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Wood chippers - school me

Java230

???
Joined
Jul 15, 2020
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2303
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I've got a lot of shit piled up at my property, and a lot of really dusty areas. I figured maybe I should just chip everything this spring.



I figure the HD style ones if they claim 3" it's probably more like 2" in reality. Most of my stuff is 4" or less. I can just deal with bigger stuff.



Is a smaller older commercial unit worth the $? Bigger homeowner grade? Drum vs disk?:homer:
 
Contemplated that myself but concluded most of the Home Depot type ones are wimpy.

Would be better to rent a real one once in a while instead of buying.
 
Outahand said:
Contemplated that myself but concluded most of the Home Depot type ones are wimpy.

Would be better to rent a real one once in a while instead of buying.
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Possibly, but I'd rather do a little here and there, and at that point rentals get expensive.
 
billybob_81067 said:
Got a tractor? The pto type ones work pretty good. Still not as good as a hugeass dedicated 100hp man killer woodchipper, but if you're just looking to chip smaller stuff they'll work fine.
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No tractor. But I could be convinced....
 
Java230 said:
No tractor. But I could be convinced....
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Well in that case, get yourself a tractor and a pto driven chipper! :laughing: The tractor in the pics is more than 2x larger than needed to run the my chipper at full capacity... They recommend 40hp max. They also make different sizes of pto chippers for different sized tractors. The bigger ones have a bigger heavier rotor and larger capacity.

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This one popped up. 24hp diesel. No chipper, but brush hog and 4k. Cheaper than I'm finding the older commercial tow behind chippers for.

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billybob_81067 said:
Well in that case, get yourself a tractor and a pto driven chipper! :laughing: The tractor in the pics is more than 2x larger than needed to run the my chipper at full capacity... They recommend 40hp max. They also make different sizes of pto chippers for different sized tractors. The bigger ones have a bigger heavier rotor and larger capacity.

0301181257.jpg
0301181258.jpg
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1486?
 
Java230 said:
This one popped up. 24hp diesel. No chipper, but brush hog and 4k. Cheaper than I'm finding the older commercial tow behind chippers for.

Screenshot_20230121_133921_Facebook.jpg
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Dunno about those units, but my skid steer mounted bush hog chips piles of brush halfway decent.
 
played this game a while back, you can find a thread or two in GCC

my general .02. buy a full size one that's the size of a wrangler. Use it, then sell it and it costs you almost nothing. if you're like me you'll buy a POS that doesn't run, spend a bunch of hours working on it, spend 1/5 those hours actually using it, then sell it for roughly the $$ you put into it. If you're smart, you'll spend a little more, spend that time actually chipping, sell it to break even, then go on with life
 
AKnate said:
1486?
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That's a 966 there. I was still in the process of finishing up working on it when I used it to run the chipper that time. Found a set of flat top fenders to put on it so it looks much better now.

Every 86 series I've ever seen has had a factory cab on it, or at least a factory ROPS. I've never seen an open station 86 series. Not saying someone hasn't done it, but I've never seen one.
 
I had a 60’s model chipper with a ford 6cylinder. It was fun, paid $1000, used it a few weekends, worked on it some and sold it for $1500. Keep an eye out on marketplace/Craigslist. All of the Nannie’s mine came with had been bypassed. Definitely a little scary to operate.
 
Covecrawler said:
I had a 60’s model chipper with a ford 6cylinder. It was fun, paid $1000, used it a few weekends, worked on it some and sold it for $1500. Keep an eye out on marketplace/Craigslist. All of the Nannie’s mine came with had been bypassed. Definitely a little scary to operate.
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this is what I did, probably a similar chipper. it ate everything I wanted to chip and was great, but always ran like shit. Sold it for $1500 or so, running meh. New owner let me know the distributor was shit, he swapped a new one in and it ran mint. I'd done everything ignition EXCEPT the actual distributor, all the fuel, carb, etc and was done dumping in $$ at that point.
 
This thing is an absolute animal, would recomend.

I think it is rated at 5"

You can plug it, but it is tough. I have run tons of stuff through there and still not needed any adjustment or sharpening.

For me this thing is a life saver.

Had a smaller 3" walk behind. Would use it to fill a garden cart. It took 2 hours to fill the cart. With this thing the cart if full in 20 minutes. Even less if the wife is helping. It shreds faster than one person can feed it.
 

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I have a Toro tomahawk pro 14 hp depending on the type of wood 2" dry oak limbs, 3" pine, ceder. it will shoot the chips out around 10' I use it alot, it's really fuckin loud you have to wear ear protection or get a headache. It also make great compost I keep turning around to brodcast the chips. it was around $1350. about 6 yrs. ago, I tow it and my splinter around with my garden tractor.
 
Its a 12 hp not a 14 hp
 

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Tiha said:
This thing is an absolute animal, would recomend.

I think it is rated at 5"

You can plug it, but it is tough. I have run tons of stuff through there and still not needed any adjustment or sharpening.

