PTO post peeler

[roadhunter]

RH, I'm looking at these....is yours up and running? Report/review?

PM sent.

 

[roadhunter]

RH, I'm looking at these....is yours up and running? Report/review?

Well I guess I better be honest. It has been a complete disaster from the beginning. I paid for this June 5 and it was supposed to arrive August 20. After a week of delays in manufacturing as apparently they did not have one in stock it was completed. Then we had 6 weeks of delays in shipping when I contacted them in Mid August to check on delivery as it was supposed to be delivered that week I was stunned to find that it was still in Europe sitting at the dock. Apparently their shipping people just forgot about it and let it sit. Numerous shipping delays later It arrived the first week of OCTOBER! Was supposed to arrive in August. When it arrived they had not supported the feet in the crate so 4 feet were putting pressure on only 2 board with no support under them. It's amazing it held and only minor damage was on the feet from the forks hitting them since they hung below as they flexed the boards. And they got my address wrong, added a 4 and changed the road name. Thankfully they got the phone number right and the truck driver found my correct address. I got it all unpacked and found the electronic sensor to operate the arm was not working and the hydraulics acted strangely, unit was non operational. They promptly blamed my tractor and my battery for the issues with the peeler. I wasted a week trying neighbors tractors, different batteries, reading manuals, troubleshooting, e-mailing their tech support, trying to measure input pressure, output pressure, wondering why my hydraulics were so hot, etc until it was obvious that the issue was the peeler. They flew a service man over to service the unit and install a flow divider as they were certain it was still an issue with my tractor's hydraulics and not with their peeler. They also installed a new sensor and it worked as well as replaced the main valve and pressure gauge. With the sensor working and valve replaced the machine peeled for 2 days but still generated an enormous amount of heat in the hydraulics. That Friday the sensor went out again. Machine was down for 8 days as they would not buy the sensor in the USA and again they blamed the battery for the issue and wanted me to use a voltage regulator. I went ahead an purchased a new sensor myself for $150 so I would not be down for so long and it has been working fine since then.
The machine does not produce anywhere close to the advertized output of 60-120 posts per hour. I am getting about 25 per hour as it really struggles with anything bigger than 5 inches and is no match for 8"+ logs which take 5+ passes and nearly 10 minutes to peel. Peeling time varied from less than a minute for 5" and smaller logs to over 5 minutes for the bigger material because of needing to have multiple passes to get the bark off. The machine is rated for material up to just under 10" inches but is best suited for 5" and smaller material and it completely overwhelmed by the larger stuff. It gets real old carrying them back for another pass. Keep in mind this is soft ponderosa pine with fairly thin bark, most of which is falling off the log in the first place. I am only getting about 200 posts before the knives are dull. Essentially you can peel for 8 hours making about 25 posts per hour and then spend the next 2 hours sharpening blades. So for a 10 hour day 8 of which is running a 100 hp tractor and overheating the hydraulics you can get 200 posts. A far cry from the advertized output and nowhere close to what a Morbark will produce in that same time (over 1,000 post per day) and the Morbark will go several thousand posts between sharpenings. With the same horsepower input weekly production is 1,000 posts and 10 hours of maintenance on the Robople 250 versus 6,000 with the Morbark and only requiring 3 hours of maintenance. It's production and capacity are nowhere close to what is advertized and nowhere close to being competitive with the Morbark which will run circles around this machine. This is just a toy compared to the Morbark to be honest. I have friends who peel with a 60 year old augustine and it will run about 4 times the material as this and only uses a pair of v twin briggs engines. They just shake their head when they see this operate.

I've asked them for a refund as I feel the machine was blatantly misrepresented and they declined. So now I am stuck with a $21,000 peeler that is not even worth running as production is so low it doesn't' justify running the tractor or burning fuel, the hydraulics are still building way too much heat so clearly something is wrong and I'm concerned it will burn up my pump, and the blades need sharpening every day.

So now I am stuck trying to find the issue with the hydraulics myself and trying to modify the cutting head and blades so it will clean the bark off larger posts in 1 pass. It's been a complete disaster and has turned out to be a huge financial burden instead of something that generates income. All I have done is waste time and spend money so far. Needless to say I am not pleased with how this has turned out or how Rabaud has handles the defective machine. I"ll post some pics and videos tomorrow. I'm going to start a thread about the hydraulic heat to try and solve that issue before it burn up my pump and so I can run the peeler off my farmall. My friends who have a peeling operation are going to see if they can find some better knives for the cutting head so I won't have to sharpen them so often and we are going to see about adjusting them out so they will take more material which should help with having to send logs through multiple times to get the bark off. I'm not going to unload this piece of junk on someone because that's not how I operate so I am going to try to modify it to make it work

I'll keep you posted if I can get it working but I certainly would not recommend this unit.

 

[roadhunter]

Well we figured out the issue with the blades not lasting. I took them into town for sharpening and they guy who sharpened them said he wasn't sure if they were harder than plain mild steel. Showed me a set of carbon blades and how much harder they were. Cheap soft blades don't last in these applications.

I got them put back on and tried adjusting them out to cut more material to see if it improved performance and wouldn't you know the electronic system to drop the arm is not working. Machine is down yet again. Been down more days than it has worked since it arrived. I may just have to bypass the automatic system and build a manual foot pedal as the electronic system has had all sorts of problems. Sad part is I paid an extra $1,500 for the electronic system. When it works it's really nice, when it doesn't it's really frustrating.

