ponytug
Super Member
A WoodMaxx TM-86H for a Power-Trac 1445
Once you have seen a grass fire go up 1000' of hill side in 20 seconds, you realize that you are either ready for the fire at all times, or not. There is no such thing as "fighting a fire" if it is a wildland fire coming at your property. The fire crews will pick a line to defend, and it may, or may not be, in front of your barn/house...
So, one of our recurring chores is fire prevention with weed whacking, clearing brush with the brush cutter, and trimming trees. There are about two weeks of mowing season when it is wet enough to mow, dry enough to drive the slopes and close enough to the end of the rains that the grass won't regrow. Mostly, I leave it to the cows, and just try to take out the thistle and poison oak with the brush cutter.
For me, trimming trees is one of those when needed, where needed jobs. Trimming trees generates piles of brush that we can't burn (fire danger and air quality issues), so I've been renting chippers, but it adds up, and I have to get enough down to make it worth while, and meanwhile, I have all of these piles scattered around. I wanted to have one of my own, and tried to be frugal and buy a used one, but in California, if you can get a working chipper, you have a business, so the used prices tend to be pricey. In several years of looking, I hadn't found a chipper with a blown engine within a days drive. So, I bagged the used chipper/blown motor chipper search, and decided to buy a new one; the ones with motors were way too expensive for me, as were the skid steer versions that could function on the 15gpm that my PT-1445 can put out.
I ended up deciding to buy the WoodMaxx TM-86H chipper. It has gotten good reviews here TractorByNet (Thank you all for posting!!), and it was light enough (600lbs) that I figured that I'd be able to haul it out on 30 degree slopes without spinning out. WoodMaxx was strongly of the opinion that the HP wasn't the issue; torque was. They specify the chippers by HP because the small gasoline tractors don't have much torque. With the Deutz, they felt I would have plenty of torque, so I opted for a smaller motor to let the Power-Trac run at mid throttle to conserve diesel and reduce the wear on the tractor. As a first pass, I decided to leave the WoodMaxx hydraulics for the feed separate, as WoodMaxx had indicated that heat was a limiting factor for them. (Their skid steer model has a hydraulic fan to cool the oil, it also costs substantially more...) While it is a hydraulic feed chipper, it is PTO driven, and my 1445 doesn't have a 540rpm PTO, nor a 3-point hitch.
So, I was going to need to put a Q/A plate on and add a hydraulic motor.
After running the numbers and talking with one of the product designers at WoodMaxx, who was incredibly helpful, I bought a 4.95 cu in PTO drive motor ($250, ~18 shaft HP) from Surplus Center and the necessary SAE/QIC adapters. The cheapest way to get a high HP flex plate to couple the motor to the chipper was a pair of PTO yokes (yokes @$40/ea) and a rubber sandwich plate($24) from eBay for a Rhino 24' brush cutter (3 ganged brush cutters). Amazon supplied the Neiko® 20713A non-contact tachometer. Discount Hydraulic Hoses supplied the three 60" hoses. Bailey supplied the Q/A adapters, which are made by Stucchi, but they are Faster interchange series for the Power-Track. (Stucchi IR 34V FA NPT, 820001022, and 820001023 for the PTO, 8005010005 for the male case drain connector), or just buy the Faster NV series.
I ordered the chipper, in red.
Once it arrived, it was clear that the shipper had tipped the chipper over on its side at some point. There were a few scuffs on it, and some bent hoses, but nothing a little touch up paint and a replacement screw couldn't fix. WoodMaxx offered to send touch up paint, but I just used the PowerTrac red that I've been using. It almost matches the nice powder coat on the chipper. I went over every screw, bolt and nut and checked for torque/tightness, and we were off to the races.
With the chipper at ground level, it seemed as if the optimal site for the QA plate was on the side of the chipper, perpendicular to the 3 PT hitch, which would bring the center of mass closer to the the tractor. I did some quick center of mass checking by lifting the chipper from the center eye. It would also put the Q/A plate right on the chipper housing for added strength.
A friend machined out a trapezoidal plate to hold the motor where it would be inline with the existing PTO splined shaft of the chipper. I was going to use steel, but he had some high strength aluminum, and we used that instead. It is held on with four bolts at the corners, roughly where the clamps are in the photos. I used Nordlock (McMaster) washers to hold the motor and plate in place, and to hold the yokes to the rubber shock plate. (Nordlocks are amazing! And pricey!) The bolts are grade 8, but could have been grade 2 as a quasi-shear bolt. The emergency stop should be covered by the PT pressure relief. I loosely tightened all the bolts on the plate and motor after checking the shaft alignment, including the yokes. (It turned out to be a mistake. See below.)
I used the PT to turn the chipper on its side to weld on the Q/A plate, by using the lift eye again, so more welds were horizontal. (I'm not a great vertical welder.) I then cut some steel pieces to space out the Q/A plate at the bottom to enable chipper to be carried on the level by the PT, and to have it level on the ground.
