Ford 3230

[Sean in PA]

(reply to post at 16:09:10 04/06/23)
Maybe I'm mis-understanding but this sounds like normal and expected forum behavior. If there aren't any new posts, it should drop off.

The issue is that in Classic View, it will drop off the first page even if people are making new posts to the thread. Once there are enough newer threads to fill the first page, this thread is gone from the first page forever no matter how often someone posts a reply to it.

 

[2nb]

(quoted from post at 17:28:47 04/24/23)

(reply to post at 16:09:10 04/06/23)
Maybe I'm mis-understanding but this sounds like normal and expected forum behavior. If there aren't any new posts, it should drop off.

The issue is that in Classic View, it will drop off the first page even if people are making new posts to the thread. Once there are enough newer threads to fill the first page, this thread is gone from the first page forever no matter how often someone posts a reply to it.

I get it. But why are folks using that mode?

 

[pomester]

" But why are folks using that mode?"

Why would folks buy a John Deere?

 

[Sean in PA]

It was the original mode of the forum software from years ago, and many folks on here, if you haven't noticed yet, are older and set in their ways, and are unwilling to change on certain things. It also shows discussions in a "tree" view which allows you to see which poss are responses to which previous posts. I use modern view, so I always include at least a partial quote of the post that I am replying to so that you know I'm replying to you.

 

[2nb]

(quoted from post at 06:57:43 04/25/23)
It was the original mode of the forum software from years ago, and many folks on here, if you haven't noticed yet, are older and set in their ways, and are unwilling to change on certain things. It also shows discussions in a "tree" view which allows you to see which poss are responses to which previous posts. I use modern view, so I always include at least a partial quote of the post that I am replying to so that you know I'm replying to you.

It's definitely an outdated forum. I'm surprised it doesn't get hacked running code this old. It looks to be running a codebase that is 15+ years out of date.

Anyway.

Did some work today with the tractor. I've been clearing deadfall trees and piling them up and now I'm finally FINALLY done with that step and now it's time to process the trees. My basic plan of attack:

- Pile up trees (done)
- Chainsaw trees into small pieces and sort into firewood, chipp-able wood, and trash that gets dumped into the forest
- Feed chippable wood into PTO chipper
- Dump whatever is left into the woods

I'm really not happy with my PTO chipper. You can't just feed it whatever, you can basically only feed it sticks, single-file. It is marketed as capable of up to 5" logs. If this was true, it would be perfect for me, because anything larger than 4" is firewood anyway.

Unfortunately I do not believe it is fairly marketed. I broke 2 shear bolts today on logs that were 3". I know this because after pulling the second log out of the chipper I went and measured it with caliper gauges. At least the shear bolts are easy to replace but what a pain. I wish I could get my money back.

After finishing up for the day I set out to fix a hydraulic oil leak on the tractor. Ever since I added the hydraulic top link I've been getting puddles underneath. Nothing major, but still needs to be fixed. I tracked the leaks to the 3/8" -> 1/2" adapter bushings connecting the pioneer quick connect fittings to the 3/8" hose. I thought I had tightened these pretty well initially, but both were leaking. Without taking anything apart, I threw some wrenches on them and was surprised to see that I got about a quarter turn on both of them.

I suspect there is about a 50% chance that fixed the problem. If not, I have hydraulic sealant I bought from TSC, so I'll try that next.

Other than that, the tractor is running great. Very happy with it overall. I only have about 5 hours on it but it's treating me well and I would buy it again.

 

[Destroked 450]

I don t know much about small pto chippers as most I messes with would chip a 12 inch log and had 200+ hp electric motors pulling them

But one important thing about a chipper is speed, a 540 pto chipper has to be running at 540 rpm or more
That means the tractor has to be operating at pto speed which is 18/1900 rpm for that tractor
If you were trying to chip wood with the tractor operating at 12/1400 rpm you d best have plenty of shear pins on hand

 

[Jim.ME]

Agreed the speed must be up. Also, sharp and properly set knives make a difference. Have you checked them? Even if this is a new chipper, they may not be set up properly. My chipper has a slip clutch, which I prefer over shear bolts.

 

[2nb]

This is all good advice. I've been setting the RPM to a point near 540, but I will start making 540 the minimum. The chipper can go up to 1000 (pto) rpm so there is definitely wiggle room to go faster.

I did check the knives and they are just fine. I would rate them 9.5/10 in condition.

I did a full day of chipping today and basically just didn't feed it anything larger than 2.5" and had no problems. Have to say, the chipper does work, it's just not the magic I would have hoped for. If I was going to do it all over I would spend the $3k on paying someone to clear a spot big enough for me to do a burn pile. Oh well.

I've had deadfall trees piled up next to my garage for over a month now and finally finished working through the pile today. I had a process of basically: sort out useful firewood, sort out garbage, and sort out chippable stuff and trim it to feed the chipper. Good exercise for sure. After everything was fully cleared I hooked up the box blade and scraped everything back to a nice even baseline. I now have a semi large (2500 sq/ft) 'lot' next to my garage that is a mixture of gravel, dense grade aggregate, and dirt. It's not pretty, but it's not ugly, which is what counts.

Loving the tractor, it's the only item I have no mixed reviews on. A real force multiplier.

EDIT: Oh, and the tightening of the hydraulic fittings on the top link did not resolve my issue, so it looks like I'm going to have to take everything apart. Any tips on using the liquid hydraulic sealant?

This post was edited by 2nb on 04/27/2023 at 02:32 pm.

 

[Sean in PA]

If the chipper is designed for 1000 rpm input, then you should really run it on a tractor capable of 1000 rpm PTO speed. Or does the manual say that it can be run from a 540 or 1000 rpm PTO? They are drastically different speeds, and I would think that you would have to swap an intermediary gear in the drive line of the chipper to switch from one to the other, but that is just my thought.