Conundrum on Jinma Chippers - 6" or 8"

[newbury]

I'm in a serious hunt for a PTO chipper.

I will want to use the chipper in two locations - Alexandria, VA and Fulton, MS - about 820 miles apart. And with 2 different tractors. In Mississippi a 30hp Satoh or bigger, in Virginia I presently have a Kubota B7610 (18HP PTO) but may add a larger 40HP tractor,

Jinma brands two - a 6" and an 8". ~ $1600 and ~ $1750

Circle G advertises both sizes, and they are about 100 miles from my site in Mississippi.

Ranch Hand Supply only stocks the 8" and to pick one up it would be about 100 miles out of my way on a trip between my sites.

On some site (RHS?) I ran across the comment that the 6" model is Chinese and the 8" European, but I can't track it down again.

My B7610 beats the minimum spec for the 8" (15HP) and the largest I envision chipping with it would be about 4". Down in Mississippi I know I will go bigger, both with branches and tractors.

So my question for the TBN borg is are there any disadvantages y'all can see from going to the 8"?

[xring100]

My buddies 8" jinma is definitely Chinese and definitely on its third drive shaft/ feed drum assembly. I think he spends almost as much time repairing it as he does using it

Dave

[Baby Grand]

Check you B7610's 3pt capacities vs. the Chipper's weight and distance to CG from the hitch pins.
Especially against the 8". Just make sure you can pick it up and move it safely.

Something else to consider:
If you put something big into the chipper when hitched to your B7610, what rotating component will fail first?
Hopefully it has an easily adjustable slip clutch or has the ability to run a Class 2 shear pin.

Personally, I wouldn't put anything larger than a 3 or 4" chipper on the 15 HP machine.
I know myself, and the temptation to throw something over 3" or 4" into the hopper changes day-to-day.
A hardwood 4.5" trunk can stall my 26.5 PTO HP machine if I don't have the PTO slip clutch fine tuned.
That's not good. Managed to put a 45 [deg] twist in the PTO shaft that way.

Give a serious look at the Wallenstein machines. You'll spend more up front, but I think you'll recover the investment fairly quickly in terms of having a chipper ready to go when you need it. I'm sure some of the Jimas are great units. My problem with them is that it seems like the Ministry of Exports gives a requirement and set of blueprints to the Department of Manufacturing via the Commissar of Domestic Employment for 12,000 chippers. The contracts go out to 7 different factories that have various manufacturing and quality control skills. So you never know what you're getting.

[newbury]

My buddies 8" jinma is definitely Chinese and definitely on its third drive shaft/ feed drum assembly. I think he spends almost as much time repairing it as he does using it

Dave

Is your buddy on TBN?

[newbury]

Check you B7610's 3pt capacities <snip>

1058 pounds 24" behind the lift point.

[natem]

Get the wallanstien and be done with it. I bought the Chinese chipper, and then bought the Wallenstein. Wish I had just spent the.extra money up front. Wallenstein is a much better built machine.

[newbury]

Get the wallanstien and be done with it. I bought the Chinese chipper, and then bought the Wallenstein. Wish I had just spent the.extra money up front. Wallenstein is a much better built machine.

Thanks for your input.
However on this thread there's little but praise, basically saying that with some minor modification they are well worth the money.

What model did you have?

The difference in price for the larger Wallenstein versus the Jinma is about 100% ($3500 vs $1750). I envision using it about 10 times a year at the most. For me to rent a 6" chipper from Sunbelt it's about $250/day. So I'm looking at a tradeoff of renting, buying a used small chipper like a 4" Bearcat, or buying a new Jinma.

If I had a business, used one at least weekly, and could write it off on my taxes I agree a "name brand" one for $3,500 would be worth it.

So my question for the TBN borg is are there any disadvantages y'all can see from going to the 8"?

So far one poster mentioned weight might be an issue.

Are there any other issues?

[xring100]

Is your buddy on TBN?

No but i just read the other thread linked on this one and it sounds like he had the exact same problem as timbatrader I know when the last set of parts came in they were actually different and required slight modification to the chipper to install the new drum and drive shaft parts.

[DeeDubya]

I have an 8" Liberty (same as Jinma) and recommend it over the 6" even though you won't be chipping anything that big. The larger size helps a lot when feeding branches with a lot of foliage. It will bottleneck and bunch up and the larger opening helps it feed through. Also, I think the 8" has a larger flywheel (185lbs on mine).

[newbury]

Well I called CircleG and they told me that they gotten a few 8" Jinma's in and compared them to the 6". Apparently they were identical except for the size of the opening. Same belts etc.

Note that at ranchhandsupplyl he lists the 8" as having

135 pound Flywheel. ( we weighed a flywheel with the cutting blades installed)

. And I just got off the phone with the proprieter and he told me that he's weighed both the 6" and 8" and they weigh the same. He only sells the 8" because it's identical to the 6" except for the hole.

So my conundrum is over in my mind. Unless I find a good Wallenstein or similar on craigslist I'll probably go with an 8" from ranchhandsupply.