Chipper Chipper usefullness

[apcaruso]

Hi,

I would like to get a pto driven chipper/shredder for my b7500, 21HP, 16 HP at the pto. Can anyone offer advice on whether it is worth paying 2-3K for a chipper for a compact tractor this small. I can imagine using it several times a year, however, if it is painfully slow to use, or heavily abuses the tractor, I may look for another solution. I can rent a large, or should I say huge, unit locally, but for the convenience I would rather have my own.

Thanks.

AC

 

[Branch]

Don't know how much it helps but my experience with chippers is that on green wood the small chippers do just fine. If on the other hand your doing dried wood you need the HP of a big one to get the job done. Also dry wood is very hard on blades. The small chippers dull pretty quickly.
Around here when you rent one of the big chippers they add in a charge for blade re-sharpening which makes the cost pretty high but you can chip almost anything.
I've taken out 112 Eucalyptus off my property that was all dead and dry, the big chipper was the only way to do it. I maintain the trimmings from the balance of the trees with my small chipper while its still green.

 

[hayden]

Do a search for chippers. There have been several discussions lately with a variety of recommendations. I've got one that I ran for several years off a B2400 which is a bit larger than your machine, but not much. The only time I found power was a problem was with 4-5" maple. I think in all the time I've used it, I only stalled it twice.

If you bought you tractor from chappel, you can't live too far from me. Mine's at my place in vermont at the moment, but next time I bring it back to NH you can check it out/try it if you are still in the market then.

Peter

 

[Thomas]

Anthony,
I almost bought bought a chipper myself,but after doing the math on the cost of the unit&up keep&how much use I would have afterwards,it was cheaper to rent for.
So I had everything ready and took 3 days off from work and chip away,but don't forget your ear plugs&eye protection!! /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Thomas..NH /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I have a 4" chipper for my B2400. I would say that almost all of the time your 16 HP would work just fine. I have only stalled the tractor with it a couple of times, and that was trying to find the limits of what it would do. I do not feel it abuses the tractor at all and is not slow.
It is great having a chipper available whenever I want it. Keeping the branches you put through it clean and free of dirt goes a long way towards keeping the knives sharp.
While less HP means that you may not be able to chip large branches (bigger than 3 1/2"), that is firewood anyway. I would recommend power feed if you can afford it.
If you just compare costs and ignore convience and enjoyment you can make an argument that it is cheaper to rent a chipper than to buy one. That same argument can be made about most other implements and even the tractor itself. I have no regrets purchasing a chipper.

Andy

 

[Corm]

I have a 4" manual feed PTO driven chipper made by Bolens I use with a 24 PTO horsepower Cub Cadet. I bought it used last year for $150. It works great, is a good match for my tractor, and it is real convenient to have one at home that you can use whenever you need it. I understand that power fed units work real well, but for what I paid I don't mind the manual feed. There are often times used units for sale in the newspaper at very reasonable prices. It seems that people buy new ones, use them until their property is cleaned up, and then sell 'em. My chipper was 4 years old when I bought it and it cost about $1K new (and it still looked new!). My advice would be to watch the papers and maybe you'll get lucky like I did./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Bird]

Corm, I'd say you did get lucky; real lucky!/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Bird

 

[GlennT]

I recently bought a 4 inch, Model 140, manual-feed Valby chipper which I have been using with my John Deere Model 670 (18.5 HP, 16 PTO HP). So far it seems to meet my needs. I have run through dried oak branches with diameters of 4 to 5 inches at the butt end and this works fine as long as you pause occasionally and don't try to ram through a long branch without pausing. The Valby CH 140 does not have a belt drive to increase the RPM of the disc; however, the disc is massive--26 inches in diameter and 220 pounds. The weight of the disc seems to provide sufficient inertia and the tractor handles the load nicely without bogging down. The Valby is heavily constructed and suitable for commercial use, with thick metal housings and big roller bearings. The machine weights 585 pounds. Two cautions: (1) when the disc rotates at only 540 RPM it will not throw the chips very far. If you want to load a trailer you should consider the Model 160, which has a belt drive to increase the disc speed. (2) A chipper is not a shredder and it will plug up with quantities of pine needles or leaves--especially if they are wet and decaying. With my small tractor, the manual feed is most appropriate; I have complete and instant control over the rate of speed. For this, I sacrifice speed. The hopper is large and it feeds to the bottom of the disc; this means that it would be very difficult to reach in far enough to cut off fingers and also there is little or no opportunity for chips to fly back into your face. However, it would be stupid not to use a push stick or to wear safety glasses and ear plugs. The chute functions as a megaphone and the chopping process gets a bit noisy. All in all, I am happy with my Valby; there is no way that I will ever wear it out. It is much more heavily constructed than most other chippers and it has larger blades (two, each approximately 4 by 8 inches). By the way, I purchased an extra set of blades so I can keep working while one set is being sharpened. For me, it was more practical to buy than to rent. The only unit for rent near me costs $100 a day. I anticipate that I will easily amortize the cost of my unit within a year and continue to enjoy the convenience of having one available for large or small jobs whenever I need it. I anticipate an ongoing need for a chipper for an indefinate period (until they cart me off to the nursing home). I purchased my Valby (imported from Finland) from Northeast Implement (www.northeastimplement.com). Good luck. These things cost a lot of money. By the way, my second choice was a Bearcat Model 73454 chipper).

 

[ERNIEB]

GlennT, Very good post. I'm guessing you have had a chance to try it on mountain cedar, how did it handle that stuff? Any difference in green or dry?
ErnieB

 

[GlennT]

ERNIEB: I live in the Hill Country in central Texas and here we have "cedars" which are really ashe junipers. I have run through cedar branches 10-12 feet long and 4-5 inches at the butt ends and the chipper and tractor are handling them OK--no lugging down or blue smoke. Naturally I am feeding them slowly and I stop feeding often to allow the chipper to purge itself. I have noticed that green branches chip easier than dry branches; it's almost like the green branches are lubricated. I also chip some hickory, some walnut, and a considerable amount of live oak branches. They all go through the chipper OK; however, the live oak takes extra time. That wood is dense! It's the stuff that the U.S.S. Constitution is made of. The chipper loves wood; I can seemingly run through any kind of wood without problems. However, the chipper hates leaves and juniper needles--especially if they are damp and moldy. I have to feed these very slowly or the chipper plugs up and it's a pain to have to stop the tractor, wait for the rotor to stop turning, unbolt the shroud, and clean out the back side of the disc where big clumps of soggy crud have accumulated. Briar vines and thin grape vines can also cause problems as they have a tendency to wrap around the shaft or get stuck in corners or in openings in the disc. As I mentioned in my earlier communication, the Valby is a chipper--not a shredder. I should mention that the chips are invaluable. I have used them for mulch on walkways, mulch around trees and bushes, mulch on bare caliche slopes, and mulch in waterways in the pasture that are gradually eroding. The chips don't wash away like hay mulch or leaf mulch. The chips are also fabulous bedding in the pole shed where our sheep and donkey escape foul weather and I also use them as bedding in our chicken coop. These chips are wonderful stuff; I only wish that it didn't take so darn many branches to produce a decent sized pile.