Vermeer Chipper Problem

yellowdogsvc · Mar 1, 2011

Sorry for long post but I need some ideas.

I had some issues with my Vermeer BC2000 today. It started up and ran fine but after a few minutes under load, I would lose all power to the panel and gauges and the motor would die. This only seemed to happen under load or when swinging the loader arm.

I ended up replacing both batteries. One battery was faulty. I checked all the grounds and the positive connections and tried it out and same thing happened. All power is lost, gauges go dead, motor dies.

After a few seconds I hear a "pop" and the gauges come back and it will start. (circuit breaker resetting)

There is a 150 amp circuit breaker wish a push to reset button. I believe I have narrowed it down to that breaker and I ordered the part. Pushing the button, though, when the power is disabled doesn't reset the breaker.

The chipper doesn't have a very complicated wiring system and I checked all the wires or at least I thought I did so I could not find a reason for the breaker to keep tripping.

The Vermeer service manager was helpful troubleshooting on the phone and said that the circuit breakers wear out with age (mine is 8 years old) and possibly a voltage irregularity from the bad battery finished it off. The fact that it resets by itself has me puzzled, though. If it was wore out, wouldn't it just stay open?

For 150 amp breaker, that has to be a main cable that would be shorting, right? the smaller wires that go to loader controls or gauges wouldn't carry enough voltage to pop a big breaker like that, correct? If that doesn't fix the issue, does anyone have any good ideas?

Thanks for the help.

tonyoz · Mar 2, 2011

Check out all the earth strap connections,ie the straps on the engine etc.I had a similar problem on an excavator years ago, looked like a goose when I got an auto elecy out and he took the earth strap off the motor ,cleaned it ,put it back on then charged me for the job. 1Hr each way and 5min on site

yellowdogsvc · Mar 2, 2011

Is an earth strap the ground? My grounds are tight but should they still be pulled and cleaned?

tonyoz · Mar 2, 2011

yellowdogsvc said:
Is an earth strap the ground? My grounds are tight but should they still be pulled and cleaned?

Yes & yes and not just at the batteries but were the strap bolts onto the machine plus there should be also a earth (ground) from the engine to the body of the machine. Even if they are tight they can still get corrosion between the 2 surfaces. Hope this helps

yellowdogsvc · Mar 2, 2011

Thanks. I got the new breaker installed and it still popped. I came home and cleaned off the machine and motor real good and will get back to looking for an issue tomorrow.

The Vermeer service manager told me that a temp sensor could kill the motor but he didn't think it would pop the breaker. The engine temp is okay on the gauge and doesn't "feel" hot but it seemed to run good after I installed the new breaker but when it got up to operating temp and was under load, it popped the breaker. I tried it with clutch engaged and disengaged, with the feed rollers going and not going, and then operating the grapple arm. It didn't make a difference and died every time at about the same amount of time. Very frustrating..