Gardenequipment

Thank you for responding to my question. That’s great that the Ranger is good for towing. Someone else mentioned they prefer it to the Discovery 4, I’m surprised. I guess it’s newer technology. It is interesting about the roller shutter, I have heard of people having leaks, which is annoying. I have no idea how easy they are to fit. I can understand water entering in after power washing. The main thing is that the area stays dry. Have a good day.

Good morning Jay, It’s interesting that you were able to carry out a comparison between the two trucks. I much prefer the idea of a 3 L as I feel that some of these 2 L engines may not last that long. However, I would probably only keep the truck for a couple of years. I’m hoping that with a 10-speed gearbox, the fuel economy will be reasonable. Although, as you mention, we don’t normally buy pickups for MPG. I like the idea of the roller shutter for hiding things up. I don’t have vast amounts of tools to carry around, I can remove the tools at night. It’s always good to have a good dealer network, it may be better to go for a truck with a good dealer network. Thank you for your feedback.

That’s not good, I would probably only keep the vehicle for a couple of years to avoid any problems. I appreciate your input.

It's great that your Wildtrack has been brilliant, I have heard of a few issues, but I guess nothing is perfect. I thought about ordering the canopy; however, I would prefer a roller shutter. However, that's no good if it's not watertight. I guess the correct fitting may make a difference. I believe the 3 L was quite heavy on fuel; 10% is an improvement; I'm hoping that the 2 L will be even better. The Discovery four is a good vehicle, I'm surprised that you prefer driving the Ranger. I guess it's newer technology, which is great. I wouldn't have minded trying the Land Rover Defender from a point of view of holding its value. However, I believe that there is about a year's waiting list! I've had Defenders before, and their resale value has been fantastic. Thank you for your input.

Thank you Mick for answering my question. It sounds like your experience has been generally good, I guess the extra horsepower will be useful. The manual button for towing sounds useful, I guess my trailer and stump grinder weighs around 1.8 times, so it should be fine with that sort of weight.

I'm thinking of purchasing or leasing a Ford Ranger pickup truck to tow a stump grinder. I'm looking at the double cab Ford Wildtrack automatic with the eco-213 hp diesel engine. In the past, I have used hardtop Land Rovers and then went on to Discoveries. Can you believe that I've currently been using a Skoda Octavia with 278,000 miles on the clock, I need to replace it with a four-wheel-drive of some sort. The Skoda was originally used as a temporary measure, but proved to be so reliable that I kept using it! A few questions regarding the Ford Wildtrack; I believe the economy isn't brilliant although with a 10 speed automatic box I'm guessing that should help economy. How secure is the roller shutter and is it waterproof. How do you find Ranger as a tow vehicle? Any thoughts or experience appreciated.

Hello Dan, Thankfully, I traded my Predator 28 in for a petrol 38 RX. I actually came to a point where I refused to use the Predator 28, as it was so unreliable and costing huge amounts of money. I ended up trying the petrol 38 RX which was a carburettor version, but much more reliable than the diesel engine version. I waited until the fuel injection model became available, for a purchase. The Predator 38 RX is a huge improvement than my old Predator 28, much smoother, quieter, more power and doesn't shake the machine to bits. The petrol fuel injection model is also considerably more economical and responsive than the petrol carburettor model. So far the Predator 38 RX is going well, no real problems, apart from a new set of cutter bearings at 450 hours. I managed 850 hours out of my Predator 28 before I changed the bearings. Also, dealing with Ben Burgess has been an excellent experience.

Thank you for your reply Bernard. I've always liked the idea of a hydraulic driven cutting head, no belts to tighten! An extra 25 hp is quite a bit more horsepower. I had a Predator 56 on demonstration about a year ago, I felt there wasn't a huge amount of difference between the petrol 38 and the 56 model. I would have thought Predator would have been better off making a more powerful machine to justify the extra cost. I know that to drive a hydraulic motor you do lose a bit of horsepower which to me makes the difference between the two machines even smaller, especially for the extra and considerable cost involved. Can you have the hydraulic pump turned up to increase the track power, or is this not possible? Have a great week. Roy