For me this thing is a life saver.

Had a smaller 3" walk behind. Would use it to fill a garden cart. It took 2 hours to fill the cart. With this thing the cart if full in 20 minutes. Even less if the wife is helping. It shreds faster than one person can feed it.
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We have one built pretty much the same, it works really well. Ours had electric start and it takes a fair amount to plug it.
Nowhere near as fast as one of the big monster Ford 6 cylinder ones, but it's a whole lot more nimble.

Aaron Z
 
Dad has a Vermeer that'll eat anything under firewood size. I've put 8" stuff in it and it's no problem. If you do go big just realize they're a pain to move. Those things were definitely designed to live behind a mdt on asphalt. His will push the 45hp tractor around pretty good once you get into the woods with it
 
Tiha said:
This thing is an absolute animal, would recomend.

I think it is rated at 5"

You can plug it, but it is tough. I have run tons of stuff through there and still not needed any adjustment or sharpening.

For me this thing is a life saver.

Had a smaller 3" walk behind. Would use it to fill a garden cart. It took 2 hours to fill the cart. With this thing the cart if full in 20 minutes. Even less if the wife is helping. It shreds faster than one person can feed it.
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There are a couple of those for sale locally. The DK ones.
 
Java230 said:
There are a couple of those for sale locally. The DK ones.
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do you want to spend time cutting your limbs into branches and feeding one by one, or do you want to chuck in a 4" branch that's 15' long with a bunch of offshoots and let it self feed in? Smaller chipper, more time spent cutting down material, more time spent feeding, etc.

the DK/DR/whatever are probably great units, but time wise you're going to be miles ahead with a full size tow behind. I've played both games, though my small one was a 5HP tomahawk not the newer slightly bigger one shown above. I would NEVER clear a property with the little homeowners size. I would maintain and chip the occasional tree that fell with it for sure
 
I am not clearing per say, just chipping a pile, plus need to limb a bunch of fir trees.

I am looking at a vermeer 620, needs motor swapped, thoughts on price?
 
that's the size I thought I wanted, middle between full tree-company size and the above DR size. Didn't find any near me

$$1k or less according to random auction site that pops up when you search Vermeer 620. Check the roller/drum bearings, engine could only be part of the issue. check the bearings on anything you buy

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That would be cheap, for anything under $2500 is probably a good deal.

I couldn't find any projects even that cheap. When I was looking for something that big they were $5k minimum.
Then I usually looked up basic parts, like blades.

Figured by the time I got the thing working good I couldn't make any money off it when I was done and sold it. So never took on that project.

For me, I had planned on renting it out to get some kind of return on the investment. But then you still have storage and maintenance.

At the end of the day I am happy with the little one I got. Easy to store. Easy to move.

I have taken tree trunks that were too big, ripped them down the center in half and fed them through there. Very little I haven't been able to chip.

Anything too big is stacked in a firewood pile. Most of it is not good firewood, but the city leaves me alone if it looks like a firewood pile.
My neighbor's kid had a hot box they heat their house with. He is going to eventually come pick up all that wood once it seasons another year or two.
 
budget76 said:
that's the size I thought I wanted, middle between full tree-company size and the above DR size. Didn't find any near me

$$1k or less according to random auction site that pops up when you search Vermeer 620. Check the roller/drum bearings, engine could only be part of the issue. check the bearings on anything you buy

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Hes asking 6k, has the new HF motor wo swap in. New blades on it.
 
Not much out there around here. Under 10k anyway.

Looking at a bandit 65. 30hp Wisconsin gas engine. Rated for 6" late 90's early 2000's. Hydro feed. Has reverse bar.

Or bigger? Model 95? It's a duetz diesel but costs 5k more and weighs a lot more too... Rated at 9" I think. Same feed etc


Thoughts?
 
woodlandmills.ca

WC68 6" PTO Wood Chipper

Our affordable 3-Point PTO Wood Chipper converts brush and branches into usable wood chips & works with 20-50 HP tractors. Covered by a 3-year warranty.
woodlandmills.ca woodlandmills.ca

I have this PTO one for my tractor. Tractor is 40hp, and I have put 6" aspen trees through it. :laughing:
it has come in very handy cleaning up the acreage, especially when its summer and I wouldn't risk burning any piles.
 
Pook said:
woodlandmills.ca

WC68 6" PTO Wood Chipper

Our affordable 3-Point PTO Wood Chipper converts brush and branches into usable wood chips & works with 20-50 HP tractors. Covered by a 3-year warranty.
woodlandmills.ca woodlandmills.ca

I have this PTO one for my tractor. Tractor is 40hp, and I have put 6" aspen trees through it. :laughing:
it has come in very handy cleaning up the acreage, especially when its summer and I wouldn't risk burning any piles.
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I don't have a tractor.... And really want hydro feed. But exactly, I don't want to burn the pile I have now. PO put it in a terrible spot to burn.
 
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