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We have a Vermeer sc362 gas powered stump grinder that's having problems with starting up. I'm having to prime the fuel line to have to start it sometimes. Some days it takes five minutes or more to get it to want to stay on. Other days it starts right up with no problems. I had a complete tune up on it recently. And it sometimes backfires. Please help sick of pulling up at customers homes looking like a jack ass when it won't start.

Looking to buy a Jo-Beau B24-100. Does anyone have one for sale in the UK by chance? Cheers👍

Engine has gone on our predator 38 stump grinder and need a replacement. There is a 400 day lead time for a new one at the moment so a used one would be ideal!

I have a 28 hp Lombardini engine on a Predator P28, the engine has done 600 hours and is basically worn out beyond practical repair, so I am having a new engine fitted. This will be the third engine on this machine, the first engine sucked in some soundproofing material after 30 hours which made the engine overheat, fortunately, Lombardini replaced this engine free of charge. The present engine has sucked in dirt through the air filter, it has an oil bath air filter which I am told is the best, however, dirt has still entered the engine and caused wear that is beyond practical repair. I regularly check the air filter and to be fair in general it doesn't seem to get particularly dirty. However, I carried out a particularly dusty job a few months ago when I was grinding out a very old hedgerow and I believe this is where the problems started. The engine started burning excessive amounts of oil, probably a couple of pints of oil an hour! The engine is actually still under warranty, but it seems like I will have to pay for a new engine as this is classed as poor maintenance. I do clean the air filter regularly, however, it is clear that dirt has entered the engine. My question is; is there any way that I can get a new engine under warranty or insurance, thoughts appreciated. Incidentally, I had the same engine on a Carlton stump grinder and this engine was also replaced under warranty, due to a faulty casting on the block. I don't seem to be having much success with Lombardini engines!

I needed some parts for my Alpine Magnum machine and ordered some back in January from the one and only distributor for this American company. Unfortunately the whole experience dealing with the sole distributor for Alpine Magnum in the UK has been damaging for my company’s reputation. Firstly when I paid £699- back in january i was told that the parts would be sent the next day, promising... but a week or so later I got a call to say that the parts wont be on there way for a “few weeks” this was obviously a vague due date but i was patient and so too were my clients waiting for stump grinding to be completed, however we are now at the end of March, over two months on and still no parts or arrival date despite many calls chasing and none returned! although many promises to return my calls were made, now my customers and also other tradesmen waiting for stumps to be removed so that they can get on are losing faith in ME! Very pleasant to speak to on the phone but nothing seemed to happen behind the scenes, think hard about owning one of these machines as attempting to get parts maintaining them might be damaging to your business as has been the case for me.

I’ve recently been dealing with stump grinder woes. About a year ago, I purchased a used stump grinder from a large national dealership here in the uk. The company had owned the machine since new, as was one of their hire machines. It was advertised at £16k, with 160 hrs. I naively thought this sounded great, and went to see it. Having had little experience of stump grinders, It looked a little tatty for a newish machine, but I figured it’s been a hire, so probably had idiots driving it through hedges and such. I asked the dealer straight, does the hour meter work, are the hours correct and they said yes and yes. So I think fair enough, big dealer, and believe all their usual sales Patter about how great they are. I get some finance, and take it home. I do acknowledge that I totally screwed up here, and I should of made a wiser decision here! First job it goes out onto, it overheats. I try to ring dealer, dealers won’t answer/respond. I’m too busy to peruse it, change the coolant, and carry on. Fast forward a year, engine eats the turbo after a year of only being able to run at full revs for 15 minutes before it overheats. Had the rad professionally checked and flushed, changed the head gasket etc, Eventually ended up with a groundie standing with a leaf blower pointed at the radiator every time we used it. I end up buying a new engine from a different dealer (Bryco, who have been exceptional by the way). During the process of stripping the machine down, it becomes obvious that this machine has seen a lot more than the 214hrs is has on the clock to date. Large parts of the frame have cracked, and everything is very worn. I’ve ended up doing a hell of a lot of welding, a new engine, and I’m trying to find someone who can spray weld the driveshaft, as it’s worn down where the bearings have been moving on the shaft. Can’t help but be quite annoyed that a supposedly reputable dealer can act this way. I haven’t mentioned the dealer, (or the make of machine) as I don’t want to break forum rules, although i will if admin feels it’s appropriate? I’m left with the dealer being the only uk dealer for that make of machine, so I’m forced to go back to them for parts. Seems kinda unfair that our customers hold us accountable via Facebook reviews for our work, yet dealers don’t seem to be held to the same standards. I hope perhaps we can change this, if we talk more about which dealers are good or bad? So, Dealers I’ve used, and my thoughts Jas Wilson, ok/good, sold me a tractor that had a few issues but did fix them all, although it took a few months. kipper hire, good. Farm and forestry services, good. Bryco (Kubota engine spares, excellent in every way. Fast, efficient, rectify issues immediately (the courier dropped and damaged the new engine) And obviously, very unimpressed with the unmentionable dealer above!

