It was a great event put on by Cal-Line (I only knew about it because of this thread and info.)
I did not catch the whole presentation by the state air quality guy, and what I did hear made my head spin so double and triple check any of my thoughts before you take them to the bank.
It still looks like under 50 HP is the way to go if it will meet your needs. Tier 4 engines will give you the most longevity of compliance for now. It looks like gas engines are a work around/exempt (for now). (Bandit is putting some bigger HP gas engines on some bigger chippers [apparently] as a result.)
You could do everything “right” and be in compliance and go one district over, or through any no. of technicalities, be found out of compliance. Not the most confidence inspiring talk I have ever heard.
My thought is to avoid that state agency by every legal means possible. He referred to 5000 businesses “voluntarily” registered so far. Ahh yeah...$640 per engine reg. fee, renewal every 3 years, lots of added paperwork with little or no set answers, moving target of requirements, no definitive right or wrong,... yeah I can see business owners volunteering for that. (sarcasm)
Cal-Line had two sales reps at the event who were from Bandit home office. I got a lot of questions answered that I had not even known to ask by talking to them.
I’m currently thinking of having Bandit build a 75XP with a 44 hp Kubota engine. If anyone has any good or bad experience with either of these I would appreciate a PM and talking to you about it. Thanks, Merle