mango gutierrez
ArboristSite Lurker
My SC 40 TX was delivered a few years ago. The Vermeer salesman had difficulty driving it off the trailer as it bucked like a bronco. There was coolant all around the coolant recovery tank.
I’m not the smartest guy nor am I an engineer. There is no doubt that Vermeer builds solid machines. (They also have the reputation of limiting you to only your local dealers for product purchases to keep prices high.) As smart as their engineers are, it was obvious that they don’t get feed back from the field. Here’s why: Whether standing at the controls at the driving position or at the side station, you can’t actually see the cutter wheel or stump you are grinding. “Am I missing something here?” How could they design this machine this way? I attempted to make an improvement. I bought a simple automotive after market back up camera. I placed the camera on the guard bracket to view the cutting action. The monitor I placed up at the controls. Now I could see all the action. Why didn’t Vermeer design this in?
Still, it was a rough ride driving this machine, even on the smoothest ground at slow speed. What I did next was to ditch the camera and build a twelve foot long wired remote control that contained all the controls. See attached picture. Now I could walk beside the machine while I moved it AND could be as close or as far, but in view, of the cutting action. Nice!
Better than this would be a wireless remote control. But after many months of searching, no one can fit this machine with a wireless remote because Vermeer has some special coding that does not allow for this. Vermeer does not have their own retrofit system for this machine. A higher up at Vermeer has told me that Vermeer would prefer people like me to trade up to their newer remote control machines if I want this feature. That’s Vermeer’s typical arrogance.
The cutter wheel has twenty of Vermeer’s famous Yellow Jacket brand teeth on the cutting wheel. Twelve of these teeth are set in at different radii. I think I know why they designed this way. But these teeth don’t get close enough to the stump, so never wear. They just go along for the ride. I reset these teeth so that they are all at the same circumference. Now I have some real cutting action. All the teeth participate.
As I said in the beginning, there was coolant splashed all over the machine when I got it. This from the bucking action of moving the machine. I fixed this by routing a vent hose from the coolant recovery tank over and above the tank and then facing down. See attached photo. All this after I relocated the tank eight inches down from where it was located. It seems that Vermeer designed its location so high above the radiator that if you removed the radiator cap, the coolant in the recovery tank would spill out into the radiator and onto the floor. The recovery tank should never be above the radiator.
Some other minor notes: The radiator has a guard that will keep geese out. Leaves and other woodland debris, not so much. I added screening to protect the radiator.
The fuel gauge has always stuck from day one.
There were hydraulic leaks that I had to fix. AND the large spin on hydraulic filter is in such tight quarters that it can’t be removed without removing the whole assembly.
Lastly, I had to remove the moveable pipe guard in front of the cutter so I could stump grind close to other trees.
I now have a highly productive machine. It would be perfect if I had a WIRELESS remote control system for it.
I’m not the smartest guy nor am I an engineer. There is no doubt that Vermeer builds solid machines. (They also have the reputation of limiting you to only your local dealers for product purchases to keep prices high.) As smart as their engineers are, it was obvious that they don’t get feed back from the field. Here’s why: Whether standing at the controls at the driving position or at the side station, you can’t actually see the cutter wheel or stump you are grinding. “Am I missing something here?” How could they design this machine this way? I attempted to make an improvement. I bought a simple automotive after market back up camera. I placed the camera on the guard bracket to view the cutting action. The monitor I placed up at the controls. Now I could see all the action. Why didn’t Vermeer design this in?
Still, it was a rough ride driving this machine, even on the smoothest ground at slow speed. What I did next was to ditch the camera and build a twelve foot long wired remote control that contained all the controls. See attached picture. Now I could walk beside the machine while I moved it AND could be as close or as far, but in view, of the cutting action. Nice!
Better than this would be a wireless remote control. But after many months of searching, no one can fit this machine with a wireless remote because Vermeer has some special coding that does not allow for this. Vermeer does not have their own retrofit system for this machine. A higher up at Vermeer has told me that Vermeer would prefer people like me to trade up to their newer remote control machines if I want this feature. That’s Vermeer’s typical arrogance.
The cutter wheel has twenty of Vermeer’s famous Yellow Jacket brand teeth on the cutting wheel. Twelve of these teeth are set in at different radii. I think I know why they designed this way. But these teeth don’t get close enough to the stump, so never wear. They just go along for the ride. I reset these teeth so that they are all at the same circumference. Now I have some real cutting action. All the teeth participate.
As I said in the beginning, there was coolant splashed all over the machine when I got it. This from the bucking action of moving the machine. I fixed this by routing a vent hose from the coolant recovery tank over and above the tank and then facing down. See attached photo. All this after I relocated the tank eight inches down from where it was located. It seems that Vermeer designed its location so high above the radiator that if you removed the radiator cap, the coolant in the recovery tank would spill out into the radiator and onto the floor. The recovery tank should never be above the radiator.
Some other minor notes: The radiator has a guard that will keep geese out. Leaves and other woodland debris, not so much. I added screening to protect the radiator.
The fuel gauge has always stuck from day one.
There were hydraulic leaks that I had to fix. AND the large spin on hydraulic filter is in such tight quarters that it can’t be removed without removing the whole assembly.
Lastly, I had to remove the moveable pipe guard in front of the cutter so I could stump grind close to other trees.
I now have a highly productive machine. It would be perfect if I had a WIRELESS remote control system for it.
