brush bandit 90 information

[Mitchell]

Hey fellow tree workers.
Thanks to your help with pricing information in another thread, I bought a 99 brush bandit wisconsin engine 900 hours sight unseen. This is my first chipper. I have used vermeer 635 a fair bit and the vermeer BC1000 a few times.
I will take delivery down the road as it is on the east coast of America and I'm on the left coast of Canada. In the mean time I have been trying to acquire information particular to that machine. Any information would be immensely appreciated.
Off the top of my head, thoughts of mine include, 1 how to check bearings and 2, hydraulics for damage. 3 I also want to mount a winch to drag brush to chipper. 4 I heard the wisconsin engine is not so great would it be wise to try to swap it out for a better engine or fix it up if needed? 5 Will any file sharpen any chipper knife. 6 This machine has the "manual" outo feed as opposed to the electronic; im not sure what this means nor the implications
thanks
Scott

 

[Tekko]

Forget trying to sharpen your knives with a file! You need atleast a bench grinder and a jig to get the right angle, preferably a chipper knife sharpening machine.

 

[Mitchell]

chipper file

thanks I'll look into it.

 

[Grace Tree]

Don't sharpen them yourself. Unless you wet grind them you can overheat them and lose the hardness. I think bandit knives are 20 some bucks each from the company in Washington. Buy new ones for a year. Over the winter send them out and have them ground the same and you'll have a years worth of sharp knives and only have to reset the anvil once.
Phil

 

[Mitchell]

years worth

Don't sharpen them yourself. Unless you wet grind them you can overheat them and lose the hardness. I think bandit knives are 20 some bucks each from the company in Washington. Buy new ones for a year. Over the winter send them out and have them ground the same and you'll have a years worth of sharp knives and only have to reset the anvil once.
Phil

Thanks small wood

For clarification, do you mean buy new ones every time they seem dull or buy a pre set amount?

Scott

 

[Grace Tree]

Well, I have to rethink that. My original thought was that if you bought new knives all this year you'd have a seasons worth of dull knives that you could send out for resharpening at the end of the season and then, if you did the same amount of work next year, you'd already have a seasons' worth of reground knives. But since it's August already that was a pretty stupid idea on my part.
Regards,
Phil

 

[CalTreeEquip]

answers

1- try to shake the disc, back and forth, feel and look for any movement.
Grease all the bearing all the time. If a bearing is bad it will let you know.

2-either drain or syphon some hydraulic oil out of the bottom of the tank after it has been sitting for a few days. If its milky then there is water in the oil.
Drain all the oil and replace, change the filter. Maybe even add two quarts of ATF to the fluid to help clean it out, then change the filter again after 20 hours or so. If the oil is clear then just replace the filter. If it aint broke don't fix it. The manual call for the filter to be changed every 400 hours and the oil change every year (I have also read every 1000 hours [seems more reasonable]). This is one service that gets neglected often.

3- a machine of that size really can't handle a winch. You'll wind-up braking something.

4-the engine is fine, run it till it fails and then rebuild it yourself, they're really not hard to work on.

5-buy two extra sets of knifes and send the dull one out to be sharpen at a saw shop.

6-people mean different things when they say "auto feed". A 1999 probable has an electronic "auto feed" connected to the tack and feed system. Some time people refer to the hydraulic feed system as "auto feed".

Buy a manual!!!! and good luck.

 

[2dogs]

I hope you have a dealer nearby that you establish a relationship with. That will go a long way in solving problems over the years. In fact a complete dealer service would be a good starting point.

As was said, change the hydraulic filter and the fluid if it is milky, service the engine, check the alignment and belt tension, adjust the clutch (a bigge), check the feed wheel springs, check the operation of the hyd valve. Sharpen the knives and check the anvil.

Always have a spare hyd filter in the shop along with the proper fluid or oil. Same goes for extra sharp knives. I would contact Brush Bandit and get on their mailing list for updates and safety info.

Oh BTW that engine sucks fuel. Carry extra gas until you learn the consumption.

 

[Mitchell]

thanks guys

I have used the machine for 4 hours and everything seems to be working well. Still getting used to it.
On a side note, I phoned brush bandit and found out modern equipment in new jersey had it since new until basicallly I recived it. I have to say modern equipment were very helpfull on the phone. The machine had 8800$ of work done with lots of regular servicing.
My only complaint so far is it is a bear for just myself to push around, particularly with a full 70 litres in the forward mounted fuel tank. I can barely do it and I tweaked my back yesterday trying. I wonder if it is to heavy for my f350 crew cab to pull as well?

It is rusty and I would like to paint it, any thoughts on that? I have picturs of it in another thread located hear.http://www.arboristsite.com/showthread.php?t=52823

I really aprecaite the information you folks are sharing.
Scott

 

[CalTreeEquip]

What?

What do you mean by "push around"?
Your not suppose to push it, you tow it.
A little chipper like that you can tow behind a 1/2 to truck so your F350 can more than handle it. Take it to an empty parking lot and practice backing up.
What kind of work did the old owners do to it?
$8000 is a lot of work.