Hydraulic or mechanical feed PTO wood chippers?

[MFWD]

Hello,
I am thinking about buying a PTO driven wood chipper to use with my tractor. I see that most companies offer ones with a hydraulic feed and one with a mechanical feed. Looks like about $500 dollars more for the hydraulic one. Which one works better or isn't there any difference in performance? Please enlighten me...those of you who own one and have a lot of experience !!!! Thanks




MFWD

 

[Agent Blue]

For $500.00 there should be no question. The hydraulic feed for my Bear Cat is 4k. After one hour of feeding by gravity you will definately know which option is for you. Good luck in your search.

***** Kind of like buying a new tractor and asking yourself...... do I really need four wheel drive ?????????????

 

[MFWD]

Hey Agent Blue.
Thanks for the reply, but I'm not talking about the ones where you manually push the wood and branches in the chute. They make them that are auto-feed, but one is mechanical and the other runs off of hydraulics. I had a manual feed one before and it was a PITA !!!!!!!

MFWD

 

[murphy1244]

Hey Agent Blue.
Thanks for the reply, but I'm not talking about the ones where you manually push the wood and branches in the chute. They make them that are auto-feed, but one is mechanical and the other runs off of hydraulics. I had a manual feed one before and it was a PITA !!!!!!!

MFWD

I just bought a Wallenstein BXM-42 and it will feed itself. Drop your branch in and stand back.

 

[Brant]

Mechanical feed for chippers is just not a good idea. It's cheap and that's about it. Look at the number of broken mechanical feeds on the Chinese chippers. If a mech. feed jams, a belt slips (or burns up) or something breaks. Also, it's not reversible which is a big downside. When I buy new stuff, I want to use it and not wrench on it. I'd sooner have a self-feed model than mech. feed. Get the hyd. feed if you can afford it.

 

[tree farmer]

Get a hydraulic feed. Yeah, they're a couple grand more, but how much is a trip to the emergency room when you get injured trying to force feed or ducking flying chunks from a gravity feed chipper? Hydraulic feed that is run off your remotes lets you control input speed as well as reverse with the PTO off to unplug the rotor if you happen to hit a hard knot and jamb the rotor knives. Beware of the power feeds, both mechanical and hydraulic that only have one feed roller. They will slip and stop feeding if you hit a knot or crook in a limb. You want two rollers that rotate in opposite directions. (think old wringer washing machines) Anything that contacts this pair of rollers is drawn into the rotor and kept from being thrown back at you:thumbsup:....Dan.

 

[s219]

I just bought a Wallenstein BXM-42 and it will feed itself. Drop your branch in and stand back.

Same goes for the BX-42 without feed. Obviously feed is better, but the non-feed model already yanks branches out of my hand. And both will plug up if you send in a lot of leafy greens. I think the main benefit of feed on the Wallensteins is that it widens the operating envelope a bit. But the non-feed model still pulls stuff in quite agressively. It will suck the entire crown of a pine tree in with no pushing. It's so good, I constantly wonder when I would have needed feed.

 

[PioneerMan]

So if i buy an autofeed and dont have rear hydraulics yet, can i use it as a manual feed for a few months?

 

[LouieJunior]

I don't see a model BXM-42. What does the M stand for?

 

[Brant]

So if i buy an autofeed and dont have rear hydraulics yet, can i use it as a manual feed for a few months?

Probably not very well and not without a hassle.