Lombardini Diesel powered Vermeer SC252 video and discussion

[holemaker]

First real stump with new engine. - YouTube

That is the video of THE only real stump this engine worked for. Excellent power, considering the center of the stump was frozen and it was a brand new engine. I still feel that Lombardini makes a heck of an engine, but the company that is behind them (way behind them) Kohler is crap... This engine ran for about 20 minutes and then turned into a runaway diesel and I am having problems trying to get Kohler to stand behind the engine.

 

[treeclimber101]

Wow .... Impressive and I have to say that's a nice little machine , if and when you get it squared away I cannot stress enough the need for belt guards , the stump mulch gets jammed in the cogs and destroys the belts , I had a 665b diesel machine and I ran it with the belts off and destroyed the belt in less then a week of grinding , also it causes slippage .

 

[holemaker]

Yeah.. I had been down for a little over a month getting the thing back up and running and the work was piling up so I just got it going as quick as I could.. the belts I run don't have cogs on them which helps a lot.. thank you for the compliment. . I take pride in my equipment.

 

[treeclimber101]

Yeah.. I had been down for a little over a month getting the thing back up and running and the work was piling up so I just got it going as quick as I could.. the belts I run don't have cogs on them which helps a lot.. thank you for the compliment. . I take pride in my equipment.

The wood runs through the pullies with or without cogs or tunnels , you will see chips stuck on the belts . Nice option with the diesel .... Cool !

 

[CNBTreeTrimming]

Very impressive engine...not quite the impression they were going for on this one. The whole neighborhood got the impression. I don't know what the SPL was, but it's one of the loudest things I've heard. 33db reduction earplugs and it was still really loud. When it suddenly spiked from idle to insane shortly after this video.

 

[holemaker]

This machine originally came out with a 20HP Honda engine on it... It ran great for a long time.. then all of a sudden started burning oil really bad.. Looking at the options and the amount of power output from the different engines, I "THOUGHT" that the Lombardini would be the best one for it.. the Lombardini still has a heck of a good track record.. I just got the bad one in a long string of good ones.. just wish the company was easier to work with.. I have a conference call with them in the morning to see if we can get something resolved... but I'm not holding my breath on it. I have completely lost faith in the company and will never purchase anything from Kohler in the future.. that includes faucets, sinks, tubs, showers and crappers along with many other things...

 

[Zale]

Nice job. It might not be as loud if you take the ear muffs on your helmet and put them on your ears.

 

[CNBTreeTrimming]

Nice job. It might not be as loud if you take the ear muffs on your helmet and put them on your ears.

I was running video, but both of us had 33db earplugs which were more than the rating on the helmet. This was sufficient until it suddenly started screaming when it ran away.

 

[holemaker]

Kohler quote of the day...

"it takes more fuel to run a diesel engine at 3600 rpm with no load than it does when the engine has a full load on it" --- Todd Allen, Kohler corp, diesel engine division...

Yes... He actually said this... That is a direct quote from him .. it is my personal belief that nobody there understands how a diesel engine works...

 

[CNBTreeTrimming]

Apparently his mind works the same way...uses less brain cells with a full load.

 

[holemaker]

I finally got a replacement engine yesterday.. got it put on today and plan to go grind some more stumps tomorrow.. and will have the video camera running the entire time to capture the mayhem if it decides to go crazy again..

I started tearing down the engine that failed after 20 minutes of operation... first thing I noticed is that the scraper ringers were on upside down.. why didn't anyone catch this at the factory?? or at the "authorized dealer" which was working directly on the instruction of Todd Allen from Kohler... and then they tried to snake their way out of the warranty..

 

[CRE1992]

Nice conversion. However diesel engines make most of their torque typically in a range between 1300-2100. Im betting this engine makes more torque at 1500-1800 rpm, therefore if you put a larger pulley on the crank if possible, you can slow the engine rpm down, thus quieting it greatly, and have the pulley size account for the difference in rpm while theoretically having more grinding power.

 

[holemaker]

Nice conversion. However diesel engines make most of their torque typically in a range between 1300-2100. Im betting this engine makes more torque at 1500-1800 rpm, therefore if you put a larger pulley on the crank if possible, you can slow the engine rpm down, thus quieting it greatly, and have the pulley size account for the difference in rpm while theoretically having more grinding power.

This engine creates its max torque at around 2400 RPM. It's intended to spin fast, which is why I bought the one I did. It was actually not bad for noise until the engine went into nuclear meltdown mode.. at that point the rpm went up to at least 8,000... then it got very loud because it was trying to fly apart, and fly apart it did.. It dropped a valve at that speed, tore up the head, broke the piston and cracked the cylinder.. but the speed of the engine is actually slightly faster than the old Honda that was on it.

 

[holemaker]

Got the replacement engine on and running... took it out and ground out a couple of stumps last night. The first engine I got didn't have any power compared to this one..

First stump with replacement engine. - YouTube

2nd stump on replacement engine - YouTube

The replacement engine is a lot smoother and cleaner sounding, but I won't buy anything else from Kohler after having to deal with them on warranty..