Just bought one of these from Betsco and the PTO shear bolt is marked with SAE symbols indicating Grade 5, which is roughly equivalent to your Metric 8.8 in case anyone is wondering. The most potentially serious issue I find is that the stationary blade cannot be moved any closer to the flywheel blades than 3/16 (6/32) of an inch, a much wider gap, by a factor of 6, than recommended, resulting in larger chips and poorly processed smaller branches. I wonder if others have been having problems with flywheel blade to stationary blade contact, perhaps as flywheel play increases with use, prompting the manufacturer to widen the gap.
My blade was out of adjustment (too much gap) when I bought the chipper, but I had no problem adjusting it to the spec value, and the chipper has worked really well and has been trouble free for the last 4 years. By the way, the included shear bolt is: M8-1.25 x 50mm Partial Thread, Class 8.8, 13mm hex cap head.
@@outdoorsinoregon Understood, but what I was pointing out on this new unit is that I was unable to move the stationary blade any closer to the rotary blades than 3/16ths inch. After looking a bit closer at the situation, I have realized that the reason for this is that the washers under the 3 bolts contact the adjacent weld and prevent the proper adjustment, requiring the washers to be trimmed flat on one side, done with a metal cutting blade on an angle grinder. Obviously, there are some minor differences between our chippers, another one of which is that mine apparently includes a PTO shaft from a different manufacturer, possibly US made, since, as I mentioned, it uses an SAE class designation for the shear bolt instead of metric. I purchased it from Betstco a few days ago. Works great.
Yes, I have seen several brands on Amazon and elsewhere. Some look identical and some are slight variations on the Farmer Helper; I suspected they are all coming from the same factory.
It works very well, and I've had no issues with it at all. "Cheap" is a relative term. At the time I purchased it, I wasn't able to find any other tractor mounted models that were any less expensive. While I didn't want to spend so much, I couldn't find a better alternative. I don't know if that's still the case, but good luck hunting!
Just bought one of these from Betsco and the PTO shear bolt is marked with SAE symbols indicating Grade 5, which is roughly equivalent to your Metric 8.8 in case anyone is wondering.
The most potentially serious issue I find is that the stationary blade cannot be moved any closer to the flywheel blades than 3/16 (6/32) of an inch, a much wider gap, by a factor of 6, than recommended, resulting in larger chips and poorly processed smaller branches. I wonder if others have been having problems with flywheel blade to stationary blade contact, perhaps as flywheel play increases with use, prompting the manufacturer to widen the gap.
My blade was out of adjustment (too much gap) when I bought the chipper, but I had no problem adjusting it to the spec value, and the chipper has worked really well and has been trouble free for the last 4 years.
By the way, the included shear bolt is: M8-1.25 x 50mm Partial Thread, Class 8.8, 13mm hex cap head.
@@outdoorsinoregon Understood, but what I was pointing out on this new unit is that I was unable to move the stationary blade any closer to the rotary blades than 3/16ths inch. After looking a bit closer at the situation, I have realized that the reason for this is that the washers under the 3 bolts contact the adjacent weld and prevent the proper adjustment, requiring the washers to be trimmed flat on one side, done with a metal cutting blade on an angle grinder.
Obviously, there are some minor differences between our chippers, another one of which is that mine apparently includes a PTO shaft from a different manufacturer, possibly US made, since, as I mentioned, it uses an SAE class designation for the shear bolt instead of metric. I purchased it from Betstco a few days ago. Works great.
@@charlesmain9938 Got it; thanks for the update/clarification. I guess the build quality varies on these. Good to see you got it working.
Great review. Thanks!
thhaks for the review....I just bought one from Amazon ...seems they are all built in the same plant ....
Yes, I have seen several brands on Amazon and elsewhere. Some look identical and some are slight variations on the Farmer Helper; I suspected they are all coming from the same factory.
The chipper looks to work good. The price is high though, so I'll check out some other options
It works very well, and I've had no issues with it at all. "Cheap" is a relative term. At the time I purchased it, I wasn't able to find any other tractor mounted models that were any less expensive. While I didn't want to spend so much, I couldn't find a better alternative. I don't know if that's still the case, but good luck hunting!
This model is definitely the cheapest pto chipper in that size....
Great review! Thanks