Chipper questions

[Snobdds]

I use to have a PTO chipper that was not self feed. It was way too much work to feed branches and trim up the ones that would not fit into the chute. A deal came up on a used, but never used, Bearcat 8 inch hydraulic feed tow behind chipper, and I jumped on it. It's so nice just to feed the stuff in and walk away while it does it's thing. I too have a lot of spruce, fir, and logpole pines at my cabin. I have fed entire trees into it and it just eats it up. Hydraulic feed is the only way to go...

I will post up some pictures once I get out of the office.

 

[coolnick73]

I also have the Woodmaxx 8H and I like it. Keep in mind that if you get a gravity feed chipper you will have to probably lift the branches up and down into the feeder rather than horizontally with a hydraulic feed chipper. It doesn't probably matter so much with the small stuff, but with long branches that would make more work.

I have no regrets going with the Woodmaxx.

 

[mark02tj]

Thanks everyone for all the great information and advice. Seems like there are too many good choices.

Looks like Woodmaxx has a unit that they say is made in the US and costs quite a bit more than their other chippers. It must be pretty popular since they are out of stock and taking deposits for the next shipment. Anyone own a MX-9900?

And Mark02tj, please thank your dad for his 20 years in the AF.

If I can get my Bearcat sold, I'm leaning towards the USA made chipper rather than the Chinese made chipper. Although I will say this - I can't recall reading a bad review on WoodMaxx's Chinese chipper. They put American made knives on them before they ship them to the end user.

 

[TemporaryKubotaOwnerMark]

I have a lot of invasive brush on my property and the brush has branches that go everywhere so I spend a lot of time cutting before it goes into the chipper. I think that a hydraulic feed unit will take care of that problem.

To some extent, yes, but you might want to rent a standalone unit of comparable size and give it a good workout before you drop the coin. I rented a Vermeer 6" hydraulic feed unit a couple of years ago, and still had to do more trimming than I expected. That was mostly oak and sycamore, with some cedar and one big ash.

 

[oldafretired]

Looks like Woodman has another US made chipper:

8" PTO Wood Chipper Shredder | Made in the USA | 3pt. Wood Chipper Attachment -WoodMaxx™

Wonder why it only has 2 blades when their MX9900 has 4 blades? Is that a disadvantage?

 

[roadhunter]

Looks like Woodman has another US made chipper:

8" PTO Wood Chipper Shredder | Made in the USA | 3pt. Wood Chipper Attachment -WoodMaxx™

Wonder why it only has 2 blades when their MX9900 has 4 blades? Is that a disadvantage?

Interesting. They have some new stuff. I like that USA made model 8800.

It's funny they have had the "gas powered wood chipper" in the site with limited information and now they added a small gas powered wood chipper and when you click on the "gas powered wood chipper" is goes to the small gas powered chippers page. Whoops, somebody messed up. The big gas powered chipper has a 31 hp engine. Looks like a few new items on thier page.

 

[oldafretired]

Looks like the MX9900 and TM86 Woodmaxx chippers have 4 blades but their other chippers only have 2 blades. What is the advantage of having 4 blades instead of 2? Seems like people that buy the WM 8H don't seem to have a problem with only 2 blades.

 

[vsteel]

Looks like the MX9900 and TM86 Woodmaxx chippers have 4 blades but their other chippers only have 2 blades. What is the advantage of having 4 blades instead of 2? Seems like people that buy the WM 8H don't seem to have a problem with only 2 blades.

In the case of the TM86 it is because the flywheel is direct drive and spins at half the speed. They just wanted to have the same number of "bites" per minute as the faster spinning ones.

 

[oldafretired]

One more question. If price wasn't a consideration would you get a Woodmaxx chipper like the MX or WM 8H or a Wallenstein hydraulic like a BX52R?

 

[JRobyn]

For anyone watching this thread on a limited budget but wanting a massive beast of a chipper, and also possessing much patience, there are occasional deals out there like mine. Vintage MorBark "Eager Beever". It runs great with my 43 pto HP. Weighs just a massive amount, I guess about #2000. It has lived out in the weather for about 6-8 years since I bought it from an old orchard operator up in Wisconsin for about $2500. It just works and works. Just recently hooked it up for the first time in 2-3 years. Worked flawlessly.

 

[vsteel]

One more question. If price wasn't a consideration would you get a Woodmaxx chipper like the MX or WM 8H or a Wallenstein hydraulic like a BX52R?

If money is no object then I would have the Wallenstein. But for me the price was double to triple the Woodmaxx and I am not an industrial user so the Woodmaxx it was.

 

[PETDOC]

I own a Kubota B2710 with a rear PTO rated at 20hp. I was wondering if anyone has had experience with a WoodMaxx MX 880 using a tractor with a similar hp rating on their PTO?

 

[ericm979]

I think Woodmaxx's minimum PTO ratings are low. If you're only chipping small brush it might be ok but if you're going to throw decent sized solid wood on there you'll have to run the feed vry slow. When I was deciding on a tractor to run a Woodmaxx I looked at youtube videos of people running Woodmaxx chippers to see what the PTO HP was and how it performed. The ones close to the minimum HP did not seem even close to acceptable to me.

I have a lot of stuff to chip, all sizes. Small brush, large brush, trees. I don't burn wood and much of the solid wood I have to chip is fir, which I can't even give away. If you want an 8" chipper to chip gnarled 2" brush you'll probably be fine with 20hp.

 

[oldafretired]

Ended up getting a Woodmaxx 9900 last fall and a bigger tractor with more PTO power. Finally got to test it with a big fallen branch a little while ago. Seemed to work great. Need to wait for the snow to melt before I can work on my branch pile though.

 

[vsteel]

I think Woodmaxx's minimum PTO ratings are low. If you're only chipping small brush it might be ok but if you're going to throw decent sized solid wood on there you'll have to run the feed vry slow. When I was deciding on a tractor to run a Woodmaxx I looked at youtube videos of people running Woodmaxx chippers to see what the PTO HP was and how it performed. The ones close to the minimum HP did not seem even close to acceptable to me.

I have a lot of stuff to chip, all sizes. Small brush, large brush, trees. I don't burn wood and much of the solid wood I have to chip is fir, which I can't even give away. If you want an 8" chipper to chip gnarled 2" brush you'll probably be fine with 20hp.

I have 18hp at the PTO and mine does good, I can do 3 inches without an issue (over that I turn into firewood). I did a 5 inch piece of dried cherry to see if I could, I had to go really really slow but it did it. I wouldn't want to do it all of the time but it was able to do it. Mine is the TM-86H and it is a 6 inch chipper, they say on the website "chipping capacity is directly related to horse power and torque, therefore with 15 hp. you can expect to chip 3 hard and 4 soft material and with 50 hp. you can expect to chip any material up to 6 in diameter with no trouble.".

I can't believe you can't give fir away, I would take all of it you would ship to me.