List of Upgrades to Vermeer SC252

[NCgrinder]

Apex:That horizontal (lower) boom pivot pin is a real chore.. I recently totally rebuilt my 252 @2150 hrs .Fortunately ,I was re-powering and had the engine & cutter-wheel/shaft off the boom. All the weight has to be off the pin..I rigged up my engine hoist to lift the boom...its a real delicate balancing act..Theres a large nut on one end and a lock-bolt on the other side...remove the nut and the lockbolt... Be sure to buy a new pivot shaft as you can easily damage the old one ...I wailed on the shaft with every BFH I had, to no avail... I had to torch off the pin & boss on the lockbolt side,as the pin had seized in the boss..(I cut it where the pin boss is welded to the plate)....No amount of heat, or penetrant would break it loose...once I burned off the boss and pin, then I used my air impact hammer on the threaded end and drove the stub towards the side I had just torched off...I machined a new boss and welded it back onto the pivot plates.. I used up two full days and every cussword I knew getting the pin out and replaced...While the pin is out,clean the bore on the center pin bushing , remove the grease fitting & clean out any hardened grease.. Install the pin,lockbolt and tighten the large nut til the pivot plates have a fairly tight clearance ,leave enough room for grease to be pumped between them..... and religiously pump a few squirts of grease in there as you use the machine..
I'm not sure what my local Vermeer shop would have charged,but I'll bet it wouldn't be cheap....Then again,they do this for a living and they might know a few shortcuts...
Good Luck ,if you do it yourself....
Stan

 

[defensiblespace]

I switched to the 4 tooth setup using the standard wheel and Vermeer yellow jacket teeth. It does cut faster. The biggest improvement is when you get deeper into the ground. The machine bogs down less, but can grab and stall quickly if you get greedy and try to take too much. I've also noticed more vibration in the machine. Has anyone tried switching to the Greenwheel after doing this? I'm curious if there is an advantage to the Greenwheel vs a standard wheel with this 4 tooth setup.

 

[tazz0018]

I switched to the 4 tooth setup using the standard wheel and 700 series Greenteeth. Cuts around 30% faster and is easier on the machine.

 

[pro94lt]

Muffler upgrades? Seems I seen it somewhere mine has came apart...

 

[marne]

Page 9

 

[erikmx875]

Stumper 63 The 1.5" shaft is pretty straight forward. Have your Machinist duplicate your 1.25" shaft with a 1.5" shaft and make it out of 4130 Steel. You will need new 1.5" center hubs for the 2 piece pulley's on each end of the shafts and yes use the same bearings as the cutter head. This also standardizes all the bearings. We carry 2 spares in the truck and just replace them in the field if we lose one.
I have not made a template for the 35 HP engine mount but I will do that in the next few day's.
I will post tomorrow on pulley and belt changes for the lower belts, and a belt source for the upper and lower belts. I did not get the pulley diameters today as I had planned.
We are a full time Stump Grinding Company and Tree Trimming or Removal is not what we do. We sub contract for about 30 Tree company's, Grind for many of the Cities, Hospital, Colleges and Gas & Electric Etc.. We also specialize in difficult access stumps, Hillside ,Planter boxes, limited space, up & down stairway's etc. With the fuel costs and housing problems, business is down about 40% versus last year. However we are starting to see some signs of improvement.

Did you ever make a template for the 35hp engine?

 

[Arboristo]

I switched to the 4 tooth setup using the standard wheel and 700 series Greenteeth. Cuts around 30% faster and is easier on the machine.

Can you tell me how you did this exactly? Did you use 2 angeled pockets and 2 straight ones?

 

[Arboristo]

Yes, leave only 4 teeth. No auto sleep. Don't worry about your concern, just try it : ). I should have realized this about 10 years ago after knowing full skip chain is faster cutting than full comp. Half the teeth, yet plenty to still bog the engine. Less to sharpen in both instances.

By 4 teeth system, do you mean 4 teeth on each side, so 8 teeth all together? Since you are saying you're using half the teeth of original config. Can someone please explain wich pockets they use? angled and straight ones?

 

[Arboristo]

40 hp Kohler

......
Sheaves on Jackshaft to motor changed to 3 belt 5/8"

Hi Timberrr, can you explain how and with which parts you made this 3 belt happen? I am running the 35HP Vanguard with the Vermeer Clutch but that clutch only has 2 belts sheave. Can this be changed? I would like to do a 3 belt upgrade.

 

[tazz0018]

4 total 700 series greenteeth on 4 angle pockets across from each other on the wheel.

 

[ironstumper]

Hi Timberrr, can you explain how and with which parts you made this 3 belt happen? I am running the 35HP Vanguard with the Vermeer Clutch but that clutch only has 2 belts sheave. Can this be changed? I would like to do a 3 belt upgrade.

