TR8 woes.

[lux]

Dear All,

 

I’m looking for your constructive inputs and advice on my new chipper. I’m not looking for a stihl v husqvarna style debate of slating each other’s brands on this thread please.

 

I purchased a new TR8 with the new 55hp Doosan engine and took deliver in September.

It’s done circa 50 hours work now.

 

In that time I’ve had what I consider an u acceptable amount of breakdowns. I can’t fault Forst for their attentiveness and speed in resolving faults but quite honestly I should of had so many if any at all on a new machine. I basically have their technical assist on speed dial

 

 

I’m looking to escalate this to a complaint , I’ve been inconvenienced enough. Good service goes so far but it doesn’t stop me losing money in down time on site due to breakdowns.

 

I’ll give some chronological history of faults. I have photographed all but the latest ones ( of which it still has but they are closed for Christmas so haven’t sent any yet )

 

September 24th

I took a belated delivery at the end of September. Not a big deal as they gave me a loan chipper until mine was ready.

Arrived and went through the delivery inspection. Found vulnerable electric wires left unsheathed rubbing on sharp edges.

Bonnet had damaged powder coat and poor fitting of the new style exhaust for the Doosan engine.

Machine declined and sent back to be sorted.

 

6th October.

Machine cuts out on site.

2/3 hours of downtime on site to establish the relays have been housed under the anvil and continuously come out making the machine cut out. Relays beginning to rub through on casing.

We padded out the relay box with a sponge to keep them in place.

The permanent fix from first is to send out their own sponge with sticky tape to fix it in place ....

 

6th November.

Bolts fall out of the linkage bar connecting the emergency stop bar

Thread (very short ) inside the link bar has been stripped by the bolt vibrating before coming out.

 

They send out a new link bar and new bolts with a longer shoulder .... the bolts are identical.

 

Parts swapped over, loctite on thread.

 

6 days later it’s unwinding again. Tightening these is now a maintenance thing every 2 to 3 days. These should never need tightening !

 

 

At same time I notice the powder coat is failing on the lugs that retain the hopper in its transport position. I assume these lugs that are welded on were not adequately descaled from welder meaning the powder coat has adhered properly.

 

Forst put me on a waiting list for a new mid section of the hopper.

 

17th December

Machine cuts out on site. Overheated.

Fault codes identify the radiator.

Examine carefully and find its leaking at the bottom of the rad. Manufacturing fault. The rad is well encased so cant really be damaged.

 

Engineer sent out who fits new rad on site.

 

24th. December

A shears bolt head is found by the chipper when clearing up. Couldn’t identify it at the time.

 

30th December I notice the top feed roller has moved off centre and is just ( only just ) starting to touch the weld on the Infeed opening.

 

Open the bonnet to investigate, this reveals the source of the sheared bolt head.

From the bonnet hinge

Bolt is sheared off and left in the chassis. Hing now moves as the bonnet opens and bonnet fowls on the chassis causing some damage to the powder coat.

 

In order to realign the bonnet to close I’m correct position we had to loosen both hinges , pop a ratchet strap from the spout to the handles on top of the bonnet and ratchet it into place and re tighten the hinges. More time wasted and another issue to sort but they aren’t open until next week.

 

 

I love the chipper when it’s working. The 55hp is fantastic and it flies through timber, but I’m reaching or have reached the end of my patience with these faults at 50 hours.

 

I’m aware some forst employees use this forum so I imagine this will work its way to first before they receive my official communication. I’m not fussed about that.

 

What are your constructive thoughts and views on a realistic resolution. Now the powder coat on the chassis has taken a dink from a fail I’m minded to say either replace my machine with another or take mine away and strip / repaint what needs doing and provide a loan machine for the duration.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[lux]

[Khriss]

Pretty poor niggles, sounds like it was put together PDQ, the shear bolt worrying. I would take it out of service n let Forst tech crawl all over it check everything.   ( plus hire chipper )  Least they  getting back to you quickly   😐  K

[Khriss]

( have you changed blades yet ?  I would !) 

[Khriss]

In general, dont like powder coating fr ag- plant, nice coat of Mebon or other 2 pack primer, then yr top.  What they use on salt gritters chassis. K

[Mike Hill]

Picture third from bottom looks like the steel has cracked along the weld.Might just be the paint cracking,but I would have a closer look at it.

 

What would your reaction be if Forst replaced your chipper with a new one,and the new one did the same thing?

 

 

[lux]

( have you changed blades yet ?  I would !) 

I change them frequently khriss. The blades are good quality to be fair. I recon I do them every 10 to 12 hours use
Greased every Monday

[Doug Tait]

5 minutes ago, Scottish Cleaning Service said:

Do you think you should have bought a TW280?

Your answer I think is in the first paragraph of the initial post.

[lux]

Do you think you should have bought a TW280?

Not the sort of comment I was looking for.

But to answer it. No. They don’t make a tracked 280 currently and the outgoing engine wasn’t tier 5. Hence its forced out of production.

[Khriss]

@lux, is wot i thought  😊  some just leave them- didnt fancy hearing one had shot thru chute  😮  K