Couple of Maintenance ? on my Bandit 90XP chipper

[tree md]

I bought my bandit chipper right at a year ago and plan on doing a little maintenance on it this weekend. Although it is a 97 model it only had 3 hours on it when purchased (used once by a municipality and garaged for 10 years). It was virtually new when I bought it. It only has 65 hours on it. It has the 90 horse Kabota diesel.

The chipper has lost prime twice this winter due to inactivity (or so I have been told). I just read the sticky on onroad/offroad diesel and what it can do to the rings. As stated, this is a 97 model, should I be putting an additive in with my fuel? Could this be the cause of it loosing prime or is it most likely from inactivity? We have been starting it every couple days and so far it hasn't lost prime again in over 2 months. So far all I have done is adjust the anvil once and had to trace a minor wiring issue down once. Have also had to replace a few of the old Hydraulic lines. I plan to change oil this weekend and inspect it the best I can. This is the first chipper I have owned and would like some input on what is good maintenance practices for the chipper. I keep it well greased (sometimes greasing it twice a day when it is being heavily used) and keep the fluid levels topped off. Speaking of that, when a first got it I let the hydraulic fluid level drop to about 2/3's of a tank. I was readin the manual and it said something about cavitation can occure if you don't keep the hydraulic fluid level at 7/8 of a tank. I filled it to that level as soon as I learned that. It only happened once and I have maintained 7/8 tank since. Could that have caused damage? Can someone explain what cavitation is to me? Basically I want to just make sure I am covering all my bases with maintaining my chipper. Am I missing anything maintenance wise?

Any input is appreciated.

 

[A. Stanton]

I'm no expert on diesels, but I just bought a Kubota tractor. They recommend that the hydraulic fluid be changed every 400 hours with the filter being changed every 200 hours. They also recommend that the engine oil get changed every 150 hours. They also recommend that the fittings be greased after every 10 hours of use. I'm goin to change the engine oil every 50 hours and the hydraulic at 300 hours. I been using a diesel additive from Napa Auto this winter and have no problems starting the engine. But I have also been putting a engine block heater on if the temp was below 25 degrees.

 

[UpperCanadaTree]

The only way that I can understand the fuel system losing its prime, is if air is getting into the system somewhere (loose fitting, crack in fuel line, deteriorating gasket on the fuel filter etc. My spare chipper can sit for 6 months without being run, and always fires right up.
As far as cavitation, if your oil level gets too low and the pump begins to pick up air with the fluid, the bubbles that form in the fluid is the cavitation. I doubt you have to worry about this if you only ran it down to 3/4 tank. Unless you had a leak somewhere in the system, your fluid doesn't have anywhere to go, and 3/4 tank is probably the level that the factory put in. You do have to have some air space for fluid expansion when the fluid gets hot.

Some things to check during routine maintenance
- blow out/replace air filter
- blow out radiator, check coolant level
- Change oil & filter, fuel filter, hyd filter
- Check belts for needing adjustment and/or cracks (engine & chipper belts)
- Check brakes and adjust if needed
- Clean and repack wheel bearings
- If your upper feed wheel is chain driven off of a hyd motor, lube and adjust the chain
- Check the bushings inside the eyes of the leaf springs (unless its tortion bar) to make sure that they aren't worn.
We go over most of this stuff every time our chippers come into the shop for knives etc. Just keep in mind, that although the chipper has low hours on it, all of the fluids, belts etc. are 10 years old.