PTO Chipper, Victory vs Woodmax

[RyeThomas]

If the Chinese units are the same quality, engineering, and materials, then no issue, but the ones I have seen are not as well made as the name brands, at least not to the eye. The welds are not as good and I wonder about the quality of the steel, balancing of flywheel, bearings, etc -- stuff you can't tell by eye. A well made Chinese product can be fine, but that's often hard to know/verify. So I'd say to at least go with an importer that other people have bought from, and hopefully it's a company that has parts/support.

You are 100% spot on. Being in Va though I won’t be able to get my hands on one pre purchase. Thank you for your post, it is very valid. At the same time someone needs to try one of these.

 

[flingwing1969]

This is similar to a Woodmaxx 8H but not the same. The safety bar is below the feed chute, not above. The feed chute is more open at the top. The arms between the upper moving feed roller and the springs are wider, blocking access to the slot in the housing behind them. Since stuff sometimes jams in there that will make it harder to clear the jam. The safety bar looks like a better design than Woodmaxx but it may get tripped by branches a lot.

The feed speed control valve is a simple valve not a proportional speed control valve. Early Woodmaxxes had that too then they went to the proportional valve. If you read up on hydraulic flow control that's a better type of valve. Woodmaxx uses too large a valve however which makes having the better type of valve less of an advantage. I replaced their 16gpm one with a 4 gpm unit and it works much better. You could put the good valve on the Victory with some fab work to make a bracket, and hoses.

Woodmaxx has an adjustable 3pt hitch, Victory's is fixed. Woodmaxx has full length skids on the legs, the Victory just has small pads. The Woodmaxx has two 8" blades. It'd be interesting to find out what size blades are on the Victory. The Woodmaxx discharge chute turns 360 degrees, this one's only 270 but looks similar otherwise.

The differences are so numerous that there's no way it came off the same line as the Woodmaxx. So I would not expect it to benefit from Woodmaxx demanding a certain quality level from the factory. It might be built to the same quality or it might not. Until there's some reports from purchasers you'll be taking a chance.

Betst Co sells Victory (from the west coast). They have posted here in the past though not recently. If they sell these then you should be able to get parts etc from them. Getting parts from China can be tough unless the trading house you're buying from is set up to support individual purchasers. Some are, some are more like distributors.

Thanks for that comprehensive comparison. I have been impressed with the Woodmazz's performance but, not having one, it is difficult to evaluate the difference between these two similar-looking products. Ya' done good - thanks again.

 

[RyeThomas]

I just wanted to follow up, thus far I have sent them 3 emails. 2 on Saturday and one Sunday. I have recieved prompt responses to all of my emails and questions. They list there business hours as Monday-Friday only. It may be a little thing to some but I’ve contacted companies on the weekend about big things or issues and I haven’t heard back for days or at all.
I may have to give them a shot.
I’d still like to hear from someone who has one of there products.

 

[flingwing1969]

Hey, the price is really nice.

 

[ericm979]

Which seller are you talking to? For future reference as some day I'll get a flail mower. I've bought a lot of Chinese bicycle parts and the seller makes all the difference. You're usually not dealing with the factory even when you buy from China, it's a trading house.

To be fair to Woodmaxx, if you chip 4" and under material you can leave the feed control on full speed. I didn't bother to buy the smaller valve for nearly a year. Recently I started chipping a lot of large stuff. For that I need to slow the feed down very slow and be able to do it repeatedly as I chip a pile that has mixed large and small stuff. Also I like controls to work well. I'm the only person I know of here who had done the valve swap.

 

[RyeThomas]

Victory Tractor Implements out of Cali-Fornia, LOL.

 

[RyeThomas]

Well I slept on it and pulled the trigger this AM on the Victory WC8H . It should be here in 2 weeks, I will report back with a new thread, honest review and video. Someone needed to give them a shot, guess I’ll either be a hero or a big dummy. I’m used to the latter, lol.

Thanks Gents, Rye.

 

[flingwing1969]

Well I slept on it and pulled the trigger this AM on the Victory WC8H . It should be here in 2 weeks, I will report back with a new thread, honest review and video. Someone needed to give them a shot, guess I’ll either be a hero or a big dummy. I’m used to the latter, lol.

Thanks Gents, Rye.

I will certainly be looking forward to your experience. Great value if the product is good. Thanks, in advance.

 

[Overtaxed]

Just wanted to add, I have the Woodmaxx 8M, it's a great chipper, but, if I'd been able to a hydraulic for the price you're getting it, I would have done that instead. I've had a few "belt smoking" moments when something went into the feed chute wrong and jammed the roller, would be real nice to have a reverse and just spit it out rather than a run to the PTO control (before the belt breaks) and then digging it out of the machine. Enjoy, if it's as good as the Woodmaxx, you'll be real happy!

 

[RyeThomas]

Well she arrived in a nice metal framed box yesterday, of course at 5:30pm in my 9-5 window. HA! I will say even dry this is a heavy bugger at a little over 1000lbs. The 200lb flywheel helps.
We are having a rain/snow event so I probably won’t start assembly till Thursday, then I’m assuming I’ll have to let it dry out a bit. Chipping wet material seems like a disaster waiting to happen. I’ll probably have to wait till Saturday or next week to get some test run time in. Then I’ve got to put her to work and make some money rather than spend it.
I will keep this thread up to date for anyone interested. This was a big purchase and I hope it works out. It boggles my mind most of these name brand PTO Chippers are $1800+ and they are Manual feed, not even mechanical but Manual. So for $2145.00 shipped to my door with Hydraulic In feed, while still a fortune if it works out will be a homerun.
I assure you I will be critical of the machine and I’m sure there will be a few bumps along the way. Stay tuned...