Conehead Chippers

[Thor's Hammer]

Hi guys, just recently found this website, what marvelous fund of information-
much better than salestalk.
anyway what i would really like to know is some information on cone head chippers. have any of you guys used them? in principal it seems like a real good idea,but how do they stand up in practice?
love to get some feedback on this...

 

[a_lopa]

im still waiting to hear about them myself...............

 

[Thor's Hammer]

im still waiting to hear about them myself...............

What have you heard? or have you just seen the website?
did a season in aus about 8 years ago - seriously hard graft, them eucs and palms shagg chippers out pretty quick...

 

[a_lopa]

ive seen the site,its been asked here before to no avail.

 

[Thor's Hammer]

you looking to buy one or be a dealer?

 

[Newfie]

One of coneheads sales reps was a member here for a day or so. All he could offer was a sales pitch and a lot of spam for the members here. He got the boot.

 

[NickfromWI]

What's the website. Thor, do you work for the company?

 

[Thor's Hammer]

What's the website. Thor, do you work for the company?

The website is www.pik-n-pak.com, and no i dont work for the company, although we may be looking at importing a few of their machines into the uk if they are any good. (im asking them to build a more powerfull one)
you know the score though, you always find out more about a machine from the guys who use it than the guy who sells it...

 

[Beast12]

Well, I can tell you first hand that these chippers are pretty good. We just bought a DC-50 about 3 weeks ago. It came equipped with an 89 HP Kubota diesel (could have got the 120 HP diesel but it would have been extra month wait and we DON'T get into BIG stuff all day every day).

There have been no problems with this machine whatsoever. I think they have an EXCELLENT design that will be around for a while. You basically have a drum chipper as well as a disc. No blower needed because it is basically built in. I don't see any way to plug up this machine.

Very solid and well built machine. It weighs 6000 pounds and is 16.5 feet long. It is a little long but it makes backing it up A LOT easier.

It cost $33,000 CANADIAN which was $10,000 cheaper than the Vermeer 1400 we were looking at last year. The bigger engine is an extra $4000.

Any questions you have feel free to ask me and I can hopefully help you out.

-Matt

P.S. Here is a picture below.

 

[Thor's Hammer]

Thanks Matt -
how do you find the chip quality and knife wear compared to other chippers?
the dc50 is an interesting machine, but i would need the bigger machines, did you demo any of them?
many thanks
ed

 

[Beast12]

The chip quality is pretty good. I think we are going to slow the feedwheel down just a bit so that it chips it up a bit smaller. Once in a while you get these big chunks (maybe 1" by 3" long) that come out. But if you slow it down you don't have that problem. I also may have to adjust the anvil a bit.

As far as knife wear I don't really have anything to compare it to. Our old chippers we drum chippers (not self feeders) and we could go 3 months before we had to change the blades (sometimes longer depending on if I got on the guys about throwing rocks in the chipper or not). The blades are double edged so you can flip them over.

It is a very good design and the only thing I am concerned about is long term reliability. Only because they are a new company with a new design. We will see.

-Matt

 

[Proj Eng]

If it's a new company with a new design and you purchased one of their units, your input will be invaluable to them. If it's not, then obviously they are too stuck on themselves to hear real world experience. I'm sure you can work some favors for yourself in helping out in that manner. From what I've found over the years, testing will never equal real world use.

The customer may not always be right, but the customer always knows (from their personal experience).

 

[Lumberjack]

Beast, if your into big stuff all day every day wouldnt it be common sense to wait the month for the bigger motor, then have that amount of HP available?

 

[P_woozel]

i got one of their prototype machines thru Lonnie Fall at ITE, it had serious issues, that with me ?????ing and Lonnie doing his best to rebuild their machine we helped get them on track after 4 months they sent out a 410 and its the best 10" drum I've used. I hear the CD is even better. I think going for the higher hp engines as an option is the way to go, and they make nice tiny chips perfect for leaving at a clients house.

 

[Thor's Hammer]

i got one of their prototype machines thru Lonnie Fall at ITE, it had serious issues, that with me ?????ing and Lonnie doing his best to rebuild their machine we helped get them on track after 4 months they sent out a 410 and its the best 10" drum I've used. I hear the CD is even better. I think going for the higher hp engines as an option is the way to go, and they make nice tiny chips perfect for leaving at a clients house.

chip quality is the crux point for us - for perfect chips (1''x1'') with no strings or oversize, we can sell them as boiler fuel at $60 - $80 a tonne
what did you mean by CD?

 

[Beast12]

Beast, if your into big stuff all day every day wouldnt it be common sense to wait the month for the bigger motor, then have that amount of HP available?

We don't get into big stuff all day. Once in a while we get into big stuff. We sell all of our hard wood as firewood so a bunch of it is gone there. So, the need for the bigger engine wasn't really there for us.

EDIT: I noticed down below I put that we DO get into big stuff all the time, it is supposed to be DON'T....oops! I'll go change it now.


CD is what P_woozel put but he probably meant DC. DC stands for Discone. Very cool and effecient design.

-Matt

 

[P_woozel]

I thought is was Conedisc, well kind of close. So are there knives on the disc as well as the cone part?

 

[Beast12]

No, there are only 2 knives on the Cone (drum) part. They are held in with 4 bolts each. The disc part of it is what throws the chips and makes the "blower". It is a really cool design. Sometime soon I will take some pictures to show you guys.

-Matt

 

[Thor's Hammer]

on the big bruks we have, there are two fan blowers, one at each end of the drum. they are ducted into the chipper chute, and that thing will blow chips 150'.