Chipper My New Wallenstein BX42 Chipper

[dking]

Picked up a BX42 for $2800 CAN. (That's about $2250 US) I can't belive how this thing just eats wood. I didn't bother with the hydrolic feed and I don't even see why you would need one - it pretty much pulled the wood right through. So far I give this chipper 2 thumbs up.

A video of the chipper in action. I chipped a 4" x 25' fir tree in just seconds. YouTube - Wallenstein BX42

[nickel plate]

I bought my BX42 late last summer and used it for all my mullberry and oak thinning. Before that happened, I bolted two pressure treated 4x4s to the flat metal base plates. I have a thing about metal contacting dirt and creating rust. I'm also 6'-4" so by raising the chipper another 3-1/2" and still keeping the machine on the ground, it's a little easier on my back.
It works very nice behind my NH TC-40 and I didn't have to trim cut the PTO shaft.

[BigfishTX]

Ahhh, my BX24...what a pleasure to use. I love mine. Oak and cedar-vaporized. The PTO shaft has been a bit of a problem-too long for my JD4500. I didn't want to cut the shaft with a hacksaw as suggested by Wallenstein, so I had to be careful when lowering and raising it.

When I added a 3 pt quick hitch (the one from Harbour Freight-it was about $100) it now works perfectly and I can release it very easily. What a great tool.

Enjoy it!

BigfishTX

[Oldtrout]

Had my BX42 now for a year,probably has about 75 hours on it now,it has worked great for us. reversed the blades,installed new blades;that has been it. Love it.

[BigfishTX]

Oops, I meant I have a BX42, not 24...

BigfishTX

[Runner]

I had mine out the other day, and I think I discovered one of the advantages of the hydraulic feed:

I got into a VERY hard 4" dead limb and managed to kill the engine (JD2520). Part of the reason for this is that, once it started "self-feeding" it was pulling the branch so hard, I couldn't control the input rate. Thus, it kept pulling in the branch while also lugging the engine, eventually stalling it.

I think, if I had the hydraulic feed, I would have been able to control the rate of feed and stop the branch before it killed the engine.

Overall though, I agree with the others, this thing is impressive. It's fun to toss a scrap 4x4 in there and watch it make mulch out of it in about 10 seconds!

[amigauser]

advantages of the hydraulic feed:

I got into a VERY hard 4" dead limb and managed to kill the engine (JD2520). Part of the reason for this is that, once it started "self-feeding" it was pulling the branch so hard, I couldn't control the input rate. Thus, it kept pulling in the branch while also lugging the engine, eventually stalling it.

I think, if I had the hydraulic feed, I would have been able to control the rate of feed and stop the branch before it killed the engine.

I agree, that is the biggest advantage to a controlled feed rate. It is very easy to stall a tractor with a self feeding chipper if what you are chipping is long and near the chipper and tractor PTO capacity. If you are running the chipper on a tractor with lots of PTO HP than it is less of an issue. That is one advantage to running a BX42 on a larger tractor instead of the larger BX62.

I have owned two BearCat chippers and I could stall both with long pieces of hard wood. They both had dedicated 20 HP Honda Vtwins on them and a large 140 lb flywheel. They both self feeded very well with sharp blades. If I ever purchase another chipper it will have hydraulic feed on it.

[dking]

I got into a VERY hard 4" dead limb and managed to kill the engine (JD2520). Part of the reason for this is that, once it started "self-feeding" it was pulling the branch so hard, I couldn't control the input rate. Thus, it kept pulling in the branch while also lugging the engine, eventually stalling it.

That's part of the reason I went for the 4" over the 6"... I knew that both my tractors had the power to handle the maximum size without trouble.

Wallenstein now has a 3" model that might be better suited to smaller tractors.