Chipper leaving vampire spikes, smokes the disc, won't feed or push through, maybe weak motor too..

[Greenclimber]

My chipper infeed is 12x17" and is ratted for 12". It will feed larger wood if I cut the wood at a 45 degree angle as I don't have a lift cylinder.

My chipper is pretty good on long wood and bush. However with smaller short stuff it leaves lot of little vampire looking spikes and it won't feed. Today I had like 6 pieces behind the in-feed rollers and it stopped feeding all together. Just seemed jammed and I smelled smoke. This happens often. I had to reverse the feed wheels and all these little short vampire looking spikes came out. Is this normal with disc chippers that feed on a 45 degree? Or am I needing to sharpen my knives or maybe adjust my anvil? I keep the knives sharp/dressed with a little knife sharpener that bandit sells...

Also, my top feed roller will get stuck and stop moving several times through out the day when I am chipping. I think I need a new motor because I've already tightened the hydraulic belt which was quite loose and even switched the hoses from the bottom motor to the top motor. Tightening the belt seemed to help a huge amount for the first half the day, but then it went back to normal and now I really can't tell much of a difference on my 2nd day in. Sometimes it will stop on little small 2-3" brush, sometimes on larger 6-8". It is pretty frustrating.

I have a woodchuck WC/17... It is like a bandit 200 clone.


Also, dead dry wood not as easy to chip as live... (normal I think)

 

[Bigstumps]

Of course sharp knives and a square anvil edge are important. Have you ever changed your anvil or adjusted the gap between the anvil and knives?

If the disk bearings are bad and allowing the disk to move away from the anvil under pressure it will also give you long stringy discharge. Put a big bar in between the disk and the disk housing and flex against the disk checking for movement between the disk shaft and the bearings - there should be none.

I wouldn't just go forward with changing a hydraulic drive motor. You should test the pressure. Put a gauge in line and then feed a big log in that locks the feed wheels - when the feedwheels are locked the hydraulic system will go over the main relief valve and you can read the pressure. Not sure about a Woodchuck but most Bandits are about 2500 psi. If you aren't getting this pressure it could be caused by a number of things - the belt that drives the pump is slipping (it will have more of a tendency to slip at higher pressure because it is transmitting more horsepower - the relief valve is set too low or is weak or contaminated - the autofeed dump solenoid is bypassing, the pump could be bad and not able to make the required pressure - or yes the hydraulic motor may be bad.

I would 1st try turning the relief valve up and see if my pressure raises - if it doesn't you still haven't eliminated anything. You may get lucky and as you turn the relief valve in the pressure will go up. Again if it doesn't go up you still have to troubleshoot to figure out why it doesn't go up. There is a systematic approach to this to make sure you are just not throwing parts at it.

This stuff is easily fixed but you have to take your time and troubleshoot it correctly.

 

[Greenclimber]

Sounds good. I was just pricing motors and they are about $450 each... My thought was to check the pressure first, but I don't know how to do that... Actually, I don't know where to connect an inline gauge. You just explained how to go about testing the pressure..... \

I already tightened the belt. That seemed to help for about half the day... Then things seemed to go back to normal. Oh, and the problem seems intermittent.

I have never taken the anvil all the way out to inspect it, but I did adjust it just the other day. Then some guys I was working with for the first time threw in some rocks with the leaves screwed the sharp knives and likely the anvil too. First time in the year that I've been using it that I've had this happen.

(hydraulics has always been line this)

I know where the relief valve is... I already switched the lines going from the top feed motor to the bottom like Altec said, but the problem didn't jump to the bottom motor, so I am assuming that is is the top motor... The bottom will still spin a little bit when the top one gets stuck, but not always...

While it is tempting... I don't want to go and turn the relief valve without having the appropriate gauge in the right spot. I am thinking the pressure is off personally....

Altec said that the pressure should be at 2400.

Thanks for the advice on checking the pressure. Just let me know where I should connect the gauge and I'll be in business.

 

[Bigstumps]

Your pump has two hoses going to it - suction from the tank and a pressure line exiting and feeding the flow to the valve. You can either put a T in at the pressure line / pump connection - or what I would do is follow the pressure line to 1st component it goes to. This will probably either be an aluminum block that houses a relief valve and maybe an autofeed dump cartridge, or it may go straight to the feed valve which is actuated by the feeder bar. If it goes straight to the feed valve your relief valve is more than likely integral to this feed valve.