P R E D A T O R 2 8 R X Today we was called out to a predator 28RX, a very cool machine indeed. It being radio controlled and all, its like a little robot that smashes anything in its way! I mean who needs to build a robot for "Robot Wars", you could just buy one of these right?! So the problem was the cutting wheel would just stop dead when it went munching in the stump too hard. Predator service guys came out and narrowed the issue down to the clutch being worn out !?! This is machine is just 8 months old ... Luckily for the customer, predator gave him a shiny new clutch under warranty. Changing the clutch itself is not rocket science, any one with the right tools could do it. First whip the guard off that covers the clutch, this wasn't present when i arrived on site. Customer said something like, "it was rattling, so it was torn off and thrown somewhere". I then slackened the drive belts by undoing those four big ass bolts around the engine, then the adjuster bolt on the end and it will slowly shift the engine forwards to slacken those belts. For this bit you will need a "big fat torque gun". I used Makita 3/4" Impact Gun, what an animal it is aswell. Took the main shaft bolt out with it, its tight but no match for MAKITA! Next step it to unplug it, theres only the one wire on this, once that is done, use your SUPERMAN strength to pull it off the engine shaft! When that does not work, like it didn't for me because its been on a while. Grab a pulley extractor to help loosen it up, then it will just slide off. Once you've taken the old clutch off, slowly and carefully launch ? it in the scrap pile. If you don't have a scrap pile, best start one... Then i refitted the new clutch in reverse order, remember "righty tighty". Tighten the belts back up, with about 10-15mm of slack and the four big ass bolts to make sure it doesn't move. Fit your guard back on and test it out! If the cutting wheel does not spin, you've cocked up somewhere. Luckily it worked for me "yay". There wasn't any stumps about for me to fully test it on, so i'll leave that for the customer. Then time to wash my hands, put the tools away and finally reply to the misses text from 5 hours ago. Good day! If you have any questions contact me at [email protected]. Check us out on our social Platforms: Facebook : @arbgear Insta : @arbgear Youtube : @arbgear

Right, I know very little about the stump grinding business but I am eager to get into it. My boss has said that he is not interested in doing any form of stump grinding so I thought I would capitalise on it! He only does domestic work so a lot of the time it will be narrow access (fitting through garden side gates). I am looking for something that is self-propelled but the deck does spin. I know there is a huge market so I thought I would ask the people in the know who have used these machines before. They are all much the same but their prices obviously vary so does the brand really determine the prices? I am looking for some advice on what I should go for like a Bandit HB20, CARLTON SP2010, FSI B22, Predator 360 and 460 In your opinions what do you like best? What are the running costs like? And if any of you guys are thinking of getting rid of one or know of a great dealer, I am based in Basingstoke, Hampshire. Any advice would be appreciated. Many Thanks,

Anyone in south Northumberland or North Tyneside can hire me a stump grinder or do the job on Saturday 6th of July in Seaton Deleval, Northumberland ?

Hi guys, Looking to replace the electric clutch on our SP2010. It seems as if the clutch starts to slip after 20-30mins of use almost as if the clutch disengages and then we pull off the stump let the revs pick back up and it engages again. Anyways my question is is orange plant the only place online to Purchase the clutch? It's £450 on their website. The clutch is a Ogura Ma-Gt-jd22. Cheers guys

We’ve got 3 small stumps that require grinding on Monday in Irlam, Worlsey and Whitefield (both afternoon) Contact me on 07577592430 Thanks Mark

I bought a Vermeer 630A stump grinder from some knucklehead on Facebook for $4,200. It works great it just needs a new belt tensioner and new teeth. My husband was just diagnosed with s tage 4 throat cancer, so we had to shut down the company. I posted the stump grinder everywhere from offer up to craigslist, no one is interested. I started out asking $4,200 but droped it to $3,000. I have to sale it to get Christmas gifts for my kids. Does anyone have any advice? would I have better luck if I cleaned it up and repainted it. Or if I ordered the Vermeer stickers for it? I have no clue why it has no stickers on it. Any advice would help thanks