 

[aczlan]

I got them put back on and tried adjusting them out to cut more material to see if it improved performance and wouldn't you know the electronic system to drop the arm is not working. Machine is down yet again. Been down more days than it has worked since it arrived. I may just have to bypass the automatic system and build a manual foot pedal as the electronic system has had all sorts of problems. Sad part is I paid an extra $1,500 for the electronic system. When it works it's really nice, when it doesn't it's really frustrating.

Is the footpedal the one shown at 0:22 in this video:

Can you post some pictures of how its setup currently?

Aaron Z

 

[roadhunter]

Is the footpedal the one shown at 0:22 in this video:

Can you post some pictures of how its setup currently?

Aaron Z

Yes. I'll get some pics in the morning. There is no manual system currently. They just remove the manual foot pedal all together. The sensor senses the log and it switches the hydraulic supply and pressure lines which puts down pressure on the arm to hold the log against the disc.

Some of the nicest units have the arm fully hydraulically controlled so you can size the log being produced by setting the spacing from the cutting head. I think the manual system would be nice so you could adjust the pressure while peeling with foot pressure to remove taper or clean up things like knots with extra pressure.

Something similar to this could easily be built with parts from Surplus Center for a few thousand dollars. It needs much bigger drive wheels like he Morbark to handle bigger material in the 6-10 inch range. These are just small sprockets. You notice in the video they are peeling small material with thin bark. This machine struggles with anything over 5 inches and it' rated for nearly twice that. Another design issues is it wears only a small portion of the blades and doesn't use the first 2 inches on either end. I think if you used multiple smaller heads you could get much better blade life by utilizing the entire blade to cut. Something like this.
Log Peeler Tool for Angle Grinder Lahzit D220 PLR | eBay
Or if you wanted to go big.
Brush Bandit 200XP Chipper 40" Chipper Disc w Blades Shaft Bearing Pulleys | eBay

I ordered a new set of knives and I expect the performance to be much better and blades last longer with higher quality material. We found that on the soft material we are using that the blades can be adjusted out to improve performance without causing issues or bogging down.

 

[roadhunter]

duplicate

 

[roadhunter]

Here are the pics of the automatic system that replaced the manual foot pedal. The sensor was originally mounted inside the cage where it would get hit by log regularly. It also has a tendency to get wood pieces stuck on it if the wood is damp. This prevents the arm from releasing and grinds down the end of the post. I modified the bracket to move the sensor outside the cage so its' does not get damaged. Seems to work better and I have not ruined a sensor since I made the switch. The manufacturer blamed my battery for the sensors failing but clearly it was a design issue that allowed the sensor to get hit by logs being processed that was the issue.

Essentially the sensor is hooked to a hydraulic block that switches the supply and return on the hoses that control the arm. That way the pressure changes from holding the arm up to holding it down against the log which holds the log against the blades. Once the log clears the sensor the flow goes back to normal and the arm raises.



The control block that switches flow

 

[MotorSeven]

Wow RH, sorry for the delayed response....have been really busy. Sorry you are having such problems and thank you for posting them as it will keep someone else from stepping on the Punji Stick. I think you are on the right track, keep modifying it until it works for you.

So, if it makes you feel any better, I wrecked my Duramax going to look at a Jeep Wrangler to buy...$8K in damage. I have not been in an accident in over 25 years. When I did find a nice rust free '99 Wrangler I spun a rod in the engine on the way home crossing the Blue Ridge Mtns. So I have my work cut out for me replacing this 4.0 6 cyl engine. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

 

[roadhunter]

Wow RH, sorry for the delayed response....have been really busy. Sorry you are having such problems and thank you for posting them as it will keep someone else from stepping on the Punji Stick. I think you are on the right track, keep modifying it until it works for you.

So, if it makes you feel any better, I wrecked my Duramax going to look at a Jeep Wrangler to buy...$8K in damage. I have not been in an accident in over 25 years. When I did find a nice rust free '99 Wrangler I spun a rod in the engine on the way home crossing the Blue Ridge Mtns. So I have my work cut out for me replacing this 4.0 6 cyl engine. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Life. Sometimes it can be expensive. Sorry to hear about your trouble and glad you were not hurt.

I decided not to modify the machine and put it up for sale. Sold it today. I took a huge loss but I think the guy who bought it is going to be happy with it as he is not peeling large material and the material he is peeling has already had the bark removed. Perfect application for this machine. 2"- 5" material with no bark. I was honest with him about the issues and helped him get setup to run his material.

Also found out that the guy who bought my machine had gotten a quote from the manufacturer about 2 weeks ago and they never mentioned that my machine was for sale in a neighboring state. They said they would help sell the machine if there were any inquiries from North America. I guess they are more concerned about making money than treating people right. But at least they were consistent from the beginning to the end. They managed to screw up everything possible.

Be warned. If you are ever thinking about buying a PTO post peeler for larger barked material in the 6"-9" range stay away from the Robopel 250 made by Rabaud. It is no way comparable to machines like the Morbark or Augustine for producing fence posts from those size logs especially if they have bark thicker than 1/4". Hopefully this will save somebody a lot of money because that is what it has costs me. I was glad to see it leave my place today. Kinda like that old saying about a boat. Happiest 2 days of your life, the day you buy it, and the day you get rid of it. Happy new year!

 

[MotorSeven]

Thanks for the update. We are still looking at the property with all the small cedars on it. I might just cut & limb them, then sell them in the rough. Or...bulldoze them all into piles and burn 'em. I am not going to pursue peeling them.