BC1000(XL) "hood" adjustment

[dboreham]

Hoping someone with one of these machines can give me some pointers:

This question is about what the manual calls the hood -- the fiberglass cover over the engine on the older BC1000 chippers (newer models have a metal engine cover).

I'm guessing this is fairly common -- on my machine the hood is all out of whack. I suspect it has been moved using an excavator or similar, chained to the tow hitch, and the machine ran downhill into the excavator bucket. Anyway, the result is that the hood/shell over the engine doesn't close straight.

Tinkering with it, I can't see exactly how the hinge/frame arrangement is supposed to adjust. On mine the opening hood side is attached via two brackets that have three bolt holes. Through two of the bolt holes the brackets are attached to the stationary hood frame (the non-opening side). The third bolt hole holds a bolt that forms the hinge with the opening side frame. I'm wondering if someone has modified this setup because it looks a bit home made. The bolts are odd lengths for example. Unfortunately the parts book skips over the details of this part of the machine so I don't have a clear drawing of what it's supposed to look like.

I'm staring at it wondering whether to try to take the whole thing apart (take the opening hood side off) and try to straighten out the bent frame, or whether it can be adjusted in-situ.

Hopefully this story makes sense to someone with one of these machines. I've attached some pictures.

 

[user 159780]

It appears the hood support hinge is bent. Possibly the hood support frame is tweaked as well.

There is a slight gap adjustment but not enough to fix this.

Vermeer sells a metal hood conversion kit. Last time I checked it was $2K, plus shipping.
If the hood is not cracked you should have no problem selling yours. If we were closer I would buy it.

 

[dboreham]

Thanks. I took a closer look at the hood frame, after replacing the struts which allowed better access to the underside.
My theory is that the hood frame has been broken and subsequently field-welded. This repair has compromised its geometry such that It's impossible to make the hood fit properly without re-doing that repair properly. Potentially that would mean manufacturing a jig from measurements taken off a correct hood. Overall more work than I have time for in this present lifetime so I will make my peace with it as-is. The machine chips trees just fine.