Bandit 990 xp thinking of buying, any thoughts?

Mick!

Mick!

TreeHouser
Joined
Nov 4, 2013
Messages
13,617
Location
South West France
I?ve been disappointed with my chipper, it?s had a few build quality issues and I flirted with the idea of getting a big Yankee job as a kind of ?final chipper?

They?re not often available second hand over here but this one has popped up, seems legit.

It?s the 122 horse job, towable (just) behind the pick up. It has a ?crush bar? what is that?

Just would like your thoughts as I?m sure you peeps have been around these a bit.

Thanks in advance.
 

Attachments

  • 3124C2F4-7EEF-4E6D-83B1-E3D16086A361.jpg
    3124C2F4-7EEF-4E6D-83B1-E3D16086A361.jpg
    159.1 KB · Views: 37
Bandits are great chippers. We had a 14" w/winch when we were doing tree work in Colorado Springs, before moving downhill to Kansas. It was as powerful as our Vermeer 18" with 100HP John Deere engine, in a nice, more compact package. We have aspirations of getting one again and a smaller chip truck, so we could do smaller jobs with a lower profile & more fuel efficient package (or two crews rolling at the same time).
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #3
‘Smaller Jobs’ ha ha.

This would be the biggest chipper in a hundred miles!
 
They are functional, durable & fixable. A massive step up from a forst or similar in not only performance, but build quality too.
The crush is a ram fitted above the top roller to help bust forks & compact small scrubby brash - awesome bit of kit.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #5
That’s what I’m guessing, there are towing issues for my employees, nothing that can’t be overcome.

I’ve sent him a message.

We’ll see.
 
I’ve got a 990xp with the 130 gas motor. It’s great, 700ish hours now and only a couple issues with the distributor cap and faulty clutch. Bandit can be little fuckers on the service side, so you have to be firm with them . Overall it’s a nasty chipper for the size, we chip 12” material regularly and she goes!
 
Mick, I have no experience with that model but Brush Bandits are well made machines in general. I have a very old Morbark drum chipper similar in design to that one and I can say that I think they are way better than disc chippers. That thing looks like a beast and I'm sure it will be very effective for you. As long as you have a big enough truck to pull the weight plus a full load of chips, you'll be fine. The bonus is that on most jobs you won't need a dump truck or trailer to haul logs because everything will get chipped.
 
My chipper is a 12xp (990). It?s pretty slick.
It has the gm efi gas engine. 130hp I believe.

Can?t say to much about it yet. Only has 17hrs on and may stay that way for a while.

My dealer didn?t necessarily say bandit was doing away with diesels but he did say they were leaning away from selling them over the gas engines. Emissions is driving the cost way up I suppose.

You won?t be disappointed.
 
I had a 250xp with the 140hp diesel Deere and it was an awesome machine. Disc. It did have the oil cooler gasket fail and the dealer gave me a 1290 to run for a week or two, the drum 12" and it was pretty awesome too. Great machines. Both the ones I ran had the crush cylinder, and once you use one there's no going back. Just crush it and suck it through.

Good luck!
 
Mick! said:
Whaddya mean about being difficult on the service side?
Click to expand...

I'm guessing he means for warranty? My bandit was easy to service and I only had the one warranty issue, really only ever the one issue and my dealer was fantastic about fixing it. Although they did try to charge me for the repair until I pointed out their error. Lol.
 
I have a big bandit, it is a great chipper. I've had morbarks and they were very good, and bandit is even a bit better.
 
Mick, it is probably dealer dependent, but ours is shit. Had to go up the headquarters ladder and raise hell to get anything done. No sense of urgency or demos offered, pretty much blank stares lol. Other than that they are simple, great machines and I’d be hard pressed to buy anything else.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #18
Lots of thumbs up then, in the cold light of day I think that it’s too big for my vehicles.

I really need a bigger chip truck, but that unleashes all sorts of legal/licence/fixing issues.

Not sure if want to go down that road.
 
Says the guy who posts pics of his loader making good, easy money for him. Within reason, bigger is better.
 
The licensing issue for bigger trucks is a very real limitation. Mick, what are the weight limits for you? Here the limit is 26,000 lbs combined weight before you need a Class B or Class A commercial license.

My chip truck is probably medium sized compared to most. Ford F450 with a 15,000 GVWR. It weighs just under 10,000 lbs empty (the box is heavy). My chipper weighs about 3600 lbs so even fully loaded and pulling the chipper I am well under the legal barrier of 26,000 lbs.
 
If France is like the UK which it more than likely is for now... Brexit looming and all that.

Pick ups can generally tow a max of 3.5t. Usually most are down rated to around 3.2. Same with small tipped trucks, 3.5 t limit and max train weight of 7t. Most 3.5 tippers with gear are running around 2.6- 3.1t with out load. Giving a payload of a few hundred kilo's.

Next up is a 7.5t or similar. Mick and older guys will be able to drive it and it gives a suitable payload, but in the UK it is subject to more stringent checks and an operators license. Even then some guys will have to do a trailer test as they may be limited to 8.25 ton max train weight... so if your fully loaded you theoretically can only tow a 750kg chipper.

As I mentioned I am not sure exactly of France's rules and reg's but that is pretty much the UK perspective.
 
Or as an alternative Mick, a guy I climbed for in the UK had a big bandit. He towed it to site with a Landy. He had 2 x 3.5t trucks going out. One towing an Ifor tipped g trailer. Fully loaded at 3.5 t with about 2.4 of chip plus 600kg in the empty Iveco 3.5t and rakings and a few last chipped up bits in the othe transit. That combo allowed him to get around 3.4 ton off site legally without operator license issues.

Obviously that required drivers though.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #23
Thing is with my 3.5 tonne chip truck (total laden weight 7700lbs) we can all drive on a car licence and pull a 2600lb chipper legally(ish)

The next step up would be a 16500lbs fully laden but only I could drive it, which as the only climber causes problems.

It takes you up a league but I don’t know if I want to go there at 55.

Sure we have to do a few runs, which eats into the profit a bit, but the tipping trailer will take 4400lbs of logs so that helps.

If the wood is saleable as firewood or for milling I have contacts with timber lorries.

I’ll sit on my hands for a bit I think..
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #24
Rich, I owned a landy, never ever again!

And yes, broadly the rules are the same over here.
 
Dumb question from guy across pond... why could only you drive it? Is that only you hauling the chipper too or even just the truck itself? In other words, could someone else drive it full of chips without the chipper (Like they were going to dump).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top