Some info on the Tomahawk chipper. I have had one since 1995. I now have 3 of them. There are 16 free-rotating flails mounted on 4 bars. Each flail has 4 cutting edges (one on each corner). When flails wear down, they get smooth. You can reach down into the hopper and feel them. These flails can be rotated to expose a new cutting edge. To do this, a roll pin on each of the 4 bars that the flails mount on must be driven out. The bar can then be driven out from the engine side and flails rotated or replaced. Brent Chalmers sells them on ebay. The chipper knife can also be replaced or sharpened. The chipper chute must be removed for that. The location of the flails and spacers must be duplicated especially near the chipper blade.
The belt wears out quickly for two reasons. First, the idler arrangement and the fact that the belt must act as the clutch stinks. As does the belt as it screeches during startup. This removes rubber, makes the belt loose, and eventually shreds the belt. The second reason is that the idler pushed on the back of the belt. These belt are not designed for that. It bends two directions on every revolution. That makes it hot and heat wears out belts.
I fixed both problems. I removed the engine pulley and replaced it with a v-belt centrifugal clutch. I replaced the idler with a v-belt idler that pulls on the belt. I attached a spring to the idler handle to provide pulling force against the idler which tightens the belt just like on a car engine. The result is that the belt is not the clutch anymore. When the engine is started, it has no load on it until it reaches 1800 RPM at which point the centrifugal clutch begins to engage. This spins up the shredder cage smoothly. No belt slippage. When you turn off the engine, the whole assembly spins down to 1800 RPM where the clutch disengages and the engine stops while the cage spins freely down to stop. Works great.
Russ
