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My ZG chipper shredded a branch and then just quit on Wednesday
I was cleaning up a big white oak removal in Arlington, feeding a 6 inch limb into my 2019 Vermeer BC1000XL. It pulled it in fine but then the feed wheels just stopped. No weird noises, no smoke, just dead. I checked the shear bolt first, that was intact. Then I noticed the hydraulic oil was bubbling and looked milky. I think I might have cooked the pump pulling that heavy wood all afternoon. Has anyone had a Vermeer feed system fail like this on a hot day?
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wyatt1351mo ago
Might be jumping the gun a bit, don't you think? Sounds like it could just be a clogged cooler or some air in the lines, not a total pump rebuild.
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blake7921mo ago
Same thing happened to my buddy's chipper last summer up in New Hampshire. He was grinding through a big pile of pine and the hydraulics just gave out around 3pm on a 90 degree day. The oil was bubbling just like you described, almost looked like a milkshake. He let it cool down overnight, swapped out the hydraulic fluid and put a new filter on it, and it fired right back up the next morning. I know Vermeer makes a solid machine but they do seem to heat up fast if you're pushing them hard on a hot day. Might be worth checking the cooling fins on your oil cooler too, ours was packed with sawdust and chips and that was part of the problem.
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