Hello everyone in the colchester/Ipswich area. 07756811098 It struck me me that I have a lot of equipment that most other Arb companies don’t have because they feel that they don’t have the work to warrant buying it. So when you get a job where there’s a long drag and you need an ARB TROLLEY call me! So when you get a job with terrible access but the customer is happy to keep the chip and you need a GREENMECH CS 100 call me! So when you have to extract loads of timber, dont want ring it up and you need a MULTIONE WITH A TIMBER GRAB call me! So when you need to winch something out of somewhere and you need a POWER WINCH WITH A 200m PULL LINE call me! Etc etc the list goes on and on I’m not going to list everything I own because it would boar you! or when you just need anything that a general arb company has, truck, 6” chipper, rigging kit, 880 we have all that aswell because I know the feeling when something breaks, you need to finish the job and the local hire company looks at you like WTF when you say have you got a chainsaw with a 72” bar! I think you get get the idea. I have most gear that most other people don’t have and if I don’t I know someone who has. I hire all my equipment out for the first time with a skilled and qualified operator if we feel your trustworthy the 2nd time you hire we will hire direct to you providing we have a deposit. Feel free to give me me a call. The right bit of kit on the right job can make you life easier and your bank account richer! 07756811098

I looked at a job today with 82 Stumps to grind out to just below ground level. All ash trees, mostly around 20 - 25cm diameter at stump, some a bit smaller, occasionally up to around 35cm. Normally I'd sub-contract the stump grinding of a job, but now wondering if a budget stump grinder is worth putting on the shopping list for this. Any advice? Don't have a budget, haven't got a machine in mind, might still sub-contract it. Are cheap stump grinders worth it? going to cope with it? Is a second had machine worth considering? Look forward to opinions......

Hi there, I have a 2016 Avant 528 with timber grab, log grab and augers available for hire in West Sussex and surrounding areas. The machine can be equipped with a hydraulic swivel timber grab (see bottom of page for video), forks and log grab, augers, or a general purpose bucket. Other attachments can be sourced so please ask. The machine has the large 190kg rear side weights and 25kg rear weight with a tow ball and pin. I also have a Carlton SP2010 stump grinder available for hire. The machines are available with me as an operator or I can deliver and collect or it can be collected and returned with either a supplied plant trailer or your own means. I collected the machine Saturday last so have no pictures of it in operation as yet but will be working on that over the next week. Machines will always be supplied clean and ready for work. Please get in touch if you would like prices or availability and machine specifications and dimensions. Cheers, Sean. 07724639681 Timber grab (please note the video shows attachment mounted on Avant 635). (Source: avanttechno) Carlton SP2010 (Source: orangeplant)

A customer recently took this video of me using a Predator stump grinder. You can watch the video [ame=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4iC0ZCJH_U]here[/ame]

Hi guys... I own rayco rg13 II series. I recently converted from finger teeth to green teeth. When grinding for longer period the belt cover gets really hot. Just wondering if it's not the clutch slipping and slowly wearing off. I checked the clutch today and found between springs ''powderish'' grey dust. Is the belt too tight? Will loosening it help? Better worn out belt than clutch. The westcon are asking fortune for centrifugal clutch... Any advice appreciated.... Thanks a lot...

I have been in the industry for 27 years of which the last 12 have been specialising in just tree stump grinding. Like the rest of you, I have experienced good service and bad. I'm a big Carlton fan and in 2012 despite attempts to buy a machine outside of the UK because of the reputation of our UK dealer, I had to buy here and the proceeding service I experienced was in my view unacceptable. In the last month, the Uk's Carlton dealer has showed it's true colours again. My friend bought a new machine, on which he requested the standard wheel so as to fit Greenteeth 1100's. The dealer fitted Greenteeth (very reluctantly because they can't sell their favoured teeth!) and my friend proceeded to buy a further stock of 1100 size GT's from another supplier for future use. Then, it turned out that the Dealer had fitted 900's and when questioned about this insisted to my friend that 1100's would not fit! Those of you with experience of a 7015, will like me know that to be bulls&^t. I fitted a pair of pockets and teeth for him, we took a video and sent it to them to prove otherwise. After some protesting from both sides, my friend has finally had his 1100 GT's teeth and pockets sent through. Whilst changing the teeth, we have also discovered that the Dealer doesn't know how to balance up the wheel either. The straight and crossover pockets were all set on the same side! When questioned they insisted this was correct! I know we're not the only two buyers from this company who have had this experience as I have colleagues with similar tales. I'd love to hear about others experiences, good and bad (I've yet to hear any good).

Hi People I am looking at buying a new CAMON C500 Stump Grinder tomorrow, Is there anyone here who has one? What do you think of them? or should i be looking at other pedestrian grinders? I just want a 13hp pedestrian grinder. Thanks in advance

Hi Guys, picked up an 05 sc252 last week, could do with a set of dual wheels for it, :thumbup:if anyone has a pair knocking around, or manuals/any other bits sitting on the shelf let me know thanks guys ….