. Of course you set the crane up and stuff wood to it all day with dull knives you are going to more like 3 gph. And at better than 35-40 cents cheaper per gallon the gas is going to be cheaper cost of ownership in the end (except for larger chippers 18” plus where more hp is needed).
Click to expand...
Interesting, how much does your weigh? I was planning on a new Morbark 15R for spring but now you guys got me thinking of going ⛽️ gas. Yours is the 1390? Or 1590?
 
deevo said:
Interesting, how much does your weigh? I was planning on a new Morbark 15R for spring but now you guys got me thinking of going ⛽️ gas. Yours is the 1390? Or 1590?
Click to expand...

I’ve got the 1390xp (15xp in the new models). The 15r that I demoed was 9,700 pounds !! Mine weighs in at right around 7,700, so really at the upper limits of the f550 with a load. I misspoke this morning on the price difference between gas and diesel... it’s much worse $.59.
E121806D-0231-4E54-9778-7AEC21BCE0CB.webp

So on my 20 gallon tank I’m saving $11.80 per tank full. If it’s a heavy takedown week we fill up twice. Just pruning once. This is really making me rethink buying a gas truck next!!!
 
We just demoed 18 inch Bandit gas. It is loud and sounds like a race car. Seemed a bit under-powered as Bandit is considering higher hp for this particular chipper. Only 145 hp currently available. Yes it does burn fuel but we think the diesel will do better even though it is roughly 20k more. We ran the gasser for about 2 hours and burned over 4 gallons of fuel. Diesel would have been much less even with the additional cost per gallon
 
fwiw, I have a 173 hp tier 3 perkins, BB18" 1590, it basically doesn't burn fuel, the fuel economy is amazing, I can chip a lot and fill up less than 1x/week. Beast of a machine.
 
9f0c40eaff1bd5a4ac343892cbc898f4.jpg
690e1944379ed6824f5871fadf9fa00c.jpg

Well I probably thought I’d never be saying this about a 15” gas chipper..... but I absolutely loved this Bandit 15XP, we were running some big maple logs through it ( well why not ) just to see what it would handle, I was very very impressed! Shot the chips very far, we were doing municipal work and could spray the chips into the Bush, Auto feed barely kicked on, when it did the recovery time was fast, winch worked well also. Now ..... decisions decisions !!!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New threads New posts

Kask Stihl NORTHEASTERN Arborists Wesspur TreeStuff.com Teufelberger Westminster X-Rigging Teufelberger
Back
Top Bottom