# Expected chipper lifespan



## maxburton (Mar 25, 2006)

How many hours should I expect to get out of my chipper before it becomes unreliable? 1000 hours? That's my guess. I have a Bandit 65, but I'm also interested in generic numbers, or numbers for other, larger chippers. Thanks!


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## Newfie (Mar 25, 2006)

With proper maintainence and upkeep I would hope you would get several thousand hours out of a machine before reliability becomes an issue.


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## maxburton (Mar 25, 2006)

That seems high to me, but I'm still relatively new to the scene. My chipper has 600 hours and already looks beat to hell. I'm trying to rewrite my business plan, and, for example, I've got 150,000 miles as the life expectancy of a medium pickup. While I realize you can run them a lot longer than that, by the time you hit 150,000 miles transmission and engine repairs start to come up, and I would be less confident in their being able to make hard daily runs without breakdowns. So, for clarity, that's the kind of life expectancy I'm talking about.


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## Ny finest (Mar 25, 2006)

my buddies 65 is just going in for 2nd clutch and rebuild at 5600hrs.
Life expectancy pivots on maintainance.
If you change the oil when its due,give it a bath once a week,and follow the general maintainance as outlined in your manual it could last much longer than you expect.
On the other hand,if you just work it,never clean it,and are'nt keen on getting your maintainance done ON TIME your speculations of 1k hrs is probably about right
I am pretty sure you've started down the wrong road already if your equipment is beat at 600 hrs.
Take care of your equipment and it'll take care of you

Good luck,
Nate


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## clearance (Mar 25, 2006)

Ny finest said:


> my buddies 65 is just going in for 2nd clutch and rebuild at 5600hrs.
> Life expectancy pivots on maintainance.
> If you change the oil when its due,give it a bath once a week,and follow the general maintainance as outlined in your manual it could last much longer than you expect.
> On the other hand,if you just work it,never clean it,and are'nt keen on getting your maintainance done ON TIME your speculations of 1k hrs is probably about right
> ...


Excellent, all I could add is that looks can be decieving, good or bad. When I see an old chipper that has rust and dents, if I see all around the zerks lots and lots of grease, thats a good sign, a nice looking chipper with dry zerks is bad news.


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## climber1423 (Mar 25, 2006)

Ny finest said:


> my buddies 65 is just going in for 2nd clutch and rebuild at 5600hrs.
> Life expectancy pivots on maintainance.
> If you change the oil when its due,give it a bath once a week,and follow the general maintainance as outlined in your manual it could last much longer than you expect.
> On the other hand,if you just work it,never clean it,and are'nt keen on getting your maintainance done ON TIME your speculations of 1k hrs is probably about right
> ...




First off since when do 65's have cluthes? And one way to ruin a chipper is to wash it, and weekly WOW. That will kill the bearings and then some!

Dan


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## maxburton (Mar 26, 2006)

Good info so far guys, thanks. I should clarify that when I said my chipper looked beat up, I was only referring to the exterior looks. The paint's giving way to rust, and so on. But I have been diligent about changing the oil and hydraulic fliud, greasing the bearings, and changing the knives. 5600 hours would last me a very long time.


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## Kneejerk Bombas (Mar 26, 2006)

There's some simple formula, that escapes me right now, but it compares hours on a machine to miles on a car. It's something like 1 hour equals 100 miles.


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## Kneejerk Bombas (Mar 26, 2006)

There are tax advantages to trading in a chipper for a new one, and you can get better trade in value on a newer chipper. The guys that sell new chippers can really put together some awesome deals, with chains of guys upgrading all in one deal.


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## Ax-man (Mar 26, 2006)

Mike Maas said:


> There's some simple formula, that escapes me right now, but it compares hours on a machine to miles on a car. It's something like 1 hour equals 100 miles.




I was told by a chipper dealer that 1 hour on the meter = 40 miles . Which one is right???

