? about MTD 5hp. Chipper/shredders

[Von]

Picked up a MTD 5hp. chipper/ shredder today at a garage sale for $60.00. It states that it will chip up to 3" and the shredder will work on stuff up to 1/2". The guy who owned it was moving down south and everything had to go! It had not been used for 3 years and looks like new. I was wondering if anyone had one and is it any good? Or is there anything I should look out for in using it. I guess I can sell it if it's not up to the task. I sure could have used it a few months ago after the ice storm we had! (lost about 30 trees here at the antique shop) Thanks for the help.

 

[JDGREEN4ME]

My father has one and it works great for what it is intended, the small stuff. I know we have never run anything as big as 3" thru his but it handles the 2" stuff with no problem. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[s1120]

I have a Sears one, that is made by MTD and it works good. It is mostly for small brush, anything near 3" will choke it. Also its REAL loud. You will want ear plugs.

 

[fractal]

Since you said it has been sitting for several years -- please change the oil before you even try to start it. Run it to warm it up with fresh gas (dump what is in your gas can into the car when you get to the gas station to refill it) and make sure it does run, then change the oil again. Those little briggs and stratton engines will run a LONG time as long as you take care of them. Bad oil, water in the oil, crud in the oil, will ruin them faster than you can imagine. Go ahead and spend the 50 cents for the oil for an extra oil change just in case.

I have one. Mine is the old style with the metal hopper as you can see below. Newer ones have plastic hoppers. It works "ok". It makes a HECK of a racket if you try to chip stuff bigger than an inch or so. Getting that last bit to chip is tricky. It likes to bounce around the chipping hopper and trying to get another branch on it to push through is not so easy. It does a fairly decent job on leeves and twigs and stuff under a half inch through the shredder hopper but as far as chipping .. combine having to trim every thing off the branch and not being able to chip anything not absolutely straight .. I think I used the chipper once when I bought the machine 10 yrs ago and then refreshed my memory on how lame it was last year.

One good thing about the model I have is that the blades are reversable. Takes about a half hour to take the unit apart and reverse the blades. Saves you having to sharpen them so often. You do have to basically split it in half to get at the blades which looks harder than it is. A dozen bolts and a couple of pins and it falls in half.

I love mine for leaves and twigs. Not sure I would recommend it for chipping branches.

 

[Von]

fractal,
That looks just like the one I picked up, with just a few more scratches to it. I will change the oil and fuel tonight and see if it runs. Thanks for the tip in the blades! will check those out as well.

 

[s1120]

yup, looks like mine also
Mines silver though. It is good for light cleanup, so you got a good deal

 

[Von]

Well, I changed the oil and put in fresh fuel, but it won't start. Got it to run on ether, or if I pour gas in the carb. But it won't stay running, its not getting any fuel. I guess sitting for 3 years did in the carb. I hope a rebuild is all it needs. I'll pick up a rubuild kit in the morning. Anything I should be watchful for or any surprizes?

 

[s1120]

Yup sounds like crud in the carb. Mine has a briggs on it, and I have never rebuilt one of those carbs before, but they should not be that big of a job. Good luck.

 

[Bird]

Had that problem with my brother's Craftsman (looks like the same machine), but I did it the lazy way; instead of rebuilding the carb, I just bought a new one and put it on. Incidentally, I chipped large quantities of brush and blew the chips directly into the garden, so when I was doing that I opened the chute so it would blow straight out across the garden instead of down; i.e., let it do the spreading at the same time as the chipping/shredding. And one day, it made some really scary racket and I shut it down real quick, took it into the shop and opened it up to find two of the shredder knives missing. I was really surprised to actually find all the pieces in the garden; some of them 50' from where the machine had been sitting. Needless to say, you don't want anything in the way of the discharge chute on any chipper/shredder.

 

[Von]

Well, I got it fixed! cost all of a $1.39 for a new fuel pump diapham! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif So the total outlay was $61.39 and a few hours of time. Works and runs great. Now I just have to find a use for it! /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif Or I could sell it and make a few $$$$ /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif (I attached a photo for those who want to see!)