Can everyone please tell me their preference as far as chippers being used attached to their pto's or is it better to have a seperate unit so it frees up their pride and joy? I have a new 3710 HST and am in the market for a chipper. I have not decided whether to attach it or use a complete seperate unit.
For me, I went with a PTO powered chipper (manufactured by Bolens, which I believe is owned by Garden Way now). I don't use it all that often, and didn't want the maintenance associated with having another motor to take care of. It was also less expensive. My chipper has a bottom exhaust (doesn't shoot the chips out of a chute) and is a manual feed. I bought it used last year for a real good price, and it has worked well for me.
Some folks worry about running up the hours on their tractor engines just to run a chipper. Based on what I've heard and read on this forum, there are very few of us that will ever put enough hours on our machines to worry about wearing them out.
I like having my chipper on my tractor...I have a lot of hard to get places on my property and its nice to be able to chip whereever I can get the tractor...I also didn't want a second engine to maintain. I have a Woods 8100. 8" chipper w/hyd feed. Not cheap, but if you can lift it, you can chip it....