# Information needed on Olathe Chippers



## bushinspector (Mar 28, 2007)

I have ran across several old Olathe chippers during the last several weeks.
Does anyone know anything about them? I think they are out out of business but was wondering if they was any good and could a person find any replacement parts for them??


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## neighborstree (Mar 28, 2007)

junk junk junk !!!!!!!! thats the reason the company went out of buiesness. and you never ever ! ever be able to fin d parts for one . i found that out the hard way lol. thats why i speak so honestly. the machine had a 5.9 cummins in it. was a beautiful engine, the engine was the only good part on the machine, so i pulled the engine and gave the chipper away . i still see it sometimes on the back of a broke mans chipper truck


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## bushinspector (Mar 29, 2007)

Oh but wait, this one is so much better---It has a straight six powered by Ford engine on it!!!!!


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## arborterra (Mar 29, 2007)

*Olathe*

The disc chipper was better than the drum, both are not very good.
The last I knew Toro sold parts for them. I have owned both disc & drum
and would never buy another, they are maintenance nightmares & can
be very dangerous.


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## Steve-Maine (Mar 29, 2007)

I went to an buy a used Olathe years ago and called factory and they informed me that the older chipper threw knives. Never looked at another Olathe Chipper. Stay away.


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## bushinspector (Mar 29, 2007)

That may expain why the drum looked to be in pretty good shape. Everything looked to be sharp with very little wear.


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## neighborstree (Mar 29, 2007)

buy another brand, if your attracted to junk. buy a vermeer lol


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## bushinspector (Mar 29, 2007)

Is the Vermeer above or below the Olathe???? Just kidding.


I really like everyone's opinon on what to stay away from. What is the net worth of buying somthing that you are always working on.


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## Flubberboy (Mar 30, 2007)

Boy, I sure hate to sound like the odd man out here but we have a tandem axel Olathe 864 drum chipper with the stock Cummins 177hp diesel turbo charged engine that works remarkably well.

I can't say one way or another about any other Olathe chippers but I'd buy one or two more 864s if I could find them. We use ours all day long and feed it whole railroad ties, pallets and our mill scraps which are all hardwoods.

Cedar, which is hard to run on many chippers, runs fine on an 864. The knives are still perfect and sharp on mine allowing us to really load it up and it never stalls due to two hydraulic feeders that are load sentisive.

It sure doesn't make nice looking mulch, however. Some of the pieces are as large as a small banana. This is probably the only fault I can site. This machine can grind hardwood tree limbs up to 12" faster than several workers can load them in. 

Mine is noisy, it weighs 10,000 lbs. and it's butt ugly but it has run forever and we've never had to replace a single part! Never been down a single hour yet - knock on wood. Where else can you get a dependable work horse like this for around $5,000? We've worn out numerous chippers but this ugly thing seems like it will last another 20 years!

Here again, I am only speaking of the 864 model. The other models may very well be total junk, I don't know. As far as parts, there really aren't many parts that could wear or fail but Toro still offers them. It's a really simple design which I prefer anyway.

If you run into any 864s you aren't interested in please drop me a line. Most people wouldn't want anything this big anyway. It takes a 2.5 ton truck to pull it. Glad to pay a finder's fee.

Good luck!
Dennis


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## bushinspector (Mar 30, 2007)

The two that I have come across is much smaller than you are talking about. I have only seen two. One drum and one disc. I will take a look and see if anyone brought anything else in.


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## arborterra (Mar 31, 2007)

My Olate drum was a 700 without the auto feed. It had a 391 gas motor.
We nicknamed it Mikey because it would eat anything. It was devastating !
Sometimes reasonably sane men would leave the area when we fired it up.
It would eat a railroad tie in one second. I had to build the front wall of the
chip truck with 3/8 steel because it would shoot chips through anything less
and it dented the 3/8. It would lift the rear wheels of an eight thuosand
pound truck off the ground and when they came down the impact would 
raise the front wheels off the ground. 
Basicly it was a decent chipper but it wasn't built heavy enough and required many modifications. I ran it for ten years and eventually metal fatigue got the best of it and I decided it was unsafe and scrapped it.
The disc unit was much tamer and wasn't to bad but required a lot of upkeep. It had a very good motor but seemed to have more power than 
the chipper could handle. 
I would never buy another one. In my opinion if a person wanted a really
good chipper a Woodsman would be a good one to consider. I have used them for a couple years and I think they are some of the best that I have ever used.


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## bushinspector (Mar 31, 2007)

Thanks for spreading your wisdom on the chipper. It was not a brand that I knew nothing about so it was entered on the thread. However it sounds like "Mickey" at least got you started and you moved on to better chippers.


