Any experience with Morbark's new BVR chippers?

K

kenten

Location
Elkton, VA
We are looking at adding or replacing a 12" chipper in our rental lineup. We currently have a Bandit 200UC and a Bandit 12XPC with Ford 2.5L gas engines.

Morbark has a relatively new line of "BVR" models: BVR10, BVR13, BVR16, and BVR19. It appears to me that the BVR10 and BVR13 are the same machine, but the BVR comes with dual feed rollers, lift cylinder, and optional winch or larger engines. They also have the Morbark ZeroClutch, which I want to find out more about.

Have any of you had any experience with these BVR chippers?

Unfortunately, I can't search for "BVR" on this forum because it considers the search term to be too short.
 
Don’t know anyone running one yet. I think that new line of chippers have only been out maybe a year now and the 18” had to be redesigned because they put a 6 knife drum vs 4 knife drum and now are going back to the 4 knives.
The clutch system has been around for a long time it was on the rayco chippers before they stopped producing them. Morbark bought Rayco.
 
Speaking of knives, the BVR13 has only 2 knives, whereas the Bandit 12XPC has 4. In the past we had a Bandit 12X with a 2-knife drum, and it seemed more prone to discharge clogging up.
 
I just bought a bvr 13. It's bad ass. The auto clutch it's so easy. It has the same engine as my other chipper, 4.3l gasser. Easy to dump the feed tray and check the knives. Mine has 4 knives, not sure where the 2 knives comes in. We feed it with the avant and have no complaints outside of the dealer kinda being shit.
 
These newer chippers are going lighter in construction. The BVR 19 reminds me of the AX17. I wonder if they are 20+ service year machines, or will fall apart in 10. Everyone is trying to make the ultimate under CDL right now.

Bandit has reliable 25 old year designs, and they may be heavy and less operator friendly, but they work.
 
kenten said:
My quote from Morbark states 2 knives on both the BVR10 and BVR13. So the 4 knife drum must be an optional upgrade, or else they misstated it on my quote.
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Interesting. No idea. We were in a terrible time crunch when we bought the new chipper so I didn't pay much note. I only know it's got 4 because I run a knife saver daily.
 
@Brando CalPankian BCMA

Not wanting to side track the thread but what knife saver and how do you like the results it gives you? I've hand dressed my knives a lot to extend change intervals but have always ended up with a drawback of a backbevel on the flat side of the knives and reduced overall chipping performance over the long haul.
 
Merle Nelson said:
@Brando CalPankian BCMA

Not wanting to side track the thread but what knife saver and how do you like the results it gives you? I've hand dressed my knives a lot to extend change intervals but have always ended up with a drawback of a backbevel on the flat side of the knives and reduced overall chipping performance over the long haul.
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I've been hand filing them to dress them for years. Took time but like you said extends the life of them. A friend turned me on to those hand held jobbies (https://modernequipmentparts.com/500-0001-16-kit-knife-saver-complete/) and they seem to work fine. I figured even if it gets the bevelled edge it's lasting longer than if I did nothing (like on our altec that I have to unbolt the disc housing to check knives so it happens weekly instead of daily).
 
Brando CalPankian BCMA said:
I've been hand filing them to dress them for years. Took time but like you said extends the life of them. A friend turned me on to those hand held jobbies (https://modernequipmentparts.com/500-0001-16-kit-knife-saver-complete/) and they seem to work fine. I figured even if it gets the bevelled edge it's lasting longer than if I did nothing (like on our altec that I have to unbolt the disc housing to check knives so it happens weekly instead of daily).
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This looks like $85 for $25 of tools, some possibly fancy gloves, and a plastic box.

I use the same type of handheld sharpener.

A tiny back bevel is supposedly beneficial, per the Bevel Buddy. Seems that at least one chipper manufacturer approves.

@Merle Nelson Can it be the anvil gap increasing more than the back-bevel?

I haven't changed knives in forever (part-time chipping, but sometimes machine- fed, strongly avoiding dirt and rocks)
 
Okay, great info, good perspective. I cut out dirt and avoid rocks like the plague. I get closer to 100 hrs on a set before feeling the need to flip them.

Southsound I don't think so. I don't get that much material off using a carbide dressing tool. I have always wanted a carbide hand dressing tool that only had carbide on the knife face and maybe carbon steel on the back(flat side) of the knife. Maybe I'll try making up one that way.

And I'll re-look at the Bevel Buddy. There are probably far better videos out there of it now as opposed to when it was first introduced.
 
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Shoot...what's the name of this thread? (Since Bevel Buddy is a Morbark product I'm going to go on a bit.)


At the 1:55 minute mark they say to only grind on the flat (discharge) side of the knife. Putting a " backbevel" on it. That backbevel is the very thing I thought was taking "self feed" cutting performance down.

@VenasNursery what would you say about that from your experience of using the Bevel Buddy?

@kenten sorry for mucking up your thread.
 
Merle Nelson said:
Shoot...what's the name of this thread? (Since Bevel Buddy is a Morbark product I'm going to go on a bit.)


At the 1:55 minute mark they say to only grind on the flat (discharge) side of the knife. Putting a " backbevel" on it. That backbevel is the very thing I thought was taking "self feed" cutting performance down.

@VenasNursery what would you say about that from your experience of using the Bevel Buddy?

@kenten sorry for mucking up your thread.
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We love it once our knives are dull. We use it and on average it lasts one month you get three sharpens so the edge don’t last that long but a month but a month is a month and three months is three months.
 

Bevel buddy

My local bandit dealer is selling the bevel buddy, They say you can sharpen your knives 2-3 times without taking them off your chipper. Anyone try the bevel buddy yet? Would like to know if it's worth it, Price is quite high at just over 700 U.S. which is over a grand Canadian lol Thanks, Shaun
www.treebuzz.com

Moved some knife thoughts onto an appropriate thread.
 
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