Larry


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## Tree guycnd (Mar 26, 2006)

I have a Bandit 90 bought it new in 94 has like 20k in hours and that little work horse is still running great. Like the guys said wash it , grease it and most important keep the knives sharp.

We sharpen are own knives so we always have a fresh set ready.

We live in Vancouver so washing it isn't that important.

Cheers


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## Kneejerk Bombas (Mar 27, 2006)

Do you mean 2000 hrs?


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## Tree guycnd (Mar 27, 2006)

No I meant 20,000 or 20k. 
I have this chipper for a long time, and we work that little bugger hard. 

Really it's not that small but with out the all the fairings and sheet metal some of the chippers have it looks small.

Last year we did a side by side chip of with two BC1000 and we smoke them both.


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## Tree Machine (Mar 28, 2006)

I have a Bandit 65, 6". There is no clutch, which is one of the beauties of this litle machine. It's direct-belt drive, fully engaged 24/7. Start the engine, disc is spinning. Throttle up and chip. From a dead stop, to chipping is usually ~10 seconds. Very swift.

Fresh oil is the life-blood of these air-cooled machines. Also, keeping the cylinder's cooling fins free of excessive dust build-up, and keeping the air filter clean. 

Sharpening knives on the 6" Bandit is easy, quick, and can be done without removing the knives from the disc.

My hour meter failed at 256 hours, about 5 years ago. I'd be interested to know how many actual hours I have on it.


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## Lawn Masters (Mar 31, 2006)

As has been said, life of the machine is COMPLETELY dependant on how well its taken care of. it doesnt make much difference what it looks like. the Bandit 250XP I use at work is a perfect example of that. it works perfect, paint is the only really major thing it needs to look nice again. 

you just need to treat the machine well, clean it sometimes, keep the bearings greased daily, and change the fluids at proper intervals, and it'll be there for probably around 20K or more hours of faithful service

now, on the other hand, if you just run it nonstop, clean nothing, take no time to change fluids, sharpen knives, adjust clutches properly, etc, it will live a short and poor performing life, dont expect much more than 1000 out of it at best.


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## Tree Machine (Mar 31, 2006)

and how much does one of those cost, new?


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## Lawn Masters (Mar 31, 2006)

new? a 250XP is not something cheap. I dont have exact numbers, but I'd say its somewhere around $30-50K or so. not exactly what one would call an expendible item.


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## Tree Machine (Mar 31, 2006)

They're awesome. Early in my career I was renting all the different chippers that were available from rental yards around the city, and beyond. I had about 3K in takedowns on the schedule, so I rented a 250XP and a big moving van/box truck.

I filled that sucker up. There's nothing like watching a 16" diameter limb being eaten whole. Very, very awesome.

Unfortunately I had to remove all the chips by hand and with a grain shovel, and by that time of the day (night) I really didn't care because I had just had a record-breaking day and my wife...she was gonna be so happy 


However, managing chips is necessary and I simply do not have a good, local, FREE place to put large quantities of chips. But, I have dozens of free places to put smaller amounts, especially if the chips themselves are small. They find a home and are constantly in demand. This helps greatly, the task of getting rid of chips, I've found, having value in the waste products you create.

Chipping brush, and then tapping into the list of people who want firewood. If you take making firewood out to the Zen level, create the best product you possibly can, and always offer it up for free, the mega-tonnage of wood is handled and hauled by someone else, someone greatful and you end up being two people who help each other.

Chipping brush and making excellent firewood is my _modus operundi_ and is why I chose a 6" chipper. I decided to buy new and customize it to make really fine chips. At $16,000 and the promise of making you money, it was the chipper I thought would work best for me, and I've never had a regret. If I really need a big machine, I can always rent one, but so far, that has never happened. 

I found it worthwhile to buy a couple Husky 395's so that there is never down time when bucking up big wood (other than chains). Both saws always work beautifully, but if one _were_ to go down, the otha brotha is right there. That's a very peaceful feeling.


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