Bandit 15XP Review (brand new)

MA Arborist

MA Arborist

Branched out member
Location
Cape Cod
Hi Guys. My name is JC. I am new to treebuzz and would like to contribute to this site with a review of my new chipper.

It has the 4.3 gas engine (145 HP) along with the winch and reversing autofeed.

Thanks and enjoy!!
 
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The 15XP was delivered on the Friday before Christmas. About one month later than it was Supposed to be but that is ok. It gave me time to secure a partial loan.

My first impression of this machine was very good (and still is). The paint,fit and finish is excellent. The welds look excellent as well

The sales person went over everything with me including basic operations and maintenance and safety.
 
Update

I have 12 hours on this machine so far.

Pros
-This thing is a beast. Pulls everything through with ease.
-Air filter stays relatively clean
-Gas engine. Starts in cold weather with no block heating!!
-Very fast recovery time.

Cons
-She’s a gas hog. About 20 gallons used in 6 hours (my last chipper had a tier 2 diesel so I was spoiled with the fuel economy)
-Gas tank is supposed to be 25 gallons but I doubt it is over 20. I Haven’t been able to get more than 18 gallons in it on level ground at dead empty (yes it ran out of gas).
-Engine fan blows away from engine to prevent radiator from clogging. It powerfully blows warm air outward. This could be a problem if the chipper is parked close to shrubbery as it could dry out the foliage (think orange colored arborvitae.;)
 
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Welcome to TreeBuzz. thanks for posting your thoughts and experience. I will be interested to hear more as you experience more. I have a Bandit 90XP and an older Bandit 60AW that work great for my primary work of pruning trees etc. However we are having more things come through that will kill large swaths of a given type of tree and I am thinking I will get a bigger chipper here in the future.

With regard to your air filtration, look at the turbo pre filter units if yours doesn't have one already. They reduce filter cleaning to less than half.

Again, welcome.
 
Merle Nelson said:
Welcome to TreeBuzz. thanks for posting your thoughts and experience. I will be interested to hear more as you experience more. I have a Bandit 90XP and an older Bandit 60AW that work great for my primary work of pruning trees etc. However we are having more things come through that will kill large swaths of a given type of tree and I am thinking I will get a bigger chipper here in the future.

With regard to your air filtration, look at the turbo pre filter units if yours doesn't have one already. They reduce filter cleaning to less than half.

Again, welcome.
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Thank you Merle. I will continue to give updates on this chipper
 
Gorman said:
My tier 2 would use about 20 bucks for 24 yards.
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So would my old tier 2 but it was time to update my equipment and I am confident that the gas engine is the way to go at this time.
If I have to add $40 extra dollars to my rate for the day it is no big deal.
 
My 15xp with the same engine usually fills my 18 yard truck 3-4 times on a tank. I guess it might depend on what you're chipping. I agree about the size of the fuel tank--should be larger.

MA Arborist said:
Update


-She’s a gas hog. About 20 gallons used in 6 hours (my last chipper had a tier 2 diesel so I was spoiled with the fuel economy)
-Gas tank is supposed to be 25 gallons but I doubt it is over 20. I Haven’t been able to get more than 18 gallons in it on level ground at dead empty (yes it ran out of gas).
-Engine fan blows away from engine to prevent radiator from clogging. It powerfully blows warm air outward. This could be a problem if the chipper is parked close to shrubbery as it could dry out the foliage (think orange colored arborvitae.;)
Click to expand...
 
Evan_WI said:
My 15xp with the same engine usually fills my 18 yard truck 3-4 times on a tank. I guess it might depend on what you're chipping. I agree about the size of the fuel tank--should be larger.
Click to expand...
We did more log chipping than we would normally do on a given day so I’m sure the chipping of smaller material will help with fuel economy
 
CTS1999 said:
We demo’d a 15xp today with the 5.7 gasser. It was pretty impressive. Any cons to this unit?
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I don’t know anything about the 5.7 engine but the machine itself is great.
My concern is all the electronics and how they will hold up.

My friends who have the same 15xp as I do just had an issue with the digital panel.
It would go blank on them at random and they could not throttle up or down at times.
To make a long story short, they brought it back to the dealer and the dealer could not find any problems with it. Basically it worked fine when they tested it. They refused to put a new panel in. The machine was purchased new in July and has about 300 hrs on it.
Maybe a loose connection who knows.
 
This could be useful or could be a waste of time but here goes . . .
In process industry from time to time there were problems on vibrating equipment instrumentation that would come and go like this. One of the causes speculated on by plant operations was that the particular instrumentation was not really rated for "severe service" - that is for that amount of vibration in the X/ Y/ Z axis. A couple of cases I heard of had been solved by remounting solid state instrumentation panels onto spring mounted/ rubber dampened supports to get rid of or lessen the vibration. Some fixes worked, some didn't and then I&C got into protracted sessions with the instrumentation vendors. Personally I would think that a chipper would be "severe service" given the vibration and pounding the units take. However, convention may to be go with the cheapest (why do chippers have to rust at all? Hi zinc epoxy primers exist). Vibration mounting may help as would spraying connections with moisture control coatings, etc. If a vendor starts to have lots of problems with a component, they may make a running change during production - you might ask about that as well and maybe get the MK II model. Just a thought over coffee.
 
Post a pic of your panel, i'll let you know if it's durability has been tested...i've used
/replaced a few.
 
MA Arborist said:
Update

I have 12 hours on this machine so far.

Pros
-This thing is a beast. Pulls everything through with ease.
-Air filter stays relatively clean
-Gas engine. Starts in cold weather with no block heating!!
-Very fast recovery time.

Cons
-She’s a gas hog. About 20 gallons used in 6 hours (my last chipper had a tier 2 diesel so I was spoiled with the fuel economy)
-Gas tank is supposed to be 25 gallons but I doubt it is over 20. I Haven’t been able to get more than 18 gallons in it on level ground at dead empty (yes it ran out of gas).
-Engine fan blows away from engine to prevent radiator from clogging. It powerfully blows warm air outward. This could be a problem if the chipper is parked close to shrubbery as it could dry out the foliage (think orange colored arborvitae.;)
Click to expand...

All the pros and cons we found when we bought our 1390 (older but same machine). I ranted about the fuel tank size back then but hell we were able to get 5 16 yard loads on a tank. We haven’t had an issue with burning a full tank in less than a day since our Osage adventure but knife sharpness and anvil spacing have a HUGE impact on fuel economy in these new gassers. You can get a larger tank (40 gal) and straps for just under 1500 all painted. But you have to cut and weld on the new machine . Keep us updated on how things go. If you have issues you can search them here and find all the kinks we have found so far and some maintenance stuffs the salesman won’t tell you but service will... after you have issues!!! Good luck
 
flyingsquirrel25 said:
All the pros and cons we found when we bought our 1390 (older but same machine). I ranted about the fuel tank size back then but hell we were able to get 5 16 yard loads on a tank. We haven’t had an issue with burning a full tank in less than a day since our Osage adventure but knife sharpness and anvil spacing have a HUGE impact on fuel economy in these new gassers. You can get a larger tank (40 gal) and straps for just under 1500 all painted. But you have to cut and weld on the new machine . Keep us updated on how things go. If you have issues you can search them here and find all the kinks we have found so far and some maintenance stuffs the salesman won’t tell you but service will... after you have issues!!! Good luck
Click to expand...
Thanks!! I will be monitoring fuel economy closely in the coming weeks.

So here’s a question?
Do you have the Napa number for the hydraulic filter??
 
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