Chipper Chipper shredders (CS) revisited

[patrickg]

Any user reports available for PTO driven chipper shredders. I would rather not have yet another small engine to care for unless there are good reasons to avoid a PTO driven machine. I don't forsee a large or frequent conflict with tractor usage like, "oh no I can't use the tractor for x, y, or z because I'm always using the CS. I would anticipate using it "once in a while" but am not drawn strongly to the rental solution. I have a lot of native cedar trees trying to take over much of my 160 acres. Many of them are small enough to whack with my HD brush hog but I would like to shred the carcasses as they are too small for lumber and not valuable as fire wood but could be mulch for various uses.

Anyone familiar enough with stand alone and PTO driven to compare the lifecycle costs. Sometimes the cheapest purchase is the most expensive long term solution.

What say the brain trust?

Patrick

 

[hayden]

I have a Patu 4" PTO chipper. It's a chipper, not a chipper shredder. I personally don't see the value in a shredder, and from what I've read they tend to plug up, where my chipper has never plugged up. People who actually own combo chipper/shredders I'm sure can provide more info.

I've been very happy with the Patu. It will eat up just about anything, even stuff at large as 5" or so despite it's 4" rating. If you are going to use it extensively you should consider a model with a power feed of some kind. There are both hydraulic powered feeds (Patu offers this as an option), and mechanical feeds. They are not cheap. A manual feed will cost $2500 or so, and one with a power feed will be $3500-$5000 and up. Larger capacities will cost more too.

The stand alone home chippers I think are a joke. I've never heard from anyone who's happy with one for anything other than VERY light, VERY occasional work. I've watched neighbors struggle with them, read reports on this board about them, and seen lots and lots of them listed for sale in the classified and want ads. It all paints a pretty consistent picture.

If you search for Chipper, you'll find lots of threads on the topic including reports on a number of brands and models that people own and have good things to report. I don't think I've ever read a bad report about a 3PH chipper, but do check what owners say about the chipper/shredders to see if that's what you want.

Good luck.

 

[pennwalk]

I have a Bearcat 554 Chipper/shredder. This is one useful machine. It is also very tiring. After about 4 hours last Monday I felt like I had been worked overby a couple of thugs. Powerfeed would be very nice. Thick gloves, long sleeves, hearing protection and safty glasses are necessary. I have been wondering if one of those chainsaw hard hats would work as I have several times been slapped by branches as they go in the shoot. Then again the branch might just knock the hat off and I would spend a lot of time picking it up. Also the Bearcat is a lot for my 18 hp engine/14pto Yanmar to run. I'm sure a bigger tractor would be better. I am finding as I get used to the Bearcat that I an cutting the larger ends of limbs into log sizes pieces rather than trying to chip the whole limb. The big pieces bog my tractor down. The shredder would be a lot more useful if it wasn't so hard to feed. The hopper is gaurded by stiff brushes that you have to force the material past. Other C/S have a hood and a rubber flap that probably works better. I have been wondering if I could adapt that design to my machine. The processed material drops out the lower side of the machine and I want to work up a cart to catch the chips. After chipping I have yet to feel like raking up the chips and forking them into the truck. There is a blower option which will blow the chips into a truck but it is expensive. There are 4 blades. 2 inner and 2 outer that can be reversed to get a few more hours out of them. The blades need to be kept sharp. You have to watch who does the work. The first time I took them to a local mower shop and they butchered them up on a bench grinder. The sharpening shop has some kind of precision water cooled set up but they charge more. I have 2 sets and the spares were expensive. They are made in Germany so I guess if I worked at it I might be able to find them generically. This same machine is made for Woods and around here the Woods parts are cheaper than the Bearcat parts. Someone needs to explain that to me. Renting wouldn't work for me as I use it fairly often. The time overhead of rental would be a problem too.

Chris

 

[DFB]

Pennwalk, maybe <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.baileys-online.com/store/USA.htm>Bailey's</A> has chipper knives in the size you need. They have an extensive list of sizes available on line or give em a call.

