Chipper Advice on PTO Chipper

[hslogger]

To chip or not to chip, that is the question. It all depends really on what your consciousness and attitude is. I can't see the point of stacking and burning. I can use the whole tree chips. They decompose, they mix with manure, and don't panic, it's organic. You can argue the cost of anything, but it boils down to what you want to do. A long time ago I got sick of standing around pouring fuel on big piles.

I chip all our orchard debris gladly. Ditto fence row crap that I thin out periodically. Same with black berry bushses. There's enough foul air around without me contributing to it.

 

[ericm979]

I've chipped a good amount of Madrone, which grows any way except straight. I've found branches that grew into a 360 degree loop. I've been surprised at how well the Woodmaxx 8H handles that stuff. It helps to chip it when it's green and bends more readily but it still handles it pretty well when it's dry.

As I've gotten hours on the chipper I know better what will go down and what will cause problems so I can make my cuts accordingly.

If you have irregular shaped stuff to chip you really want a powered chipper. Hydraulic (or hydrostatic) drive lets you adjust the feed rate, I think it's worth the extra money. If you're not sure, renting a couple times would be a good way to try out chipping.

 

[RalphVa]

I recently built a new raised bed along the east side of the pool deck. Filled mostly with creek overflow soil from down below.

Topped with my compost made of of wood chips and kitchen collections. Put in some summer squash the last 6 feet. Got the best crop of summer squash ever.

 

[rtintn]

Using a wood chipper to generate mulch in volume is going to be very labor intensive.

I have a Woodland Mills WC-88 that gives me good service. But producing chips in production level volume would be a very different deal.

plowhog, hope you don't mind a question. I am looking to buy a Wc-88 soon and would appreciate your opinion. I have a Kubota L4600, 44hp, 35 at pto. Would I be power limited?
Thanks

 

[JasperFrank]

A medical thingy about chippers.
I have what is called Dupuytren's Contracture, also known as Viking Hand. And this can be exasperated by vibration put on your hands. Working a chipper, as you know, sends lots of vibrations to your hands as you feed. I didn't have a major problem with my hands until I started using a chipper, and then very soon, afterwards, I was having problems with the hands, especially the pinky fingers that curled up and would no longer extend to the point that I could put gloves on any more. My plastic Surgeon, that fixed the, very bad hand, said it was probably the vibration that set this off and certain populations of Northern Europeans are at risk.
This was a very expensive surgery to re-extend the fingers. And I was advised that further use of a chipper was a bad idea. As was using a chainsaw or any other device that vibrates the hands. Just saying that if you are in this risk group, there is no saving with DIY activities.

 

[oosik]

plowhog, hope you don't mind a question. I am looking to buy a Wc-88 soon and would appreciate your opinion. I have a Kubota L4600, 44hp, 35 at pto. Would I be power limited?
Thanks

RTINTN - I can give you some help here. I have a Wallenstein BX62S. Manual feed - up to 6" diameter trees. My tractor has 55 PTO hp. Every spring I thin my pine stands. Chip right around 1200 pines - 6" and less on the butt.

Your 35 hp will be on the very low end of the needed power band. It's going to depend, a lot, on what you want to chip. I chip pines that are still green and "juicy". With my 55 hp - they chip easily. I chipped up six apple tree in my orchard. They were old, dead and weather hardened. A 6" apple tree trunk gave the tractor and chipper a real work out. That was one time I wished I had hydraulic in-feed. I could have slowed down the feed rate. Would have made the chipping process a whole lot smoother.

If you aren't chipping really hard wood and don't mind going slow on the bigger/harder stuff - you should be OK. You will find that as you get bigger/harder wood - you will, most likely, have to slow the in-feed process.

 

[ericm979]

My Branson has 32 hp at the PTO. I have a Woodmaxx 8H chipper. I can chip hardwood up to about 4" diameter without slowing the chipper feed. Above that I need to slow the feed down to about the minimum speed. I have chipped stuff close to the size that fits in the chipper but it was Madrone which machines really well for hardwood and I had to stop and start the chipper in short bursts. It sure made a lot of chips fast though.

Woodland Mills says you need 60hp to chip 8" material with the WC88. That sounds about right. 8" stuff is pretty large and heavy. If it's got a stub or curve it may jam in the chipper.

 

[N80]

plowhog, hope you don't mind a question. I am looking to buy a Wc-88 soon and would appreciate your opinion. I have a Kubota L4600, 44hp, 35 at pto. Would I be power limited?
Thanks

I have a Kubota L4400. Same horsepower as your L4600. I have the WC-68. Nothing that I put in it slows the tractor down at all that I can hear or see.

So I suspect you will be fine but before spending extra money ask yourself why you need the bigger chipper. The WC-68 is spec'd to handle 6 inch stuff. I almost never put anything that large in it. That is for several reasons. If it is hardwood then 6-8 inch stuff is going to be firewood. If it is pine or cedar it gets chipped but it is not that often I'm encountering 6-8" pine limbs. (For me, pine logs go to the sawmill, not the chipper.)

On the other hand be aware that if you have your 6" capable chipper set up to take 1-4" inch stuff it may not take a full 6" piece easily. That requires an adjustment of the infeed roller spring. And if you have it set to take the maximum diameter it tends not to take the smaller stuff quite as well. Also consider that a 4 inch limb with a crotch that spans 7" will not pass a 6" infeed chute. An 8" chipper will help but you'll run into the same problem if you add 2" to the numbers above.

I considered the WC-88. Glad I did not spend the extra money. There hasn't been a situation yet in which I felt like I needed to chip 8" diameter stuff and by far the majority of stuff I end up chipping is under 4".

As for vibration issues I do not find it a problem. At first it was because I did not know any better but I do not hold onto the stuff I'm putting in because the vibration can indeed be violent but also because the infeed roller causes branches to twist and turn suddenly. You can get a branch across the face if you aren't careful. I stand to one side and chuck stuff in. If it gets hung up or won't feed I either reverse the roller or push it in with another piece. There are ways to avoid the vibration. If it is still an issue you can get anti-vibration gloves that might help a little.

 

[plowhog]

I am looking to buy a Wc-88 soon and would appreciate your opinion. I have a Kubota L4600, 44hp, 35 at pto. Would I be power limited?

My opinion is you will be fine. I recommend the larger throat (8" vs 6") because you often run something through that has a twist, bend, kink, whatever. Even if it is only 4" material it can get larger in diameter with those kinks and bends.

On the WC-88 there is an adjustable feed setting. So if you think you should slow it down due to more limited power, you can do that. I slow mine down below max speed anyway because I am more comfortable at a slower infill speed.

 

[Jofang]

I have a BX2350 giving 23hp at the PTO and this is enough power to chip 4 inch branches with my Chinese no name chipper, which is quite a good machine. The problem arises with bent branches where even 1 inch branches will jam in the 4 inch inlet chute, so as others have said on this forum I'd go for the 8 inch capacity machine even though you don't plan to chip 8 inch branches.