How to Choose a Cold Planer
Purchasing a cold planer can be confusing if you don’t know what to look for. When choosing a model, you want to select one with a design that includes a drive system and hydraulic motor for cold planers specifically! Pay close attention to motor quality, drive system, tooth height, and more!
Drive System and Hydraulic Motor for Cold Planers
First, look at the drive system! The cold planer should use a high-quality planetary drive. Cold planers see a lot of abuse and require the best quality parts possible to reduce downtime and failure. Blue Diamond® uses a Sauer piston motor and a Fairfield planetary torque hub. Our setup allocates 21% of torque to the drum and allows the torque hub to carry the load. Read more about how we maximize torque!
Tooth Quality and Positioning
The cold planer tooth quality is of greatest important. The tooth itself must be of quality and the tooth height must give sufficient clearance.
Tooth Height to Reduce Drag
Pay attention to the tooth height! This sounds like a simple difference that wouldn’t matter a lot, but it can make a huge difference! The greater the tooth height, the less drag on the cut there is because the tooth is further away from the drum. The Blue Diamond Cold Planer uses a 5-inch clearance while most others are 3-inches on 30- to 40-inch units.
High Quality Teeth
Don’t cut corners on the quality of the tooth itself! Blue Diamond uses a “rocket fin” tooth that turns while grinding. This keeps wear consistent and prevents the tooth from seizing in the holder. If a planer doesn’t use high-quality teeth, operators end up replacing teeth prematurely and often experience frustration while changing teeth.
Drum Thickness for Tough Conditions
A tremendous amount of energy comes from the drum thickness that carries the unit through the toughest conditions. With a thick drum, there is less vibration and less wasted energy! Blue Diamond uses a 1.5-inch drum and experiences the least vibration of any other cold planer on the market.
The large access cover makes our cold planer one of the easiest and safest models to change teeth on. Be wary of units that require you to change the teeth while laying under the cold planer!
Skid Plates for Maximum Durability
Some cold planers use wheels to roll on. Our experience is that even the best quality wheels don’t last in abrasive conditions and become hassle to deal with. Skid plates are by far the way to go. But, when using skid plates, they must be independently adjustable!
Extensive Side Shift that Saves Time and Money
We have also found that many cold planers will not side shift as far as the Blue Diamond unit will. This single feature has resulted in customers saving extensive time and money by getting closer to curbs, walls and drains.
Between the Fairfield planetary torque hub and the Sauer hydraulic piston motor for cold planers, we use the best parts on the market! With the best parts, comes the best durability and quality.
Check out our High Flow Cold Planer in action with the Sauer Hydraulic Motor!
We originally published this post in 2015. We have since revamped and updated it for accuracy and completeness.