I also added a top plate to tie the top of the Q/A plate to the chipper housing, which contains ~1/2 of the weight.
With the Q/A plate on, I turned the chipper vertical and filled the oil 15W40 synthetic, in case it ran hot. I had a brief break in the action while I sorted the right Power track connectors.
Then, I powered up the chipper. The motor wobbled, despite my prior attempt alignment. Shut everything down, and rechecked, and found that one of the yoke set bolts was pushing the yoke out of alignment. Since, the whole yoke only need one set bolt, I loosened the offending yoke set bolt, and realigned the shafts and yokes. I retightened the motor and plate fasteners. On repowering the motor, everything ran smoothly, and stayed in alignment.
I then stopped the motor, and put a small reflector on the yoke and used a non-contact tachometer with the reflective dot to measure the chipper speed. I plan to use it at some point in the future to double check the Deutz idle and WOT to factory specs.
I slowly ramped the motor speed up to prime the hydraulic feed (it runs separately from the PT). It didn't really prime until I got over 250 rpm or so. I ran it slowly at 250 for twenty minutes or so to get the hydraulic lines purged and then topped up the reservoir with oil.
Once I had the chipper running at 540rpm, I marked the throttle setting on the PT. As planned, it is about 60% throttle. I start and stop the chipper at idle. Popping the PTO off at speed generates a little cavitation noise (perhaps as the valve goes from powered to recirculation?), as does a sudden deceleration. I think Rip's idea of having a pressure relief at the motor might have some benefits, but the chipper spins down smoothly.
How does it do?
2-3" fresh hardwood (choke cherry) flies through at full hydraulic speed.
With the feed set at maximum, tossing in 4" bone dry logs stalled the chipper. The pressure relief kicked right in and the PT engine speed barely changed. Backing the hydraulic feed off to ~50% and the bone dry oak went right on through. You can't even hear the PT engine speed change or the motor labor. I think that for me the ability to regulate the input feed rate is a key feature to being able to handle the really hard (dense) dry wood that I have piled around.
During a shakedown run, it was 93F outside, and the hydraulic oil on the TM-86H got pretty warm. You could hold your hand on the tank, just. I might add a hydraulic cooler on the TM-86H side of things, but for me it works great as is.
Thanks to Rip for inspiring this with his BearCat chipper for the PT. Bailey and WoodMaxx were a great help.
Total budget ~ $3300. Ability to chip when and where I need to, wow!
I hope this helps. It looks like it is going to be a really useful tool.
All the best,
Peter
Once you have seen a grass fire go up 1000' of hill side in 20 seconds, you realize that you are either ready for the fire at all times, or not. There is no such thing as "fighting a fire" if it is a wildland fire coming at your property. The fire crews will pick a line to defend, and it may, or may not be, in front of your barn/house...
So, one of our recurring chores is fire prevention with weed whacking, clearing brush with the brush cutter, and trimming trees. There are about two weeks of mowing season when it is wet enough to mow, dry enough to drive the slopes and close enough to the end of the rains that the grass won't regrow. Mostly, I leave it to the cows, and just try to take out the thistle and poison oak with the brush cutter.
For me, trimming trees is one of those when needed, where needed jobs. Trimming trees generates piles of brush that we can't burn (fire danger and air quality issues), so I've been renting chippers, but it adds up, and I have to get enough down to make it worth while, and meanwhile, I have all of these piles scattered around. I wanted to have one of my own, and tried to be frugal and buy a used one, but in California, if you can get a working chipper, you have a business, so the used prices tend to be pricey. In several years of looking, I hadn't found a chipper with a blown engine within a days drive. So, I bagged the used chipper/blown motor chipper search, and decided to buy a new one; the ones with motors were way too expensive for me, as were the skid steer versions that could function on the 15gpm that my PT-1445 can put out.
I ended up deciding to buy the WoodMaxx TM-86H chipper. It has gotten good reviews here TractorByNet (Thank you all for posting!!), and it was light enough (600lbs) that I figured that I'd be able to haul it out on 30 degree slopes without spinning out. WoodMaxx was strongly of the opinion that the HP wasn't the issue; torque was. They specify the chippers by HP because the small gasoline tractors don't have much torque. With the Deutz, they felt I would have plenty of torque, so I opted for a smaller motor to let the Power-Trac run at mid throttle to conserve diesel and reduce the wear on the tractor. As a first pass, I decided to leave the WoodMaxx hydraulics for the feed separate, as WoodMaxx had indicated that heat was a limiting factor for them. (Their skid steer model has a hydraulic fan to cool the oil, it also costs substantially more...) While it is a hydraulic feed chipper, it is PTO driven, and my 1445 doesn't have a 540rpm PTO, nor a 3-point hitch.
So, I was going to need to put a Q/A plate on and add a hydraulic motor.
