chipper and CK20 HST

[IslandTractor]

I have the BearCat that I picked up used. The original owner was running it on a Kubota 7100 so I knew it would run fine on the CK20. I have no complaints and it works very effectively without slowing the engine down much at all so long as you run it at close to recommended PTO speed.

 

[williekioti]

My two cents from someone who's done a butt load of chippin' over the years;

If you're going to be doing a bunch of chippin', like lot clearing type, arm loads at a time type, go with one that has a horizontal feed chute. That up-angled feed chute is fine for prunings, light limb disposal and such but when you're doing a day's worth of brush disposal you don't want to be lifting the stuff up in the air to feed it all day. Plus you can only do one or two limbs at a time.

Get one with a movable discharge chute. The one's that discharge down into a pile are fine for the occaisional chippin' but get's to be a PITA to keep moving the machine or dispersing the pile for wholesale brush disposal. Plus if you're doing something like cleaning up the woodlot and blowing the chips in the woods you can keep moving the chute occaisionally to disperse the chips and not accumulate large piles.

And finally if at all possible get a self feeder. Less likely to stall if feeding pieces that are close to the chipper's capacity. Less likely to kick a piece back attcha. Also a huge benefit if you're chipping viney, thorny brush like grape vine, briar rose and such. Try stuffing that stuff into non-self feeder. You will lose some ponies to the feed mechanism, but probably neglible.

I've used all types/sizes of chippers from the homeowner DRs to whole tree chippers so I may be a bit biased. I don't current use a PTO chipper as I've got a tow behind commercial unit. If all you're doing is the spring clean up and yard debris stuff you can probably disregard half my post though. But at least buy one from a reputable company and that is solidly built, heavier guage steel the better. There are some pretty lightly constructed one's out there that would scare the bejesus outta me. Chippers are violent machines, the heavier, more solid the better. Most of those models previously mentioned in this thread are good machines, I'd add Valby to the list to check out if available. I've used one before they're a quality unit. Bandit has a PTO machine too I think. I'm done, sorry for the long post.

 

[williekioti]

Sorry, but thought of a couple more things especially those shopping the lower price point machines.

The bigger, heavier the disk, the better. Your machine may work a little harder to get up to speed but it will be easier for it to maintain efficient cutting rpms. Less run up/down of rpms when feeding, smoother.

Multiple knives are better for efficiently clearing chips, smoother operation much easier on whatever powerplant is supplying the hps. If your tractor is at the lower spectrum on the spec sheets for two different chippers you're looking at if one has multiple knives and the other has a single, go multiple 'cuz it'll be much easier for your tractor's engine to handle it. All that time the brush is rubbing against the dead space on the disk is wasted friction. More knives means you're getting more work done each revolution and less "breaking" friction action. More knives also means less wear on each knife 'cuz they share the workload. Less wear tranlates into less sharpening. Dull knives are a bad thing on any chipper, just like dull chain on your saw.

OK, I'm done now.

WK