GA Groundcare

Looking at the pictures and the description of that are they suggesting its safe to road tow?! It should really be clearly described as not for highway towing...

Unfortunately that's incorrect, the CS100 has an infeed chute of 600mm wide x 450mm high and an infeed throat size of 315mm wide x 160mm high. It is classed as a 4" / 100mm wood chipper but having a letter box infeed of 315mm x 160mm (Over 12" x 6") you can get some serious armfuls of brash in to it...

If you can afford to stump up the extra initially then the overall cost of ownership is the cheapest out there on the CS100. I'm not sure if you are VAT registered but for the purpose of this lets assume not... 5k will get you a new machine as previously mentioned, there is a used machine on the GM website for sale on behalf of a customer for 3.5k. I am also assuming that the seller here is also not VAT registered as there is no mention of VAT. Just a straight sale price of 3.5k. If you were to purchase a new or demonstrator CS100 now in a handful of years time it'll be worth 3.5k if you look after it. That's a total depreciation of £1500 which includes you having to swallow 20% VAT of around £800. You'll be enjoying working with the best machine on the market for those years and earning good money from it. It will come with three years warranty plus great back up from your local dealer and GreenMech themselves. You can take out finance through your local GM dealer or maybe take out a 0% credit card and set yourself up a direct debit for the next 24 months, easy to pay it off early too... Or spend 1.5k-2k on a cheap chipper, get frustrated with it, not be able to achieve all the jobs you bought it for and then accept its fit for scrap in a couple of years time...

Petrol or Diesel? Turntable? Built well but then very heavy as a result. Blades etc you can get from northern arb supplies no problem and filters/ bearings you should be able to match from local suppliers. Actual specific Kwikchip parts wont be so straight forward. You may be better off with something main stream, GreenMech, TimberWolf etc. At least then you have full parts availability and wherever you are you'll have a reasonably local main dealer to swing into and get yourself going If the worst happens...

I run around 40 miles per week on average then play squash, basketball and go bouldering once a week too. I also try to do a few weights at home each evening but nothing serious. In the next three months I have Bath Half Marathon, Manchester Marathon and a 50k off road trail run... Ash

Great video that. Not much in it at all when properly working. I must admit the truck and chipper colour of Tree Techniques looks brilliant!

The 150 petrol is nigh on 3k cheaper at retail than the 150 34hp diesel however. Your self employed based from home style domestic tree surgeons where most of these are sold into will largely run on white for the simplicity without a proper yard and tank for red diesel.

Petrol engines always recover quicker than a diesel. Drive a commercial petrol and diesel mower into some long grass and the difference in mower deck recovery time is night and day. On 4" type material when the stress control is sometimes kicking in and out a petrol engine will really thrive. A chipper with a quicker feed roller setup but the exact same engine as a competitor will only really discharge chip at the same rate. It may "feel" quicker when its aggressively pulling the material out your hand however.

Having used and sold both (we are a GM dealer) You'll find the 150P wont physically handle larger material as I am sure you know its the same base machine as the 130. But its throughput is quicker. If there is a gang of you felling, dragging and feeding then the 150P with its extra 13hp will keep up much better. The 130 is perfect for the individual or small team. As long as the chipper has dealt with the piece of timber by the time the operator grabs the next piece to feed then that's spot on. The 150P is a cracking tool, engine runs sweet and the new bonnet looks awesome...

The V1505 engine is in multiple machines yes but often the radiators are different, depends what it’s been fitted into.

I think you have an underlying issue to why it doesn't start. Possibly low compression or valve clearances.

Take it to a local radiator company and they should be able to re core / re manufacture it for you for a fraction of that cost. You can't really compare mass produced automotive parts to the parts in this / the plant industry unfortunately...

The GM Quad Trak is a cracking versatile machine. The swiss army knife of chippers

What is up? May be able to help you...

Also there is a bunch of welding forums you can browse and get inspired..

With mig its all in the welder setup and that does take some time to learn. I know our mig in the workshop roughly where it needs setting up on 2mm metal, 4mm metal etc before pulling the trigger. Sometimes needs a tweak once started but usually there or there abouts. Once setup mig is a doddle. One of the best things I bought was an auto welding mask. Makes life so much easier and you can still see the gun at point of pulling the trigger keeping it accurate with a hand still free. Make sure your surfaces are lovely and clean, no oil residue etc. A "flapper" sanding disc on a 4.5" grinder does a great job at prepping surfaces. Get two lengths of 3-4mm metal, sit one on top of the other and just have a go. The rewards of a good looking weld is awesome.

Interesting extract... I know 100% that golf courses do not have separate tanks for white "road" diesel on their large fairway mowers, rough mowers, tractors etc that have DPF and then a red diesel tank for the smaller engined greens and tees mowers. Rightly or wrongly, the same red diesel goes in everything.

We have DPF in large ground care mowers already and its fine. Really isn't new tech as such and been in the automotive industry as I'm sure you know for years. Just a 34hp emissions compliant Kubota inc dpf will naturally cost more than a basic bog standard V1105T / V1505 Kubota we see in machines today. Most probably wont be aware but GreenMech actually offer a 26hp Kubota V1105 normally aspirated diesel engine in their Arborist 150 and have done for years. Its £1,000 cheaper at retail and wont need to comply with the new regs as it falls under the hp requirement. Its a popular choice in Europe and they don't really understand why we are fixated on 34hp. I've sold a couple to councils in the past (due to budget restrictions) and I bet half the folk if not told the hp would never notice... I think all of a sudden the 26hp Arborist 150 will become popular.... Possibly down the line in 10 years time you might see a 2018 non compliant machine worth more than a 2019 compliant machine as the used buyer will see it as an easier thing to maintain but technology moves on and we get used to it.... We might look back on it like we look back at having unreliable carburettor engined cars and how we now take efi in production cars for granted! Who knows.

Glad we could help. Ash

If the tap has been left and the float is sticking down inside the carb the fuel is therefor allowed to continue to enter and it could start to run into the engine oil giving you the problems described. Change the oil, remove the carb, strip, clean and re assemble.

The tittle of the post is called track idler bearing?

Check the anvil edge to see if its rounded over or is still a nice angle. Fairly easy to view. Check also your blade- anvil gap distance. You will want 2-3mm between them. Re track removal, yes fairly straight forward, jack up the right hand side, remove the grease fitting which on most tracking systems is behind a little bolted on flat plate in the main channel. Then either put a ratchet strap around the whole track and ratchet it up or get a fair sized sledge hammer and knock the non drive end inwards. This will allow the track to become slack and removed by hand. You can then easily get to all the idlers. To re assemble, stick the track back on, refit the grease fitting, grab a grease gun and keep on pumping until the track is tensioned.

Not saying it is this but seen it on a few chippers or mowers in the past when the fuel tank is lower than the engine and the fuel in the line drains back to the tank over a period of time. You go to start it say the next morning, fires up briefly (from the fuel sat in the injector pump) then cuts out as the fuel lines full of air. On second time of cranking fuel starts getting back up to the injector pump and away it’ll go all day if not stopped for a long period of time. Couple of checks you can do for this, if it has an electric inline fuel pump let it tick away for a minute before starting first time or pump the manual lever pump on the side of the injector pump a good 50 times with an injector pipe cracked/ bleed screw open. If it doesn’t cut out on first start you can fit a one way inline fuel valve, they are a couple of quid online and just fit it on the rubber feed pipe near the engine.

It’s still in the price list the 16hp manual start.

It won’t take 6 litres of oil at point of service.