Chipper Clutch Problems....

[Beast12]

Well, it just seems to keep coming.

We bought our Dynamic DC-50 chipper with the 89 HP Kubota engine about 2 and a half years ago. Nothing but problems (do a search on here). Our newest problem is with the clutch.

The first clutch lasted about a year. It was our fault. We weren't adjusting the clutch and it ended up getting glazed so it would slip. So, we ordered a new clutch kit (new pressure plate, pilot bearing, throwout bearing etc.)

We put that one in and it lasted another year. I was keeping it adjusted properly and everything. One day the machine was chipping fine and the next minute the machine was screaming but the drum wasn't turning.

So, we looked at it at the shop and found all the outside "teeth" on the clutch (that attach to the engine) had broken off. So, we called Dynamic and ordered a new clutch (JUST the disc...actually 3 of them).

I put it in and it lasted 3 weeks before all the teeth broke again. I put in a new clutch disc in again and on Friday the same thing happened. :bang:

So, does anyone know what is doing this? I am adjusting the clutch properly (with a torque wrench to spec). I am thinking POSSIBLY a pressure plate problem or maybe the teeth part on the engine is worn just a spec too much?

I am not sure. Everyone is engaging the clutch properly (only 3 of us do it).

Any ideas? Oh and I am watching how big of stuff the guys are putting in the machine...it's not even close to what the machine is rated for.

-Matt

P.S. I am SOOOOO glad we kept our old chuck and duck as a backup.

 

[Sbusta]

I don't believe you can blame dynamic for the clutch issue. I would assume this would have been matched buy the engine manufacture / supplier.

When we bought our DC55 the Caterpillar agent adjusted the clutch so it just slipped in & out which is not what the book said. They said they had many problems over the years until they started doing this with the twin disc clutches.

 

[Thor's Hammer]

The clutches fitted by Dynamic are identical to those used by every other chipper manufacturer.
Dave K has that identical engine on his new 8018 carlton, and its a common industrial fitment.
If your ring gear teeth are worn though, that will cause premature failure of future disks.

 

[Beast12]

Well, I am not really blaming Dynamic for this problem. I DO blame them for a lot of the other problems we have had (and probably will have in the future).

I am trying to figure out why this is happening. The teeth on the gear seem to be worn a little bit. But, I don't think it is enough to do what it is doing to the machine. Also, if they are worn enough to do anything would you not think 2 and a half years is way premature for it to wear?

I (as well as my Dad) am just frustrated from this machine. We thought we would buy a new machine so that we wouldn't have these problems. Pretty sad when the 30-40 year old chuck and duck is wayyyyy more reliable. :bang:

Worst part about this whole thing is that we still have payments for 1 and a half years.

-Matt

 

[transporter]

does the output shaft from the clutch have a support bearing or is it straight to the pulley for the belts? i had a clutch that caused me some trouble as you describe and it turned out to be the bearing in the bell housing allowing to much side load to the shaft when the belts were tightened, this was causing premature failure of the clutch discs

 

[Beast12]

Yes, there is a bearing in the clutch housing. There is also the pilot bearing in the engine. There is no side to side movement. I also didn't put the belts too tight just in case.

I am baffled.

-Matt

 

[Thor's Hammer]

Given the bad press this is getting, If I was the folks at dynamic, I'd sort it out - or at least put some pressure on the clutch company. What have they said so far?

 

[Beast12]

We are pretty much done with Dynamic. We had a problem about 6 weeks ago with the bearing for the drum. The machine had just over 1000 hours on it and the drum bearing was shot. We ended up having to get a new bearing to the cost of $700. We called Dynamic and they basically said we are out of warranty so we are screwed.

2 and a half years on a drum bearing?!?! Everything just keeps piling up. VERY FRUSTRATING.

-Matt

 

[Sbusta]

Ive not run large chippers for long but 1000 hour's on a bearing doesn't sound bad to me what are other machines getting?