Yes I'm curious too. I've had to throttle way back to stop the slipping on those 2 belts. Just the other day I got a banded 2 belt in the Stock A width. That has helped. I even went to Vermeer to look at there clutches for the 352. Which might fit with modification to shrouding if I want to spend $1,400.00 for that clutch. Ouch!

 

[timberrrrrr]

I made a mistake when I listed the upgrades I made to the 252 . . .

I meant to say that I changed the belts from the Jack shaft to the cutter wheel to 3 B belts.
I left the original clutch and the two A belts from the motor to the Jack shaft.

My original intention was to replace the clutch with a larger clutch and bigger belts. The new clutch was expensive, so I decided that the two A belts were a good fail point
for the system. If I was going to add more horsepower to a machine that wasn't built for it, I wanted a place for things to fail without catastrophic results. (Maybe this was just justifying not spending the $ on a bigger clutch)

Surprisingly the belts have performed decently. I go through belts maybe every 30 hours, and always keep a set in the truck (I can now replace them in 10 minutes or less) but the clutch has held up so far and I am happy with the results. Keep in mind that this is not my main machine, I usually use a 60 hp Carlton and use the 252 only in tight spots so I have only put about 80 hours on it since the conversion

 

[Arboristo]

Timberrr.. it's probably because of the 3 belt conversion you use so many belts. I have 1800 hours on my sc252 of which 1000 are with the Vanguard 35hp, and never had to change those two belts. The lower belt I think I replaced 3 or 4 times and the pulleys only once.

 

[Chrome Industry]

So I found an exhaust usually used on 27HP Kohlers installed on mud boats.
There seems to be a big community about this and their intention is to increase performance for getting another mph out of their boats...
But who cares, it fits and works fine, if there a non noticeable hp or ft/lb extra it's fine too. The downside is, this BPS is expensive.

I purchased one of these on 10/28/16, by 11/23/16 with only a few jobs on it, the welds cracked apart and the thing fell apart. Not cool for a $500+ muffler with shipping. They never confirmed shipping price with me when shipping it and service level has been slip-shod from day 1. The company is dodging me left and right, doesn't seem like they want to talk, but the representative assured me it would last forever... Meanwhile I haven't even made $500 with that muffler on the machine, it's my off/slow season! Have you had better luck than I, marne, pro94lt or anyone else? I'm debating if I even want to argue for a replacement, especially considering the shipping box was just a manufacturer carton marked 'Made in China'. They probably have zero quality controls in place...

 

[marne]

Sorry to hear that. Mine broke after 300-400 hrs, as I knew theses stainless mufflers can crack easy it was no surprise to me. Took it to an experienced welder, he laughed and asked for 10$ as a tip. Mounting and unmountig was more trouble than welding. Didn't even try to return it, as shipping it there back would have taken weeks from me.

 

[Chrome Industry]

I got my new muffler in today, ebay deal for 90$ with $20 3-year insurance policy through 3rd party (The thing is solid, full double reinforced welds). So I finally took this rattle trap stainless BPS mud buddy muffler off, it looks like the fail point was the bottom mount. After less than <10 hours it lost the bottom mounting plate (pictured) and one of the exhaust tubes completely stressed cracked free, the other wasn't far off. The last day I had to run it I actually used a huge hose clamp to hold it together! What I found on inspect is that the weld didn't go all the way through the mount, so its the obvious fail point. It looks like they went heavy, backed off, then get it about right, leaving half the mount with a weak weld after starting too deep. The guy who does my welding owns a metal fabrication shop. He looked at the stainless one and said it was heat welded without filler, so it draws a little metal from each section, weakening the areas and is a very weak style of weld. He said it would have needed supports to even have a chance. He's going to try and rebuild it, no promises. But I even built a jig using the new muffler for him to mount up to, so I am hopeful. BPS still hasn't returned my email or calls. What a **** show this upgrade turned out to be... I was really happy with how shiny it was!

 

[marne]

Really bad luck you had with that! All in one my went over 800hrs and is still fine. If they don't help you, I would at least post a few pics from the lemon they sold you in the mudmotor forums, to save not only stumpers.

 

[defensiblespace]

I ended up putting a 35 horse Vanguard engine on my 252. It made a huge difference, but I'm having trouble with my clutch belts slipping, even though they are tightened all the way. Has this happened to anyone else and if so, was a solution found?

 

[stumper63]

I ended up putting a 35 horse Vanguard engine on my 252. It made a huge difference, but I'm having trouble with my clutch belts slipping, even though they are tightened all the way. Has this happened to anyone else and if so, was a solution found?

I installed a banded v-belt instead of the two factory belts. Never had issues with slipping on mine. Pretty sure the part # is in the thread.

Stumper63

 

[Plyscamp]

The pulleys on the 252 clutch are universal for A and B width belts. However the jackshaft pulley is A width only from the factory. You can change the front to a B width pulley, which will allow you to run the bigger belts from the clutch to the Jackshaft.