Ouch! That's a shame to hear what happened with your knives.
Chipper blades, chain saw chains etc. are all to expensive to have em ruined by hack sharpening services.

Certainly my Bolens chipper/shredder isn't in the same league as the PTO units but the chipper knives still have to be sharpened too. I used to have the machine shop at work sharpen them on their surface grinder machine. (They made me 3 of the blades too.) /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Recently I purchased this inexpensive (less than $30.00) wet wheel grindstone #21170 from <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.sears.com/craftsman>Sears/Craftsman</A> to sharpen my cutters and and been happy with the results. Works well to bring the edge back. In the pic the top one is still unused, the center one fully sharpened on the Craftman unit. The bottom one still needs some more work to take the nick out. Didn't want to grind off too much at once. The next time I sharpen it should be gone.

Maybe an alternative to sending them out.

DFB

 

[Darren]

I've got a Woods 5000 which I think is the same Bearcat model Chris has. Everything he says mirrors my experience except for having the knives butchered. I run it with a Kubota L3710 (30 hp pto) and it will still stall the tractor if I don't have the revs up.

For some reason feeding the chipper end does beat on you. I think it's the two knife setup. Perhaps if they'd gone to a higher multiple the vibration against your hands wouldn't be so bad. I've also had it eject branches from the chipper chute. The machine when shredding does chop up a lot of stuff fast. I either have to shovel the pile away or move the tractor to keep the the pile from growing high enough to swamp the outfeed.

As long as your cedars aren't much over 1" or 1 1/2" in dia., I'd just stick them down the shredder hopper. As Chris said, the antikickback fringe on the shredder hopper is a nuisance. It makes it difficult to feed leaves. Small sticks and branches are a different story. The machine will pull them in and chop them faster than you can keep up.

 

[patrickg]

I too dislike the time overhead of rentals. I have three choices of towns to rent in and all are 25 miles away. For some stuff it requires 40-60 mile drive. Haven't rented a chipper before but have seen them used (not only in the movie "Fargo") The price may slow me down as I have to build/buy a backhoe first. I don't absolutely have to have a chipper, its just that I have so darned many little cedar trees that I will brush hog or chainsaw down as they are literally weeds in the pasture. Thought it would be nicer to have a couple tons of cedar chips than a small ash pile.

With your unit, how many linear feet of say 3-4 inch stuff will it eat in an hour assuming you don't drop in the traces. maybe I can convince myself that I don't need a really large unit as much of my stuff does not exceed 3 inches and that which does can be disposed of by other means. I can see how power feed would be nice but probably not terribly justifiable for the volumes I have.

Thanks again for your report.

Patrick

 

[patrickg]

Hayden, et al,
Thanks for your info. The more I find out, the more I find out that I need to find out. I've got 39HP avail at the PTO if you rev her up to relativistic speeds. That should do as well as anyone reporting if I make a good choice of units.

Part of my motivation for thinking in teerms of PTO driven is to not have yet another little engine. I can see myself becoming a slave to the maint of way too many little engines on backhoes, pressure washer, water pump, generator, and on and on and on.

Thanks again to all who responded.

Patrick

 

[JohnInCA]

Patrick,
I have a Bearcat 74554. It's a 5" capacity with hydraulic feed. I've run it on a TC29D without any problem. The hydraulic feed is great. It's basically "fire and forget". Once the feed wheel gets a hold of it, you can turn your back and go for the next branch. Downside? The $5300 price...

 

[Rch]

Re chippers run off a PTO; what say those with experience re direct drive vs several V belts that speed-up the knives/fan so the chips fly out farther and also act as a shock-cushion as you fed in stuff. What about shear pins or slip clutches?

 

[hayden]

Mine is direct drive with a slip clutch. I was originally worried that 540 RPM wouldn't be enough to keep from clogging up, but that's proven to be a non-issue. I suspect that if you have a belt drive you don't also need the slip clutch.