Woods 5000 chipper shredder

Gordon Gould · Oct 8, 2011

That is a good point Roy. If it is not fresh cut green wood I don't chip it unless I need to very badly. Dry wood goes very hard, doesn't self feed as well, and will vibrate your arms off if you have much you need to do.

It is better to smoke a belt rather than lock up the pto suddenly. Thats one thing I like about belt driven equipment.

GreatWhitehunter · Oct 8, 2011

I've got a call into bearcat about extending the shoot. I'm only looking to go another 12"-18" so I don't anticipate too much of an issue. Was hoping to get there today, but life got in the way.

Matt

GreatWhitehunter · Oct 11, 2011

I finally heard back from Bearcat and they said I shouldn't have much of an issue extending the shoot slightly. They said to feed slower if I do. Unfortunatly I missed the unit that was forsale. But at least now I know. I've located another for just under 2k but it has the blower so I feel that's not too bad.

Matt

RoyJackson · Oct 11, 2011

GreatWhitehunter said:
I finally heard back from Bearcat and they said I shouldn't have much of an issue extending the shoot slightly. They said to feed slower if I do. Unfortunatly I missed the unit that was forsale. But at least now I know. I've located another for just under 2k but it has the blower so I feel that's not too bad.

Matt

Good information!!
Sorry you missed the chipper, but I'm happy you found another. Good chippers sure do sell fast!

GreatWhitehunter · Oct 11, 2011

I'm suprized to find quite a few forsale in a relatively close driving distance. I kind of wish I could find a decent priced wallenstien but they seem to cost as much as new. I'm not going to use it enough to buy new. Do either of you guys run alot of oak or hardwoods through the chipper?

Matt

RoyJackson · Oct 11, 2011

GreatWhitehunter said:
Do either of you guys run alot of oak or hardwoods through the chipper?

Matt

I can't say "a lot" since my chipper is used for mostly clean up work a few time a year.
However, I think the chipper would outwork you!

(BTW, Woods recommends sharpening the blades about every 25 hours of use)

GreatWhitehunter · Mar 31, 2012

I'm excited to be able to update this thread with my latest purchase. I bought a Bearcat chipper/shredder with blower. It was listed on CL and I happen to see it just after it was posted. The seller informed me I was 5th in line to see it

. It was a single mother of three selling it to make ends meet. So after a bit of dicsussion with her she asked if she was listing it for too little.

She had it listed for $1200 but everyone else was trying to negotiate for less. I explained what it cost new and told her I'd be willing to give her $1500 for it since it had the blower. But I insisted she contact the other's ahead of me to see if they'd match my offer.

And to my excitement they did not. Now I normally don't offer more and didn't want to under cut anyone but I felt they were trying to swindle this poor lady. The first guy was offering $800 and the rest $1000. I'll post some pics later as it's rain/snowing now

.

Matt

Red Horse · Mar 31, 2012

RoyJackson said:
I first used my chipper behind a Deere 790 (24 PTO HP) which ran it quite well. There would be some bogging of the engine occasionally. Just pull back on the branch in the hopper a bit until the engine picks up. The engine never stalled, however.
Now I run the chipper behind a 30 PTO HP Deere 4400...no bogging at all.
Per Woods, the 5000 is rated for 15-30 PTO HP. Bearcat rates the same chipper to 40 PTO HP.
One thing I did that I'll never do again is feed some very dried out dead branches. I don't know what type of tree they were from, but the chipper was jammed at the flywheel (chipper blades are mounted to the flywheel) and the belts were smoking. Anyway, I shut down the PTO and tractor, pulled the cover off the unit and backed up the flywheel until I could pull that branch out. Didn't hurt anything (probably took some life off the twin belts though) and I continued chipping...just not that particular branch.
Thinking back on that (while typing this post), it's probably time to pull the blades for sharpening.

Roy,
You seem to mke an issue on blade sharpness. You may remember I bought a Valby 150 a couple of months ago. I really gave it a workout on a big brush pile last weekend and just before I was done, one of four belts broke.

Well I bought 4 new belts and changed them out this week. With the upper pulley assembly at 60 pds., and the flywheel at about 215, not a fun job. In any case, I finally paid attention to the manual, got the feeler gauge out and adjusted the blade to anvil clearance-and for sure adjusted the belts correctly. As for the blades- you don't have to worry about cutting your fingers on them. Just what is considered "sharp"?

GreatWhitehunter · Mar 31, 2012

I'm going to go through the belts and sharpen the blades befrore I try it out. I can see the blades need it, and I'd rather inspect the belts before I break something. I'm concerned the pto shaft maybe short. It looks like a spline drive not the usual square type.

Matt

RoyJackson · Mar 31, 2012

GreatWhitehunter said:
I'm going to go through the belts and sharpen the blad
es befrore I try it out. I can see the blades need it, and I'd rather inspect the belts before I break something. I'm concerned the pto shaft maybe short. It looks like a spline drive not the usual square type.

Matt

The PTO drive shaft yoke at the chipper end should have two set screws. The tractor end should be the standard 6 spline 1.375" connection.
These drive shafts are short. Per the Woods manual, the driveshaft is only 26" long (right around there).
You may need a PTO Adapter. This is the one you want:
Pto Adapter 1-3/8 X6 Spline Male X 1-3/8X6 Spline Female Pto Adapter

Tractor Supply has carried them. That's where I got mine. However, they also sell one which has a hole rather then a pushpin lock. You DO NOT want the one with a hole through it...that's for an old Ford tractor. I haven't seen the push pin adapter at TSC in quite a while, so I suggest you order one from Agri-Supply.