crane feeding chipper

[John Shutler]

a couple of jobs recently it would have been good to have a chipper behind my valmet. id want to be able to crane feed it.

ive been looking at the FARMI CH260

does anybody have any experience of crane feeding this machine

[Gray git]

Yes John I used 1 On 2 different valtra's a 130hp And a 160hp both well on top of it, the 1st had a botex 360tl on the 3pl And the chipper bolted onto the leg frame so quite a heavy lump to lift but was nice to use for chipping with the small grab then changed too a t160 with 560tl roof mount better visibility but the bigger grab was a pain at times so had a smaller hopper made which was for grab feed only as no stop bar, this chipper was also a 3blade version with the twig breakers removed so really pulled the stuff in.

Nice chipper too feed with being so low too the ground but easy to sweep crud in with the brash and damaged the blades.

I think lpg Eddie has 1 with the optional conveyer instead of a bottom roller which makes feeding easier but makes the machine no good if you also want to hand feed it.

[Peter]

You can get a short hopper, without a stop bar, with or without a conveyor in the bottom, for grab feeding. Obviously hand feeding that is a no no.

 

The hoppers swap over really easily though, 2 blokes 10 minutes to change, and obviously you can do a bit of crane feeding big stuff into the hand feed hopper if your careful.

[mistahbenn]

Without wanting to derail, but staying on subject, this crane feed chipper is the BEST i have ever used. They only cost about $70k.

[LGP Eddie]

I do have the Farmi 260 with the conveyor and it's been absolutely brilliant.

I do however load with an excavator which allows me to be very fussy what goes in and keep an eye on how things progressing.

They can suffer from certain things wrapping around the feed roller, but a bit of time loading and knowing the machine soon has sorted.

 

In terms of running the N101 Valtra was absolutely perfect either on 540 or 1000, but we only really chip at 1000 now just to get more through quickly.

 

I'm trying to get down the Valtra roofmount route myself for more versatility, and hopefully it will match perfectly to the 260 with conveyor?

If I don't go the Valtra route, the other option for us it to sell it and take a Bandit with engine that we can have as a demount unit for the tracked dumper.

This would allow one man to take the chipper virtually anywhere and load himself.

 

The conveyor is a bit more involved to swap over from simple hand feed, as I looked into this at purchase and it required a fair bit of extra kit so I opted to go without.

 

Here she is.

 

 

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZWshqt9oB4]Moorlands Specialist Excavations Farmi 260HFC Chipper. - YouTube[/ame]

 

Eddie.

[Tom D]

I think you either buy a dedicated crane fed jobby which will be easy to feed buy a real danger to feed by hand, have a groundy go through that and you are going to jail. On the other hand feeding a manual feed by crane is possible if you're careful and much safer to feed by hand.

 

My practical answer is buy the manual feed and feed the big clean bits with the crane using groundy as a spotter, then the grounds can be feeding the wee crappy bits by hand, if you try and do it all with the crane you will put an awful lot of sh1te through and be forever changing blades. We manage fine feeding with the crane and then doing a final manual cleanup.

[J Hurle and Sons]

Hi John have used farmi 260 before good chipper bit light weight, if you are getting one to crane feed and the crane on your valtra is driven by the back axle of the tractor, make sure the chipper has its own hydraulic pump and tank else it will be crap every time you move the crane the rollers will stop I in the end bought a 550 zx schliesing to go behind our valtra cost more money, but the difference in build quality and performance was unbelievable.

[John Shutler]

Hi John have used farmi 260 before good chipper bit light weight, if you are getting one to crane feed and the crane on your valtra is driven by the back axle of the tractor, make sure the chipper has its own hydraulic pump and tank else it will be crap every time you move the crane the rollers will stop I in the end bought a 550 zx schliesing to go behind our valtra cost more money, but the difference in build quality and performance was unbelievable.

 

I don't understand what you mean by driven by the back axle

my crane runs off the tractor hydraulics, I assumed the hydraulics for the chipper would be driven by the pto?

[LGP Eddie]

I think you either buy a dedicated crane fed jobby which will be easy to feed buy a real danger to feed by hand, have a groundy go through that and you are going to jail. On the other hand feeding a manual feed by crane is possible if you're careful and much safer to feed by hand.

 

My practical answer is buy the manual feed and feed the big clean bits with the crane using groundy as a spotter, then the grounds can be feeding the wee crappy bits by hand, if you try and do it all with the crane you will put an awful lot of sh1te through and be forever changing blades. We manage fine feeding with the crane and then doing a final manual cleanup.

 

Absolutely agree there, the only time that's ever had anything fed by hand is when testing. I place something suitable on the conveyor before the tractor is even started up.

It's then easy to feed it in with the controls from a safe distance.

Apart from that in normal operation it's a total exclusion zone, with one man in the tractor and one in the excavator.

 

I think the fact that a Vatra Roofmount setup is just so transportable and only one operator makes such a difference.

The simple fact however I feel is an even a reasonably small excavator with a decent grab setup (Stephens new CAT is a perfect example) could in reality be so much more of an advantage once actually on many sites over a roofmount setup?

The logistics of having to get the excavator to site is another point, but once there it will more than make itself useful, ensure all the material gets into the chipper without the need for manual intervention and perfectly safe.

 

It works brilliantly for us, and a very good friend had just equipped his 3 tonner with a full Engcon Tiltrotator and grab setup, which in reality could begin to provide an excellent complement to the Farmi, which then wouldn't require a roofmount to load it?

He has his own truck for transport and not unreasonable day rate, so combined with a Tractor/Chipper plus operator who is also Chainsaw qualified would be a pretty useful package all round once on site.

 

Eddie.

[J Hurle and Sons]

Sorry mate back axle cornish speak for the hydraulics of the tractor, pull spool lever in to engage the crane, no seperate pump and tank for the crane. The farmi 260 I used behind mine the pto just drove the fly wheel of the chipper and you had to drive the rollers of it from the hydraulics of the tractor so I couldnt use the crane and the rollers at the same time hence no good, 550zx has own tank and pump on chipper to drive the rollers as far as i'm aware not all farmi 260 do unless they have changed the newer ones