Chipper Comments on Salsco 600 PTO chipper

[Larry_Van_Horn]

Ive' done a lot of reading here about chippers PTO v stand alone. I have had a hard time swallowing the price of anything useful. I really wanted to keep my expenditure under $1500. I came across the Salsco 600 http://salsco.com/600.htm model which is about $1500. Pretty standard unit it seems and compares with other small PTO chippers. The principal difference I see which is of value to me is that it doesn't bottom discharge but exhausts through a chute at and elevation that I could probably back my Gator under. There are many comments out here about the 824 but that is beyond my budget. I am interested in anyones comments on this unit and or more preferred alternatives at this price point. Thanks for any suggestions.
Larry

 

[JLD]

I question the gravity feed. I find with my chipper that you really need to push the material in. Not sure if gravity is going to be enough to keep it chipping (especially if material has lots of branches. Also with height almost 4 feet, it may be hard to feed longer material.

I find the shreader to be the most useful feature of my chipper. It handles up to 1.25". Much of the debris that I have bigger then this goes in my wood stove.

 

[Larry_Van_Horn]

So how much was your Goosen and what was the model if you don't mind my asking.
Larry

 

[jinman]

Larry, I have a Bush Hog chipper-shredder unit (no longer available) which is a lot like the Bearcat. They are about $1000 more than your budget, but they can chip up to 5" logs with multiple chipper blades (4) and they have a very useful shredder for those small limbs and debris you would never put into the chipper. I just don't think you would be happy spending that much money without this additional feature.

 

[farmyid]

I guess I don't know what a shredder does. A chipper makes chips and a shredder makes ?? Help? Mark

 

[Larry_Van_Horn]

Jim.
Thanks for your thoughts. Hard to make the economics work on chippers (ooops I'm and economist) given the price tag. On the other hand the flexibility of chipping for a couple of hours when I want as opposed to going out and renting for a whole day is attractive.
So ......
Salsco 824 ($4,500 ++ UGH no shredder
Valby 140 CH no shredder
Goosen does appear to have a shredder.
guess I'll keep looking around.
you are right that I would rather spend more and be happy that spend less and be regretful that I did.
Lar

 

[Chipperman]

Larry
The 600 is a great little unit but I see you have a TC40. The 600 is designed for subcompact size tractors. I know you do not want to spend the money but you would be a much happier with the 824. Altra rental in Webster (I think it is Webster) is a Salsco dealer. he does not stock the PTO units but can get them. He has a few of the powered units including a gas powered verison of the 824.
As for economics you can not make it work. The value comes from having it when you want/need it.
Chipperman

 

[jinman]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( A chipper makes chips and a shredder makes ?? )</font>

Shreds! /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

No, actually, a chipper is a blade or several blades mounted on a flat plate which rotates against a fixed piece of wood and knocks chips off of it. A shredder is like a rotating cheese shredder, but with much larger openings. Smaller limbs and brush which cannot be chipped (including leaves) can be placed in the shredder and reduced to mulch. Think about chipping a cedar limb until you get down to the part of the limb that is about 1" diameter and has many bushy branches. You can't safely feed that through a chipper, but if you drop it into the shredder chute, it will be chopped into a fine mulch. Thats why a shredder is so important to a complete job of cleaning up limbs and brush.

I hope my explanation is clear. If not, I'll scan some illustrations from my user's manual to better explain.

 

[GregJ]

Larry,
For what it's worth, I have been very pleased with my Bearcat chipper shredder. It cost a little over 2k. As far as cost justification.... I use about 30 yards of compost/bark/mulch for landscaping every year, ranging in price up to $35/yard. So..... I am now chipping/shredding at least 30 yards per year and it is better quality than I was buying. I figure that saves me conservatively about $900 per year..... At $2200 purchase price, divided by $900 gives me a break even at 2.4444~ years.........( I took some basic Econ classes in college) Sounds like a pretty good investment to me.... at least that's what my wife said, since my labor is free. Hope this helps.

Greg

 

[JLD]

Dealer called it Goossen Model 900026.

Its listed as CS5400 PTO on web page below.

http://www.deweze.com/Goossen/products/chipper.html

I don't have the exact price but it was around $2,500.