The Rotochopper company history is a familiar Midwest America story.

It's a story with all the Hollywood ingredients; starting from scratch, farmers, necessity, entrepreneurs, friendship, innovation and success as well as struggle, tragedy. Rotochopper is a company that grew and is growing because it always says "Yes" to new ideas and challenges.

In 1980, in Minnesota, Fred Peltz was a recent high school graduate with an uncommon natural ability for working with steel and designing and building machines. Raised on a 200 acre dairy farm and speaking with the curious local German accent, he learned at a very early age the fundamentals of hard work, mechanics and what machines could and could not do. By the time he was 14 he was being hired by local farmers to repair farm machines. By the time he was 18 he had his own tools and shop on his father's farm. When he was 24 he built a new shop in the small town of St. Martin, Minnesota to accommodate a growing business building machines specially designed by Fred for the turkey production industry. Things went very well for Peltz Manufacturing until 1989 when the turkey business went into a sharp decline. Demand for turkey equipment dropped off radically and Fred looked for a different equipment arena with growth potential. That is when he called Vince Hundt.

Raised 250 miles away on a 400 acre diversified Wisconsin farm Vince also learned a great deal about machines at a very early age. After high school and studying history and politics at the University of Wisconsin in 1969-1973 he purchased and began to operate a dairy farm near Coon Valley, Wisconsin in 1978. Dairy farms in this area are half cropland and half woodland and dairying was quickly combined with marketing when Hundt saw an obvious niche in the marketplace. Poplar Coulee Ridge (PCR) Inc., was born in 1982 to import and market farm sized European forestry equipment to utilize the local farm woodlots. Sales of skidding winches and wood chippers was brisk from the start when in 1988 a crop failure due to a severe Midwestern drought created a need for new sources of animal bedding. At the same moment recently passed recycling mandates created a glut of unwanted newspaper in the hands of waste haulers. Once again a marketing opportunity was apparent. This time Vince put together a John Deere hay baler, a wood chipper and a sheet metal cyclone and created a one of a kind machine that made farm sized bales of chopped newspaper. The PCR Newspaper Bedding System proved to be an instant hit and was sold all over North America. One unit showed up near St. Martin. Fred Peltz saw it and dialed the PCR number and suggested to Vince that he had the facilities and abilities to build bigger and better recycling equipment. The two entrepreneurs struck a deal and a friendship. From that day forward all manufacturing was moved to St. Martin, Minnesota.

In the summer of 1990 the 1090 Newspaper Bedding System manufactured by Peltz Manufacturing made it’s debut incorporating a newly designed paper chopper with a 30 horsepower electric motor and a newly minted name, Rotochopper. This system was very successful because it was durable and easy to use but mostly because it made the particle size and package size that the market wanted. This logic, of being keenly aware of the needs of the end user, has been and continues to be central to the success of Rotochopper.

Customer input began to drive improvements that came fast and furious. A totally new hydraulic baler was designed to replace the farm balers in the 1093 Newspaper Bedding System. Rotochoppers to handle tougher material like card board and phone books were built. Motor sizes went from 30 HP up to 350 HP. The grinding and chopping rotors at the heart of the machines got bigger, faster and wider with some machines having 2 and even 3 rotors. It was a period of rapid change, innovation, and market expansion.

By 1992 there already was group of customers who had developed great faith in Rotochopper. They began to bring a long list of new recycling industry problems that resulted in new machines, new processes and new markets. In 1992, Rotochopper put in service a machine specifically designed to easily grind wooden pallets into boiler fuel with a uniform particle size in one pass. This machine was hand fed, had two rotors and a blower and worked like a charm. The first Rotochopper pallet grinder was up and running.

By 1994 the 180 HP MP-156 horizontal grinder was on the road. This highly innovative 18,000 pound machine was a huge leap forward in wood recycling technology. It consisted of a 12’ infeed conveyor that moved at an adjustable rate toward the grinding chamber. A large diameter, deep lugged power feeder fed the grinding rotor. The grinding rotor itself was designed to take any abuse that came at it. Teeth were 1" wide solid tool steel hooks with a thick layer of abrasion resistant hard facing. The teeth were welded solid to the drum and were refaced in the machine. The machine had either a conveyor or blower discharge, was compact and was capable of being pulled with a straight truck. These machines were designed to be hand fed and did a fantastic job of grinding pallets and producing excellent bedding and fuel products. After a few of these machine were sold customers began to ask for bigger and faster and that is what they got.

In 1995, the first MC-156 left the yard. This machine had 260 HP on board, was longer, wider and weighed in at 36,000 lbs. A much longer and wider infeed conveyor with a steel infeed belt and flared sides made it a machine that could be fed mechanically. Rotochopper was the first American grinder company with a steel infeed belt. At the same time the all electric EC-156 and EC-166 went into service. With up to 300 HP and sophisticated electronics this machine quickly became the favorite grinder in the pallet repair industry.

The 1996 MC-156 was quickly followed by the MC-166. This machine had a 66" wide infeed and 350 HP. Engine sizes soon went to 400 HP and then 465 HP. The MC-166 saw the first use of the AutoBelt Drive (ABD). The ABD was a clutchless power transfer that eliminated the biggest maintenance problem in grinders. No other American grinder company has been able to duplicate this brilliant solution to a persistent problem. The MC-166 also introduced the patented hydraulic screen changing mechanism. Like the ABD, no company any where in the world can offer a simpler, quicker, safer, easier screen changing system. Changing screens became a one man, 15 minute task and contributed greatly to the rapid rise in the popularity of Rotochoppers. The MC-166 was also the first Rotochopper to feature another huge innovation, the shear pin protected and baffled screens. The baffled screens made the final difference in absolutly nailing the product quality needed to sell mulch. Rotochoppers were the first machines to produce uniform finished product with zero spears thanks to the baffled screen.

