bandit tracked chipper

[burlman]

hey boys I was checking out the bandit web site, and I'm taking a shinr to the 12in tracked chipper, anyone ever used one, we do alot of building site clearing, as it is now we have to wait for a road to go in after we have cleared the trees, to get the towable chipper in to do the cleanup. I saw the trackbandit as a sweet unit that could off-road itself in behind us as we cut. I'm heading to bangor for the big boys toy show, hopefully they will have one there. any info would be a help thanks ...burlman

 

[mpatch]

Pretty sure they are well north of $100,000 for one new.

 

[pdqdl]

You might find that a better value would be a track loader capable of towing a big chipper of similar capacity to the tracked version.

Then you could easily tow the regular chipper to a wider variety of work sites while leaving the track loader at home. Also, a used track loader is reasonably cheap, and could do other things while the chipper is at work, like helping to make the road to get in to the work site. Maybe uprooting stumps, piling wood, grading the work site, etc.

Just a thought...I don't have any of the above equipment, but I have rented track loaders. You can do a lot of work with a pretty small track loader. A really big skid loader might be big enough, and then you could mount up brush grapples, tree shears, and all kinds of neat toys for handling wood that a tracked chipper wouldn't be able to use.

 

[deevo]

Pretty sure they are well north of $100,000 for one new.

Yep, purdy expensive!

 

[tree MDS]

Pretty sure they are well north of $100,000 for one new.

About five years ago when I looked into them, I think the tracked 254 was like 90k+. weighing in at 11300 lbs. or so. A regular lawn torturer, from what I hear.

Still one of the coolest pieces of tree equipment ever IMO.. I worked a job where they had a 007 on tracks cleaning up after me and the six wheel bucket. Pretty wild. The adjustable end flapper on the shute dealio is neat too.

 

[treeman82]

MDS I saw one working down in Ridgefield a year or two ago. All I can remember was that it was yellow... can't remember the model, but it was thinning woods out on a hillside.

 

[tree MDS]

MDS I saw one working down in Ridgefield a year or two ago. All I can remember was that it was yellow... can't remember the model, but it was thinning woods out on a hillside.

A company out of Southbury had the one I'm thinking of. it was yellow. Can't be too many of them things around! $$ lol.

 

[Bigus Termitius]

You might find that a better value would be a track loader capable of towing a big chipper of similar capacity to the tracked version.

Then you could easily tow the regular chipper to a wider variety of work sites while leaving the track loader at home. Also, a used track loader is reasonably cheap, and could do other things while the chipper is at work, like helping to make the road to get in to the work site. Maybe uprooting stumps, piling wood, grading the work site, etc.

Just a thought...I don't have any of the above equipment, but I have rented track loaders. You can do a lot of work with a pretty small track loader. A really big skid loader might be big enough, and then you could mount up brush grapples, tree shears, and all kinds of neat toys for handling wood that a tracked chipper wouldn't be able to use.

Solid advice! The only thing I might do in addition would be to run some different tires and rims on the chipper while off road. Maybe something that could tolerate the abuse and be puncture resistant.

 

[beowulf343]

We demoed a bandit track for a week last fall and weren't too impressed. The thing just sucked off road. Still had to cut a road for it, seemed underpowered to me, you go over any kind of hump and either the front end is digging dirt or the chute is dragging, forget trying to go up any kind of decent grade, forget trying to keep it from sliding when it's wet, and you get mud four inches deep and it's stuck.
Personally, i thought it had a tendency to be tippy, especially for something made to be offroad where it's not unusual to have one track going over a stump while the other is still grounded, and i thought the clearance was not enough. I'd say demo one before shelling out the dough. Forgot to mention, they got to be trailered too.

Pdqdl has the way to do it. We just hook an 1890 or 1990 to a dozer if we have to do serious off road.

 

[tree MDS]

We demoed a bandit track for a week last fall and weren't too impressed. The thing just sucked off road. Still had to cut a road for it, seemed underpowered to me, you go over any kind of hump and either the front end is digging dirt or the chute is dragging, forget trying to go up any kind of decent grade, forget trying to keep it from sliding when it's wet, and you get mud four inches deep and it's stuck.
Personally, i thought it had a tendency to be tippy, especially for something made to be offroad where it's not unusual to have one track going over a stump while the other is still grounded, and i thought the clearance was not enough. I'd say demo one before shelling out the dough. Forgot to mention, they got to be trailered too.

