Chipper Shredder

[MoArk Willy]

Hopefully someone can give me some advice.
I am looking into a chipper / shredder for my own personal use.
I have about 5 acres, half is wooded.
I want to expand my yard and cut down a few trees, make some trails and overall improve the property.
I was hoping to spend somewhere between $1000 and $2000 for a good quality machine that would help me with clean up.
Of course less than $1000 is OK as well.
Mostly pruned limbs, some small trees.
Anything big enough for firewood would be cut to size and used as such.
Anyone have any experience with these machines?
And I am not opposed to using a PTO type for my Kubota.
I'm just doing the research now and figuring out my options.
Thanks for any thing you can share.

 

[bcp]

I have 5 acres, too, all forest.

I bought a Troy-Bilt Tomahawk chipper-shredder when burning got banned. I think about 6 HP. About 1 inch limbs was the max. Not in size but in time. Stick it in the chipper chute, press about 6 inches in for chipping, pull back and wait for 30 seconds for RPM to get back to full speed. Do that over and over. For about 5/8 and down, and shredding, it was fine.

Gave it to my son who has a small lot. Now I make brush piles and enjoy watching the birds and rabbits.

Bruce

 

[Roadworthy]

The small chippers at the big box stores limit at about three inch stuff. If you get into bigger stuff and want a PTO chipper you're looking at about $3000 and the size of the chipper will be controlled by the PTO power of your tractor. A Vermeer 625 would probably be the cat's meow but I don't know where you'd get one. Tree trimmers and rental places have them but I don't know who sells them.

 

[ning]

I'm in similar shoes and will likely get a Woodland Mills WC88 or WoodMaxx WM-8H. I don't expect to chip big stuff, but my scrub oaks aren't straight at all so I want a chipper with a larger throat that will allow them to feed. Note that these units have a "required PTO hp" but as I said I expect not to use the full capabilities of the chipper, so I expect it will be happy enough with slightly less hp.

Depending on the wood type you're feeding, you may find you need a more or less powerful unit (and attached tractor).

If I find a commercial stand-alone unit at anything near that price - perhaps up to 2x the price (for a 6" unit) - I'd jump on that, but around here they're made of gold.

 

[The Deerslayer]

A pto chipper has the benefit of one less motor to maintain and takes advantage of utilizing a prior significant investment (i.e.your tractor ). You may find that transporting the chipper to where it is needed is also a bit easier.

I was in the market for one a few years back and I was fortunate to find a good quality used manual feed chipper at a good price. You may want to explore that as an option, especially if your overall use may be limited to the project you are planning and where the chipper will see occasional use thereafter. I still have mine, and find that the convenience of using it whenever needed is huge.

I also find getting rid of the branches is extremely satisfying and using the wood chips left behind is a bonus.
Good luck with your future purchase!

 

[mikester]

Based on your budget RENT

Sorry but "spend somewhere between $1000 and $2000 for a good quality machine" would have been a struggle 20 years ago.

 

[RalphVa]

Hopefully someone can give me some advice.
I am looking into a chipper / shredder for my own personal use.
I have about 5 acres, half is wooded.
I want to expand my yard and cut down a few trees, make some trails and overall improve the property.
I was hoping to spend somewhere between $1000 and $2000 for a good quality machine that would help me with clean up.
Of course less than $1000 is OK as well.
Mostly pruned limbs, some small trees.
Anything big enough for firewood would be cut to size and used as such.
Anyone have any experience with these machines?
And I am not opposed to using a PTO type for my Kubota.
I'm just doing the research now and figuring out my options.
Thanks for any thing you can share.

You can get a MacKissic TPH-123 for just over $2,000. I had a TPH-122 for 16 years and loved it. Have no need now to shred up leaves because my supply dried up. So, I replaced it with a WM WC46.

The Mac is so easy to maintain. Had a Tomahawk for 10 years before, and it was a beast to rotate the hammers on. Could change out the chipper blade reasonably easy.

There are some motor driven Macs within your price range, but I strongly recommend stretching a bit and getting the TPH-123. On the Tomahawk with a motor, I'd jam it many times and stall the motor. Almost never happened on the Mac on the JD 4010, 1025R and 2025R.

 

[oosik]

I initially had some "unnamed" shredder/chipper. It became obvious that it was WAY too small.

I've had two Wallenstien PTO chippers. First - BX42S. Now - BX62S. I've found that this brand chipper is REAL quality. I thin my pine stands every spring. This means I chip 900 to 1200 small ( 1" to 6" on the butt ) pines every spring.

I've been doing this with Wally chippers for over fifteen years and never had a single machine related problem.

I had initial problems with pine pitch plugging the discharge chute on the BX42S. Solved by letting the cut pines dry for a year.

Now with the BX62S this "aging" situation is not required.

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

I have an MacKissic SC800, briggs and straton that ussually starts on the first pull. Great machine! The SC800 chips up to 2 7/8". Has a seperate hopper to run leaves through the hammermills. Can run up to 1" limbs through the hammermill also. 11 years of use with no problems.
If I had to do it all over again I would buy a Pto driven chipper with a 4" capacity.

 

[tomplum]

Personally, I hate chipping. It is loud and messy. I'll chip up stuff for the wife when she isn't able. We have a Mac Kissick w/ the Briggs Vanguard twin on it. This is tedious enough let alone using a smaller machine. There is a lot to be said for renting a larger machine to see if this is worth your bother nor not. You never get as much mulch out as you hope. My wife struck up a deal with an arborist, so I snuck our machine over to the BIL and hope that she forgets we have it...

 

[Snobdds]

I initially went with a chipper shredder that claimed 3 inch branches. LOL. It was painful to use as you had to literally stuff stuff in, then it would clog...nightmare.

