# Carlton SP4012 Kuboto



## chips-a-flying (Feb 12, 2012)

I purchased this 2008 4012, with kuboto diesel, all wheel drive and a wireless control!!!! Good grief but this has changed my business but good. I had a Rayco 1625, great machine but low on HP and got tired off eating dust. My new (to me) machine will grind 3 times as fast. The only disadvantage is that it is not as maneuverable as the 1625 and it looks like there is a bit more maintance on the 4012, but the trade off is well worth the advantage.

My wife says she has lost me to a machine....


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## jake68 (Feb 12, 2012)

chips-a-flying said:


> I purchased this 2008 4012, with kuboto diesel, all wheel drive and a wireless control!!!! Good grief but this has changed my business but good. I had a Rayco 1625, great machine but low on HP and got tired off eating dust. My new (to me) machine will grind 3 times as fast. The only disadvantage is that it is not as maneuverable as the 1625 and it looks like there is a bit more maintance on the 4012, but the trade off is well worth the advantage.
> 
> My wife says she has lost me to a machine....


 ive got a 20 hp carlton how much faster is the 44 hp model my carlton is nice but 45 minutes on a 30 inch stump bores me thanks jake 68


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## chips-a-flying (Feb 12, 2012)

jake68 said:


> ive got a 20 hp carlton how much faster is the 44 hp model my carlton is nice but 45 minutes on a 30 inch stump bores me thanks jake 68



No joking...it takes me longer to unload and load back up than it takes to grind a 30 inch stump. I put a set of Green teeth on the machine. I used them on the 1625 and was very pleased with them.


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## ROPECLIMBER (Feb 16, 2012)

Envey, Chips a flying,
How much was it, I have been looking at suitable dsl eng for converting my 2500-4 but now broke the cutter wheel shaft and havent fixed it yet, thought of using the controls to make a small log loader out of it, but will probaly fix it, treeman sent me a free sample of the green teeth just before I broke the shaft too, Ill trade you my junk 2500-4 plus my right nutt, just kidding
i was supprised it didnt have the sandivik wheel on it,
Paul


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## chips-a-flying (Feb 16, 2012)

ROPECLIMBER said:


> Envey, Chips a flying,
> How much was it, I have been looking at suitable dsl eng for converting my 2500-4 but now broke the cutter wheel shaft and havent fixed it yet, thought of using the controls to make a small log loader out of it, but will probaly fix it, treeman sent me a free sample of the green teeth just before I broke the shaft too, Ill trade you my junk 2500-4 plus my right nutt, just kidding
> i was supprised it didnt have the sandivik wheel on it,
> Paul



I gave $11,500.00 for it, but was told that was a bit high for this machine with the number of hours it has on it. I've been looking for some time now, I had to replace the hydraulic pump, and 2 of the drive motors had to be rebuilt. I also rebushed the pivot points,plus all the general maintance was seriously lagging. So, all told I've have about $12,500 in it. It did not have the sandvik wheel. These things don't wear out you just keep replacing parts.


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## ROPECLIMBER (Feb 16, 2012)

What a deal, I can never seam to save up that much, so I settled for this 2500-4, guess I will just fix it, Hey when you put Greenteeth on did the will have wear dents in it from the puck pockets mine has major woller and dents from the bolts and pockets, was concidering, the new river revolution wheel and sandivic teeth, when I put it back together, thanks 
Paul


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## chips-a-flying (Feb 17, 2012)

ROPECLIMBER said:


> What a deal, I can never seam to save up that much, so I settled for this 2500-4, guess I will just fix it, Hey when you put Greenteeth on did the will have wear dents in it from the puck pockets mine has major woller and dents from the bolts and pockets, was concidering, the new river revolution wheel and sandivic teeth, when I put it back together, thanks
> Paul



The guy I bought machine from was running Green teeth on it (he kept the set) the wheel did have indentions on it, not to bad. I used a side grinder and smoothed it out. I am going to replace the cutter wheel and jack shaft bearings before the season gets busy. I'm thinking about taking the wheel to a welding shop and having the indentions welded up and smoothed back out. Don't know if it is worth what it will cost to do that though? I read that the sandvic teeth are way expensive, so I just stuck with green teeth, cheaper and do a great job. Easy to turn the tooth and I can sharpen the carbide 2 sometimes 3 times before replacing.


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## Bigstumps (Feb 21, 2012)

I think the indentions on the side of the wheel are from running 1/2" teeth and pocket combos. The pockets clamp the teeth against the wheel and over time put in indentions.

If you are running Green Teeth these indentions are probably under your pockets and really don't matter. You can weld them up and grind them flat if you want - no real reason to.

Back in the day when we only had 1/2 teeth and Vermeer machines - when these indentions got too deep the wheel would throw the teeth -they would come out like bullets!!! Then Vermeer came with the Pro Series with the little tit on the pocket to hold the tooth in - didn't work.

That wireless remote is the only way to go!!!!! Almost like cheating.


