Evaluating the performance of its 510 SD 6-inch brush chipper, Doskocil Industries found it difficult to improve a product that already pleased both the company and customers were already pleased, the manufacturer says.

But who wants to stand in the way of progress?

The new Dosko 510 6-inch brush trimmer has been upgraded with two new features designed to give operators greater efficiency, improved performance, ease of serviceability and superior safety:

- A slide-back feed hopper design at the opening of the brush chipper. The hopper's entire assembly piece slides back along the machine, allowing the operator to gain fast and easy access to the flywheel knives and bed knives.

- The addition of larger high-grade threaded knives that are drilled and tapped to the flywheel. Most brush chipper models used a threaded knife placed on a nonthreaded stud that is bolted to the flywheel. The improvement ensures better performance, according to Richie Lane, Doskocil's national sales manager. Lane also says the construction of the threaded knife minimizes the damage caused when a rake or shovel is mistakenly thrown into the chipper with branches.

The Dosko 510 is powered by a 25-horsepower Kohler engine and comes with the option of a telescopic tongue. The tongue can be hydraulically extended while pulling branches and other debris back into the chipper.

"As you pile up branches, the operator tends to get further and further away from the chipper," Lane says, "but the telescopic tongue gets those branches back closer to the chipper without risk of injury."