wotalota
Silver Member
Impressions of a BX42 knock off if anyone is thinking about getting one.
I had cut down about 150 small/medium trees, anything over 4" went to the neighbor for his wood stove. On buy versus rental, the local rental for a 6" was about $185 a day. That seemed to be the way to go except I didn't think I could work long enough to take advantage of it and would not want to work every day to get the cheaper long weekend rate. Craigs list didn't show up anything that seemed decent value in the month or so of checking.
There are a number of Chinese suppliers of chippers modeled on the BX42, the user manual identifies this one as TOWNSUNNY. It was on eBay for $1500 with free shipping. It is listed as weighing 425 lbs, the shipping slip said 500+ lbs. I had problem unloading it using attachable pallet forks on a BX24. It could take the weight but not raise it properly or keep it level at the height needed. So I put a chain around it and more or less dragged it off the truck. A lift gate on the truck would be the way to go for a small tractor. After unpacking I put it on a dolly to be able to move it around. The unit seems solid and the welding looked alright to me.
The two main bearing zerks took a lot of grease, it didn't appear that there was any in there.
A standard PTO drive shaft was provided that did not have the required shear pin for protection. I bought a slip clutch that fitted the spindle on the chipper but it couldn't go on far enough to engage the lock pin, so I had to set it aside and got a cross kit and end yolk to modify the drive shaft to add a shear pin.
The knife spacing should be 1/32" and came set at about 1/8". It wasn't adjustable any closer because the welding interfered with the Anvils bolt washer. Using smaller washers allowed the setting to be close to that specified. The flywheel appears smooth when rotating by hand. However the blade settings varied from one to the other. It ended up with one of the blades set wide at about 3/32".
The BX24 running at 3000 rpm only bogged down a bit when dealing with some 4" sections but picked up again as the branches fed in and thinned out. It self feeds quite well on the thicker stuff and will pull in 20' pieces. It needs some help feeding as the section branches out and get thinner. Feed in the whole thing and twigs cause the exit chute to jam up on a regular basis which is a pain. (Also actually a pain since I pinched my finger in the flywheel cleaning it out, still barely usable a week later.) I found that holding back on the feed for the last few feet of less than 1" branches lets it run longer without a clean out. Sprayed the exit chute with plenty of WD40 after each clean out. But lacking a shredder, still added to a burn pile the small stuff. Bark from some types of branches builds up around the flywheel center spindle and needs cleaning out from time to time. It is a good work out given I tire easily these days, after 2 or 3 hours of fetching and feeding the thing am pretty well drenched and ready to pack it in.
Tom
I had cut down about 150 small/medium trees, anything over 4" went to the neighbor for his wood stove. On buy versus rental, the local rental for a 6" was about $185 a day. That seemed to be the way to go except I didn't think I could work long enough to take advantage of it and would not want to work every day to get the cheaper long weekend rate. Craigs list didn't show up anything that seemed decent value in the month or so of checking.
There are a number of Chinese suppliers of chippers modeled on the BX42, the user manual identifies this one as TOWNSUNNY. It was on eBay for $1500 with free shipping. It is listed as weighing 425 lbs, the shipping slip said 500+ lbs. I had problem unloading it using attachable pallet forks on a BX24. It could take the weight but not raise it properly or keep it level at the height needed. So I put a chain around it and more or less dragged it off the truck. A lift gate on the truck would be the way to go for a small tractor. After unpacking I put it on a dolly to be able to move it around. The unit seems solid and the welding looked alright to me.
The two main bearing zerks took a lot of grease, it didn't appear that there was any in there.
A standard PTO drive shaft was provided that did not have the required shear pin for protection. I bought a slip clutch that fitted the spindle on the chipper but it couldn't go on far enough to engage the lock pin, so I had to set it aside and got a cross kit and end yolk to modify the drive shaft to add a shear pin.
The knife spacing should be 1/32" and came set at about 1/8". It wasn't adjustable any closer because the welding interfered with the Anvils bolt washer. Using smaller washers allowed the setting to be close to that specified. The flywheel appears smooth when rotating by hand. However the blade settings varied from one to the other. It ended up with one of the blades set wide at about 3/32".
The BX24 running at 3000 rpm only bogged down a bit when dealing with some 4" sections but picked up again as the branches fed in and thinned out. It self feeds quite well on the thicker stuff and will pull in 20' pieces. It needs some help feeding as the section branches out and get thinner. Feed in the whole thing and twigs cause the exit chute to jam up on a regular basis which is a pain. (Also actually a pain since I pinched my finger in the flywheel cleaning it out, still barely usable a week later.) I found that holding back on the feed for the last few feet of less than 1" branches lets it run longer without a clean out. Sprayed the exit chute with plenty of WD40 after each clean out. But lacking a shredder, still added to a burn pile the small stuff. Bark from some types of branches builds up around the flywheel center spindle and needs cleaning out from time to time. It is a good work out given I tire easily these days, after 2 or 3 hours of fetching and feeding the thing am pretty well drenched and ready to pack it in.
Tom
