Buying a New Chipper

[MattTheTreeGuy]

My company is going to make a decision on a new chipper purchase in the next few days. It is between Morbark and Vemeer. Looking for input on usability, and functionality one vs the other. Also any thought on gas vs diesel power trains.

 

[Bpkeeper]

Personally, I think diesel is the way to go. Longevity and fuel efficiency will be much better than a gas chipper. Morbark has always been good equipment in my opinion.

 

[earlthegoat2]

Morbark and diesel.

Tier 4 sucks but diesel still is going to give better results. There will be more down the road repair costs with the newer diesels though unlike the diesels of a few years back.

The diesel will power through resistance with less bogging down. A gas will lower its RPMs significantly and stall out easier.

For as robustly built as Vermeers are, their smart feed or whatever it is called flat out sucks. Morbarks just work.

 

[MattTheTreeGuy]

Thanks guys, you've both helped to confirm my thoughts on the subject. We have been running a Morbark Tornado 15 for the last eight years without any major issues and have been quite happy in it's ability. That is until this fall when we had a head gasket issue. We are having it repaired, but decided it should be our back up and it is time for an upgrade. Which is what brought us to our question.

Furthermore, my boss had me "demo" a Vemeer BC1500 yesterday. Nice machine, except for the smart feed malfunctioned before we could feed the first piece of brush. The sales guy was even baffled. We opened up the hood a fiddled with the switches and got it to feed. The issue persisted the rest of the day. Bad news is I am pretty sure the boss has his mind made up, as the Vemeer is $16,000 less than it's Morbark counterpart. I'll see if I can talk some sense into him.

 

[Bpkeeper]

well....how did the sense talking go?

 

[earlthegoat2]

Yeah I’m interested too. I have a lot of experience with purchases being made despite the resistance I put up.

That Smart Feed system. It will malfunction and when it does you are going to have to make the decision to pay the 1000 for the repair or Jerry rig it to just work and then be unsafe. Morbarks don’t force that decision on you.

 

[capetrees]

Been running Vermeer BC1000s for 12 years. First one was bought used in 2005, a 2002, and it ran like a champ but got old and rusty/rotted. Looked at a Morbark 12R. Dealer brought it to a job of mine, tried to run a 10" log through it to show me it's capabilities and the thing bogged and died. Started again and bogged again. Dealer and his mechanic couldn't figure what was wrong so I finished the log by putting it through my now 11 year old BC 1000, ate it like a champ. One of my friends commented to the dealer, "looks like it's morbark than bite!" Dealer wasn't smiling.
Demoed and bought the 2013 BC 1000 and have had zero problems other than glow plugs last week, 2 of the 4 were suddenly bad. Service is a ways away but they always come through for me on anything I need. The auto feed has never been a problem for me, it eats everything I put in it and it sips fuel. They've made a number of changes/upgrades from the 2002 I ran but both run/ran strong. And yes, the price was cheaper than the Morbark and the Bandit.

 

[epicklein22]

Morbark all the way. I'd tell your boss to don't fix what's not broken. Morbark has been solid for you guys, just keep running them. They are a well thought out machine and reliable. Morbark has just purchased Rayco, so the dealer network has expanded as well.

 

[MattTheTreeGuy]

Sorry it took so log to get back. Talked to the boss about my concerns with the Vemeer and he said " get used to it because we own it". Oh well. Used it for a while and found our smart feed issue was just a micro switch out of position. A quick tweak with a pair of needle nose and haven't had a problem since. That being said, the feed wheels don't seem to have the same power to pull and crush brush like a Morbark. So after a month and a half too two months we're back to the Morbark and the Vemeer is our back up.