Wood Chipping

[52wej]

Mike How do you like your new chipper? I have been looking at them on line and wondered how folks like them. Does the hydraulic feed work smoothly? W. Jones

 

[oldballs]

Hey W. Jones.....

I can say that the Woodland Mills WC 68 has met my expectations. By now, I have probably logged about 15 hours on the machine with a variety of tree species.

It depends on what kind of tree limbs/brush/green/dried/ crooked you are feeding the intake. As you can imagine, straight green limbs feed quite easily. Currently I have been chipping dead dry cedar limbs that are rigid and long. Sometime I have to wiggle the butt end a bit for it to grab hold. Same is true for the bushy rigid stuff. It's still work on these hot days, but I am satisfied. The reverse hydraulic usually releases the source of a jam, and one just moves right on again.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[oosik]

What oldballs says - exactly. I've never had hydraulic in-feed. Don't need it. The young pines are straight as an arrow and soft. The chipper will take and chip all that it can pull in - thru the chipping action.

If I had crooked or hard wood - completely different matter. With hard wood you need the hydraulic feed to slow things down a bit. It could feed the hard stuff too fast and choke.

I had five old, dry, weather hardened apple trees that I chipped two years ago. The chipping action pulled this wood in so fast that I blew a shear pin on one piece. If I would have had hydraulic in feed - I could have slowed the chipping down at bit and avoided this.

 

[52wej]

Thanks for the update Mike. I have a DR PTO Chipper and on small green STRAIGHT AND NARROW branches it works fine. But with any wide branches you have to wrestle them in. Plus having and adjustable blower spout is a nice benefit. W Jones

 

[ericm979]

I've had both self feeding (or "chuck and duck") and hydraulic feed chippers. I'll never go back to self feeding. Hydraulic feed is much safer. It requires much less fiddling to get material to feed. It feeds at a consistent rate instead of sucking it in fast. And you can stop the feed if you need to, or reverse it if theres a jam.

 

[oosik]

The only time I've ever had the Wally spit things back is when I chip short ( 2' or less ) chunks. The hanging baffles stop it from coming all the way back out. Otherwise - everything I chip is, at least, 10 feet long or longer. The only jam was the one time I chipped the apple trees. Got a couple jams from the twisted, weather hardened limbs.

 

[oldballs]

Those long twisted weather hardened branches will slap you in the kisser when that hydraulic feed starts pulling them in.....better watch out then.:shocked:

 

[hslogger]

I just got done brushing out an old fence row with collapsed woven wire in it. I replaced the fence with welded cattle panels, only a ninety foot run. I'm running a woodmaxx hydraulic feed unit. I ran the blackberry vines through it enough to clog the teeth. Chasing it with straight limbs and branches is standard operating procedure. Wild cherry is very hard, and I keep it down to five inches in the chipper, the rest goes for firewood. On this gig I just blew all the chips back to the area I cleared. Often I use a small pull trailer behind the riding mower like others use. I put four foot plywood sides on three sides and just blow it in there so I can the chips for mulch around the house. I have been real happy with this chipper overall and don't regret purchasing it four or five years ago.

 

[ericm979]

Those long twisted weather hardened branches will slap you in the kisser when that hydraulic feed starts pulling them in.....better watch out then.:shocked:

Even with the feed speed set high on my hydraulic feed chipper it's not feeding all that fast. While a self feeder with sharp knives will suck that tree in quick. Much faster than the hydraulic feed chipper, and with significant force. That, and the reluctance to feed unless it's just right, are what makes them more dangerous.