Today....

27RMT0N said:
So after taking two full weeks off to rest my back, today I went to tackle a large group of small-ish dead and dying cedars with my new chipper, still only have like 4 hours on the machine.

It couldn't chip to save it's life. Sure the material was dead, light and dusty, but in 5 years I've only clogged my BC1000 ONE time, having chipped dead cedar countless times, and this thing clogged 3 times in 40 minutes, every single time I put a log in it. I literally had to give up and walk away from the job. I'm kind of pissed honestly and not sure what to do.

The stuff just didn't have the velocity to even get out of the chute, even though there was no obstructions. It just built up at the pivot, and then filled it's way down the neck of the chute, finding its way out every single other opening in the machine. If I can't even chip material like this, my brand new $65k machine is just about useless to me.

View attachment 83961

View attachment 83962

View attachment 83963
Click to expand...
Any vents that are adjustable on the side of the drum housing?
 
Yah, there are a few small ones that are mentioned in the user manual, one of them to block off you literally have to remove the entire belt cover to install :rolleyes: I'll mess with those, but they are pretty small and I struggle to believe they will make the needed difference.

It's just hard to believe a machine that is supposed to be in such a class above my 'old' BC1000 so far is dramatically worse in critical ways, and literally unusable on this particular job.
 
Last edited:
My xp15 doesn’t like to chip dead powder/fluffy stuff off to the side. Clogs just like that. Chips the shit out of everything else
 
Try like Ryan said, angle chute more flat and jack knife it so the chute is pointing straight in front. Like you are chipping into the truck.
 
chiselbit said:
Try like Ryan said, angle chute more flat and jack knife it so the chute is pointing straight in front. Like you are chipping into the truck.
Click to expand...
I’ll second that, those will make a difference, and so will opening the side vents. Also, make sure your knives are sharp and your anvil is set properly.
 
So all the vents are wide open, and the chipper is brand new, so knives are as good as they will ever be and anvil should be dialed. Slowing down the feed wheels will likely help, as will leveling out the chute, though that limits how far it shoots. I had the chute originally at a well enough bigger than 90* angle because I knew such a sharp turn wouldn't be great, and that failed right away. After clog #2, I jack-knifed the truck and made a much straighter angle, and it still failed at that on the first 8" log.

I mean, the real issue here is that 95% of the time I am shooting chips in a pile on the side of a driveway or just out into the woods. I know that isn't the most common use case, but for years my Vermeer has done it perfectly, even being able to shoot chips basically backwards just off to the sides of it's own feed-table. This thing has a 360* rotating chute, but it seems like you can only use like.... 120* of that reliability? Having to jack-knife the truck when I need to chip to straighten the chute is going to be frustrating at best, and in some situations impossible.

I know other material will be far easier to chip, green stuff in particular, but I know there will be a lot of dead, dry cedar and big leaf maple in the future, and it makes me wonder if this is the right machine. Because right now, it seems literally worse than my 14 year old $15k one with half the horsepower....

I'm just grumpy, that's enough complaining for now :p
 
27RMT0N said:
So after taking two full weeks off to rest my back, today I went to tackle a large group of small-ish dead and dying cedars with my new chipper, still only have like 4 hours on the machine.

It couldn't chip to save it's life. Sure the material was dead, light and dusty, but in 5 years I've only clogged my BC1000 ONE time, having chipped dead cedar countless times, and this thing clogged 3 times in 40 minutes, every single time I put a log in it. I literally had to give up and walk away from the job. I'm kind of pissed honestly and not sure what to do.

The stuff just didn't have the velocity to even get out of the chute, even though there was no obstructions. It just built up at the pivot, and then filled it's way down the neck of the chute, finding its way out every single other opening in the machine. If I can't even chip material like this, my brand new $65k machine is just about useless to me.

View attachment 83961

View attachment 83962

View attachment 83963
Click to expand...
We had a 12xp (i think) rental and clogged the chute on it chipping fir limbs, I wasn't impressed with it's discharge capabilities, my 95xp does much better. I felt like the chipper we rented would've been better if the feed rate was set lower. Seemed like for having a good sized motor it bogged down quickly.
 
Last edited:
27RMT0N said:
So all the vents are wide open, and the chipper is brand new, so knives are as good as they will ever be and anvil should be dialed. Slowing down the feed wheels will likely help, as will leveling out the chute, though that limits how far it shoots. I had the chute originally at a well enough bigger than 90* angle because I knew such a sharp turn wouldn't be great, and that failed right away. After clog #2, I jack-knifed the truck and made a much straighter angle, and it still failed at that on the first 8" log.

I mean, the real issue here is that 95% of the time I am shooting chips in a pile on the side of a driveway or just out into the woods. I know that isn't the most common use case, but for years my Vermeer has done it perfectly, even being able to shoot chips basically backwards just off to the sides of it's own feed-table. This thing has a 360* rotating chute, but it seems like you can only use like.... 120* of that reliability? Having to jack-knife the truck when I need to chip to straighten the chute is going to be frustrating at best, and in some situations impossible.

