Mini skid at work

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ROLLACOSTA said:
You all fixed up yet KOA ??.
Hah, I wish! The shop calls me at 1700 on Tuesday that the motor is ready for pick up. I can't go pick it up because they are closing. Wednesday is when I need to use the grinder. Once again I need to bring my regular grinder. Anyway, I got the hyd. motor today, Thursday, and will install it tomorrow after I get done with work. I sure hope it works this time. Only problem is the 3 jobs that I was going to take the grinder on are done, no other stump jobs are on the books.
 
i hope all goes well, with the grinder KOA,i reckon like most new kit ,its just a case of teething problem's
 
I installed the hyd. motor today and same thing as before. It will only spin backwards and when I move the aux. lever to try and make it spin the way it is supposed to, it locks up and makes a funny sound. I need to contact Terra Power on Monday and see what they want me to do. It is not a matter of just reversing the hoses, the instructions say if flow from the loader is reversed, the wheel will not spin and seal damage may occur.
 
Terra Power has been bending over backwards to help me. I want this thing to work and work well. I'll wait till I hear from them before I make my final judgement on this thing. In the mean time, I got a $1300 deposit on my Levco grinder today. That means I only have my Alpine grinder now and as good as the Alpine is for the small and hard to get to stumps, I DO NOT want to be using it on a stump that is big and in the open.
 
yeh i wonder how many unit's they have in actual use, i'd by now be getting pretty p*ss*d off by now

just a thought are the hoses 'fitted' to the skid steer the wrong way around ?? have you used other implaments that require hydraulics ?? ahh you have the grab but would it matter if the hydraulics were reversed to work the grab ,just a thought!

ie does the problem lay with your skid steer hydraulics
 
In addition to the log grapple, I have a 4/1 bucket and a trencher that uses the aux. hyd. system. The trencher chain will run forward when I push the aux. lever forward and backwards when I push the lever backwards. I just wonder why the stump grinder will only run backwards and lock up in the forward position. The 4/1 bucket will open the clam when I push the lever forward and close when I pull it back, and of course, the log grapple works just fine.

I am pretty sure the hyd. system on my loader is correct.
 
OK, I reversed the motor hoses without waiting for a reply from Terra Power and ran the aux. lever in the reverse position. The grinder wheel now spins in the right direction (forward). I think if I were to move the lever to the forward position with the hoses reversed from the schematics I got, it will deadhead the system and blow something. So now it is working like it is supposed to, with the hoses connected opposite from the schematics. Unfortunately, I don't have a stump to grind to try it out.
 
Actually, almost all my correspondence with the manufacturer has been by email, which they answer right away, as long as it is during business hours. The email I got today, said to do exactly what I had already did. They also told me not to try and reverse flow from the loader by moving the aux. lever to the forward position as it is designed to run only one way and would deadhead the hyd. system. It is just as I had figured, by looking at the schematics that they sent me. So it is running....just gotta find me a stump to try it out. Got a call to remove 2 stumps....if I get the bid, I'll try it out next weekend.
 
Terra stumper

I finally got to use the mini skid stump grinder today, grinding out 2 stumps that a guy with a Rayco Jr. could not get to. I don't think any grinder could do it unless it could lift the cutter wheel at least 4 ft. off the ground. The slope it was on was too steep to climb. Pictures below explain the situation better than I can. My opinion of the Terra stumper: It is not as fast as a Rayco Jr, mainly because the side to side movement is very slow, but I think I need to adjust the oil diverter to get more flow to the side arms. The grinding is pretty good, this was my first stump with it and I was getting faster with it. It is way easier on the body than my Levco HD46 or the Rayco Jr. I previously owned. Moving the grinder around with the skid steer is super easy and climbing over the grindings was no problem. Though it was not as fast as my stand alone grinder, I like it a lot, plus the ability to switch to a bucket to move the grindings will make it my grinder of choice. Good thing, since I sold my Levco a couple of weeks ago. I now have just the Terra stumper and my Alpine Magnum.
 
what teeth are you running koa? i had a similar stump a while back a tow behind couldnt get high enough,rg50 could just get it.
 
The Terra comes with Rayco Super Teeth. First time I used them...they are really good teeth. I hit good sized rocks several times and they did not even chip, but the rocks shattered.

It took me an hour to do the first stump, (soft wood). It was about 18 inch dia. with a large side root running about 4 ft. to the left that was about 10 in. thick.
The 2nd stump was a hard wood, about 30X22 inches in dia. with some good root flare. That one took me 2 hours. That may sound super slow, but keeping in mind that the stumps were on a slope, I was grinding wood down about 30 inches. If these were on level ground, I would have gone down only about 10 to 12 inches deep. I had to get all of the root out, as the customer wants to cut the slope back further to the wall. The customer also decided to rent my mini skid with the bucket instead of moving the dirt with a shovel and wheelbarrow.
My mini equipment rental business is starting to move along slowly. Hopefully I will be able to retire from the tree business by the end of the year.
 
tophopper said:
The mighty Dingo!



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Have you got anymore pics of your Toro in action ,and what make is your grapple [could you supply a web address for the grapple] thanks mate :)
 
ROLLACOSTA said:
Have you got anymore pics of your Toro in action ,and what make is your grapple [could you supply a web address for the grapple] thanks mate :)


I'll pm ya the contact info for the grapple maker.
Mine is the first ever he fabricated, so it looks a little rough. The new ones are nice looking! Koa has one.
 

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