advice on PTO chipper

[ericm979]

The 8H chips everything except leaves into small pieces. Leaves come out whole or cut in two, where the shredder on the MacKissick would shred them. I kept the MacKissick when I got the 8H and I haven't used it. If I do use it it'd be to shred stuff from the garden when putting it in the compost.

A big drawback to the MacKissick is that the chippings drop out the bottom of the machine. The chips end up on the road instead of next to it, and you have to stop chipping and move the tractor when the pile gets up to the bottom of the chipper.

I'd only get the MacKissick if I had a tractor too small to run the 8H or 86H or I was going to be shredding a lot of fine (< 0.5") material. The MacKissick lists for $400 more and unlike the Woodmaxx shipping is not included.

 

[Ron50]

I second "rd_macgregor". I would also like my 62s to feed slower on some things. It worked great on alders in Oregon, but now I am in Arizona and it is much harder to get the stuff on my property here to feed. 20/20 hindsight says that I should have bought the hydraulic feed for more control. Not available now because the model lineup has changed.

 

[frugalangler]

There was a semi recent thread on PTO chippers. I read through that. My main question is on power feed vs gravity feed. I have only ever used power feed. My uncle has one for his 30hp ford and I have used it quite a bit. I don't recall who made it. He has had it for along time, probably 25 years. Anyway, I have a NH TC-45 and looking for a chipper just for stuff around the homestead, I probably wont even use it that much really. I do like to clean up If I scavange or take down a tree in my woods, but I would take everything 4" and over for firewood. IT seems you can get basic non power feed ones for around $1500. What are they like to feed? Do they vibratron the crap out of you as you feed it? Is it a lot of work to feed or does stuff kinda naturally self feed? Another grand gets a power feed woodmax, which everyone seems to be reasonably happy with. Just trying to decide if I should cheap out and save that grand.

Ethan

In choosing, I believe you first need to asses what you're going to chip and/or shred. Once you have that you can choose your weapon. Some fall lots of 6" trees 30' tall and feed it into a chipper whole, others are general purpose clean-up chores (like myself).

I have property that constantly sheds limbs from tall hickory and walnut trees plus a few grand oaks, so it's a ritual to run the property and collect the debris, usually to a central location, periodically. Then, once or twice a year I'll attack the pile with my PTO chipper/shredder (it's 3.5" chipper) that is gravity feed. It's got 2 chutes, one above the other, the lower is the chipper, the upper is the shredder. Yes, I find keeping a pair of lopping shears close by is necessary, as it won't take a "Y" branch, but most of mine will separate easily by standing vertically crotch down and wishbone splitting them, hey they fell to the ground for a reason so they split fairly easy. The brushy stuff I cut up to an inch easily feeds in the shredder, bigger butt first in the chipper. Now, here's where I've found mine to be advantageous - every fall I have to vacuum leaves from around the property - that unit will reduce volume somewhat, but primarily I just collect the leaves reduced to about 1.5" pieces after reduction into the trailer, then pull it to the shredder and use a snow shovel to transfer from the trailer to the shredder hopper, it reduces it all to about 1/4" pieces that I pile for compost. All the leaves get mixed into the chips from the branches, and in a year I've a pile of garden gold. Anything larger than about 3" gets stacked for firewood use by a BIL or friends.

So, just trying to share some real world experiences with smaller tools, I simply don't need a 6" or 9" chipper, nor power feed, but I used a portable homeowner unit for years (maybe 3 different ones for over 40 years) and simply outgrew them, but not by much.

Here's a pic of what I'm currently using: I can attest that even though it's a import, it's fully capable of what it's designed for, I run it on my MF GC1720 and have never herd the tractor labor, never have had a belt issue (some claim they chew up belts), but I grease it every use and store in my container, so it's not abused. I've got about 30 hours run on it in one year, had a large accumulation, and it's done all I've asked of it. For the price it's sold for, I can honestly recommend it, and BestCo treated me right on the purchase. YMMV

 

[RoyJackson]

thanks for all the replies. The more I think about it, I like the idea of having a unit that also has the shredder, such as the mackassic that was mentioned. I always Have a big mess of bark and small pieces of wood around my woodpile and a shredder would turn that into some nice usable material.

I use the shredder as much, or more than the chipper.
Many chippers aren't so good a smaller, thinner branches and other leafy stuff. The shredder (32 blades on the Woods/Bearcat unit) makes short work of that stuff.

I thought about a Woodmaxx hydraulic feed chipper. My chipping is mostly yard/field clean up of fallen branches and the annual pre-mowing season trimming. That's 2-4 times per year. just not sure if I can justify $3K or so just for the hydraulics

 

[bigtiller]

I have the same BearCat/Woods as Roy and others. I seldom use the chipper because the shredder will take up to 1.5" material. I chip 3" until it is small enough for the shredder and the big stuff is given away for camp fires. I started using the blower last year. It works better than the one I had in the 80's.