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## Mowingman (Feb 21, 2012)

Sandvic teeth are not expensive, and, from my experience last about 10 times as long, or longer, than Greenteeth. I found the Greenteeth to be very easy to chip and break, rendering them useless after just one or two small jobs. On the other hand, the Sandvic teeth often last for months. The Greenteeth also made my machine, (A Bandit 2900 track) "jump" and 'bounce". They throw chips a hundred feet in every direction causing a big mess.
Junk the Greenteeth and get a Sandvic wheel. You wil never regret it
Jeff.


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## ROPECLIMBER (Feb 22, 2012)

Mine has the Vermeer teeth with the tit in the pocket one pocket was knocking and it spit the teeth and when it did broke the shaft
the complete swap through new rivver is 1200 plus the 500 for shaft and bearings so about 1700 a lot of doe, Havent even ordered the shaft and bearings yet, just sitting on trailer in the garage still
Paul


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## MarylandGuy (Mar 5, 2012)

Here is a great company produced video of the machine at work:

Carlton SP4012 Stump Cutter w/44HP Kubota - YouTube


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## ROPECLIMBER (Mar 6, 2012)

That one is a 44 hp and sandivick whee, I looked for a video of the 33 hp with green teeth but couldnt find one could you make one chips a flying, thanks.
Paul

edit Here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsBFHx9Hy5w
I found the Red roo 33 hp dsl with wireless and green teeth very impressive, ya if I had that i would probably look forward to stump grinding


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## grindumup (Mar 12, 2012)

Just read with interest about your purchase of sp 4012, I also had a 1625 and I also bought a used SP 4012 from 2 states away. I see you gave $11,500 then spent some money on catching up with maintance issues. That sounds like me also, I bought what I thought was a 2008 model, but when I called Carlton turns out it was a 2007 that was sold in March of 2007. Like your machine, somebody ran this one into the ground with not pulling maintance as required. I drove 5 hours down to pick it up and one of the front drive motors locked up right before I got there, and the cutter wheel bearings were complety shot. Well they replace the drive motor (had it shipped to me and I put it on) and replaced the cutter wheel bearings. When I got this thing home the engine oil was thick as axle grease, and the hydr fluid was full of water. On the very first job I did the other front drive went out. It is nothing against this machine, previous owner just did not maintain it at all. I also had to rebuild both the back drive motrs, drained and replaced hydr oil, flushed out the engine oil twice and replaced several of the pivit points, and now will replace the jack shaft bearings. I gave $13,000 for this machine and have spent quite a bit on it. But, all that said, now I am very pleased with this grinder. I'll run it hard but maintain it also, I hope I'll get a lot of use out of this puppy.....by the way, looks like we are competers in the same market....still best of luck with your SP 4012


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## stump-dude (Mar 13, 2012)

I paid almost $40,000 for mine new 4 years ago, now have 1050 hrs on it, love the machine and paid it off in 3 years, so when I hear u got the same machine for 11000 I think you got a deal, especially for wireless, the sandvik is great, but I've had to hard face weld the working side of the wheel about 5 times, building it up as it wears down and rounds off, looks ugly but it works really well. I've had to reinforce the metal where the hydraulic motors bolt onto the machine and have had to weld little triangular pieces of steel to stop the weight of the machine bowing the wheel mounts out( I see the new 33/44 kubota models come standard like this).
I've had to cut steel out of the cutter wheel housing as it got wafer thin from what I guess was the blade pulling material, woodchips, sand throught the housing, eventually it was so thin that It produced a hole in the side, so I cut it out and welded in a a fresh piece. 
Had to replace the Cutter bearings twice( the synthetic twine they use to wrap root balls loves to get sucked right into the bearing) have to replace nipples on the cutter bearings every other week.
I installed a beeper on the ignition that lets you know when you have forgotten to turn the key off, so that you don't drain the battery over night( happened at least once every 3 months to me. Easy when it's in an enclosed trailer) I think this is one of the best features now.
Had to replace main pivot/swing bearing. And I think the engine pulley is coming up to be replaced as there is wear in the sheeves.
Various other welding jobs, where the frequency vibrations snap welds.
That's the life of a hard working. 4 year old, 1050 hr 33 hp kubota


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## a_lopa (Mar 13, 2012)

Replacing parts on a stump machine something to get used to,I have a rayco 1660 i have replaced an engine,front cutter bearings 4 times,top bearings twice and shaft,bushes-pins,pulleys and gates belt ,side belt 3 times in 1700hrs of grinding.

Best tooth i have found for speed is easily the tomahawk by leonardi,I did side by side grinding against a bandit 78hp tracked/remote grinder running green teeth and i was easily doing 2 stumps to his one.

I hire in a guy with his 250 hp tracked carlton for the crazy big stumps.


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## grindumup (Mar 13, 2012)

*question for stump-dude*

Question for stump-dude, have you had any problems with the hydralic motors on yours? I had one replaced and the other 3 rebuilt, but I think it was from poor maintance habits the previous owner had. Have you had any issues, this machine was apparently left out in the weather since there was so much water in the hydraulic fluid. A new motor is over $500 from Carlton and I paid $360 a piece to have the other 3 rebuilt. Also, how much pushing power does your machine have? Sometimes mine has a little trouble pulling out of deep chips, I would like to put a scrape blade on mine to push chips with, but even in low gear there just does not same like much power. I think my hydraulic pump may be on its last leg, or is this common on these machines??


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