I bit the bullet and went with with a towable Chipper shredder from Echo/Bearcat. Hydraulic feed is a must to be efficient in chiping. Trying to stuff stuff in wears a person out fast.

I use it at my cabin for all the slash as burning is not allowed. I cut down 7 big spruce and fir's this summer. Put all the limbs in one spot and the mound was 10 feet high by 30 feet long. My dad and I chipped all that in about 5 hours. A huge time saver.

Buy once, cry once...

 

[5030]

Based on your budget RENT

Sorry but "spend somewhere between $1000 and $2000 for a good quality machine" would have been a struggle 20 years ago.

Yep. Sold my Jinma 6" self feed chipper after 4 years of hard use on CL in about 6 hours and got more than I paid for it in cash. Paid a grand used, got 1500 even more used and abused. No burn ban here so I roast the stuff. I'm a pyro anyway. You can only make so many chips and then you have piles of molding chips everywhere.

I consider chippers and tractor mounted backhoes to be the 2 most worthless pieces of equipment made. If I need a hoe, I rent a mini ex.

 

[the old grind]

Brush piles crumble to compost over the years, always seem to leave room to pile more on by the next season. When I burn it's whole tree trunks amid long limbs and grapple-loads of brush. My 9 hp chipper has been idle for years due to the labor of feeding it.

If use is planned to be long enough that renting seems pricey I wouldn't have a chipper that didn't self-feed. Stirred chips/mulch compost quickly. Pond water/weeds and cheap ferts will speed the process. IMO stuffing a chipper is such hard work after a while. Most stuff goes through it far better when green than when dried, and blade edges last longer between re-sharpening(s).

What 5030 said, ok to have say a bit more than you need then sell when you don't. btw, WoodMaxx WM8SF would be my top/only choice. Small-mid sized Y-branches want a hopper wider (to feed more easily) than say the machine's dia capacity. Jamming 'em in otherwise adds too much labor.

 

[Captain Dirty]

Search this site for "chipper", "shredder", and "chipper/shredder" and you can find a rationale for whatever you decide on.

Part of "You get what you pay for" is that cheap capital costs = more in labor costs (or time and trouble) to maintain, repair, or even operate.

My $0.08 on the 4 machines I have experience with:

Troy-built "Chippewa" chipper/shredder. Hammermill is a good shredder, but low height below the screen. Difficult to maintain. O/A
Kemp "Rancher" chipper/shredder (Kemp out of business) Decent design, OK for leaves and small brush, but cheaply made. I have re-built most of it, on second engine.
Wallenstein 4" PTO chipper. Good quality, pliant twigs tended to jam in constricting chute at 540 rpm.
Salsco 6" PTO chipper. Good quality, annoying "wrong way" lap seam on in-feed chute. O/A

 

[ericm979]

I have had a MTD chipper/shredder, a MacKissick 4.5" PTO chipper/shredder, and an 8" Woodmaxx PTO chipper. For me the PTO chippers are far better. The MTD was useless. I don't often chip nice straight logs that are at the limit of the Woodmaxx. I'd need much more than 32 PTO HP to do that effectively. But the 8" chipper makes is much easier to get irregular branches chipped.

It costs a lot more than your stated limit but it's much more effective.

We have a lot of brush and trees and vegetation grows fast here. We can't burn. There is always stuff that needs chipping.

 

[crashz]

I bought a chipper attachment for my DR rough cutter. Used it for the first time this summer and it was OK. It can chip up to a 2.5" branch but manual feed means you have to push everything through. Its tougher than I thought.

 

[RalphVa]

I love chipping or shredding. Always do it naked. Lots of fun. Did it with Tomahawk/Mac for 26 years that way.

Can do a whole tree on the WM WC46. Just stick it into the hydraulic feed, and it just chips away. It's only $2,600.

 

[bandc07]

I had a DR 4" chipper that has 18 hp motor liked it but wanted to do bigger stuff. So upgraded to a woodmaxx 8M. Works great enjoy the self feeding and larger capacity. Definatley would go with PTO option again if I had it all to do over.

 

[Torvy]

I initially had some "unnamed" shredder/chipper. It became obvious that it was WAY too small.

I've had two Wallenstien PTO chippers. First - BX42S. Now - BX62S. I've found that this brand chipper is REAL quality. I thin my pine stands every spring. This means I chip 900 to 1200 small ( 1" to 6" on the butt ) pines every spring.

I've been doing this with Wally chippers for over fifteen years and never had a single machine related problem.

I had initial problems with pine pitch plugging the discharge chute on the BX42S. Solved by letting the cut pines dry for a year.

Now with the BX62S this "aging" situation is not required.

I swear I learn something nearly every time you post. I was wondering about how these handled pine sap. One less lesson to learn the hard way. I feel like I owe you a few hours of labor next time I go to Washington. Thank you, sir!

 

[mikester]

Yep. Sold my Jinma 6" self feed chipper after 4 years of hard use on CL in about 6 hours and got more than I paid for it in cash. Paid a grand used, got 1500 even more used and abused. No burn ban here so I roast the stuff. I'm a pyro anyway. You can only make so many chips and then you have piles of molding chips everywhere.

I consider chippers and tractor mounted backhoes to be the 2 most worthless pieces of equipment made. If I need a hoe, I rent a mini ex.

My no-name chinesium 8" chipper cost me $1800 10 years ago. Something either breaks down or jambs up every 15 minutes. I really enjoy my new hobby of welding broken buttered welds and modifying mechanisms to try and make them work better. It works better than new now but that doesn't say much.

I could sell it now for more than I paid for it but I haven't found a used 12" diesel powered hydraulic infeed chipper for under $25K to replace it yet. I don't care for the idea of chainsawing all my branches into small single stems so they can fit them in a 4" manual feed chipper.