Found a unicorn - Vermeer BC906

Piston · Jul 5, 2023

Squirrel Tooth Alice said:
This 906 went for 9 grand a couple months ago. As much as I wanted it, I couldn't justify the price.

https://www.equipmentfacts.com/listings/construction-attachment/auction-results/222819137/vermeer-bc906

I paid $2,500 for mine. The guy I bought it from over the phone, said he wasn't going to be home when I pick it up. He said to leave the cash in his tractor and use the tractor to load the chipper. I showed up to his house and he had a nice M8540 which I used to load it. I was wondering if I was actually stealing it, but turned out to be legit

I used it for various paying jobs, made good money with it, then ultimately sold it for $5,000 when I stopped my side business. Kept pretty much everything else though, just don't see the point in chipping for my own use.
They are great machines.

Whitbread · Jul 22, 2023

Piston said:
I paid $2,500 for mine. The guy I bought it from over the phone, said he wasn't going to be home when I pick it up. He said to leave the cash in his tractor and use the tractor to load the chipper. I showed up to his house and he had a nice M8540 which I used to load it. I was wondering if I was actually stealing it, but turned out to be legit
I used it for various paying jobs, made good money with it, then ultimately sold it for $5,000 when I stopped my side business. Kept pretty much everything else though, just don't see the point in chipping for my own use.
They are great machines.

Well you definitely did better than me, but I did better than the recent auction, so I don't feel too bad haha. You straight up stole yours!

I got a ton of progress done today! The plasma cutter made quick work of the crappy stick welds and it was free of the trailer in about 15 minutes. Before I started making anything, I did hook up the tractor and make sure it would actually lift it. At idle it will pick it 80% of max 3pt height, rev it up to 1500rpm and it'll go to the top. I proceeded to make the new feet and clean up other areas. Templates are made for the pieces to fix what was cut out on the 3 point mount structure and that's tomorrow morning's project. Should be done in the afternoon!

Whitbread · Jul 23, 2023

Got the last pieces welded in today at the bottom of the hitch structure and 2 coats of cat yellow put on. As much as I wanted to repaint the whole thing, that'll have to be a winter project when I don't need it in a couple days. I've got a dead oak that needs to come down so I'll give it a proper test this week

.

Whitbread · Jul 24, 2023

Ready for work now!

deezler · Jul 24, 2023

Nice! I mean, you MUST have tested it out already, no?

Whitbread · Jul 25, 2023

deezler said:
Nice! I mean, you MUST have tested it out already, no?

I just gave it a proper test and I'm thoroughly impressed! I took down two ~12" dead oaks and chipped all the brush up. I ran the feed as slow as it would go while still having power to pull stuff in and left it there.

Even being ~15hp under the recommended minimum, the only time it pulled the tractor off max rpm was on a 5" at the butt limb about 15' long. It dropped to 1900-2000 rpm and chewed right through it. Being used to my woodmaxx, i couldn't believe how it folded gnarly/twisted limbs and pulled them in. I didn't trim a single thing after cutting it off the trunk. I'm 110% happy and can't wait to see how it runs with ~50 pto hp after the tractor mods!

deezler · Jul 26, 2023

By the way, is that max 3-pt lift height in your pic? Hope it doesn't scrape too bad when you try to drive on/off your gooseneck.

Whitbread · Jul 26, 2023

deezler said:
By the way, is that max 3-pt lift height in your pic? Hope it doesn't scrape too bad when you try to drive on/off your gooseneck.

That was max lift height at the moment of the picture. The 3 point lift links that run down to the lower arms were at their longest possible setting. I moved them to their shortest possible setting after taking the chipper off, so it should go substantially higher now

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Whitbread · Jul 29, 2023

Took advantage of a 20° cooler day than yesterday to get rid of some poplars in odd places. This was 5-6" at the butt and feed set as slow as it goes, ran it much faster when doing the brush.