I currently own a 2005 bandit 65xl with about 400 hours on it. Lombardini Diesel on it. It was my first chipper I bought two years ago with my part time tree/ landscape business. I just finished my first season full time this year. It was a good starter chipper. It obviously chips the straight, no crotch branches but not too fast, and im really getting sick of having to cut every damn crotch down and watching my groundie struggle with it on days that we use it. My business has grown a lot this year and it would really speed up the process with a bigger capacity higher HP chipper. The only thing that holds me back is that this little chipper is paid for, has low hours, has been reliable, uses very minimal fuel, has no cooling system, or a clutch. I have a good amount of equipment already 60 foot bucket truck, S-185 bobcat, grapple, 44hp stump grinder, mini skid, Tandem dually 20 foot dump trailer, 16 foot bumper pull trailer, tractor backhoe, one ton dump, 24 foot bobcat trailer, and a few other things. Everything is paid for except for about ten grand on the bucket. I really like the idea of minimal overhead. When the wind is blowing in Minnesota at 30 mph, and its 5 degrees out I don't have to punish myself and go out and freeze my ass off because of all of my shiny new equipment has payments on it. I do almost all of my repair work as I used to be an auto tech for about 5 years. I can fab and wire about anything. which saves my a ton of money. I cannot justify sinking money into a brand new chipper right now or much less anything really new, low hours in a larger size. I have found a few 12" bandits with the john deere diesels in them with around 2,000 hours from $8,000 to $14,000. I can trade possibly for a few thousand bucks to boot, but are these larger machines going to be that much more maintenance and a higher cost of maintaining than my 65xl, but is it worth making the jump I don't know? Any input would be appreciated Thanks!
Chipper Ideas
- Thread starter RDAA
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CalTreeEquip
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Yes.
Jason Morey
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Our dealer Tri-State Bobcat has some used Bandit's in stock. If you would like there contact information feel free to send me an email at [email protected]
treecutterjr
ArboristSite Operative
You DEFINITELY won't regret an upgrade. The maintenance is no different from any other chipper. Grease it, oil/ fluid changes, and sharpening/changing knives. I can pull my bandit 250xp with my pick up if I have to. I have a 1999 model, owned sincenew. Last year I had the fuel pump rebuilt and earlier this summer I replaced the clutch. That's after almost 15 years of (ab)use. 
and I still use it every single day.
I'm really thinking that's going to be next years major purchase. I'm not in a position yet this year for a purchase like that. I was just messing with my 65xl the other night. I broke a feed roller spring on it, I rigged the broken spring to work on a caribeaner. I ended up fabbing brackets so I could run four total springs, two on each side. I tried it out and it snapped and crushed the smaller crotches instead of watching the branch stall and the feed roller just start hopping. It actually would stop the feed roller quite a bit. So I ended up tweaking the relief on the feed roller up a bit. It works a ton better than it did before. Hopefully it will help me get by until then.
TRISTATEFORESTRYEQUIPMENT
ArboristSite.com Sponsor
no matter what you buy as long as its a bandit you'll be satisfied
www.tristateforestryequipment.com
www.tristateforestryequipment.com
Since your able to repair things yourself, I would find an older machine that needed a little attention and get it cheap. Keep your 65 as a backup and after using the bigger chipper for awhile decide if you can justify upgrading to a newer machine. You should be able to easily recoupe your money back from what you purchased, or make a few bucks. Especially if you buy this time of year and sell after everyone gets their taxes back.
I have found som bc 1250s for sale for around six grand or so. I just don't want to buy someone else's junk. I think I am going to see how the winter goes. I have my equipment set up pretty well with minimal debt. My 65 is paid for and I have $8300 in it. We'll have to see if I can get close to that back out of it and stick another 7 to 8 thousand towards a new one when I have the money in the bank. I think my 65 has maybe 500 hours on it. We'll see what happens.
Going to look at a bc1250 with a Perkins in it and a bandit 150 gasser. Both have around 3000 hours. The guy is asking 6500 for the Vermeer and 3800 for the bandit. They both need a little love. Any common problems too look for on these machines? Pros and cons on each?
Griff93
ArboristSite Operative
I have a 1992 1220 with a 2.3 ford in it. Some parts are getting hard to find. I've called vermeer looking for stuff and had multiple parts be NLA.
stltreedr
ArboristSite Operative
I bought a 1250 in working condition about 4 years ago for $3500 with a perkins and 1200 hrs on it. It is a reliable machine for us with regular upkeep- never fails to start and run. I'm not a big fan of the infeed wheel setup- seems to get binded up a bunch.
The only problem I've ever had was the clutch and PTO shaft/bearing all went ****- probably because of a hidden grease fitting that the previous owner(s) probably never hit. The chip quality is kind of poor, even with new blades and anvil. Kind of a ***** to change the blades also, as you can only get an impact wrench on about 1/2 the nuts.
I have no experience with the bandit gas model.
I passed on the 1250. I checked the disc bearings on it and they were toast and the radiator had a hole in it. It was a rust bomb. I'm having Randy at global equipment exporters looking for a bandit 200 or 250 for me. Anything that age in the salt belt is probably going to be rusty. I'm thinking I'm better off getting a bandit from down south that's not a rust bomb. Plus that Vermeer looked awfully wide to be getting into some of the tight areas that I work in. The owner told me some bs that he would just grease the disc bearings and run it! Even though I could move the disc back and fourth about a half an inch
TRISTATEFORESTRYEQUIPMENT
ArboristSite.com Sponsor
i have a super clean 2004 bandit 250, 16,500 $ 0 rust, very clean machine.
www.TriStateForestryEquipment.com
www.TriStateForestryEquipment.com
Traded the 65xl in today on a 1998 200+ today. It has a little over 2000 hours on the clock, has auto feed, lift crush cylinder and a 115hp deere in it. Its a former municipality machine. I didn't see any cracks in any welds and it started right up and purred like a kitten. It has a bit of surface rust so I'm going to sandblast, paint and decal it this winter. It really seems like a very simple machine to work on. I hope I made a good choice with this one. I originally went to look at the 250xp. It had a fresh paint job right over all of the rust scale. Rust was already bleeding through the paint. Feed Roller slide box had about three inches of broken weld in one spot. The feed control lever was obviously broken and bent. Someone did a half ass job fixing it. I saw the grill was broken and a lot of radiator fins were smashed flat. The 2x4 protection bars were welded back on with bird **** welds and crooked. The feed tray was all bent and cracked up too. I asked the salesman if they had it painted. He said no it got traded that way. Later on he said that that machine will probably go up for auction. It was nice to compare a hashed machine to a decent one.
SCTREEGUY
ArboristSite Operative
Congratulations hope it serves you well
