Wood Chipper (PTO vs stand alone)

[Budweiser John]

My Woodmax hydraulic tractor driven Chipper has done everything I’ve asked to do.
I welded up a dedicated wheeled dolly for the Chipper so it’s a snap to install on the 3Ph and when not in use, can be rolled to a dark corner of the machine shed. This machine will happily digest a steady diet of three to four inch saplings with without removing the side limbs and although touted to consume eight inch logs, I think that capacity is more advertising hype than fact. The reality is material over four inches goes to the firewood pile so it’s a non issue for me.
Being able to drive the tractor with Chipper along fence rows or woodland trails it’s cut chip and move on.
I think a stand alone unit would be a PITA to maintain, house, and haul around but different strokes for different folks.
B. John

 

[otherguy]

thanks for all the input, I think i will stick with the PTO driven one.

Think it will either be the WoodMaxx WM-8H or the MX-8800, they seem very similar, will have to call to see what the price tag difference is, they seem like very similar machines.

 

[ericm979]

The MX has hydrostatic drive. The 8H's hydraulic drive is difficult to adjust between full speed and about 1/4 speed. It's essentially no movement of the adjuster lever. It's only slightly better from 1/4 to zero. That makes it difficult to get a repeatable feed speed. I think the flow adjuster they use is too large- it's a 16 gpm and the system is 3 gpm. Having a narrow adjustment range is what the text books say happens in that case. I have a 5 gpm adjuster to try, haven't had time to install it.

The MX also does not have the open slots for the upper feed wheel that the 8H has. Sometimes branches with stubs can wedge in there. I've had that happen twice in 32 hours of operation. I'm still happy with the 8H.

 

[hslogger]

I have the Woodmaxx WM-8H for three or four years now and it has been a great "now and then" machine for MY use. Cleaning up debris from twenty some fruit trees, limbing up some firs, cedars, cottonwood, cherry is fine. I keep the larger diameter stuff for firewood. I have some larger firs I might remove sometime but I will probably use a commercial machine for that simply because................. a big machine can take the wood, nonstop and consistantly. I once did residential tree work for many years using a pull behind arborist quality machine. When you have a guy in the air and a couple brush apes on the ground, when working in harmony, the stuff comes down and wham into the chipper. It is a labor thing. If time is of no real importance, running that stuff in my PTO machine is fine. I plan on keeping this Woodmaxx machine forever unless some one buys it off me and then I will get the BIGGER ONE that I need like another hole in the head.

 

[Code54]

We also have the Woodmaxx WM-8H - while I use it frequently I don't use it for very long at a time. Often and hour or two at a time. Mainly go out, get the mini and dig around a tree and push it over, top it, and chip the brush. Even on 100' tree I mostly don't spend more than 2 hrs chipping (after I limb it all of course and pile it in a central location). With a rental I would never do this, plus by not having the stand alone machine I never have to mess with a separate machine. Just hook it up to my 3pt, use it, grease it, put it back away. Really like having it for when I need it.

 

[Rustyiron]

Considering buying a wood chipper and I am wondering what the better option would be, specifically work flow wise or what is most efficient working wise. I am comparing brand new PTO wood chippers to used commercial style wood chipper. I have seen used commercial type ones that aren't that much more expensive than a new PTO one, which is why I am trying to see what might be the better option.

A commercial unit will run circles around any pto chipper. I had a large pto chipper and sold it for a real (Vermeer) disk type chipper with feed rollers.
Now for running around the yard chipping some trimmings the pto will get it done. If your dragging it to jobs planning on making a living, you need a big gas or diesel pull behind chipper.

 

[JimP]

What is the intended use? A PTO chipper vs commercial trailed chipper: are very different classes of equipment. I had a lot of big slash cleanup to do and stated with a BX42 with hydraulic feed on my Kubota 5240. It chipped some small stuff ok but I spent a lot of time cutting the slash up to fit into the chipper and clearing chipper jams. I sold the chipper (on the plus side sold for more than I paid for it) and bought a used commercial Bandit RM990 drum chipper with a 90 hp diesel. There is no comparison between this small 12 inch capacity commercial chipper and a PTO chipper. 3 people can barely keep it fed if they hustle. The Bandit has a hydraulic winch so I can pull an entire tree in. The big throat means almost no cutting of branches to get them to feed. The Bandit was a lot more expensive than the PTO chipper but it did a lot more work. It was also great having equipment on site. I could hitch up and chip on my schedule rather than having to set aside a whole day to pick up and drop off a rental. A commercial chipper is probably overkill for most maintenance. If you can cut ahead of time you can do a lot of chipping with a one or two day rental.

Whatever you decide be careful, chippers do not tolerate inattention. Get a forestry helmet with good ear protection, you will be smacked with a moving branch at some point and they are LOUD.



Not sure why the picture is upside down.

 

[Rustyiron]

What is the intended use? A PTO chipper vs commercial trailed chipper: are very different classes of equipment. 3 people can barely keep it fed if they hustle. .

That's for sure!

 

[oosik]

Soooo....... does the OP have the need for a high capacity commercial chipper. Is the OP going to have three guys feeding the commercial chipper to maintain optimal efficiency. Recognizing that to have three guys feeding a chipper you will have to identify, fell, limb, pile whatever you have, ahead of time, so these guys aren't waiting for material to feed the chipper.

 

[shui5612]

Personally I agree with what most has been said but in my opinion it depends on what you are chipping.

I personally had a wood chipper that had a 4inch capacity. Anything larger and I would cut it into logs and I've had plenty of people come take them for free to make into firewood or I burned down some sections myself in an outdoor fire pit.

Stand alone vs pto?

Depends on how much power you have.

Realistically a stand alone will do a better job since it can be towed from site to site, and can be resold quite easily (atleast here) versus a pto powered one that NEEDs a tractor and the potential buyer needs one that is of the same or similar capacity...

I.e. if you get a pto chipper that needs a 250 hp tractor to run or is designed for s 15hp tractor... you might have issues finding a buyer if the majority of the tractors in your area are in the 60-110 hp range..

If you plan on keeping the set-up for 5-7 years and up.. then it doesn't matter what you would get since it would pay off for itself in that time..

Get something that suits your needs. Also. If a chipper has a 6inch max diameter.. and you plan on cutting down 6 inch logs to feed it... please look into a machine capable of 8inches.. you'll be a lot happier since it will chip faster and you'll put less wear on the machine...

I was close to getting a tow-behind chipper a couple months ago with a 16 inch capacity... used machine for a great price.. probably would only feed it logs up to 5 inches at most in diameter.. but it was cheap.. and I know it would re-sell fast after I was done with it in a season or two.
(Ended up not getting it because I found a guy who would take whatever I would cut down, and would park 3 trailers in my yard to fill up that he would come empty every day or 2 or as soon as they were full).