Chipper My new Woodmaxx WM-8H wood chipper

[DennisFolsom]

Here are photos of a tree and some limbs that I cut today, to test the new chipper when it arrives. These are fir, hemlock and pine. The fir tree was 9" x 10" at the lower cut. I cut the tree down, about 2 ft high, where the trunk was about 7.5". I then ripped down through the rest of the trunk and cut it off the stump. My wife has long wanted this tree cut. (Shades the flowers that she planted in the shade.) Up to now, I have defended the poor thing from her by refusing to cut it. Wife is away on a trip. I thought I would surprise her by cutting the tree while she was away.

This afternoon's session about takes care of the east side of the driveway. I have a lot more to cut and trim on the west side. That's where the power line is. I'll be putting come-alongs on some of the larger trees there, to make doubly sure they drop away from the power line.

On the rest of our wooded 19 acres, I have a lot more trimming to do!

 

[CanuckPT]

The hydraulic intake is so efficient that the most difficult part is keeping the chipper fed!! I'm very impressed with mine!!

Sent from my iPhone using TractorByNet

 

[DennisFolsom]

:dance1:My delivery date is tomorrow (Fri, 4/24).:dance1:

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Here are photos of a tree and some limbs that I cut today, to test the new chipper when it arrives. These are fir, hemlock and pine. The fir tree was 9" x 10" at the lower cut. I cut the tree down, about 2 ft high, where the trunk was about 7.5". I then ripped down through the rest of the trunk and cut it off the stump. My wife has long wanted this tree cut. (Shades the flowers that she planted in the shade.) Up to now, I have defended the poor thing from her by refusing to cut it. Wife is away on a trip. I thought I would surprise her by cutting the tree while she was away.

This afternoon's session about takes care of the east side of the driveway. I have a lot more to cut and trim on the west side. That's where the power line is. I'll be putting come-alongs on some of the larger trees there, to make doubly sure they drop away from the power line.

On the rest of our wooded 19 acres, I have a lot more trimming to do!

What I see there is, a nice "brush pile" in the corner of my property for wildlife and some firewood... lol AT LEAST that's how it's treated on my property...

SR

 

[DennisFolsom]

What I see there is, a nice "brush pile" in the corner of my property for wildlife and some firewood... lol AT LEAST that's how it's treated on my property...

SR

I've got some of those - some I made and some from before. One of my problems is that my woodland is very wet and the tractor cuts through the mat if I travel the same path too many times. Carrying brush, stumps and other natural waste to my "rot in peace" piles has created some very deep ruts in places. I'm planning to put a lot of my chips into my tractor road. My theory is that chips mixed with mud will make a better road than mud by itself.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

I've done that myself before, in a few years i ended up with even more mud that seemed even more slippery, I didn't like the way that worked and stopped doing it...

SR

 

[tman1020]

The chips will help at first but won't last very long. Then it will create a spongie mat that holds moisture in. I used to put the wood chips from lot clearing on the drive way of my new construction sites but it causes more problems than it helped.

 

[DennisFolsom]

My chipper arrived at about 12:30 PM yesterday (4/24). At some point in shipping, one of the feet had been broken off the steel frame/crate, and some of the others were squat down. I could see no damage to the chipper. The damage to the crate caused the trucker and I to have a struggle getting it on his pallet jack, to move to the back of the truck. I got out a 5 foot crowbar, which we used to lift it enough to get it on.
We were able to position it so that I could get my tractor fork under it. I picked it from the back of the truck.

My 11 year old grandson, Joey, helped me unpack the components from the crate. Due to the limited overhead space in the garage, I decided not to lift the chipper out of the crate with the loader, but hooked it up to the 3 point instead. With the 3 point raised, and Joey holding the hydraulic control assembly out of the way, I managed to wiggle the crate off off the machine. By the time Joey's mom came to pick him up at 3:15, we had the chipper sitting on its feet and skids, as shown in the second photo.

I stopped for a late lunch, then continued with the assembly, taking time to check nearly all of the bolts. I chose to install the bolts in the feed hopper with the heads in, and the nuts out. The first time I watched the assembly video online, I wondered why they didn't do that. With the heads on the inside, I have less for the branches to snag on. They did have a note in the manual, saying that it was an option to put the heads in. You can't do that on the 4 bolts that hold the hydraulic control assembly, though. I think it was a little more difficult to assemble the way I did, especially the bolts that hold the feed roll assist lever on.

By the time the assembly was done and the hydraulic tank filled, it was getting dark. I ran the tractor outside and did the purging run on the hydraulic feed. I found a leak on a fitting I hadn't tightened enough, so I took care of that.

 

[DennisFolsom]

Today (4/25), I had my first chipping session. I used my utility trailer to catch the chips as I took care of the softwood brush and fir tree from Wednesday's session (see post #31 in this thread). The chipper worked great!:thumbsup: I set the speed control at 7 (on a 10 scale). That fed fast enough that I was never waiting for the chipper to clear. I love that hydraulic feed!

The 5" trunk section of the fir tree went right through at speed 7 without stopping. When I fed the 7.5" section, I did have to stop and start the feed a few times. Perhaps, if I had set a slower speed, it would have gone continuously. I decided not to try to chip the two larger splits form the base of the tree.

My next trimming session will include some maple and some beech. Any hardwood over 2 or 2.5 inches will be made into firewood, though. I'm anxious to see how the chipper does on the hardwood branches.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Did you see the you tube where a guy had some problems with his, and HE SAID the factory told him that the customer is suppose to take the chipper apart to tighten every bolt except on the flywheel before using it??

You may want to check that out... I think blue loc-tite is your friend!

SR