Pdqdl has the way to do it. We just hook an 1890 or 1990 to a dozer if we have to do serious off road.

I'm kinda curious as to whether or not you had unrealistic expectations ( or retarded) of the machine, personally.

Oh wait, I forgot it was a demo! :msp_w00t:

 

[beowulf343]

I expected the machine to be able to travel down a railroad right of way. It couldn't.
I expected it to be able to go down and up a ditch into a woodlot. It couldn't.
I expected it to be able to drive down a gas well access road. It couldn't without getting stuck, a road that the tender drove down weekly with a four wheel drive truck.

I'm sorry, didn't realize you were a bandit rep and i was picking on your baby. And by demo, i don't mean a rep came out and started a machine up in front of us, i meant that since the outfit drops a few hundred grand with bandit every year, when the boss showed interest in picking up a couple tracked models, they gave us a machine to work with on the crews for a week. Yeah, we put it through it's paces. The op asked for an opinion, i gave one-the machine works good on fairly level, dry ground. How often is offroad level or dry. I'd like to see if one could handle ten inches of snow, bet it can't.

You know what, i don't really appreciate being called a retard. I grew up working off road, my first two climbing jobs were off road. So yeah, i know what works and what doesn't, so just because you happened to have a good experience on the one job you saw one used at, doesn't mean they are the best thing going. My experience with them is a little different. If someone chimed in that has spent years working with them and love them, i have no problem listening to them. I wouldn't automatically assume they were a retard. I'm a little ####ing tired of this site and tired of listening to guys who take the winter off and climb once a week run their mouths. This is it for me.

 

[tree MDS]

I expected the machine to be able to travel down a railroad right of way. It couldn't.
I expected it to be able to go down and up a ditch into a woodlot. It couldn't.
I expected it to be able to drive down a gas well access road. It couldn't without getting stuck, a road that the tender drove down weekly with a four wheel drive truck.

I'm sorry, didn't realize you were a bandit rep and i was picking on your baby. And by demo, i don't mean a rep came out and started a machine up in front of us, i meant that since the outfit drops a few hundred grand with bandit every year, when the boss showed interest in picking up a couple tracked models, they gave us a machine to work with on the crews for a week. Yeah, we put it through it's paces. The op asked for an opinion, i gave one-the machine works good on fairly level, dry ground. How often is offroad level or dry. I'd like to see if one could handle ten inches of snow, bet it can't.

You know what, i don't really appreciate being called a retard. I grew up working off road, my first two climbing jobs were off road. So yeah, i know what works and what doesn't, so just because you happened to have a good experience on the one job you saw one used at, doesn't mean they are the best thing going. My experience with them is a little different. If someone chimed in that has spent years working with them and love them, i have no problem listening to them. I wouldn't automatically assume they were a retard. I'm a little ####ing tired of this site and tired of listening to guys who take the winter off and climb once a week run their mouths. This is it for me.

Oh, loosen up yer giant boot laces Pantywaist. It's all good!

Besides, don't be hatin' just cuz I got my own gig figured out and you slaving it up for the man!

 

[Toddppm]

That's some funny shiz. Love the I'm leaving announcements that happen every once in a while

 

[tree MDS]

That's some funny shiz. Love the I'm leaving announcements that happen every once in a while

What's this Todd?

 

[Toddppm]

. I'm a little ####ing tired of this site and tired of listening to guys who take the winter off and climb once a week run their mouths. This is it for me.

This. The grand finale.

 

[tree MDS]

That's some funny shiz. Love the I'm leaving announcements that happen every once in a while

Sorry Todd, was a little slow on that one!

Owe some Rep tomorrow!

 

[burlman]

thanks for all your opinions, has been a good help. Yes a tracked loader would be useful, and we can do the off-road trip with the trailer chipper if we bring the skidder with us. My thinking was to avoid floating big machinery for smaller jobs. I was hoping the tracked chipper would crawl into the dump trailer, and then we could blow chips into trailer if need be. you did answer my curiosity as to ground clearance and traction capabilities, and seeing we still have a least a foot of snow in the bush, and a foot of mud where the sun shines, gives me lots to think about. anyone else going to bangor to drool over things we can't afford? thanks for the input, hope you 2 boys can kiss and make up