Tracked Chippers in the USA?

[TREECYCLE]

Yeah it has a forward and reverse hydraulic drive motor as well as a hydraulic feed roller for the chipper infeed. My next step will be to take it down to a shop that makes Hydraulic hoses, mount a Battery somewhere and then fire it up!

 

[Thor's Hammer]

What chipper model did you use? That is pretty cool, but you need to see some european examples
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[TREECYCLE]

What is it with you Euros. Short bars on your saws and way better thought out equipment. That Green tracked unit looks amazing! The smaller yellow unit looks interesting but a bit small. On mine it is hard to tell but the Morbark chipper is a model 7 drum. One constraint was it had to fit through a 36 inch gate. I looked into tracks but they are definitely costly. Because we are already running a 252 grinder and it can go almost anywhere I thought that drive system might just do the trick on the cheap , we will see

 

[Fiddler]

wow, impressive machines. Like the self leveling track thing they have going on.

 

[Greenhorn]

Carl, folks around here just pull their chippers behind the dump trailers. Probably illegal but they dont ever seem to get pulled over.

 

[lumberjack]

I thought about that also, makes backing up a bit interesting though.

Depending on the state, it may be completely legal.

 

[brendonv]

Treecycle,
Where does one find a grinder to sacrifice. Just curious.

I was thinking yesterday how nice it'd be to have a small chipper. I pruned some ornamentals and didn't want to tow the big chipper, loading the truck sucks even thought it small stuff.

 

[TREECYCLE]

What I did, because I could not find a cheap used grinder, was just to go to vermeer and price out the individual parts and put it together. Tires, hubs, axles, sprockets +chain, and hydraulic drive motor and everything else was $1500 bucks out the door. I already had the small morbark sitting around for like the last 5 years and it needed a new motor so I ordered a new Vanguard 35 horse for another 2 grand. Originally the chipper ran off a 25 horse and was surprisingly a pretty gutsy for its size. More along the lines of the Bandit 6 inch as it has a nice wide 11.5 inch throat

 

[brendonv]

Hey Money Cut.

How's the little chipper coming?

 

[TREECYCLE]

Brendonv thanks for the progress check. After taking it to a hydraulics shop there are a few things that I have to get squared away before she will be rolling under her own power. I sure have learned alot about hydraulics though. For instance because I am using a drive motor to drive the axle if say I go down a steep slope the weight of the chipper turns the motor into a pump which is not so good. Some kind of spendy valve should fix that.

Cooler than the chipper though is another proj I got going on. I am in the middle of converting a 20 ft shipping container into a portable stand alone slabbing mill. Can't wait to post pics soon of both, Cheers

 

[lumberjack]

An overcenter/unloading valve. I'd check and see if it's a problem before plumbing one in. On my mini I've excluded the one from the factory and I haven't had a problem with it, even when taking my 4500lb lift down my (steep) driveway.

One possible downside is with the engine off, if you depress a control, the mini will readily respond to gravity. An example would be the raised loader arms will drop, whereas from the factory, the overcenter valve prevented that.

 

[TREECYCLE]

Thanks Lumber Jack I might just try it first without

 

[Ridgey]

Kobelco make undercarriages ive been told