 

[neighborstree]

i dont understand why people just dont stick with name brand stuff,

bandit
morbark

it only makes sense to me, personally i would never go out and buy a chain saw from walmart

i would never buy a chipper made by a company that has not even built up a reputation with smaller equipment and built there way up., they jumped rite into chippers and large equipment, and from the reviews i hear, there all junk. and the company does not back up any warrentee

thats just my 2 sence , sorry if you dont like it

 

[Thor's Hammer]

Your 2 cents is worthless.
I have lots of very happy dynamic customers. And they have been great with me for warrenty stuff. I've seen bearings on bandits go after 200 hours - seen them last 5000 hours too.
Earl Smith, the owner of Dynamic, spent 27 years designing and building chippers for Morbark. I'm not defending the product, nor the way that matt feels he has been treated. I just Know that the Dynamic Machines are very heavy duty, and a LOT of experience went into building them.
Your kind of atitude sucks - 'dont buy it, we've not seen it before!'
If it was up to you, people would still be using axes - and stone ones at that.
I

 

[a_lopa]

Got to be careful buying new equipment thats not genuinely feild tested or start up companys that are here today gone tommorow,i think as thor has said dynamic know there stuff im suprised this has happened.Can you not call there head office?

 

[neighborstree]

Your 2 cents is worthless.
I have lots of very happy dynamic customers. And they have been great with me for warrenty stuff. I've seen bearings on bandits go after 200 hours - seen them last 5000 hours too.
Earl Smith, the owner of Dynamic, spent 27 years designing and building chippers for Morbark. I'm not defending the product, nor the way that matt feels he has been treated. I just Know that the Dynamic Machines are very heavy duty, and a LOT of experience went into building them.
Your kind of atitude sucks - 'dont buy it, we've not seen it before!'
If it was up to you, people would still be using axes - and stone ones at that.
I

are you a moron, i never stated i wanted buinesses to be run with axes and stones u idiot., i said buy name brand equipment, companies that have been feild tested. companies that have proven themselfs..
i also stated i would never buy a chainsaw from walmart. or what ever cheap store you have in wales. we all buy expensive name brand saws.. so why go buy a no name chipper. with a kubota engine, lololol. sorry. kubota engines are for tractors. real engins are made by cat. or jd

 

[Thor's Hammer]

Well, the Dynamics I've sold have had CAT's and Cummins. But if you know your engines, you cant knock the kubota - excellent engines.
And again moron - the guys building the Dynamics designed and built most of Morbarks range. Hell, even Bandits owners used to work for morbark, as did the Owner of Woodsman.
And how you can compare a Dynamic (or woodsman?) chipper to a walmart chainsaw?
Both brands have bigger and stronger drums, chassis, and plating than the 'name brands' you mention. after that, the rest of the components are identical to every other chipper manufacturer. and the cost difference is minimal.
so tell me - how exactly does a brand become field tested? or did morbark and bandit have no begining?

 

[neighborstree]

i said earlier that most companies start small. building small equipment and going to bigger equipment. unlike dynamic. they jumped right into giant chippers .
kubota engines are great engines, but there not known for anything over 100hp.

im comparing mercedes benz to kia here

dynamic did not start small. to work out there kinks. they jumped into making chippers with a single disc clutch, anyone who runs chippers knows how hard they work. the twin disc is a must. but as u say thor from wales. u sell dynamic, so your standing by your product good luck with that. once they burn there bridges with half the tree industry they
ll be out of buiesness all togather

 

[neighborstree]

i said earlier that most companies start small. building small equipment and going to bigger equipment. unlike dynamic. they jumped right into giant chippers .
kubota engines are great engines, but there not known for anything over 100hp.

im comparing mercedes benz to kia here

dynamic did not start small. to work out there kinks. they jumped into making chippers with a single disc clutch, anyone who runs chippers knows how hard they work. the twin disc is a must. but as u say thor from wales. u sell dynamic, so your standing by your product good luck with that. once they burn there bridges with half the tree industry they
ll be out of buiesness all togather

 

[Thor's Hammer]

To be truthfull, I dont sell dynamic any more. I now manufacture my own chippers and work with a Woodsman / Precision Husky dealer.

