Chipper Agriease WC42G Chipper Review Please

[John Dougherty]

John D, I figured Dave wasn't your sales dealer from your earlier post and he has provided some good input to this thread.

I didn't try to get the paint off the bolt head as there was a blob of weld material on the end. There are some sort of markings on the bolt but they are not legible because of the weld. My drive shaft did not have an excess of paint on it and the 2 plates move freely so I don't think I have the same issue as you. At least not the paint issue but I may have a shear bolt issue, if the bolt is too strong.

I built a box that mounts on my pallet forks and take that with me to where I will be chipping. I put the box on the ground and then direct the chips into the box. When I'm done I pick up the box with the pallet forks and return to the garden and dump the chips into it. The box has a hinge on the front face that I open up. I'd take a pic but its raining.

Hilbilly,
What a great idea on the chip box, wish I had thought of that. I built a dedicated trailer to use for capturing the chips. It works pretty well, but it can be hard to get the chips out of it. Those suckers really want to hold in the box. I welded a trailer ball onto the chipper frame so the shoot lines up with the middle of the trailer and I just tow it that way. I think I will weld a cleat under the tongue of the trailer so I can hook it with the FEL and pick it all up to dump. It's only a 4x5 trailer so no big deal. I used my forks for the first time today to pick up the log that remained from the tree. Maybe 14inches by 12 feet long. No problem at all. Moved it up to the cutting area. Sweet.

I will report back when I experiment with the softer bolts. I'm hoping that Dave will contact the maker and find out what hardness they are recommending. I could contact them as well, but I suspect a dealer would get a pretty reliable response. Rain in BC, eh? No sympathy from here, we could use it. Year four of our drought and it's going to be above 80*F today. I did manage to capture 8k gals of rain water for the garden and for fire protection. Could have had more, but I got tired of buying $1k tanks! More next year I suppose. I could say a lot of nice things about my time in BC and the people I met there, but I'll close with; BC+rain=fly fishing for monster steelhead.
JD

 

[DavesTractor]

Next time the BE rep is here, I'll talk to him about this. John's situation is the first case that I am aware of where a shear did not work on one of these chippers. Yet to be honest, folks probably don't call and report on every detail like that. I think it is an unusual situation where a log stops the flywheel dead in it's tracks. If the blades are decently sharp and set close to specs, it should not be able to get a big enough bite to stop all of that inertia. But I trust John, he is for sure one of the sharper knives in the drawer, so it can happen. But it is probably pretty rare. Maybe others can chime in and let us know whether John's experience is typical or rare.

Interestingly, the drive-shafts are made by another company, which is the norm in the implement world. That is one more finger to point in the case of a failure.

Another person spoke of belt drive. That can have some advantages as you can mess with the speed with pulley sizes, whereas a direct drive is going to be 540 rpm max. It is also something else to maintain, more bearings, and the belts themselves. A proper shear or slip-clutch on a direct drive ought to handle emergency situations at least as well as a belt system. My big chipper runs a clutch and belt drive, and also reverses feed if it senses much of a loss of rpm. So we can get fancier and fancier....it just takes cash...

 

[John Dougherty]

Dave,
I am feeling chipper envy. Is that normal?

 

[DavesTractor]

John,

Totally normal. You can solve this condition by going to very expensive counseling for years and years, or spending the same amount and buying a chipper. Easy decision.....works with other items as well.

Dave

 

[John Dougherty]

John,

Totally normal. You can solve this condition by going to very expensive counseling for years and years, or spending the same amount and buying a chipper. Easy decision.....works with other items as well.

Dave

Dave,
Thanks, you've seen right through me. I should have met you earlier in my life...the money I could have saved! Good day my friend.
JD

 

[RalphVa]

I always chip naked. Do I have it?

Ralph

 

[DavesTractor]

I always chip naked. Do I have it?

Ralph

That's a different set of problems Ralph, "the au naturale gardener". You may not need counseling, but your neighbors probably do at this point....

 

[Hilbilly]

Dave / John, the thickness of the chip is not determined by the gap between the knife and the ledger plate. To see this for yourself do the following. With the tractor off, open the top access to the flywheel so,you can see it clearly, then put a 3" or 4" log into the feed chute and make sure it pushed up against the flywheel, then turn the flywheel by hand until one of the knives contacts the log. Now you will see that the chip thickness is determined by the gap between the flywheel face and the cutting edge of the knife.

 

[DavesTractor]

Good point Hilbilly. The flywheel on my 2008 Bandit 250xp is actually worn quite a bit where the blades bolt on from years of chips flying through that opening. That is 2" thick steel, and the wear is pretty noticeable. I'm thinking about welding that up and closing up the gap back to new specs. I know it shouldn't bother me, but I'd like the chips to be more consistent.

 

[John Dougherty]

Dave / John, the thickness of the chip is not determined by the gap between the knife and the ledger plate. To see this for yourself do the following. With the tractor off, open the top access to the flywheel so,you can see it clearly, then put a 3" or 4" log into the feed chute and make sure it pushed up against the flywheel, then turn the flywheel by hand until one of the knives contacts the log. Now you will see that the chip thickness is determined by the gap between the flywheel face and the cutting edge of the knife.

Hilbilly,
After opening mine up and doing what you suggested I can't argue your point. I will admit to assuming that there was an opposing ledger plate, but I found none. I believe that you are totally correct. I find it interesting that the 'opposition' to the blade is nothing more than the housing of the shoot unless I am totally missing something here. Dang, they sure are being optimistic with this arrangement. That would explain why smaller, more flexible materials (stems) aren't sheered successfully. The only thing that would facilitate them passing through is if a butt end of a limb followed them through and dislodged them from the knives, passing them through the blade gap. Unfortunately, something will remain in that space until it is forced through the blade gap or not. Nice work!