BCS Upgrade Suggestions

[wstr75]

Beautiful sunny day here in North Carolina. I have been making raised bed rows with my BCS 853 and double Berta rotary plow. My BCS 737 is pushing a hitch mounted wheelbarrow for collecting and moving all the rocks being tossed out. From using all sizes of BCS tractors (710 through 853), I find tire/wheel size has a big effect on us users. Like putting more RAM in a computer is usually the best add-on performance upgrade, similarly using larger wheels/tires is the best add-on performance upgrade for a BCS tractor IMHO. My 853 has 6.5x12x23 tires and seldom gets hung-up when crossing rows or driving through holes. On the other hand, my 737 with 5x10x20 tires sometimes gets hung up in those same situations.

Would love to hear my fellow BCS or Grillo owners suggestions for worthwhile upgrades for these tractors.

 

[farmersmall]

I think the quick hitch is also a great upgrade. To save those studs mounted in aluminum is pretty important. Wheel weights can make the difference in some situations also. I have really liked having a diesel engine as well for the added weight and power and the ability to idle the engine and lock the differential and shovel compost onto beds straight from the bcs trailer. It walks away from you kind of like a horse powered set up. You do have to nimbly make minor corrections sometimes but the overall work done for effort expended is about right. It is also good fun to put the machine in high gear and race back to the compost pile for the next load.

 

[oldmech]

Hi! For me the best upgrade was weight in wheels. BCS and Grillo are too light. The first time use with Grillo 107d and tiller. The tiller tines in soil push the tractor. I add over 80 lbs weight in wheels. A lot better after. As a new tractor. Good Luck! Oldmech

 

[otus_branch]

My very first experience with a BCS was using the Brush Mower to take down some hawthorn thickets. Five minutes into it, I had a flat tire, and that led to my first and best upgrade - getting the tires filled with solid foam. It added ~40 lbs of weight on each wheel and meant that I never had to worry about flats again.

I agree about sizing-up wheels as much as possible (and preferably before spending the $$$ on foam filling) as another top-notch upgrade, as well as the diesel engine.

-otus

 

[CodeMonkey]

I want to upgrade my tractor (BCS 730) with larger wheels. One of the big problems I have is when I attach the tractor to the chipper/shredder (Bio 100) the engine drags on the ground.

This will be solved by getting larger wheels/tires - but I am kind of surprised that I did not hear of this as a problem before.

The other problem related to wheels that I don't yet have an easy solution to, is the other end of the chipper/shredder - and its wheels:

The problem is that these wheels are pretty much totally inadequate for moving the machine around on anything but hard very flat and level ground. They dig into the lawn or any soft ground, even moving around on large gravel is a pain.

Obviously the solution is larger wheels, but that is easier said than done as the current way the wheels are attached to the shredder does not make it easy to replace them with larger ones. The only thing I have thought of so far is to weld an axle to the shredder.

Anyone have a quick and easy solution?

 

[bcp]

Can you turn over the crosspiece the chipper wheels mount to, so the wheel mounting tube goes up instead of down?

Bruce

 

[CodeMonkey]

Can you turn over the crosspiece the chipper wheels mount to, so the wheel mounting tube goes up instead of down?

Bruce

Yes, it looks like it is bolted to the frame, so it can maybe be removed and flipped over, giving more room for larger wheels. An 8 or 10" caster should then fit under it - if I can find someone to weld a stem to it.

Thanks

 

[mn_voyageur]

CodeMonkey,

If you find a solution, I would appreciate the feedback.

I typically just lean on the handles to lighten the small wheels on the shredder.

Also, have you experimented with getting a fine grind?

Thanks,
MarkN

 

[CodeMonkey]

The chipper/grinder is so heavy that I don't have much luck lifting it very far and as you can see the engine is barely an inch off the ground so it won't go down very far. I need to get bigger primary wheels too.

No - I haven't experimented with a fine grind, not really inclined to. At this point I am thinking I may eventually sell it - I have so much debris that are too large for it that it doesn't really do me much good. I would need one of those huge grinders and several strong men with several boys running around picking it up to keep it fed to even make a dent in the debris.

Alternatively I could hire a major sized mulcher to come in and grind up the debris. That would probably be the best way to handle it if I wasn't going to burn the piles.

This year I will just burn the slash piles and then go around picking up what I can find making smaller piles that can be burnt next year. I toyed with grinding up some of the slash but then I realized there is just no way I could grind up even 10% of them - between the size of the debris and amount and the time it would take, it just isn't going to happen.

I would prefer to grind them then re-incorporate the results back into the ground, but I can't afford to do that this time around - I didn't make enough money from the timber to afford that, and I am tight on cash this year due to other improvements I have made and will be making this year.

And I am the lucky one - neighbors had their timber clear cut - they have major sized piles - one has 7 of them, when he tried to burn one of them by himself it got out of control and started spreading because it was surrounded by fuel laying on the ground - I had to help him put it out.

I have one pile kind of like that and it won't get burnt until I get a dozer in to clean up around it and make sure it is safe to burn.

 

[rickyd79]

Well a 3" PTO extension would help balance the chipper. It might also help with the height difference. I run mine on a 853 with Kohler diesel which hangs lower than the gas engines. I have no problems with it being too low and its pretty easy to lift the chipper off the ground because it is balanced well. I do have 6.5 x 12 wheels as well though. Additionally, Joel over at Earth Tools could sell you a pneumatic wheel setup to fit the chipper as well. it will make it much easier to move around on uneven terrain.