Chipper Question

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DGuagni95

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What is the potential danger of accidentally disengaging the clutch while the chipper is at full speed? A temporary lapse in focus and now I'm worried I've done damage to my machine. I know this isn't a recommended practice I don't think I've done it previously.
 
Yeah, I've done this a handful of times too. Not a big deal as far as I'm concerned. If you think about a manual transmission car or truck, you wouldn't want to try to start out in 5th gear from a dead stop with the RPMs at full blast. You'll burn something up fast...

The disc or drum is so heavy in most machines that it would be like trying to start out in a large gear. Always best to bump the clutch lever a few times to get the disc/drum spinning before trying to engage it.

That being said, it it okay to disengage the clutch at high RPMs if it going into neutral for a short time, only to re-engaging into another gear. Just don't get into a habit of disengaging it at full RPMs and just letting it slow down on it's own. Also, don't get into the habit of trying to slow down the disc/drum with the clutch lever. It might slow things down faster, but it is unnecessary wear.

What you want to avoid is long periods of time where your engine is running without the clutch engaged. Espessially at high RPMs. From what I understand, this will harm the throw out bearing. This might be clutch manufacture specific, but I know that mine clearly says not to do it for more than a few minutes on the safety label. You also want to avoid engaging the clutch to slowly for to long. Like holding it there for to long. Give it some short bumps. Like 3, and then engage on the 4th.

I know that was a little long and drawn out, but I hope that helps.
 
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