Need a woodchipper

[GA Groundcare]

1 hour ago, Gray git said:

9 hours ago, jmac said:

A lot of chipper for the money but quite high hours imo. Read somewhere that 3000hrs is the lifespan of a chipper, what do others think about that?

A bit different on tracked machines as they have run for that long but not necessarily chipped for that long as can spend a fair amount of time just getting themselves to site, downside is a worn trackbase can become very expensive very quickly if your unlucky!

Indeed, the track base looks pretty good on this one, tracks are nearly new and the extension booms feel pretty tight!  The usual tell-tale sign on a SafeTrak of worn or out of adjusted leg extensions is they sit in a nose nose dive position towards the operators platform.

Edited June 20, 2019 by GA Groundcare

[jmac]

2 hours ago, GA Groundcare said:

Indeed, the track base looks pretty good on this one, tracks are nearly new and the extension booms feel pretty tight!  The usual tell-tale sign on a SafeTrak of worn or out of adjusted leg extensions is they sit in a nose nose dive position towards the operators platform.

Yeah mine does the nose dive thing. Know a guy with a wee tracked jenson that has nearly 4000 hrs on and the actual chipper drum has started to wear out, he's had to weld patches on the thin bits! Still goes and chips really well because he looks after it. 

[jmac]

3 hours ago, Gray git said:

11 hours ago, jmac said:

A lot of chipper for the money but quite high hours imo. Read somewhere that 3000hrs is the lifespan of a chipper, what do others think about that?

A bit different on tracked machines as they have run for that long but not necessarily chipped for that long as can spend a fair amount of time just getting themselves to site, downside is a worn trackbase can become very expensive very quickly if your unlucky!

Yes I'd agree with you there. I bought my safetrack nearly 3 years ago now with 1500hrs on the clock, had to rebuild one idler wheel and all the bottom rollers and put a new set of tracks on it! The guy said it had been on motorway embankment contract so prob done a few miles in it's life.

[ForestryFinance]

£8k for a chipper and trailer would be cheap. Are you paying cash?

[GA Groundcare]

33 minutes ago, jmac said:

Yes I'd agree with you there. I bought my safetrack nearly 3 years ago now with 1500hrs on the clock, had to rebuild one idler wheel and all the bottom rollers and put a new set of tracks on it! The guy said it had been on motorway embankment contract so prob done a few miles in it's life.

 

If you are fairly competent with the spanners you can adjust the boom adjusters yourself, get the thing up on some axle stands to take the weight off and if you can undo the adjuster bolts, its pretty straight forward.

 

The bearings in the idler rollers will always go on any machine, the nature of where they spent half their life. Although time consuming and not a nice job to do x8 but cheap enough if matching the bearings from a local supplier.

[jmac]

3 hours ago, GA Groundcare said:

 

If you are fairly competent with the spanners you can adjust the boom adjusters yourself, get the thing up on some axle stands to take the weight off and if you can undo the adjuster bolts, its pretty straight forward.

 

The bearings in the idler rollers will always go on any machine, the nature of where they spent half their life. Although time consuming and not a nice job to do x8 but cheap enough if matching the bearings from a local supplier.

It's on my list of things to do ?. There is a greenmech video showing the process, pretty handy. Wasn't a dig at greenmech about rollers and idler failure, I can't see past the greenmech safetrack 1928 now, goes almost anywhere and chips really well. Just wish I could have a nice new one.

[swinny]

I do like the look of the 19-28 machines.... have considered either a road tow or a tracked machine.... look a decent machine.

 

are the blades round ? Can you get square ones also?

[jmac]

15 minutes ago, swinny said:

I do like the look of the 19-28 machines.... have considered either a road tow or a tracked machine.... look a decent machine.

 

are the blades round ? Can you get square ones also?

The blades are round. No option to put square blades on my 2009 machine. It's a great machine but because of their design they quite often get used or more like abused on railway and motorway embankment. Just need to pick the right machine.

[monkeybusiness]

Don’t be put off by the round blades - if you are the one paying for the blades they are better in every single way!!! 

Once they start to lose their edge they can produce slightly untidier looking chip, and the earliest machines using these blades weren’t hugely refined which has possibly tainted people’s views towards them.  

However, a round blades machine will still fill a tipper/blast to waste etc in no time, customers still want the chip for their borders, biomass firms still buy it, the chip still disappears into woodland floors/hedge bottoms. The blades last for ages (especially when compared to square blades), still work when dull (we’ve actually continued on and finished jobs after accidentally chipping rebar on more than one occasion, which is exceptionally cruel on the machinery but round blade flywheels will keep on chipping...), they can be turned a number of times (which takes no time at all) thus prolonging their life, and only two out of the four tend to take the majority of wear which further reduces the costs. There is no need to set up the blade/anvil gap - bolt them in and earn some money!

I’ve got a 1928 safetrak that has done well over 3000 hours and is still a front line machine - this one for sale above looks an absolute bargain to me (so much so that I might buy it myself tbh!). 

[Mick Dempsey]

Anvil condition seems important on round blades.

 

Bargain machines.