Skwerl's new chipper and chip truck

[SeanKroll]

IDK. Seems like gate areas, or any other high-use area will quickly become a muddy mess if left as grass. Might be collectable in those concentrated areas.

I've never dropped chips for horses.

 

[stig]

Wet chips have no place in stalls.

We have thick rubber flooring in our stalls, we put a bit of straw and dry wood shavings on top, to absorb urine.

 

[squisher]

I'm sure people make it work for them. If I have an area that's persistently muddy. I've always put gravel there and I have plenty of chips around yet have to buy gravel in by the expensive truckload. Just seems like if a spot is muddy. Dumping chips on the mud is short term gain for long term pain.

 

[Mick!]

Precisely, grass won’t grow and it makes it worse.

 

[SeanKroll]

I see.

Almost all of my chips have been used for landscape mulch and foot paths.


The cows loved to play on the chips, dragging their chins through it, spreading it around, and it was a nice, warm (composting), high and dry spot out of muck. Maybe they liked the higher vantage point, too.

 

[squisher]

Anything goes for cows.

A local ranch here uses tree trimming chips to form the base of their winter feedlot piles, then hog fuel and sawdust on top. That's where I used to dump all my chips.

 

[SkwerI]

Had a dip in the chipper feed table floor just past the feed wheel and it created a lip where it met the frame. Brush was getting hung up so I took it to my welder who ran a few beads and built it up, then I ground it flat with a 4.5" grinder and flap wheel. Wow, what a difference! Did 5 oak removals on Thursday and Ron was running whole leads through it without a hiccup. We originally were going to weld in a new floor over top of the old floor but no need to go to such measures just yet.

Friday after we hauled out the second load of logs from that job and watched the stumps get ground, I dumped the trailer and then took it to Ocala (60 miles away) to the manufacturer where I traded it in for the replacement they made me. It was sold to me as having 10 gauge steel sides but they were 12 gauge so they offered to build me a replacement. I offered to bring the old one back and pick up the new one since they were willing to do that to honor their warranty. The company owner and the guys working on final prep on my trailer were all very nice and got me squared away. Got the new trailer home and it's a lot sturdier than the other one. Haven't used it yet.

 

[Tree09]

10 gauge sides is gonna be a baddass trailer man, that should last quite some time. I'm glad they took care of the situation.

 

[Burnham]

For both the chipper repair and trailer replace.

 

[Dave Shepard]

Nice on the easy fix. I hate a jammy chipper infeed.

 

[SkwerI]

It's been a year and the chipper finally needed some more attention. The feed roller was collapsing and broken in several places. The feed table floor broke the weld and settled some more (might have been the car accident). But last week it simply wasn't feeding very well at all. We went through the knife adjustments to address it and found enough damage that it was time to have it addressed. Welder spent a day and a half on it, most of that time was rebuilding the feed wheel. Instead of bending sheet steel into a tube they decided to use up some 1/2"x4" steel they had. They just used 4" strips all the way around. The feed roller teeth are 1/2"x1.5" hardened steel. I don't suspect Ron will break this one any time soon!

The floor was covered with a piece of steel and welded around the edges. He also drilled a couple holes in the middle and welded in those holes to keep it from lifting in the middle. Then the edges were ground down and beveled to make it semi flat.

Waiting for the rain to quit so we can finish reassembly and get to work. I have an office building parking lot I need to trim this weekend. Too many cars during the week.

 

[Mick!]

Nice work, had some refurbing welding done on mine recently, I like it a lot more now.

 

[SeanKroll]

I had a little part made for my clutch lever assembly (hand-grip lever at rear for clutch mounted, as usual up front), basically a u-joint. Amazing how much it tightened things up for engaging my clutch. I almost thought something was wrong, first time engaging it.


It's great when you invest money into a piece of equipment, not just spending it, like if trouble-shooting a problem is done wrong.

 

[Raj]

Nice work.

 

[SkwerI]

Just got it all reassembled. Had to address a couple other minor issues such as making spacers because the chain tensioner ran out of adjustment (chain drive from hydraulic rotor to the big sprocket on the feed wheel). Test ran it chipping some dead stuff laying in my yard and it works great. Grabs everything and draws it in without hesitation. We no longer need to coax the brush in.

 

[Merle Nelson]

nothing better than good equipment performing great.

 

[Burnham]

Well done rehab.