After running the numbers and talking with one of the product designers at WoodMaxx, who was incredibly helpful, I bought a 4.95 cu in PTO drive motor ($250, ~18 shaft HP) from Surplus Center and the necessary SAE/QIC adapters. The cheapest way to get a high HP flex plate to couple the motor to the chipper was a pair of PTO yokes (yokes @$40/ea) and a rubber sandwich plate($24) from eBay for a Rhino 24' brush cutter (3 ganged brush cutters). Amazon supplied the Neiko® 20713A non-contact tachometer. Discount Hydraulic Hoses supplied the three 60" hoses. Bailey supplied the Q/A adapters, which are made by Stucchi, but they are Faster interchange series for the Power-Track. (Stucchi IR 34V FA NPT, 820001022, and 820001023 for the PTO, 8005010005 for the male case drain connector), or just buy the Faster NV series.
I ordered the chipper, in red.
Once it arrived, it was clear that the shipper had tipped the chipper over on its side at some point. There were a few scuffs on it, and some bent hoses, but nothing a little touch up paint and a replacement screw couldn't fix. WoodMaxx offered to send touch up paint, but I just used the PowerTrac red that I've been using. It almost matches the nice powder coat on the chipper. I went over every screw, bolt and nut and checked for torque/tightness, and we were off to the races.
With the chipper at ground level, it seemed as if the optimal site for the QA plate was on the side of the chipper, perpendicular to the 3 PT hitch, which would bring the center of mass closer to the the tractor. I did some quick center of mass checking by lifting the chipper from the center eye. It would also put the Q/A plate right on the chipper housing for added strength.
A friend machined out a trapezoidal plate to hold the motor where it would be inline with the existing PTO splined shaft of the chipper. I was going to use steel, but he had some high strength aluminum, and we used that instead. It is held on with four bolts at the corners, roughly where the clamps are in the photos. I used Nordlock (McMaster) washers to hold the motor and plate in place, and to hold the yokes to the rubber shock plate. (Nordlocks are amazing! And pricey!) The bolts are grade 8, but could have been grade 2 as a quasi-shear bolt. The emergency stop should be covered by the PT pressure relief. I loosely tightened all the bolts on the plate and motor after checking the shaft alignment, including the yokes. (It turned out to be a mistake. See below.)
I used the PT to turn the chipper on its side to weld on the Q/A plate, by using the lift eye again, so more welds were horizontal. (I'm not a great vertical welder.) I then cut some steel pieces to space out the Q/A plate at the bottom to enable chipper to be carried on the level by the PT, and to have it level on the ground.
I also added a top plate to tie the top of the Q/A plate to the chipper housing, which contains ~1/2 of the weight.
With the Q/A plate on, I turned the chipper vertical and filled the oil 15W40 synthetic, in case it ran hot. I had a brief break in the action while I sorted the right Power track connectors.
Then, I powered up the chipper. The motor wobbled, despite my prior attempt alignment. Shut everything down, and rechecked, and found that one of the yoke set bolts was pushing the yoke out of alignment. Since, the whole yoke only need one set bolt, I loosened the offending yoke set bolt, and realigned the shafts and yokes. I retightened the motor and plate fasteners. On repowering the motor, everything ran smoothly, and stayed in alignment.
I then stopped the motor, and put a small reflector on the yoke and used a non-contact tachometer with the reflective dot to measure the chipper speed. I plan to use it at some point in the future to double check the Deutz idle and WOT to factory specs.
I slowly ramped the motor speed up to prime the hydraulic feed (it runs separately from the PT). It didn't really prime until I got over 250 rpm or so. I ran it slowly at 250 for twenty minutes or so to get the hydraulic lines purged and then topped up the reservoir with oil.
Once I had the chipper running at 540rpm, I marked the throttle setting on the PT. As planned, it is about 60% throttle. I start and stop the chipper at idle. Popping the PTO off at speed generates a little cavitation noise (perhaps as the valve goes from powered to recirculation?), as does a sudden deceleration. I think Rip's idea of having a pressure relief at the motor might have some benefits, but the chipper spins down smoothly.
How does it do?
2-3" fresh hardwood (choke cherry) flies through at full hydraulic speed.
With the feed set at maximum, tossing in 4" bone dry logs stalled the chipper. The pressure relief kicked right in and the PT engine speed barely changed. Backing the hydraulic feed off to ~50% and the bone dry oak went right on through. You can't even hear the PT engine speed change or the motor labor. I think that for me the ability to regulate the input feed rate is a key feature to being able to handle the really hard (dense) dry wood that I have piled around.
During a shakedown run, it was 93F outside, and the hydraulic oil on the TM-86H got pretty warm. You could hold your hand on the tank, just. I might add a hydraulic cooler on the TM-86H side of things, but for me it works great as is.
Thanks to Rip for inspiring this with his BearCat chipper for the PT. Bailey and WoodMaxx were a great help.
Total budget ~ $3300. Ability to chip when and where I need to, wow!
I hope this helps. It looks like it is going to be a really useful tool.
All the best,
Peter
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