Thank you for your reply, it's appreciated. That's amazing as I thought on a Predator 75, having the extra power, I thought you might break more bolts. I've often wondered if a soft bolts may not be so brittle and less likely to break, just a thought. Out of interest how do you find your Predator 75, I don't think you can buy this machine you any more, just the 56 hp model? Have a good weekend. Roy

Thank you for all your comments and thoughts, they are all appreciated. Just for your interest, when I replace a set of teeth I am now taking extra care to thoroughly clean out the pockets etc. I did this before, however, this time I'm taking extra care. I'm also using a centre punch to push the teeth in slightly further once I have tighten the bolt. (As suggested in this thread.) This seems to enable me to tighten the bolt a bit more, which so far seems to be working, which is great news! So far I haven't broken a bolt for two weeks which is great, in fact, it's exceptionally good going for me! I hope this carries on. Once again thank you for your help. Roy

I'm pretty sure the bolts that I use say 12.9 on them, I will check though.

It's a shame when manufacturers design something poorly, it can cause a lot of frustration and aggravation. I hear you regarding the cutter wheel being clean, this could make the difference between shearing a bolt and not shearing a bolt! I hear you regarding the 10.9 bolts, they are the hardest. Although a few people have mentioned to me in the past that a softer bolt may be more flexible, just a thought.

Thank you for your reply Will, it's appreciated. That's amazing that you haven't sheared a bolt in five years, I'm amazed that I haven't sheared a bolt in seven days, that's almost a record for me! I really like the Multi-Tip set up, I have used finger teeth and green teeth in the past, however, Multi Tip is my preferred setup. It's just frustrating with the bolts shearing. I like your idea of driving the teeth and the holder right home, this sounds like a good idea. I'm aware that dirt can also become embedded in the pockets and cause the teeth to to not tighten fully. I will give your idea a try, thank you. I hear you regarding your second point, I will check this out. I actually used the torque wrench to tighten up the bolts that came with my original machine. I still wonder if my cutting head has been hardened properly as it almost appears that the wheel is slightly stretched. In other words, when the wheel is new, the teeth and pocket seem to fit nice and snugly, as time goes on the slots on the wheel seem to open up fractionally causing a fractional bit of play.

Thank you for your reply, it's appreciated. That's a good thought regarding the threaded bolt, I will find out. I believe the problem may be caused by the cutting wheel, almost stretching and making the teeth fractionally loose. I'm guessing if the cutting wheel isn't hardened properly it will enable the teeth and the holders to move. It's a time-consuming issue, especially if it happens several times in a day. Were you able to cure the issue you had with your mulcher? That doesn't sound good with lumps of metal flying around in a flail!

Thank you for your reply Nick, it's appreciated. It's strange how sometimes I can break three of four bolts a day and then go for several days without any issues. It does make me wonder if the bolts aren't up to spec. I do find that the pockets do become more slack with wear and tear, which makes me wonder if the wheel isn't hardened correctly.

Thank you for your reply, it is appreciated. I purchased the bolts from the dealer, so I'm assuming that they are the correct bolts. I may try sourcing bolts from somewhere else, just to make sure though. They have 10.9 stamped on the top which I believe is the hardest bolt.

For the last few years I have been using a Predator stump grinder. My present stump grinder is a 38 RX fitted with a Kohler EFI engine, a big improvement on the petrol carburettor version and the Lombardini diesel engine. The cutting head is really my only gripe. I've always been very satisfied how well the Multi-Tip cutting head performs and how easy it is to change the teeth. However, an issue that always seems to arise is the shearing off of the bolt holding the cutter teeth in place. According to Predator a few years ago there were a few soft steel cutting wheels around which were causing issues. They actually gave me a free replacement cutting wheel. After approximately 15 hours work with my latest Predator, I sheared my first bolt. I can break sometimes three or four bolts in a days grinding and sometimes I won't break a single bolt for several days. I'm not quite sure why this is, however, I do believe that the cutting wheel steel is not particularly hard, therefore the pockets become slightly stretched. I'm thinking about possibly changing to a Green Teeth cutting wheel, I would be interested to hear about other people's experience with the above cutting wheels. You can read more and see a short video on a post that I wrote a few days ago. Thank you for reading. Roy

