Yellow Jacket teeth

[TFPace]

I'm curious to hear from anyone that's running Vermeer's new yellowjacket teeth.

I am currently using the "pro" tooth and I like it OK. Being able the have two usable cutting surfaces has alot of merit.

Right now it costs me $160.00 to replace all 28 teeth.

To switch over to the yellowjacket system is $550.00.

Bottom-line, was the conversion worth it?

Thanks guys!

Tom

 

[lxt]

I'm curious to hear from anyone that's running Vermeer's new yellowjacket teeth.

I am currently using the "pro" tooth and I like it OK. Being able the have two usable cutting surfaces has alot of merit.

Right now it costs me $160.00 to replace all 28 teeth.

To switch over to the yellowjacket system is $550.00.

Bottom-line, was the conversion worth it?

Thanks guys!

Tom

without question..................YES!


LXT...........

 

[Ga. Stumpman]

I used the Pro teeth for years. Now use yellow jacket and happy. I do not have to spend as much on teeth.

 

[equipmentguru]

Green teeth

You might want to check into green teeth as well.

 

[TFPace]

Thanks guys for your replies!

Tom

 

[jhg]

An excellent system. I switched over from pro teeth and would never go back. Any pocket system that requires you to use a breaker bar and a 250+lb torque wrench just to change a tooth is stupid. Not to mention the drag some of those old style pockets put on the system when in the dirt.

I can run sharp teeth all day every day because it so easy to spin a tooth or change them out. Also, sometimes I get teeth that wear on one side only and can get another cycle out of them by simply putting them on the opposite side of the wheel.
I get differing rates of tooth wear all over the wheel and can easily adjust teeth to account for that and therefore have a nice even set all the time while getting a lot of life out of them, sometimes four cycles a tooth.

Joshua

 

[TFPace]

Joshua ,

Just to be clear.... you are using Yellow Jacket teeth?

Looking at Green Mfg's I'm uncertain if they sell direct and use dealers too? They need to repair a link that list's dealers.

I did look at some prices... Greenteeth are about $200.00 higher for a conversion versus the Vermeer system. I'd like to hear why the Green system is that much higher... the Green tooth does appear to have more carbide than Vermeer's. This comparison is based on pictures only.

Thanks,

Tom

 

[wheelloader123]

I have a Carlton 2500-4 that I upfitted with the greenteeth 700 "tap and turns", and I have a Vermeer SC352 that I purchased with the yellowjackets. Cutting performance is basically identical with sharp teeth, the greenteeth are faster to change (because they are simply knocked out of the pocket with a brass hammer, whereas the vermeer teeth require loosening a nut), the greenteeth have 3 sides, the vermeer have 2 sides. The biggest difference is ease of resharpening the greenteeth as compared to the yellowjackets. The yellowjackets almost aren't pratically resharpenable. I have a gentleman that resharpens our greenteeth for 1.50/tooth (and brings it back to a perfect edge), and we usually get about 3-5 sharpenings before the carbide becomes too thin. All this rambling being said, if you are having to buy a set of teeth and pockets- GO WITH THE GREENTEETH, you will be dollars ahead!

 

[TFPace]

Hello wheelloader123,

Rambling.... you did a perfect job of explaining to differences in the two systems. Looks like I need to further talk with Green Mfg!

 

[jhg]

I am running yellow jackets since I got some new take offs from the dealer for 160.00 including a new set of teeth. (gloat)
I can see what others mean about the yellows being tough to re-sharpen. If worn too far it looks to be hard/impossible to bring a back relief to the edge.
Having experienced how long it takes to loosen the one bolt on the yellows I would not let that influence your choice toward green teeth. Its splitting hairs.
But if the greens are easy to resharpen, well, thats another kettle of snot altogether...

Joshua, still thinking about going to the multi tip system anyway.

 

[stumper63]

I just converted to the Multi Tip on my 252 with a 35hp Vanguard engine. Put about 35 hours on it so far and I do like the teeth. Broke a couple carbides the first day, go figure, metal rod in first two stumps I did with the new wheel and teeth. My other 252 has the Sandvik wheel, which I loved the cutting action, but was discouraged about wheel wear, having to replace wheel about every 800 hours or so, went through two wheels.
Since I was doing the engine swap on this other machine I decided to try the Multi Tips at the same time. Cutting action is very smooth, wheel is extremely well-balanced, can hardly tell the wheel is engaged. BTW, I'm running the wheel made by Keith at Alpine Magnum in Olympia, WA. It's a bit different from the stock Multi Tip wheel, not sure what, but apparently better balanced, teeth are the same.

Tooth change is unbelievably simple, really is about a minute to change a tooth.

We'll see what long term usage has to reveal, but for now I really like the Multi Tip. Cost for wheel with teeth was $525. Teeth are $16 each, with each tooth having four carbide tips, six teeth on the wheel.

Didn't mean to go off on the Multi Tip on this thread, but since price is the same or a little less than your Yellow Jacket conversion thought I would weigh in fwiw.

Stumper63

 

[OLD MAN GRINDER]

Just switched over to the yellow jacket teeth from the 1/2 inch sq ones, have done about 40 stumps so far, hardly any wear so far, chipped one the other day on a pc of rebar in stump, simply turned the tooth over and kept on going, i do not resharpen teeth, not worth the trouble imho, discount stumpcutters can retip for 6.50 each or only 8.00 new, leaning toward just buying new at this point only 1.50 diff, and my vermeer dealer will give me a good deal if i buy in quanity, have not done any pine stumps yet, that will be the true test imo as to the value of the teeth, i paid about 300 for the complete change over and that inc some extra teeth..

