wood chipping

   / wood chipping #1  

chuck172

Platinum Member
Joined
Aug 2, 2006
Messages
843
Location
N.E, Pa.
Tractor
Kioti DK40SEH, Ford 4500TLB, Ford 8n
thinking of buying a WoodMaxx WM-8H pto chipper this spring. I'd like to know how it will do on old brush piles. I have lots of old brush piles I'd like to chip.
 
   / wood chipping #2  
I can only offer the experience I have had recently shopping, not owning. I don't own a chipper.

The Woodmaxx is priced far less than name brands like Wallenstein or Valby. Half the price or less. Obviously that doesn't sound normal.

Best I can tell, the chipper sold by Woodmaxx is the Chinese Jinma chipper, which is also marketed under many other names by many other companies. For example, Wallenstein has a 4" chipper called the BX42. Someone else markets a BX42S, which I believe is a Chinese copy. I think it is the Titan BX42S. btw, this has created so much market confusion that I recently saw a BX42S chipper sold at an auction for ABOVE retail price to buy a new one. I'm guessing a bidder mistakenly got pricing for the Wallenstein, then bid on something else with almost exactly the same part number. The bidder thought he got a steal at half price, but actually paid more than he should have.

I saw online complaints about the Jinma, mostly quality control of build like tightening all the bolts, etc. Somewhere I read that the Woodmaxx is a Jinma that is checked over prior to shipment, to make sure bolts are tight, etc. In the end, I didn't buy anything. I saw mostly good reviews of the Woodmaxx, but really hesitated about buying an intertia-driven "anything" if I did not exactly understand what I was buying. I need a tool that accomplishes work, not a garage queen constantly needing maintenance. To be fair, I saw plenty of reviews of people happy with their Woodmaxx chipper. But if I bought one today I'd probably spend the extra money to get a Valby or Salsco with hydraulic feed. Good luck with your choice and if you buy one I hope you post your experience here.
 
   / wood chipping #3  
I thought about purchasing a chipper several years ago. I thought it would be nice to have my own and have it on hand to use whenever I wanted. After thinking about it and the cost of a quality chipper and maintenance, I rented a commercial chipper with more capacity than I could ever afford to purchase for my own use. It was an excellent economical and time saving decision on my part. Time saving because of it's capacity. It would chip the wood faster than I could feed it. And the rental fee wasn't really that high.

If you have a local rental center near you, I would at least look into renting a chipper before purchasing one.

What ever you decide, just use extreme caution around any chipper and be safe.
 
   / wood chipping #4  
The Woodmaxx WM-8H is not a Jinma. They're totally different. It is made in China, to Woodmaxx's specs. They do final QA and assemble some US made parts like knives before shipping. The 8H is hydraulic feed.

I haven't bought a Woodmaxx yet but I'm going to get an 8H soon. My experience with my current MacKissick chipper is that old piles are kind of unpleasant to chip. Some woods get hard when dry, and dry foliage shakes a lot of dust loose while chipping. Hydraulic feed will make it a bit better as self-feeding chippers sometimes don't feed as well on hard dry material. I have a lot of them to do myself though.

Hopefully your piles were made with the butts in one direction. Makes it much easier.

Renting has some drawbacks. The rental yards' open 8-5 but with travel time, buffer for traffic, time to check in and out, I'm lucky to have 6 hours of possible use. With daily rental you want to maximize your use which means working all day. It's rare that I have an entire day to devote to chipping. Chipping all day, especially if you feel that you're on the clock, can get tiring. Tired people make mistakes. Most chippers are reasonably safe but a mistake can be fatal. With a chipper I own I can go chip for a couple hours and get something accomplished.

Besides renting a commercial chipper you can look into buying a used one. Where I am used ones with an 8" capacity cost $10k and up, and they're very well used. With a self-powered chipper you have an extra engine to maintain, and a chipper on a trailer is more difficult to move around than a 3pt chipper.

Besides Woodmaxx there's also Woodland Mills, a Canadian designed Chinese built chipper at a similar price. Their design is different than Woodmaxx and you may like it better. Woodmaxx also has US made models.
 
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   / wood chipping #5  
In my experience, old, dry brush piles are the hardest thing to chip. The wood is HARD. That makes it tough on your knives and LOUD to chip. Old branches get tangled together and are then hard to separate to be able to feed in.
 
   / wood chipping #6  
I bought the WM 8H last month. Its not a Jinma. Very well built machine including fit and finish. The final assembly including knives and drive assembly's are done in Akron NY. I elected to pay the extra $150 for a USA made pto shaft. Also elected to go the hydraulic feed route. Much easier to get limbs and branches out by just hitting the reverse lever rather than trying to tug and pull out manually ! I have put 6 inch material through...but that was for test purposes to see how it would handle it...no problem. Anything over 4 inches is firewood so this machine is a good fit for us. I just drive the tractor and unit to where we want to chip and get started !! Rental stores are to far away....plus as someone mentioned, doing chipping for 8 hrs takes a toll on your body unless you are young ! With your own chipper you do it when you want .....
 
   / wood chipping #7  
Old and dried out brush piles are a not much fun to chip. Green wood chips easier and has more elasticity as far as the feed is concerned. Dry stuff tends to break off sometimes while feeding. I have run large commercial arborist chippers powered by gas and diesel engines and the same goes for them. Difference is that they have bigger throats, more horse power and you can jam stuff in there. Dry chipping repeat, aint much fun.
 
   / wood chipping #8  
The Woodmaxx is a REALLY nice chipper and a GREAT value. I have owned a Wallenstein, sold it and bought the Woodmaxx for greater capacity. I have NO regrets doing this and am very pleased with the Woodmaxx. Do some searches on this site and you will see a lot of positive feedback.
Good luck
 
   / wood chipping #9  
....old piles are kind of unpleasant to chip. Some woods get hard when dry, and dry foliage shakes a lot of dust loose while chipping. Hydraulic feed will make it a bit better as self-feeding chippers sometimes don't feed as well on hard dry material.


Yep. Keep in mind that "self feeding" really means, "operator's muscle feeding". If you have a lot to do, you want the hydraulic feed.

I agree with Eric's other comments, too. Whether renting or buying makes sense for you depends on whether this is a one-time project or something you'll be doing for years to come.

Another option to consider is buying now, and selling once you have plowed through your piles. If you are going to generate more piles, but have a backlog now, that might make sense, and then rent once a year to keep up.
 
   / wood chipping #10  
My self-feeding chipper rips through material... if it's the right material, fresh, straight, and doesn't have too much foliage. And the blades are sharp. If you're chipping nice straight fresh pine branches without a lot of side branches it'll eat them so fast it will tear them out of your hands. It's when there's bends or forks or too many side branches or the material is dry that I have to start pushing (or breaking branches off, and throughly prepping the material as I'm cutting it). I have a lot of stuff like that. There's 10 acres of coyote brush which grows any way but straight and another 10 of oaks, madrone and doug fir with down trees and trees that need to come down. Once I've cleared the areas I want to clear and have caught up with everything else there's still going to be on going maintenance.

I'm hoping that with 8" and hydraulic feed I can reduce the amount of prep work I need to do as I'm cutting.
 
 
 
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