Arbteeth is excited to announce the release of our premium-quality cutter wheels designed specifically for professional stump grinders. After 18ish months of R&D, extensive testing and refinement, our cutter wheels offer unmatched performance, durability, and value.
We've decided to chuck this post up with detailed information about how it works, overall benefits, maintenance and other facts so you can make a well educated decision to determine if upgrading will be beneficial to your situation as unfortunately they are not a cheap item. That said, here's why they could possible be the best investment you make for your equipment.
Why Are They So Expensive? General info?
With an ACW24 to suit a Vermeer SC60TX running a touch over $6k including GST, there is nothing cheap about it. This is mainly due to us manufacturing here in Australia and using Australian made Bisalloy steel. Sure - the bolt on and weld in components are not made here, but the materials selected are not cheap and there was no corners cut. The weld-in pockets are fully forged 8360 steel and the wear pads are fully forged 42CrMo steel, both offering superior hardness and wear resistance. We could have manufactured with cheaper materials or opted to have them cast instead of forged, but we didn't as we wanted this to be the best product available. But just for comparison, a standard wheel from Vermeer will run you about the same money...
We set out to vastly improve whats currently on offer for cutter wheels, invested a great deal of time and money, and in our humble opinion - have created the best cutter wheel in existence.
This style of cutter wheel isn't new, since the early 1980s there has been similar wheels in production. The earliest variation I've personally seen would be from an Australian company called Stump Master - a fully cast wheel with integrated lead teeth pockets directly into the wheel. Since then there has been a few variations in America and they have proven incredibly popular.
What Makes Them So Good?
They Are Different - What makes our wheels a lot better than whats currently on offer is the unique and innovative wear pad design that covers majority of the wheel where the wear is likely to occur. Its a simple design, easy to understand, maintenance is a breeze and its incredibly durable. No welding or hard-facing required, unless you really want to.
Grinding Action - The cutter wheels have the ability to cut in a near perfect spiral pattern, where one tooth cuts a path for the next and the next and so on, leading to a very smooth grinding action. This also helps with chip containment, instead of throwing the chips to the side of the wheel they generally get blown back towards the machine - handy if your working in sensitive areas such as schools, council strips / roadways or anywhere there could be pedestrian activity or glass windows ect to worry about
The Teeth - We've opted to use the Sandvik style cutter teeth as they have been proven over the years to be the best tooth for stump grinding applications. Super tough, hard to damage, excellent life and easy to replace. If you've kept an eye on our socials you would have seen we made quiet a few design changes to the tooth itself to extract as much performance as possible from them.
The Wear Pads - This is where the wheel really stands out from other similar wheels. Instead of having to periodically hard face or cut off and re-weld wear pads to the wheel - which is time consuming and often costly, we've designed replaceable wear pads that are secured to the wheel via either plow bolts or the side cutting teeth. They protect the vast majority of the wheel and take the brunt of the wear. when they are replaced, your basically left with a brand new cutting wheel ready for whatever stump you want to put it through.
No Pocket Bolts - If you've been stump grinding for any amount of time then there's a good chance you know the frustration of breaking a pocket bolt mid grind or when the pockets are due for replacement having to get the gas axe / angle grinder out and cut them off when the bolts seize up. Never worry about that again!
How They Work? Maintenance?
They may look complicated, but they are a fairly simple design.
The thicker ACW24 uses 4 different types or wear pads that share a few similarities. They are individually stamped A,B,C and D.
The thinner ACW15 uses only 2 different types, stamped A and C.
The A and B pocket have locating pins in different positions that locate to a shallow hole in the wheel, making it virtually impossible to mess up the positioning when installing. An A wear pad will always sit next to a C wear pad, where as a B wear pad will always sit next to a D wear pad.
Using an ACW24 as an example, the rotational order will always be
A, B, C then D on both sides of the wheel. By using the different types, we're able to create a near perfect spiral cutting pattern.
The teeth are easily changed with a 15/16" socket. To make it easier, get a seal pick or small flat blade screw driver to clear the debris around the nut and use a stubby battery impact driver with a 15/16" x 1/2" Drive 6 Point Impact Universal Socket (available HERE).
The lead teeth on the very front that locate into the weld-in pocket do most of the grinding, meaning the side cutting teeth that go through the wear pads will not need to be changed out as frequently. You will likely go through 3-4 sets of leads before having to worry about changing the sides.
The wear pads will need to be swapped out and replaced when wear exceeds 50%. For example, the thickness where the 2 wear pads meet on the outer edge of the wheel is around 10mm thick when new, meaning if any part measures under 5mm they should be replaced. They should be inspected every time you replace your side cutting teeth. You would also be able to hard face this part if preferred.
Need More Info? Ready To Upgrade?
If you're considering upgrading to Arbteeth cutter wheels or have any questions regarding compatibility, installation, or maintenance, please reach out. We're here to help you get the best performance out of your stump grinding equipment.