3pt Wood Chipper Recommendation

[FatTire]

nisaacs--- off-topic, we have a red healer that looks pretty darn similar to yours. His personality is that of a "jester".

 

[RadarTech]

I read all these posts, then I looked at cost and purchased a woodland mills TF810…today was the first day using it.

It is an 8 inch chipper behind a Yanmar yt359c.
We chewed up oak, and everything else below 6 inches like candy..
I have not tried anything bigger..
I would not consider anything that wasn’t twin flywheel now..

 

[5030]

The power of my Kubota M6040 and the heavy fly wheel of the Wally BX62S are a perfect match. Even when chipping the 6" green pines - the Kubota does not slow down.

Some years my son and his friend will come out and help. When it's time to chip. NOBODY - including me - likes the dragging part. When I finish falling all the trees in a stand - looks like a giants game of Pick-Up-Sticks.

So.....decide where best to have a pile. Start dragging the fallen trees to that spot. I'm not working hard enough unless I stumble and fall a couple times. Most stands will take four or five piles.

When all the fallen trees from all the stands have been drug to piles - it's time to chip. It's also time to let all the scrapes/bangs on my forelegs heal somewhat.

Chipping is the fun part. My Kubota/Wally setup will take trees as fast as you can feed it. Best to wear gloves. The bark on a pine tree will grind the palm of your hand to hamburger - without gloves.

So much for the life of a tree farmer.

Why most 'professional' chippers come equipped with an above feed chute winch and cable, so you can skid the trees to the chipper chute. It's skids them and lifts the butt into the chute. Sure you could fab up something with an inexpensive HF winch. A 3500 pound, 12 volt HF winch would be plenty. HF even sells a wireless remote as well as a pendant remote. I installed the wireless remote on our Kubota SxS and I can operate the winch from the drivers seat. Put the 3500 pound winch on the SxS. You can get them with a steel cable or a synthetic rope, your choice and they are on sale presently. You'd need a 12 volt power supply but your tractor is 12 volt, so a 12 volt male-female plug and a bit of wiring along with an above chute frame is all you'd need. 3500 pound is plenty enough to skid any wood you need to chip. Me' I'd go with synthetic rope so it it gets sucked into the chipper, it won't destroy the knives.

I almost did that with the Chinese chipper I had but sold it instead. It went within hours on Facebook Marketplace and I got what I paid for it. I find roasting to be better, besides, I'm a closet pyro.

I work on commercial chippers here at the shop and every commercial chipper I work on, has a pull in winch on it. Pretty much SOP on a commercial unit.

You'd have to fab up a frame and build it rigid enough to take the pull strain of the winch however and because most homeowner chippers are 3PH mounted. the tractor hitch overcomes the pull strain.

If I ever bought another one (highly doubtful), it would have a pull in winch installed with a remote control, either a pendant or wireless.

 

[hayden]

I've had three PTO chippers now, the first with manual "self-feeding", and the last two with hydraulic powered feeds. Unless your use is very occasional, and very small volume, I would only consider a model with a power feed, and even then dragging branches and getting them started into the machine will wear you out quickly. They will pull bigger branches through, bending over most side branches to consume the whole thing. The result is little to no pruning to get stuff to fit. It's also a big advantage to a machine with a larger size capacity like 6" or 8" vs 4" or 5". It's not that you necessarily need to chip an 8" stem, but the extent of side branches that will successfully feed through the machine.

And if your use is only occasional and low volume, I'd suggest not getting a chipper in the first place. The smaller, non power-feed machines are really only good for stick and small branches, and everything has to be pruned down to that size to fit through. A brush pile or burn pile will deal with them just as well, leaving you with one less machine to maintain, store, and pay for.

 

[ChrisFromWisconsin]

I have a Wallenstein BX52 which is supposedly self-feeding, but I don't think it could self feed a 2x4. Otherwise it's a robust machine. I know for a fact the chute is stronger than the garden gate and garage side seal... It does have the option to fold up the chute for transit which I need to get into the habit of doing.

I think the price of the Woodmaxx hydraulic feed is appealing. I have their snowblower and it's overbuilt.

 

[hayden]

I have a Wallenstein BX52 which is supposedly self-feeding, but I don't think it could self feed a 2x4. Otherwise it's a robust machine. I know for a fact the chute is stronger than the garden gate and garage side seal... It does have the option to fold up the chute for transit which I need to get into the habit of doing.

I think the price of the Woodmaxx hydraulic feed is appealing. I have their snowblower and it's overbuilt.

Yeah, I had a Patu years ago that was "self feeding", sort of, some of the time. The only thing I would consider is a power feed of some sort, typically hydraulic driven.