This is where I would put the T in with the gauge - right at the connection point with this 1st component. Your gauge will have a T with one leg hooking to the component, one leg the hose from the pump hooks to, and the gauge is on the 3rd leg. Never take the hose that comes off the pump and go straight to a gauge - this would "dead head" the fluid into the gauge and blow your gauge. You have to allow the flow somewhere to go while tapping your gauge in to read the pressure.

It doesn't surprise me that the top gets hung up and the bottom roller keeps going. A lot of chippers will carry a piece of material up around the top feed roller where it gets stuck and jams the top feed roller.

I would really look at your anvil - especially after the rocks went through the chipper. A bad knife / anvil setup will cause the stringy chips and leave a lot of stuff flying around between the feed rollers and the disk - making feed roller jams much more common.

Let us know what you find

 

[Greenclimber]

Something else came up today. I was using the chipper and a line blew. Just a pin hole, but still it was a mess. I decided to replace that line and 2 others. So 3 total. Wanted to do 4, but couldn't break the last one free. After hooking everything back the motors wouldn't spin or move at all. In the past I have only replaced 1 hose at a time. Is it possible that doing so many at once means I need to bleed the system?

All that aside...

Thanks for the info. I will get a 5000 PSI gauge and figure out what my pressure is set at. I will make adjustments if necessary and give everyone an update.

As for shopping for everything...Where is the best place to get everything? I was looking online and I found that Northentool has most things, but it doesn't seem like they have everything that I need... Unless I overlooked something. Any ideas?

 

[no tree to big]

Shouldn't have to bleed, the air would get pushed through in seconds. It kinda sounds like you got your hoses mixed up... like you got fluid trying to push the motor in both directions at once, thus the non turning..

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

 

[Greenclimber]

That was the case. I noticed the lines had crossed and so I switched them. I was in a tree when my buddy removed the lines. He went to Napa to have some new ones made. When he got back in installed all but 1 because he couldn't get the fitting off and Napa didn't stock that particular kind. When I got home I used a vise to remove the fitting and installed in on the line. You know the rest from here forward....


I also check my anvil today and that was all rounded. So I flipped it and gave the knives a once over with a file and knife sharpener... Looking forward to chipping tomorrow and seeing how it does... Would have liked to flip the knives, but didn't have the time. Besides that, It's been chipping great and the hydraulics seem to be doing okay.

I had a pressure test done on it, and the pump is pushing out 2500psi.... So a bit high actually. I just think that every now and again branches just enter the in-feed wrong and jam the wheels... Also, my chipper doesn't like short fat chunks of wood...firewood length. Especially dead wood.

 

[no tree to big]

I have a morbark 200 it's a 12" disk @45 degrees it hates the last bit of logs I get the vampire spikes too some cases I'll back the last little bit of log out and Chuck it in the truck. Cutting your limbs so you always have brush on your logs helps make sure the logs get pushed through, not always possible though. It also hates vines and short super leafy stuff it just piles up behind the wheels. Wheels do jam easy not fault of hydros. And really hard dead stuff seems to get in a rythem of bouncing off the disk between the blades so it never actually chips, gets annoying.

Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

 

[gorman]

If your anvil is garbage you will get garbage chips.

 

[2dogs]

Don't ever pick up leaves and twigs and toss them through the chipper because rocks suck up and hold onto those things. Anything that can be tossed into the truck should be.

Keep any drive belts tight and the pulleys in line with each other. A rounded anvil won't chip well and the knife sharpener only allows touch up. the blades need sharpening by a pro when they're dull. As often as needed, maybe every week, maybe a little less often. The bolts only last a few changes too. Hydraulic filters last 100 hours. Change the fluid and clean the suction screen once each year. The disc bearings need LOTS of grease, grease them in the morning and when you break for lunch. T he clutch on the other hand uses very little grease, like 1 pump per day. Check the air filter at lunch too.

 

[Greenclimber]

Thanks for the info! I certainly have not been keeping up on the Hydraulic filter or fluid change. I have only changed the filter once since I've owned the machine. That was last year around this time. Granted I haven't put very many hours on it since then. Likely I have 80-100 hours on it since that first filter change.

I am usually good on the grease. Like 3 pumps per day on each fitting. Maybe to much in some areas... I have noticed that one of the fittings is harder to pump than it used to be. It is on the main disc fitting. It is still getting grease, but just much harder to pump than it used to be. I am not sure why.

Yeah I am due for a knife flip and to replace the bolts. The bolts that are on there look rough, but the knives are knew and have never been flipped. Still sharp, but have some chunks missing out of 1 area after that rock incident. I will flip them and then re-adjust the anvil if needed.

Again thanks for the info.