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## [email protected] (Apr 7, 2007)

Flubberboy said:


> Boy, I sure hate to sound like the odd man out here but we have a tandem axel Olathe 864 drum chipper with the stock Cummins 177hp diesel turbo charged engine that works remarkably well.
> 
> I can't say one way or another about any other Olathe chippers but I'd buy one or two more 864s if I could find them. We use ours all day long and feed it whole railroad ties, pallets and our mill scraps which are all hardwoods.
> 
> ...


Hey Dennis, Is there any chance we could talk on the phone about these chippers. I need to talk to someone that has run them, to give me some advice. Thanks. Tim


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## [email protected] (Apr 10, 2007)

*olathe 864*

Hey Dennis, Is it possible to talk to you on the phone about an 864? I know where there are two of them and I just need one. Thanks. Tim 
701-845-1365


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## Flubberboy (Apr 10, 2007)

Call me anytime.
316-393-3874 cell
Thanks.
Dennis


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## formationrx (Jan 2, 2012)

*olathe*

i bought a used model 182 years ago. it had a hammered Onan 24 performer on it, but the chipper itself was in decent shape. i re-powered it with a Kolher command pro 25 hp. i found some weak areas on the chipper that needed to be beefed up with additional plate and welded some stress cracks, but other then that-- its worked fine. its a small disc type machine. it works well for me because most of my work is pruning allied fruits, nuts, and small ornamental trees. it has a big feed wheel, and the whole machine pivots so i have less distance to drag brush. the upper chute is highly adjustable, and it never clogs. its not a fast machine, but it is user friendly.


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## Hellga61 (Feb 8, 2015)

Flubberboy said:


> Boy, I sure hate to sound like the odd man out here but we have a tandem axel Olathe 864 drum chipper with the stock Cummins 177hp diesel turbo charged engine that works remarkably well.
> 
> I can't say one way or another about any other Olathe chippers but I'd buy one or two more 864s if I could find them. We use ours all day long and feed it whole railroad ties, pallets and our mill scraps which are all hardwoods.
> 
> ...



Hi Dennis, 
Wondering if you're still on this site - and if by chance you know a place to get parts for an Olathe? Praying someone can help me. 
Thanks!


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## Troyboggs (Jun 2, 2019)

Flubberboy said:


> Boy, I sure hate to sound like the odd man out here but we have a tandem axel Olathe 864 drum chipper with the stock Cummins 177hp diesel turbo charged engine that works remarkably well.
> 
> I can't say one way or another about any other Olathe chippers but I'd buy one or two more 864s if I could find them. We use ours all day long and feed it whole railroad ties, pallets and our mill scraps which are all hardwoods.
> 
> ...


I read your post on the 864 and bought one today that only has 134 hrs on it. 
Been sitting for 4 years, 5.9 Cummins, started up within a few minutes , only thing wrong we found so far is the clutch wouldn't engage, so pulled it apart and found a broken piece in it , should have her up and running soon.


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## Drueger (May 20, 2022)

Does anyone know the anvil size for 986 olathe


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## Eq Broker (Jun 1, 2022)

I do sell an anvil for an Olathe. I don't know if its for a 986. The anvil I have listed is 12" x 3.41" x 1/4" and its bent.

Please call me if I can help.

Dave
Global Equipment Exporters
770-420-6400


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## pondnstream (Jul 23, 2022)

We just bought an Olathe 986 that some fella had sitting around unused. He put a new alternator on it and got it going. We paid $4300 . We hit all the grease zerks we could find and checked all the fluids, sharpened the knives with a angle grinder and some other small repairs.
Have been using it on and off for about a month now and it seems to work ok .

The engine is a ford 300 inline 6. The fan belt pulley tension which drives the cooling fan has come slack once and caused the radiator to blow off steam, we caught it soon enough before it caused any serious harm (I hope). After that we put Loctite red , high strength, on the pulley tensioner bolts which hopefully will keep the tensioner in place and the fan belt from loosening again.

But I really need to get the Murphy over temperature cut off switch system working. The previous owners seem to have disabled the system for protecting the engine against overheating and low oil pressure.

In researching this machine, I’ve read the many negative comments but at least half of the chipper is a tried and true ford I-6 engine, a trailer, a hydraulic pump & motors (non Olathe made). The rest seems fairly simple as machines go. I may end up regretting this , after all the brand is discontinued and obsolete, but just wanted to throw out that we got a 986 that’s up and running, for now anyway.

Have not found any owners manual or service manual anywhere, if anyone has any documentation, please let me know. 

Thanks !



I’m


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