Chipper Advice on PTO Chipper

[oosik]

That's one of the primary reasons I chip all the pine trees I thin out of my stands.

VOLUME REDUCTION. I don;t give a tinkers dam about how much chips I get. As I chip - I swivel the discharge chute about 15 degrees every fifteen minuets or so. Helps distribute them. Every spring I will go thru my Ponderosa pine stands and thin them out. Anything 6" or less on the butt - down the intake chute.

This project takes a month +/-. I will end up chipping 950 to1200 small pines.

 

[oosik]

I have a process that seems to work best for me.

- go thru half a dozen or more stands - identify and fall all that are 6" or less on the butt

- go back thru the stands and drag all the fallen trees out to large piles. This is, by far, the most difficult part. When I get done felling, each stand looks like a giant game of Pick-Up-Sticks. Trees lying in all direction, intertwined and multiple layers deep.

- back the chipper up to the pile - pull off the pile and chip.

 

[N80]

What is your local market for two units - 15 cubic yards- of delivered chips/mulch?

I do not remember the figure but our neighbor in town got mulch delivered. I asked the price and was staggered. Was it real "mulch"? I don't know but it looks like what comes out of my chipper with some age on it.

But that's not even the real issue. Where my cabin is no one will deliver. Could I drive to the next country with my flatbed trailer (with a wooden sides in the stake pockets)? Yes. And pay top dollar and have to unload by hand.

No thanks.

One, was how little you actually get out of a small 22 HP chipper for the amount of work you put into it.

In my limited experience I found just the opposite to be true. Of course my tractor is 45hp and I don't know which chipper you used but when I got my assembled I spent maybe 5 minutes feeding brush into it and was quite surprised at the little pile of chips in that short of time. Plus, time is not an issue here. I like projects. I like working outdoors. I have no deadlines in this regard.

Second, in my area, you can burn non-usable stuff in a wood pile: Which is much easier.

I can burn and do. But there are periods of time when you simply can't. There is no burn ban in effect right now but there probably should be. Drought since July. Dry as a bone here. So there are limits on that. Plus, it isn't like building and tending a fire are labor free activities. And in the summer tending a big fire is pure misery to me.

The economy of scale that a commercial vendor can put out, works to my advantage in the place I live in: The PNW.

Agreed. I think it is wise to work out the work load, time, initial expense, potential savings, whether it is a hobby or not, etc. For me, it makes sense. And with the prospect of saw mill scraps it makes even more sense. And again, for me, this is all a hobby. I enjoy this kind of work so that has to be figured in as well. And all-in I suspect it is still cheaper than golf.

However, if I come to find that this was an unwise purchase, and it well may be, I suspect on the current market I could get most of my money back real quick and easy.

 

[Torvy]

I think some people confuse mulch with soil amendments. Wood chips are a type of mulch. Mulch is literally a covering for soil. Some mulch is even rubber or plastic. So all wood chips are "real" mulch.

mulch

Definition, Synonyms, Translations of mulch by The Free Dictionary

www.thefreedictionary.com

 

[JasperFrank]

Regional Linguistics is interesting. In my area we do differentiate "Mulch" from "Chip/Bark" as ground cover. Mulch, if you say that to someone, means 1/4 inch or so smaller bits of some sort of organic ground covering: Like ground up leaves. And one has to be more specific about ground cover if they want Chips or Bark ground cover, which is larger bits of trees. Sometimes it can get confusing, as people will say they use whole leaves as mulch and other whole things like straw as mulch. But in context, the meaning here is more specific if you are ordering a ground cover. Mulch is always the finer material. Chip/Bark is the larger material. In a sense, we have changed the word "mulch" to mean a further process in reducing the size of the material to very small bits: Which is different then its original meaning as general ground cover.

N80, you gave some very good info on YOUR particular situation. in YOUR place the decision you made, is thoughtful and sound. My 2 cent, was just MY situation, very different than yours. Hope it all works out. If any advice, I'd say, learn what your chipper can take with out loading down. Don't try to feed it as fast as you can work or ask it to take the biggest it is rated to take, and no loose clothing. If and when it gets loaded, use a smooth push pole, with nothing that can catch your jacket to clear it.

 

[grsthegreat]

for me it ios not quicker to burn, as i have to haul all the stuff out to a clearing to burn. then i have to stand by the entire time its burning with a hose. i can chip right in the woods. actually is faster. also here, they close open burning way earlier than they close logging due to fires.

 

[RoyJackson]

for me it iit's not quicker to burn, as i have to haul all the stuff out to a clearing to burn. then i have to stand by the entire time its burning with a hose. i can chip right in the woods. actually is faster. also here, they close open burning way earlier than they close logging due to fires.

About the same here...no time or interest in burning since I'd have no access to water if it get's out of control, plus, the chips I do get are great around the trees. The hardest part is bringing any material up close to where I need the chips. I've got a Gator, so I can chip right into the bed....just haven't done that yet...or just leave them down on the field

 

[grsthegreat]

i chip into my kawasaki mule and move it around property. and i also spread it on the trails.

 

[N80]

N80, you gave some very good info on YOUR particular situation. in YOUR place the decision you made, is thoughtful and sound.

I hope so but the proof is in the pudding. We'll see.

 

[ning]

for me it ios not quicker to burn, as i have to haul all the stuff out to a clearing to burn. then i have to stand by the entire time its burning with a hose. i can chip right in the woods. actually is faster. also here, they close open burning way earlier than they close logging due to fires.

I can definitely burn faster than what I hear chipping takes, but most of the year (even right now) I can't burn; I'm definitely not going to haul this stuff to the transfer center (used to be "the dump" in the old days).

I can get chips for free occasionally, though I can't be picky about what's in the pile. It's not going on my garden regardless; I use it for soil building and to cover bare dirt.

For the moment, I'm still burning, as I haven't decided if it's worth getting a 6-8" tractor mounted chipper which may or may not take much of my scrub oak without lots of cutting (some of it looks like the old "pipes" screen saver, literally one right angle after another), or if I should buy a commercial 6-9" unit and sell it later, if I should pile stuff up and rent a chipper occasionally, or if I should just burn it all.

Piling it all up and chipping "later" risks it all getting tangled and making it yet more work to pull apart to be able to toss it into the chipper... burning is pretty low effort here when it's allowed, as I can just grab a big pile (usually 3-4 hand piles that I've crushed together with my forks) and toss it on the fire, watch it for a few minutes as it burns super hot down to almost nothing, then go get another.

 

[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.