During the same period Rotochopper introduced the 5418 and 5424 mobile plastic granulators. These 150 HP diesel machines were capable of being pulled with a pickup truck and grinding plastic containers from 1 gallon to 250 gallon in size. Used mostly to process 2.5 gal jugs and 55 gallon plastic barrels these machines fill a unique niche in the plastic recycling industry.

In 1997 Rotochopper patented and introduced the break through CM-497 coloring system. Not just a new machine and process, rather it was a whole new industry. Adaptable to the whole line of electric and diesel Rotochoppers this simple process permitted wood waste handlers to easily enter the whole new arena of selling finished high-end consumer landscape products. Where waste handlers the year before sold their ground wood for $10 a ton for fuel, they were now able to sell the same wood for $60 and even $100 a ton. Unable to give the wood away in 1997 by 1998 they were looking for more material to grind, color and sell. Patent #6,207,228 describes injecting water and colorant directly into the grinding chamber. It is impossible to create a simpler or more efficient method to color wood. All the speed, violence and hosrsepower of smashing and grinding the wood comes to bear on atomizing and forcing the color into the wood. A pile of only ten 48" x 48" dirty damaged pallet becomes a yard of perfect red colored mulch in the time it takes to snap your fingers. Ultimately at rates of up to 200 yards per hour. Wet wood, dry wood, pallets, slab wood, bark, chipped wood, old wood, dirty or clean it has all been succesfuuly colored. And in some cases treated with insecticides, fragrances, and compost accelerants. The system permits very precise applications and continues to be the preferred application method through out the industry.

Due to the success of these products in 1999 a 44,000 square foot expansion of the manufacturing plant was begun.

In 1999 Rotochopper introduced the EC-124 grinder for processing slab wood. This machine in diesel or electric was designed to run in line at mills making mulch as fast as the logs were sawed. Followed in 2000 by the much advanced SB-24 this series of grinders has become extremely popular in Amish mills all the way to the largest 3 shift a day mills in the world. With automatic load sensing and carbide teeth these machines have been known to run absolutely trouble free for years and in some mills go for up to 18 months without ever changing teeth. The reputation of these machines extended to mulch buyers who, knowing the products they got from the MC-166, began to ask mill operators specifically to purchase Rotochoppers. The SB-24 is without a doubt the most successful and advanced slab and bark processing machine in the world.

In the Spring of 2000 Rotochopper experienced a horrendous shock. Fred Peltz, while working on completion of the factory expansion, fell from the roof and died. The funeral for Fred was on Friday, May 12. The company, the town and customers from as far away as 300 miles came to fill the church, the town hall and main street of St. Martin to honor a truly wonderful, energetic and creative man. There was nothing else to do but get up and carry on. Seven days later Rotochopper was at a major trade show 1000 miles away with 4 machines, 12 men and all flags in the air.

In January of 2000 the MC-166XLT was introduced with advanced electronics, improved coloring system, bigger engines, more hydraulic power and several new tooth options. November of 2000 saw another dramatic first with the unveiling of the Go-Bagger 1000. The worlds first automated mobile bagging system. This machine can be pulled with a pickup, takes anly 10 minutes to set up and will bag over 700 bags an hour of a wide variety of products. Fast, simple and the answer to the prayers of small to medium sized mulch and compost companies.

In January of 2003 the MC-266 went into production with another list of improvements and refinements that made this machine the most trouble free and reliable machine ever built by Rotochopper.

November 2003 saw the arrival of yet another Rotochopper first: the CP-118 wood chip processor. This machine was shown to the public first at the National Tree Care Industry show in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was an instant hit with the arborists. Here was a machine that would take their troublesome chip disposal problem and turn it into cash. The CP-118 will take green chips, regrind them and color them at rates of up to 70 yards per hour. The patented grind and color technology and baffled screens are employed to make the perfect finished product.

In 2003 the Go-Bagger 250 came off the assembly line. This low cost automated mobile bagger with 250+ bags per hour capacity was an instant success. Weighing only 2600 lbs it can be towed with a light truck and operated by 1 person. Go-Bagger 250's are in use bagging mulch, compost, salt, clay, rock, sand, dirt and pulverized glass, to name a few.

In 2004 Rotochopper built the first all metric American grinder the S-56. The first S-56 landed in Japan with many more planned for shipment to Asia and Europe. This compact machine along with having metric dimensions, components and fasteners is insulated to reduce noise levels. It’s quiet streamlined appearance and performance will soon be seen in US machines as well.

2005 saw the introduction of the B-66 grinder. This machine is in the 600 HP, 60,000 lb class and permits customers to have all the benefits of 15 years of Rotochopper development in a much bigger platform. The B-66 will has a 42" diameter rotor to ingest big quantities of big wood.

Rotochopper continues to expand, explore and innovate. The company motto is, "Always Say Yes" and all we can do is stay tuned, hold our breath and speculate: What will Rotochopper look like in 15 years?