Hay Chopper Brush Chipper

Hay Chopper Brush Chipper MOWERS Mowers (31H) 28-3-3 Trevor Shute couldn't justify the cost of a commercial brush chipper. So he built his own out of an old 1-row, pull-type hay chopper. "It lets me chop brush up to 4 inches in diameter with no problems. I got the idea from a previous FARM SHOW story on someone who converted an old Case corn chopper into a chipper," says Shute, of Guelph, Ontario. He bought the pto-driven hay chopper from a local scrap dealer. It was a 1942 Case model equipped with a flywheel-type cutterhead with two 4-in. wide by 18-in. long blades. He cut away all components except the cutterhead and feed rollers, and added two more blades. He fitted the chopper frame with the front axle out of an old Ford pickup, which he widened. The new axle lowered the machine about 6 in. He used a combination of different sized sprockets and chains to slow down the drive train to reduce the speed of the feeder rollers. He also installed a 2.8-liter gas engine and 5-speed transmission, as well as the front wheel drive system from a 1984 Chevrolet Cavalier car. The engine mounts on a subframe made from 4-in. channel iron. The drive shaft that originally drove the car's front axle hooks up to the chopper's original pto shaft. To make room for the front wheel drive system, he removed a 10-ft. long portion of the chopper's driveshaft and moved the shorter telescoping shaft back. Then he cut off part of the telescoping shaft and welded on a pto extender equipped with a female spline on one end and a male spline on the other end. The extender allows the front wheel drive system to match up with the chopper's pto shaft. An 8-gal. fuel tank mounts up front, along with a homemade panel equipped with gauges that are used to monitor the engine. A radiator from a junked pickup and a 12-volt electric fan are used to cool the engine and transmission. The last step was to paint the machine Case orange and black. "It works good and was a fun project to do," says Shute. "I use it around my farm to chip branches and to do gardening and landscape work. When I put the transmission in forward gear, the driveshaft rotates counterclockwise just like a regular pto shaft. I run the engine in second gear at half throttle, and it has power to spare. "I paid $100 for the chopper. The engine was given to me by a friend, and I had to replace the starter, alternator and water pump. The fuel tank came out of a scrapyard. I had the muffler custom made at a muffler shop for $70. My total cost was about $500." Shute cut off part of the blower chute on back to improve the machine's appearance. "Generally, I use the machine to blow chips into bushes. But if I'm using it to load chips into a trailer, I add an extension spout that I made out of 10-in. dia. ductwork. An old feed bag tied onto the extension keeps chips from flying out too far." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Trevor Shute, RR 6, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1H 6J3 (ph 519 822-6705).

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.