I recently had a Predator 38 radio remote petrol stump grinder on loan while my Predator 28 radio remote was having the main cutter head bearings replaced. I used the Predator 38 for around 100 hours and it gave me no problems whatsoever, which is a little different to my Predator 28 machine that I purchased in October 2016. How do you find your stump grinder, is it problem free or does it need constant attention? I really like the cutting efficiency of the Predator and the ability to narrow down to 26 inches, which is a great feature. I have written and made a short video review of my experience with the Predator 38 and 28 stump grinders, I would be interested to hear your thoughts. Here is the link to the Predator 38 and 28 review.

I have a radio remote Predator 28 stump grinder, it has an issue where I'm assuming it loses signal and stops functioning. It used to shut the engine down, but I've overridden this as when it happens 15 times in a day sometimes it's annoying having to keep restarting the engine. The issue seems to happen when I am more to the front of the machine near the cutting head in awkward places. Sometimes the machine can cut out 15 times a day, another time it won't happen at all. Other times, it will happen three or four times within five minutes and then be absolutely fine for the rest of the day. I don't know enough about radio technology to comment too much about this, I do wonder if sometimes other radio waves may interfere, but for example, if I'm on a golf course or somewhere similar you tend to think that there should not be much interference around. I just wondered if anyone else has experienced anything similar? Thank you for reading.

That's interesting Khriss, apparently, the engineers tell me that they regularly see 10,000 hours plus on Lombardini engines, which is good.

I hear you, I believe Lombardini engines are probably a bit like Briggs & Stratton engines, quite basic and simple and yet run for a long time if they are looked after. The service schedule for the oil bath is every eight hours which is quite frequent, this is why I'm surprised that dirt has got into the engine as I do clean the air filter regularly. Having said this it has been particularly dry this year, so there may be more soil dust which is probably more abrasive than wood dust has caused added wear and tear. I understand what you're saying about the grinder not always being level, however on a previous Carlton stump grinder the engine operated at quite an angle which apparently it is designed to do. Enjoy the rest of the Christmas holiday.

Predator's service schedule for the air filter is every eight hours and for the oil change, every 200 hours, I have carried out these service schedules on a regular basis. I have to say when I clean the air filter, in general, it never looks particularly dirty. From what I understand, the engineers who supply the Lombardini engine quite often have machines in that are not serviced properly and end up putting a replacement engine in these particular machines. I am aware that many people aren't particularly good maintenance. However, over the past 30 years plus I have owned many different horticulture machines and never actually wore an engine out. Thank you for taking the time to comment, I do appreciate it.

Thank you for taking the time to answer my question, I do appreciate it. I probably don't really know enough to comment about air filters, but I know on this particular air filter, there is an oil bath at the bottom, which I regularly clean. And then above the oil bath, a wire mesh gauze and then above that a foam filter, so in theory, it appears that there are several ways to stop the dust entering the engine, however in my experience, not enough! I will be cleaning daily now, however many hours machine has done as a precaution. Enjoy the rest of the Christmas holidays

I hear you Khriss, 600 hours is nothing at all, apparently, the engineers tell me that they regularly see Lombardini engines with 10,000 hours plus, which is a huge improvement on 600 hours! I will definitely be checking the filter even more regularly! The problem with changing to a different engine is the fact that the machine fits through narrow areas, so realistically this is the only engine that fits in a practical way. Enjoy the rest of the Christmas holiday and thank you for commenting.

Thank you for taking the time to answer my question. It's interesting that I've never had this sort of problem before, I have owned many different machines over the years. There was actually no lack of performance with the engine, just a lot of smoke! When the engine was taken apart you can see dirt in the manifold, so it does appear that the dirt entered in through the air intake. This summer was particularly dry, however, I regularly clean the air filter and in general, the oil doesn't look particularly dirty in the air cleaner. I have to say that I don't think Lombardini engines are the strongest when I think about an agricultural tractor and the dust they go through, it's far worse than a stump grinder I would have thought? I guess they need lots of care compared to maybe something like a German or US engine. The machine is two years old, so 600 hours in two years. Roy