I know other material will be far easier to chip, green stuff in particular, but I know there will be a lot of dead, dry cedar and big leaf maple in the future, and it makes me wonder if this is the right machine. Because right now, it seems literally worse than my 14 year old $15k one with half the horsepower....

I'm just grumpy, that's enough complaining for now :p
Click to expand...
I felt much the same but have since learned to work around that flaw. Now it’s not that big of a deal. We try to find some material that has some velocity to mix with the rotten logs, that helps, but mostly we just try to avoid a lot of rotten logs. Where my chipper shines is eating big grapple loads of limbs. And it’s ability to do that outweighs the other minor drawbacks.
 
27RMT0N said:
So all the vents are wide open, and the chipper is brand new, so knives are as good as they will ever be and anvil should be dialed. Slowing down the feed wheels will likely help, as will leveling out the chute, though that limits how far it shoots. I had the chute originally at a well enough bigger than 90* angle because I knew such a sharp turn wouldn't be great, and that failed right away. After clog #2, I jack-knifed the truck and made a much straighter angle, and it still failed at that on the first 8" log.

I mean, the real issue here is that 95% of the time I am shooting chips in a pile on the side of a driveway or just out into the woods. I know that isn't the most common use case, but for years my Vermeer has done it perfectly, even being able to shoot chips basically backwards just off to the sides of it's own feed-table. This thing has a 360* rotating chute, but it seems like you can only use like.... 120* of that reliability? Having to jack-knife the truck when I need to chip to straighten the chute is going to be frustrating at best, and in some situations impossible.

I know other material will be far easier to chip, green stuff in particular, but I know there will be a lot of dead, dry cedar and big leaf maple in the future, and it makes me wonder if this is the right machine. Because right now, it seems literally worse than my 14 year old $15k one with half the horsepower....

I'm just grumpy, that's enough complaining for now :p
Click to expand...
I read all your posts regarding this issue. I’m bummed for ya. I can tell you what I’ve learned over the years of experience I’ve had with different chippers, and word directly from people that designed and built them.

Machines I’ve owned include:
- Vermeer BC935
- Terex Woodsman TAC750
- Morbark Twister 12
Machines I’ve extensively operated:
- Morbark Model 16
- Morbark 2400
- Woodsman 720
- Bandit 180XP

I think Vermeer had a leg up in design since they built hay grinding equipment. Something tells me they understood the importance of chip velocity, and all the disc machines I ever ran could throw like mad. I’m not saying others can’t, just that by design the paddles move a ton of air.

Any drum chipper on the other hand has to find another way. As time goes, all the machines I ran were disc until the Woodsman 720. All of a sudden I was dealing with outfeed chute issies as you are. The solution for that machine was to make sure everything was “perfect” (sharp knnives, square anvil properly adjusted, feed rate dialed in, chute pointing straight, etc…). All these things mattered, but I always felt one shouldn’t have to fuss that much.

The Woodsman 750 can chip like a mo-fo, but fluffy leaf material and the last of any wood blast never make it to the chip box doors. This was the same as the 720, which prompted a phone call to a gent that used to build them. He told me that the tolerance of the knive edge to the drum housing itself also played a role in how much air these drum machines could push. If that tolerance is bad, you basically have to rebuild the machine to improve it. Seeing Bandit’s side drum fan design, and owning the Morbark Twister 12 which has rhe same elements seems like a great solution to the issue. First hand experience with the Twister is no chip throwing issues at all.

In a way I feel lucky, since I had a brand new Bandit 12x on order, but delivery was so delayed, I found the closest thing on the used market which was the Morbark Twister 12. Having seen Bandit’s side fan design on units like the 1590, I felt confident with getting a new 12x. Now I guess I’m glad the deal fell through.

My guess is much may have to do with the exit angle of the outfeed chute’s foundation. It seems great for the chute facing straight forward, but turning it to the side creates an additional abrupt angle. Nothing could explain this better that the middle photo of your post #2520. It doesn’t look like any flying object would want to pass theough there. By comparison, my Morbark T12 has a much better fairlead from the foundation out through the rotating portion. I have had such a good experience with this chipper and am glad I found it. It has a live winch and a rock solid, fuel sipping diesel. I haven’t even seen a branch bump the feed control into reverse.

I wish you luck with finding a solution to the issue. I have felt your current headache well more than once over the years.
 
Last edited:
I uploaded a video of one of the helicopter equipment deliveries on the cave gating project. Shortly after the load is disconnected, the rotor wash blows a generator down the hill. Fortunately, it didn't tumble all the way into the lake. Pilot and groundsman were excellent, landing everything exactly where needed on a slope through a small opening in the canopy next to a bluff.
 
Put in 6 hours solo today. Got the small tree's brush chipped except for the still-on-top- top. I could have carried a little extra gas and oil, but didn't.

Speed lined some big branches of the big tree.

More tomorrow.

Groundie to help on Monday.
 

Attachments

  • 20221006_163437.jpg
    20221006_163437.jpg
    1.1 MB · Views: 17
  • 20221006_172408.jpg
    20221006_172408.jpg
    1.1 MB · Views: 16
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