This is down to the very different requirements of the european market, more than a complaint about the chippers Dynimic build.

For the record, all the machines I sold had heavy duty Twin disc clutches.

You dont seem to be getting my point though. the engineers who built the conehead chippers, had a lifetimes experience of building huge chippers - and a great deal of testing went into their designs.

And if your comparing any US built chipper with mercedes benz, your sadly deluded.
any Bandit or morbark would be a Kia if compared to Euro built Jenz, Rudnick-Enners, Bruks-Klockner or Erjo.

 

[Beast12]

Ive not run large chippers for long but 1000 hour's on a bearing doesn't sound bad to me what are other machines getting?

We have a couple chuck and duck chippers (only one is being used now) that have NEVER had the bearings replaced. Just over 2 years doesn't seem right to me.

i dont understand why people just dont stick with name brand stuff,

bandit
morbark

Well, the situation is this: We had been using chuck and duck chippers for years. We looked into a Vermeer 1400. It was going to cost us over $50K. A month or so later a Dynamic dealer about 2 hours away came down and was showing the local companies the DC-50. It was around $34K. So, we crunched some numbers and decided to take it. ANYTHING had to be better than a chuck and duck.

We had it for a bit and then that is when the problems started.

Here is another post I made about it:

Well, let me see

1) Hydraulic motor for the feedwheel was leaking hydraulic oil - fixed under warranty
2) One of the hydraulic lifts for the feedwheel was leaking hydraulic oil - fixed under warranty
3) BOTH fenders cracking really bad - new ones given to us under warranty but not installed yet
4) 3 broken feedwheel springs - 2 replaced under warranty
5) NUMEROUS problems with the wiring coming apart - I took every connection apart and soldered and shrinkwrapped them (they were just crimped on)
6) Diesel tank rubbing against frame ended up getting a crack in it and leaking - fixed by us out of warranty but Dynamic said they would pay
7) Voltmeter has not consistenly worked for over a year - didn't fix because there is one on the Tachometer
8) Small diesel fuel line got a crack in it and spewed diesel fuel all over the road - this just happened a couple weeks ago and we just fixed it ourselves

That's what I can think of off the top of my head. I think that is all of it though. Like I said earlier it is a great running machine...when it is running.

-Matt

Add to that the clutch, the drum bearing and some other things that weren't on there. It is just frustrating because we bought this NEW machine so we wouldn't have a lot of down time.

Also, there have been MANY improvements to this machine around the time we got ours. Ours only has two blades on it. And half the width of the drum on opposite sides. Also, I KNOW they made a mistake when building the machine and that is why we had the problem with the fuel tank listed above.

We have called Dynamic and they said we are basically screwed so no luck there. I KNOW I will NEVER buy a machine from them. And EVERYONE I talk to has been getting an earful about how much this machine sucks.
Definetly not a professional grade machine. And it is FOR SURE not a 12" capacity machine as their website suggests: http://dynamicmfgcorp.com/coneheadDC50.htm

-Matt

 

[Beast12]

Here are some images or the teeth on that gear on the engine. Also some pictures of the clutch I took out with the teeth all broken off. Click the pictures for bigger images.















-Matt

 

[juststumps]

The clutches fitted by Dynamic are identical to those used by every other chipper manufacturer.
Dave K has that identical engine on his new 8018 carlton, and its a common industrial fitment.
If your ring gear teeth are worn though, that will cause premature failure of future disks.

ring gear teeth are on the flywheel,,, thats where the starter engages to spin the engine.....really shouldn't have any effect on clutch proformance......