Chipper for 103 PTO HP Tractor (JD 6430 premium) - options, prices, etc.

[candersen10]

Hello,

I have a 180 acre farm in PA and have a 6430 premium (103 PTO HP) and a skid steer with a grapple. I'd like to get a chipper (depending on how much one costs) to feed with my skid steer. I think it would need to handle up to 15 inch logs. I've looked at Morbark units (http://www.morbark.com/Equipment/SpecSheets/PTO.pdf), but was wondering if anyone had any other ideas? Has anyone run a Morbark unit on a 100+ PTO HP tractor? If so, how'd it work?

Thanks so much.

 

[Foxtrot08]

That seems... very expensive.

Either way, I bought a Wallenstein BX62s Earlier this year, self feeder. It was about $3200, run it off 60hp tractor just fine - up to 6 inch. Anything bigger then that gets turned into firewood.

The Morbark units are... very expensive. But so is anything with self feed.

 

[dave1949]

That's a lot of chipping, 15" trees. The chippers large enough to do that that I seen have self-contained power on board.

If you aren't making the chips for a specific purpose, have you considered looking for loggers in your area that do biomass harvests for making wood stove pellets and the like?

 

[Brant]

Brush Bandit makes a 12" PTO chipper but I don't know of other larger units. 100 hp is probably not really enough to chip 15" material anyway. If you could get away with something in the 9- or 10-inch range, there are lots more options.

 

[candersen10]

This is the kind of setup I'd love to get:

GREENTEC 1445 (prototype) - YouTube

I'm wondering if something in the 12 inch range can be fed by my skid steer - see image attached which shows the type of material/my skid steer. I can easily pick up that type of size tree by the end and would love to be able to feed it directly into a chipper without getting out of the cab.

Any suggestions besides the Brush Bandit and Morbark units? Has anyone used any of these? I can't find any videos of anyone using them online.

 

[Brant]

Sorry man, but you're not feeding stuff like that into any chipper. At least not for long. The butt end of the tree needs cut off. The dirt will trash the knives really quickly. That's the kind of stuff for a tub grinder or burn pile. As for other options, you could look into the Scandinavian units like this one. Hope your budget is as huge as your chipping needs.

 

[dave1949]

This is the kind of setup I'd love to get:

GREENTEC 1445 (prototype) - YouTube

I'm wondering if something in the 12 inch range can be fed by my skid steer - see image attached which shows the type of material/my skid steer. I can easily pick up that type of size tree by the end and would love to be able to feed it directly into a chipper without getting out of the cab. View attachment 275665

Any suggestions besides the Brush Bandit and Morbark units? Has anyone used any of these? I can't find any videos of anyone using them online.

That video is using a 210 pk or 285 metric horsepower tractor and the chipper weighs 3800 kilograms, that's 8377 pounds. It is impressive but it would take a while to feed much acreage through it. And skidsteers don't swing like the excavator. That would make loading difficult.

 

[candersen10]

Any other ideas for processing a ton of wood that doesn't require purchasing more than 103 PTO/125 gross HP?

Burning it is a pain (lots of permitting) and there just isn't enough space to just leave piles of it everywhere. Has anyone done anything different with tons of waste wood besides chipping it or burning it?

 

[candersen10]

Any other ideas for processing a ton of wood that doesn't require purchasing more than 103 PTO/125 gross HP?

Burning it is a pain (lots of permitting) and there just isn't enough space to just leave piles of it everywhere. Has anyone done anything different with tons of waste wood besides chipping it or burning it?

Also, does anyone have a really big chipper running on a 100+ PTO HP tractor? If so, how does it work?

 

[dave1949]

Any other ideas for processing a ton of wood that doesn't require purchasing more than 103 PTO/125 gross HP?

Burning it is a pain (lots of permitting) and there just isn't enough space to just leave piles of it everywhere. Has anyone done anything different with tons of waste wood besides chipping it or burning it?

Is the wood species usable for firewood or something? Any amount of it you can get others to haul away helps. How many acres are you clearing? One cord of green hardwood wood can weigh 2 tons. Does the ground have to be bare, or could you take the logs out then bush hog down the branches and let it rot in place or till them in with a hvy duty tiller? That is actually the fastest way it will disappear other than burning, chipping or burying.