Belt driven or hydraulic cutter heads

[simonm]

What is the difference between belt driven stump grinders and hydraulically operated cutting heads? from a maintenance point of view i would think hydraulic is better as there's less parts to go wrong

[Ian C]

Your right with less maintenance although you do have pumps and hoses to look after but one of the biggest draw backs is loss of power, belt drive is much less power hungry, on a hydraulic head you will loose about 10% power over a belt! I just demo a predator p50, 50hp hydraulic but in fact my carlton 34hp was just as fast grinding due to less power loss. Hydraulic is simple and is probably the future.

[Mick Dempsey]

Do you get the same head speed on a hydro head?

[Ian C]

Yeah I think head speed is about the same but you don't get the same amount of torque.

[Mick Dempsey]

Thanks, I'd be rather depressed if a new 50hp machine couldn't out grind a 34hp.

Not hard to fit a belt.

[nickc]

Hydraulic wins hand down with me. Been running grinders ten year now and the last 3 years with bandit 2550. I do 350 plus hours per year and not a single issue. When I had belt machine would be lucky to get 6 months without an issue. Then there the cost of replacing belt and down time.

 

As for power loss - not an issue to me. Believe it's down to how much you use machine and whether teeth sharp. Once you know how much to bite off you can control wheel speed with remote (which increase productivity) - wouldn't have a manual operated machine again

[Ian C]

Thanks, I'd be rather depressed if a new 50hp machine couldn't out grind a 34hp.

Not hard to fit a belt.

 

Not it's not but the belts are bloody expensive and there are more bearings and shafts etc, one of the big advantage of a hydraulic machine is the ability to run other things from the hydraulics, basically there a big power pack, fir the big predator you can mount a mulching head on the back, you could power a splitter or post knocker etc etc.

Edited April 3, 2016 by Ian C

[aspenarb]

Your right with less maintenance although you do have pumps and hoses to look after but one of the biggest draw backs is loss of power, belt drive is much less power hungry, on a hydraulic head you will loose about 10% power over a belt! I just demo a predator p50, 50hp hydraulic but in fact my carlton 34hp was just as fast grinding due to less power loss. Hydraulic is simple and is probably the future.

 

I think a 10% loss over a belt is optimistic Ian. I would say 25% loss with hydraulic ,more as it all gets hot or worn and the fluid gets beaten up.

 

Bob

[Ian C]

I think a 10% loss over a belt is optimistic Ian. I would say 25% loss with hydraulic ,more as it all gets hot or worn and the fluid gets beaten up.

 

Bob

 

Probably right Bob in fairness.

[Johny Walker]

Not it's not but the belts are bloody expensive and there are more bearings and shafts etc, one of the big advantage of a hydraulic machine is the ability to run other things from the hydraulics, basically there a big power pack, fir the big predator you can mount a mulching head on the back, you could power a splitter or post knocker etc etc.

 

just change the pulleys to v,belts ,