Overall much impressed with the teeth so far..

Bob..

 

[StumpAway MS]

Switch sides on the yellow jackets

An excellent system. I switched over from pro teeth and would never go back. Any pocket system that requires you to use a breaker bar and a 250+lb torque wrench just to change a tooth is stupid. Not to mention the drag some of those old style pockets put on the system when in the dirt.

I can run sharp teeth all day every day because it so easy to spin a tooth or change them out. Also, sometimes I get teeth that wear on one side only and can get another cycle out of them by simply putting them on the opposite side of the wheel.
I get differing rates of tooth wear all over the wheel and can easily adjust teeth to account for that and therefore have a nice even set all the time while getting a lot of life out of them, sometimes four cycles a tooth.

Joshua

I do the same thing, when their cutting bad, I take them off and put them into a bucket and soak them over night with simple green, to get all the dirt off and then sit them out on a table then use a red marker to mark good sides and mark an X on the bad ones, I put the good marked ones into my Go Agains Bucket and use them to same money. Rotating them saves me money since they can't be resharpened, and I use the auto sweep to help keep them going a little longer too, just turn it down when it starting to cut bad, when I reach negative three on my auto sweep, I change them out.

 

[Plyscamp]

I;m with Stumper63. I to use Multi Tip and have for years. No pockets to eat up horsepower and wear out, no bolts running side to side to egg out the holes in the cutting wheel. Cutting load is tranferred into the wheel not bolts. Carbides to support side to side cutting, easy to change and more than anything else cheaper to run because you dont have all the bolts and pockets to deal with and replace. Anyone can resharpen you don't have to send them out. I have 2 SC252's and a SC505 running this system.

 

[OLD MAN GRINDER]

I;m with Stumper63. I to use Multi Tip and have for years. No pockets to eat up horsepower and wear out, no bolts running side to side to egg out the holes in the cutting wheel. Cutting load is tranferred into the wheel not bolts. Carbides to support side to side cutting, easy to change and more than anything else cheaper to run because you dont have all the bolts and pockets to deal with and replace. Anyone can resharpen you don't have to send them out. I have 2 SC252's and a SC505 running this system.

I talked with Keith the other day about getting a disc for my angle grinder to sharpen
teeth, still don't know whether i will or not, yellow jackets have been holding up very well and
they are not that expensive, not sure if its worth the effort to sharpen, they are such an
improvement over the square teeth....also considering going to the multi tip wheel in the
future when this one wears out,,,,would like to upgrade to the new 372 but at my age not
sure if it would be a good move, the 252 does everything i come up with, just a little slow
on the bigger stumps....

Bob..

 

[mikewhite85]

Don't know a lot about stump grinder teeth as I rented for a long time before buying my own sc 252. I currently have yellowjackets and it's time for new ones. It seems that you can't buy them online but must get them from the dealer? It seems like people have pretty good results with Greenteeth. Can I just throw those in the same slots or do you need new pockets as well? Just don't feel like driving all the way to the dealership if greenteeth are comparable.

 

[OLD MAN GRINDER]

Don't know a lot about stump grinder teeth as I rented for a long time before buying my own sc 252. I currently have yellowjackets and it's time for new ones. It seems that you can't buy them online but must get them from the dealer? It seems like people have pretty good results with Greenteeth. Can I just throw those in the same slots or do you need new pockets as well? Just don't feel like driving all the way to the dealership if greenteeth are comparable.

I had a 252 with yellow jackets, loved them,,,i now have a bandit 2150xp with greenteeth, in my opinion they do not hold an edge as well as the yellow jackets, it could just be that the additional hp of the bandit wears them out quicker, i'm not sure, u will have to buy new pockets if u decide to go with the greenteeth, i love my bandit but i'm not sold on the greenteeth..

Bob...

 

[mikewhite85]

OK thanks! For now I'll just but some more yellowjackets.

I also have an alpine magnum and Keith at Sales (i buy teeth CONSTANTLY for that thing- thankfully they are cheaper than conventional teeth) said they just came out with a new system for conventional stump grinders called the Rhino wheel. It looks pretty sweet. I am having trouble uploading pics

 

[mikewhite85]

View attachment 250681

There we go. He also has some videos.

Alpine Rhino Wheel and Teeth

looks cool but not ready to jump on the $600 wheel and $120 set of teeth.

 

[stumper63]

I've been helping test the new Rhino teeth for over two months now. Keith has been testing different carbide grades before settling on the best one. All I can say is, I'M IMPRESSED. I grind full-time with a 35hp 252 and these teeth wear really well and cut extremely smooth and fast. I have already been running the Multi-Tip wheel and teeth for the last 1000 hours on this machine so there is no conversion needed for me.

I hadn't ordered too many Rhino teeth and was short a tooth so I switched back to Multi-Tip teeth on Monday. Anyway, I did a test today on two similar 36" pine stumps. Both had a few lateral roots so probably ground a 6-7' circle. Multi-tip took 36 minutes. Then i change over to the Rhino teeth, took 27 minutes, so a 25% gain. In a 28" fir stump I was taking 3"-4" per forward move and about 1-1/2" depth of cut, done in 12 minutes. And very smooth.

So if anyone is running a Multi-Tip system already I would recommend giving them a try. Or if you're on the fence about buying a new wheel I would consider it at the top of the pack. I ran the Sandvik on my last machine and loved them, but these are even faster, smoother, and only 6 teeth on the wheel. They really do only take 1 minute to change.

Stumper63