BC 1000xl

[PUClimber]

We were doing some clearing of pine trees at the Christmas tree farm today and rented a BC 1000 and it sucked. It was way underpowered for the side of capacity it yielded. The new safety bar on the bottom and this push button system deal is just crap. I hated every minute of it. I've ran other machines and the single feed wheel on this model is not the hot ticket. It doesn't even have the hydraulics to squeeze the lips in order to pull loose materal in. I will never ever purchase one of these machines. If I want something that will take a 10-12 inch piece I want it to be able to suck that piece in with no problem and have it's way with it.

 

[Jamin_Mayer]

Hmm. I dind't know they were that bad. I thought (without ever using one) they were okay. Who would-a-thunk it?

Fred, do you have any problems with yours?

 

[Stumper]

Hmmm.... i rented a BC1000xl a few years agor for a ROW clearing joib and was very favorably impressed. Of course I have never considered capacity listings for chippers as realistic. My theory is take listed capacity divide by 2 and you should have the size which the machine can chip on a sustained basis. I have to wonder how dull or sharp PUCs example was.

 

[PUClimber]

It was spitting good chips but we have a Christmas tree farm and the feed table just wasn't wide enough and it bogged down quite a bit.

 

[Stumper]

Ah yes. Xmas trees. YUCK!

 

[Fred_Berkelhammer]

Love mine. Both of them. We demoed several of the comparable models (by weight, not diameter of feed size), and the 1000xl fed better, I thought, than Bandit or Morbark. (comparable Bandit and Morbark chippers, by this standard of towing weight, are 9 inch models, not 12 inch.) So, at the same weight, I felt like I was getting a better feeding chipper that could occasionally take a 12" piece of soft wood. They can't compete with 12 inch bandits, though, for pulling in lots of wood.

I like the safety bars, and we set ours on the highest hair-trigger setting; that poor guy up in Loveland weighs on our minds, still. The reset button is kind of a pain, though.

 

[nailer]

PUClimber, we`ve had a 1000 XL for 2 years and have had nothing but hassle - free 10 inch chipping all day, every day.

Are you sure your rental machine had been lovingly maintained, serviced every 250 hrs and was razor sharp?

The drum/single-feed roller works brilliantly. Whoever designed this chipper has thought clearly about notions of user-friendly. Everything about it is well designed and superbly constructed. I don`t sell chippers and I have no connections to Vermeer, its just due credit.

 

[PurdueJoe]

I've used the 1000xl when I worked for a company up at school and while it had it's flaws it still impressed me enough that I plan on buying one this comming spring to take the place of my 625.

 

[Mntreedawg]

The red stop bar on the feed table of the 1800xl saved me from getting folded forward at the knees and going head first into the chipper! The stop gate and the green button suck at times but its there for our safety!!

 

[treekiwi]

Ive just started and have a 2004 bb90xp but and my old company we had a bc1000 and i thought it was a prity good chipper. Ours was a gen1 so it didnt have the stop bars, the only problem we had was bolts loseing on the feed roller assembly and problems with the fliminess of the fibreglass engine cover, also has anyone had any problems with engine wear as the lack of cooldown for the turbo has bee a cause for concern, has anyone had any long term issues? Also i have noticed that the bandit is alot quiter than the bc...

 

[rfwoodvt]

There are a lot of nice features on the Vermeers. We rented one with an autofeed that when it paused to let the engine catch up it back the wood out just a hair to make sure it was clear of the drum. Worked slicker than snot on a greased cutting board I tell you what...

However, every single vermeer drum chipper I have ever used, whether borrowed, rented or owned by one of my subs has had one unforgivable problem....They all had a tendancy to have the clutch disengage while we were working.

I'm not talking about someone not fully engaging the clutch, I mean locked into the detent position fully and properly.

Sometimes it would only pop out once or twice on a job. Othertimes we needed to have someone stand there to hold it in place.

Like I said, this has happened with every vermeer we have used. Even those owned by other companies we hired to do our clean up were we only fed and didn't set the machine up.

Clearly not something I want to deal with again.