The Wee Chipper Club

[PeteB]

Why does the CS and the Jo Beau cost what they cost? We use a properly sourced engine which has been designed, tested, developed and engineered rather than copied without the cost of the hard work. Sheet steel in Europe is significantly more costly than the state support operations elsewhere. Manufacturing costs, labour, taxes and so on is more expensive in Europe than further afield. It is sold and supported by a number of dealers, there to provide support to their customers giving a personal service rather than delivered on a pallet. Retail costs such as holding stock, having a showroom, going to trade and county shows etc, having a salesman on the road in a car costs but a shipping container unloaded by a fork truck into a warehouse has much lower financial implications to a business!

 

Just a few reasons for the price difference let alone the value that product adds to your business.

[GA Groundcare]

Also, if you look at the cost of a premium chipper (I will choose a CS100 18hp in this example) when buying new it will be circa £4,350 plus vat hand delivered by your local dealership who will support a full three years parts & labour warranty. Any problems, you give them a call and they'll come out and repair the machine.

 

What happens when your Chinese chipper breaks down on site? A distributor sends parts in the post to fit yourself? How long is the lead time on those parts? We keep belts, blades, screws, bearings, infeed screen, stop button and serviceable items on the shelf here ready for a customer to pop in and collect directly or have sent. 

 

When you sell that 5 year old CS100 you could see 3k 3.5k back no problem if you retail it fully serviced, cleaned and sharpened. Cost of overall ownership = less than the Chinese chipper and productivity much higher for those 5 years.

 

GreenMech are running some pretty decent finance offers currently too.

 

Edited October 21, 2019 by GA Groundcare

[Rough Hewn]

No , the GreenMech chippers are all completely manufactured at Alcester in the UK.

I'm driving down to a job this afternoon and I'll be going past Alcester.
Would it be ok to pop in and have a chat?
[emoji106]

[PeteB]

I'm not there today, I'm sure that Martin Lucas, the Sales Director is on site. He will be on hand to talk to you. Shall I tell him you are coming?

[Nikos Papadopoulos]

16 hours ago, Ty Korrigan said:

Another aid to estimating hours would be the number of blades used.

  Stuart

 

I don't think it works like that, since there are a number of qualities of blades and also there is a variety of material to be chipped affecting the life of a blade. Last, but not least, there is the case of pebbles, stones etc that also affect the blade's life.
So, all in all, I don't think that that argument is valid.

On the more general issue discussed : 
A person I know, used a Chinese made product (using also a Loncin engine) that has a EU country label on (with possibly some local fixes/improvements), who has told me that he had been using it to clear a logged area, continuously for 6 months and for 5-7 hours/day. The machine had 2 exhausts replaced and some bolts. The machine is at the typical range of 2000€.

Edited October 21, 2019 by Nikos Papadopoulos

[GA Groundcare]

3 minutes ago, Nikos Papadopoulos said:

I don't think it works like that, since there are a number of qualities of blades and also there is a variety of material to be chipped affecting the life of a blade. Last, but not least, there is the case of pebbles, stones etc that also affect the blade's life.
So, all in all, I don't think that that argument is valid.

 

It would put you in a rough ball park... Most users get around 20 hours on a flat blade before sharpening. As mentioned there is some very simple hour recording devices available..

[Nikos Papadopoulos]

Just now, GA Groundcare said:

It would put you in a rough ball park... Most users get around 20 hours on a flat blade before sharpening. As mentioned there is some very simple hour recording devices available..

Totally agree on the device - necessary add-on !

Re the hours, is that your experience coming from a CS machine/blade ?

[GA Groundcare]

1 minute ago, Nikos Papadopoulos said:

Totally agree on the device - necessary add-on !

Re the hours, is that your experience coming from a CS machine/blade ?

Something in that region yes. Obviously for most operators they are guessing on their usage. 

[Rough Hewn]

I'm not there today, I'm sure that Martin Lucas, the Sales Director is on site. He will be on hand to talk to you. Shall I tell him you are coming?

Job just got postponed by a month.
Should have something else that way this week.
Dm me a phone number.
[emoji106]

[Ty Korrigan]

In reality, even on a large conifer job, 4 hours chipping would be alot of machine hours and require people cutting and dragging to keep the wee chipper fed.

Empty hours accumulated without chipper being fed just mess up calculations of machine life and costings.

 My CS100 blades averaged 25 hours even being obsessive about clean material going through.

Yeh, I got more hours but I also got fewer after lending it out to more careless hands.

  Stuart