Nova BX72R 540/1000 PTO chipper review

[nisaacs]

This is a 7" direct drive, double hydraulic powered in-feed roller unit. After 3 fails of other chippers I think I have a keeper. It can out chip this older guy I was a little concerned that at 540 pto rpm my JD would lack performance and I would need to use my Case/IH with 1000 rpm pto. Not so, the direct drive 540 does the job. For commercial speed/use the 1000 rpm would be best. Since it is direct drive (no belts), the tractor (48 hp) has plenty of power, it never changes RPM. Most units gear the flywheel about 1000 rpm or 2-1 overdrive, that takes power. This one uses 4 knives so it bites as often as a 2 knife machine turning 1000 rpm.

Note the infeed roller bearings and the flywheel chamber size, very robust for a small chipper. The price was right too for a unit this size. At 540 rpm, the chips don't flow with any great force/volume but no problems to date.

One thing I couldn't deal with was the funky stop bar location/operation direction. Forward was stop, so any bushy limb or your leg would bump it and then it would stop. The design is a German safety requirement needed to sell there. What a nightmare of springs, linkage and levers that would attack your ribs. Note all the yellow hardware. It was needed because of the hinge point of the heavy pipe stop bar. Just the weight of the bar would shift the control valve so they used linkage, springs and levers to help control the weight. It didn't work, you could glare at it and it would stop :laughing: I removed it all and modified the stop bar so forward is in and back is stop/reverse. Now it don't stop unless you pull the bar back.

 

[joecdeere]

It’s your chipper to do with what you please, but that bar was done that way so when your glove or shirt
Sleeve gets caught on the Branch going into the chipper that you would get pulled only to that bar and then some part of you
would hit the bar and stop the feed, it can and does happen, I own a Vermeer chipper, I’ve owned this one maybe 20 years and I know how to use it, I’ve still been pulled against the bar a few times, very happy that it stopped. I really urge you to re-think what you’ve done, and please, if you choose to not put it back, don’t loan it out or allow others to use it. Even on a small chipper like these what happens isn’t gonna be pretty. Again JMHO

 

[ruffdog]

It’s your chipper to do with what you please, but that bar was done that way so when your glove or shirt
Sleeve gets caught on the Branch going into the chipper that you would get pulled only to that bar and then some part of you
would hit the bar and stop the feed, it can and does happen, I own a Vermeer chipper, I’ve owned this one maybe 20 years and I know how to use it, I’ve still been pulled against the bar a few times, very happy that it stopped. I really urge you to re-think what you’ve done, and please, if you choose to not put it back, don’t loan it out or allow others to use it. Even on a small chipper like these what happens isn’t gonna be pretty. Again JMHO

^^^worth thinking about! :thumbsup:

 

[nisaacs]

Thanks Joe & ruff for the safety reminder and the spanking I re-installed the bell crank and short linkage, that will reverse the throw, so now forward is stop. I did leave the lever off, it is not needed and just jabs my ribs. Here are some pictures. I am one of those guys that had to stick my hand in a ringer washing machine to see what would happen, I got spanked that time too Thanks again!

 

[ning]

@nisaacs Can you give a one-year-ish update on this chipper? I remember reading about it a couple years ago (if I recall, Jack from Nova Tractor responds to posts here occasionally and I saw him mention this rig a while back) and I'm still on the fence as to what chipper to get. This one looks like a really solid unit so it would be nice to hear how it's holding up and how much use you're getting from it.

I will note however that watching the video on their site:

while the guy is wearing protective pants and jacket, I'd be concerned about his shoes and worst of all, check out the extreme slack on that chainsaw (50 seconds in on the video)!

 

[nisaacs]

@nisaacs Can you give a one-year-ish update on this chipper? I remember reading about it a couple years ago (if I recall, Jack from Nova Tractor responds to posts here occasionally and I saw him mention this rig a while back) and I'm still on the fence as to what chipper to get. This one looks like a really solid unit so it would be nice to hear how it's holding up and how much use you're getting from it.

I will note however that watching the video on their site:

while the guy is wearing protective pants and jacket, I'd be concerned about his shoes and worst of all, check out the extreme slack on that chainsaw (50 seconds in on the video)!

I haven't used it much, seems like me and my helper are getting old, Lol. So far it has been great. I did have several bolts on one chipper knife that were stripped and allowed the knife to contact the housing. Ace Hardware has some Identical bolts in stainless steel that fixed the soft bolts. I am still on the original side of the first knife set.

I had a small commercial job that worked me and a big young guy harder than we wanted to work, it will eat soft wood quick.

 

[nisaacs]

It has been a few years since we trimmed the trees around here, so it is time again. Sick, dead and storm damage. I have a JD 970 4x2 that is going to work great with the 7" chipper. Anything over 3" is firewood, so the little 33 hp will do fine.

Just one tree netted 1/8 cord of firewood. Dang shaggy bark juniper limbs are gnarly, no straight trunk to feed with, hard to get them started into the rollers. Then they are dirty with blow sand that actually is grown in, so the saw chain gets loose in about 5 minutes, really hard on chain.

 

[nisaacs]

We had a nice winter day, 56 degrees, so we trimmed the fruit trees, overdue. Chipper, sure does make a small pile out of a large mess.

My new little Mighty Mouse, Milwaukee M12, 6" chain saw is awesome for trimming limbs, especially at the chipper.

 

[oosik]

Your chipper creates a nice compact pile of chips. My Wallenstein threw chips quite a long ways. Rather than a vertical pile, like yours, it created a horizontal pile.

Glad to hear you reinstalled the safety features. Your convenience turned an otherwise safe machine into a real hazard.

 

[Jack Yuan]

Your chipper creates a nice compact pile of chips. My Wallenstein threw chips quite a long ways. Rather than a vertical pile, like yours, it created a horizontal pile.

Glad to hear you reinstalled the safety features. Your convenience turned an otherwise safe machine into a real hazard.

Good to know it works well now. Glad to see your install the safety bar. In fact these safety bar was designed according to Europe standard, they often update the standard every 3 or 5 years. The latest update encourage the manufacturer to use the electromagnetic valve control which I would not like to do so, because rise too much cost, and the more important thing is that those electric wires and components, once they don't work, then it's too difficult for end user to fix it. As comparison, the mechanism design is more stable and easy to fix. Too much difference between Europe market and US market.

By the way, what about the knives condition now after years? Are they dull now and did you sharpen them?