bandit 250XP radiator?

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imagineero

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Haven't had much luck with my chipper the last couple months. Did the bearings last month, today the radiator exploded. Post mortem revealed the upper rubber mounts had sheared, allowing the radiator to get sucked back onto the steel fan which had the radiator for lunch. Many of the cores were chewed completely through, no chance of repair.

Bandit does not sell the radiator in australia, and has no idea if any other radiators are compatible. I went to a couple of radiator shops today, who said they could build me one but the best quoted price I got was $1650 and 1-2 weeks wait time.

Does anyone know if this radiator is actually out of something else, a truck or something? The cores are staggered, which is kind of industrial. Looks to be 3 or 4 core, copper and brass. If I can't find a match, I'm just going to buy the biggest 4 core 3 pass radiator I can shoe horn in there, and get busy making up new hoses and mounts, and adapting the shroud. Radiators usually sell for about $200~$300 for heavy duty stuff here, $1650 is ridiculous. The 2 week wait is what will really kill me though.

Any and all help appreciated!

Shaun
 
Seems like if you didn't have bad luck with that chipper you wouldn't have any luck at all.
This is the same unit that you painted about a year ago? Pics you posted then looked really nice.
Sounds like giving the old girl a facelift isn't making her any more spry or invincible.
I'd be having nightmares running your chipper wondering what is gonna eat a hold in my wallet next.
 
Thanks for your help. Did you get over 12 months out of your chipper without any minor maintenance? I'll admit the paintjob didn't add anything to the mechanical reliability of the unit, but I wasn't hoping for anything other than for it to look greener.
 
The first 12 months or so were problem free (bought it new).
The road salt loves my Bandit, just loves it. A beautiful patina of yellow paint succumbing to the same general decrepitness as I am. We are aging gracefully at roughly the same rate.
Not surprised to hear your dealer can't source a rad for you. The dealer situation up here not stellar by any means. Unimpressed. I deal with a local truck repair biz for any serious loving my chipper requires, and get parts either through them or Napa (filters).
 
Hi Shaun, is it anything special or will any diesel rad the same size fit? I used to get them remade but not for that price! Sometimes you can find almost new at a scrap yard but the exact right size would be a pain. Hope you get lucky
 
it does seem to be something kinda unusual. Stationary plant radiators have a hard time in life. There's no air flow other than what's created by the fan. It's not like a truck where you're driving along most of the time. Worse, stationary plant spends much of it's life under full load which creates a whole bunch of heat. Throw in dust to clog the fins and you'd not off to a great start. The radiator in the chipper is 4 row, but the rows are all staggered. Most multi row radiators seem to have the cores in line, which is no where near as efficient at cooling according to some radiator guys I spoke to. I've been looking round on ebay at radiators and it's not an unusual size, but it's a lot deeper than most radiators I can find, and I can't find any other staggered core radiators. I also can't find any other radiators with the same hose size, most are a lot smaller. I'm going to keep looking.

I found a guy who said he could patch it up for about $400 but it would be very unpredictable in terms of how long it would last and he couldn't offer a warranty but would guarantee it wouldn't be leaking when I picked it up. The damage was pretty extensive, the fan chopped most of the upper fins in half, and chewed through about half a dozen cores which have maybe 8~10 holes or more in each one now. It will get me back on the road on monday though, and he said it could last for months. That gets me earning money again and gives me some time to find a replacement. He said he can build me a new radiator of the same design and quality but he would need to chop my current one up to use the tanks off it which would take me off the road for about a week. I'd rather adapt something else if it's going to be practical and not have downtime. So far I haven't found anything even remotely close for under $2k.

For those with similar model chippers take a look at your upper mounts and make sure they are no sheared or even consider replacing them if they are brittle/cracked rubbers. That $10 might save you a lot of grief! Also make sure the engine shroud bolts are all in good order.

Shaun
 
Don't own a Bandit and I haven't replaced a radiator in one but I would think the radiator is matched to the engine needs. Bigger engine, bigger radiator and anything else to consider. I would contact the engine maker and ask what radiator is needed and what options are available. Bandit makes and assembles the components. Everyone else makes the parts like the engine, belts, sheaves, bearings etc.
 
Given the circumstances, you're in Australia, the radiator is mfg'd in U.S. by a small OEM, it is an Industrial radiator... $1600 doesn't sound out of line. PM sent.
 
Got it sorted, at least temporarily. A guy was able to resolder the back and straighten the fins for $400. This is one of those areas where there are no set prices. When you walk into a shop the first question they ask is "how badly do you need it?". Prices went from $400~$1600 for a repair only. Some guys said they'd build me a brand new radiator for that price also. I ended up going with the $400 repair and i'm thinking to replace it with a radiator out of something else in future.

It's just like the story of the old lady who lived in a shoe. There's a bunch of things leading up to the horse that killed her! Before I had bought it, someone had jackknifed the chipper and bent one of the upright guards back onto the engine shroud. It had been repaired poorly. That also bent the front of the fan cover area a little. Then over time, 2 of the mounts that hold the engine cover in place have snapped without me noticing. Apparently they snap reasonably often (the ones in the back where the clutch handle is especially!). The front two mounts are rubber mounted. The back two are rigid bolted.

We used to store witches hats on the uprights sometimes. The pressure of the witches hats pushing on the bent part of the cover was then pushing on the radiator. Maybe that was what broke the two top rubber mounts of the radiator, or maybe they were already broken. Maybe the rubber just got old and brittle. Either way, once those two top mounts had broke, and the engine cover could move, the engine cover pushed the radiator back onto the steel fan and ate it for breakfast. It's another one of those things where a stitch in time would have saved 9.

It's worth taking a look at the mounts for the engine cover on your own machine. you'll probably find one or two are cracked. Take a look at the two top mounts for the radiator also. I got similar replacements from an auto store for about $6. The ones I got were mounts for an exhaust or a gearbox from a small car or something. If you do need to replace them, getting the engine cover off is a pain in the ass job. You have to disconnect the throttle cable, and probably your fuel line. You've got to remove all the bolts form the control panel which requires dislocating your wrist. Then you undo all the mounts, take off the air filter, rotate the discharge chute out of the way. You need 2 guys to lift the cover, and one guy to manage the control panel so it doesn't get mangled. It requires lots of fine forwards/backwards/sideways manipulation as you're lifting to clear it of the brackets etc.

Once you've got it off things aren't so hard. The radiator is not too difficult to get at, just a bit of time. it's a good thing to replace the alternator belt while you're there. It's less than $10 and mostly they're too stretched to be of any use. If you can get replacement radiator hoses do them at the same time. I couldn't find any hoses like that but I didn't look far. The radiator mounts don't need to be too exact in dimension because the bracket is dog legged so there's quite a bit of room to bend/move it. While you've got the cover off, give your radiator a good clean out with compressed air, and carefully straighten any bent fins with a small screw driver and fine needle nose pliers.
 
Surely after doing the main bearings, taking the engine cover off is a walk in the park?

Our chipper has been through the wars too - here's how you get a good look at the underside of your chipper (October 2012)

This broke the pintle hook on the truck, damaged the tail lights frames and snapped one of the bolts holding the engine to the chassis. I was up a tree down a few suburbs away and was wondering why the chipper hadn't turned up yet. The bloke towing the chipper only lived down the road so raced home to get his 4WD with winch to pull the chipper back over. He had to use his 4WD to pull the tow truck out that blew up trying to pull the chipper out!

678.JPG

Thanks for all the info again Shaun.
 

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