Buying Advice Wood Chipper for 12 acres

[oldballs]

I bought a Woodland Mills WC68 for my Kubota B2650 (19 HP at the PTO).....about two years now with about 50 hours on it.....

The product itself, the service and support, price and the shipping have been outstanding. Can say the same for their Stump Grinder.

I feed from the side and walk forward as the crazy shaped branches (mostly dead Cedar limbs) whip around going into the hydraulic feed. That saves a slap up side the head. I'm coming up on 88 years old and can still appreciate its utility. Like oosik, I burn the old dead (Pine Bark Beetle) Pine trees in the winter.....but heck ....some of them are 60 feet tall.

Sometimes I shoot the chips back into the trees and sometimes I collect them in a trailer for paths etc.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[3Ts]

Tell her you'll have more time for square dancing if you get a better tool for chipping.

You have NO idea as to what you're suggesting!

I hadn't even thought of that, even though I should have. I don't know if there are any square dance clubs around here, but she and I met at a square dance. She and I and one other couple would go visit other clubs and even did some round dances including some exhibition dances. I mentioned your post to her and she laughed, so I think that means yes.

 

[NickTaylor]

You have NO idea as to what you're suggesting!

I hadn't even thought of that, even though I should have. I don't know if there are any square dance clubs around here, but she and I met at a square dance. She and I and one other couple would go visit other clubs and even did some round dances including some exhibition dances. I mentioned your post to her and she laughed, so I think that means yes.

Yes sounds like a good answer! Place your order before she wises up and says no...

 

[Rod in Forfar]

The initial question in this thread asked for a chipper for small acreage which will work on a 22 hp compact tractor. I own what I thought as a Wallenstein 4" which I bought used from a farmer in Ottawa who had it on his Kubota B7510, the same 21 hp model which I own. Turns out the chipper is a counterfeit, complete with everything but a serial number. I grew suspicious when the plate which allows the chute to rotate was made of black plexiglass, rather than steel. It had shattered on the machine, but otherwise it was in good condition. I ordered a replacement from Wallenstein through my local Kubota dealer, and it fit fine.

Turns out the fake is a pretty good chipper. The first clone I looked at had a flywheel which was so warped the blades could not match up with the anvil with any precision. But the one I bought had a true alignment.

I planted a lot of black walnuts on the farm fifteen years ago and they need pruning a couple of times a year. The Kubota and chipper travel with me down the rows as I drag limbs to the machine. Pruning is my preferred form of exercise over the fall, winter and early spring, so the chipper gets significant hours and it and the Kubota have held up very well to the work. Walnut limbs are easy. 4" cut size isn't enough size for whole 8' pine trees, and they must be limbed. Apple, pear, mulberry, hard maple, beech and elm all chop well. The straight, small branches at the tips of soft maples tend to clog the machine, so I have learned to hold onto the tips as they feed and discard them to the chip pile. This isn't hard to do on a gravity-feed machine.

I forget what I paid for the thing. $1500 CDN comes to mind. At the time I thought I had been cheated, but it has become a favourite tool on the farm.

 

[rademamj1]

Counterfeit tractor implements ? First time I have heard, that such things exist. Happily in your case, the counterfeit Wallenstein Chipper was of sufficient quality to give you many years of service.

I googled and found counterfeit implements are not considered an issue within the overall tractor implement industry.

 

[BCWoodtick]

Mike,
Is the B2650 enough power for the WC68? I'm just starting to look at chippers as the mulch would do me a lot more benefit than ash.
I watched the you tube demo and looked great but they were using a 38hp. I have the B2650 with back hoe and very happy with it but like you state only 19hp at pto.
If I commit to that much money I want to make sure I am happy with the power output.

 

[oosik]

Look at the Woodland Mills web site. They suggest 20 to 50hp. At 19hp you will be at the very low end of what is recommended. Will it work - yes. But it will be slow and will struggle with larger wood. Soft wood such as pine will go faster. Hard wood such as black locust will be slow.

My Wallenstein BX62S with my 54 PTO hp M6040 goes easily with pine up to and including the largest size I can choke down the chute. Dry and age hardened apple wood is a different story. It goes slower and causes the chipper to buck and jump around.

The BX62S is recommended for 35 to 100hp tractors. Optimal range - 60 to 70hp.

It simple operational dynamics of the system. The harder you ask it to work - the more hp it will require.

 

[oldballs]

Mike,
Is the B2650 enough power for the WC68? I'm just starting to look at chippers as the mulch would do me a lot more benefit than ash.
I watched the you tube demo and looked great but they were using a 38hp. I have the B2650 with back hoe and very happy with it but like you state only 19hp at pto.
If I commit to that much money I want to make sure I am happy with the power output.

Woodtick...oosik's answer is good too. I found my B2650 to able to process everything that I put in it. I set the feed at #5. That machine will work you harder than it is working. Most of what I have chipped is dead Eastern Red Cedar long branches. If I had more HP at the PTO, I don't know what difference it would have made for my jobs....maybe just feed faster. Most of the branches that I feed are less than 3-4 inches. A bigger PTO HP would handle it better I'm sure.

This past week I have been using my MacKissic Mighty Mac Chipper/Shredder to clean up some small piles of trash limbs. It is a 10 HP gasoline towable unit that I've used for 10 years. It is great for smaller home owner jobs and a reliable American made machine....just as additional info.

I tried to post pics .... but now it will not take them?????

Cheers,
Mike

 

[s219]

Whatever you look into, look for hydraulic feed. Manual feed (self feed) requires one person to stand there and feed the entire time.

It's quite the opposite in my experience -- put the material in the chute and then get the heck out of the way because it gets sucked in like an Italian eating spaghetti and can flop over and whack you. So it's very productive because I can drop in a limb and it self-feeds while I go get the next one. When I have a helper we pretty much keep the chipper chipping non-stop. Nobody stands near the chipper, nor would it be advisable/safe to do so.

 

[s219]

Regarding the counterfeits, there are quite few Chinese companies that have copied Wallenstein. Once in a while we'll hear about one on TBN. They seem OK in most cases but there have been some interesting failures.

Before Chinese companies were copying Wallenstein, they had their own designs and those are real crapshoots. Jinma has quite a reputation with chippers. If you can tighten all the fasteners and fix all the problems, they are decent, but periodically they seem to want to shred belts and parts.