Cost Effective Chipper/Shredder?

[robertm]

I've been keeping a chipper/shredder on my wish list now for about 5 years, and now with the B7500, I've been wishing for a 3pt chipper/shredder for about three. So, if you all had to buy a chipper/shredder (3pt or not), which would you buy? Now, which one would you buy that wouldn't drain your pocketbook? You see, I have a severe brush pile I want to get rid of, and I have a bunch of pines and scrub brush that I want to clean up, but can't justify $3000 to $5000 for a chipper... and neither can my wife. I thought I'd find a used one, but no such luck. If I buy one new, will it return a good used value a year from now? I keep thinking I'll rent, but three Saturdays @ $200 each is 1/3 of a DR 3pt Chipper, which I figure I could use and sell later and be out nothing more than the $600 I would have spent to rent. Of course, I always have brush to get rid of, so I'd like something to keep the yard clean afterward. Thoughts?

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Just my two-bits, but to me the most effective way to get rid of a brush pile is to burn it. I have a 10hp chipper (yard shark) and almost never use it, it runs well, works well, but for the effort it takes to chip up a large pile it just isn't worth my effort. I keep trying to tell myself that if I had a 3pt chipper things would be different and I would like chipping, but I don't even believe my own story when I tell it to myself!!!

It is one of those things where I wish I had never spent the money.

 

[scrinch]

robertm, it sounds like Bob Skurka has a chipper he'd like to sell you! And from out here on the west coast, Illinois and Indiana look like they're pretty close together. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[markie61]

Check out the thread entitled "Chinese Chipper Review" further down this attachments page. It is $1200-1600 depending on who you buy it from and how set-up it is. It doesnt shred, but boy does it chip. I wish I'd gotten it sooner. I'll bet I can sell it for close to what I paid for it a year or two from now.

Mark

 

[summitlion]

I just purchased my JD Tractor 3 months ago. I too really wanted a chipper. I have 23 acres (19 wooded) of mostly pines. I lost a lot of trees when Isabel came through and the thought of dragging all those trees to the burn pile was not an attractive thought. I bought a BearCat capable of chipping up to 5" and shredding 1 1/2 to 2". I am very happy with my purchase. I have gotten a lot of use out of it already, and I'm just beginning. From what I have been hearing, I could probably sell it in 2 years and only lose about 25% of waht I paid for it. Not too bad in my book.

Rob

 

[Boondox]

I've been debating this same issue for a couple of years now, and like you really don't want to spend a lot of cash on something I might not be happy with. So if I can talk the wife into it, I'll pick up a 3PH DR Chipper sometime this month. With the 6 month trial offer I figure I can't lose, though my bet is I'll know in a couple of weekends whether or not it's a keeper.

And from the sounds I'm hearing on TBN, this might require a photo evaluation on my part!

Stay tuned, Pete

 

[RalphVa]

I like DR products and would lean heavily towards the 3pt DR chipper/shredder. Think it's less than $2,000. Visit their site on countryhomeproducts.com.

There was a thread on someone using the DR chipper, think it was even on a small BX1500.

I use my TroyBilt 8 hp Tomahawk so much that I've had to rotate the hammers a couple times and replaced them once. Got another bunch of spare parts to do it again. I'm not using it as much as on my 2.2 acres in Baton Rouge. Use it 2-3 times a year here on my 8.5 acres. Got a pile out there now to use it on.

I've a MacKissis shredder that mounts onto the PTO of my 12 hp Gravely. Its major problem is no chipper. I use it about once/year between bush hog and snow plow swap to shred up big piles of leaves that I steal from the town idiots who put them out.

Ralph

 

[GregJ]

I have had a B7500 and a Bearcat 70554 for about 2 years now. The Bearcat is probably a little less than $2500 now. I compost the chips and use them for landscaping and soil amendment. I have done around 60 yards in that time. At $35/ yard for compost..... That's about $2100 of compost I have produced with my chipper. The way I look at, it has almost paid for itself in less than 2 years. I used to have a small Craftsman chipper that was more work than it was worth. The Bearcat is easy to use and produces great chips for mulch/compost.

Of course if you don't plan to use the chips, I would definitely think about burning. Chippers for disposal of debris are great when you can't burn, but it's hard to beat a good burn pile for rapid disposal.

Hope this helps.

Greg

 

[burtalm]

Here's my two cents. I own a 12 HP DR chipper and I love the thing. My main home is in a village where burning is not allowed. DR makes bigger chippers but the 12 HP chews up limbs up to 4" with no problem and frankly anything over 3" I consider firewood. Since I bought my tractor for use on my woodlot/summer camp I can't imagine having it and the 3 pt hitch "tied Up" doing just chipping. It is far too valuable for other jobs. Therefore I would never own a 3 pt chipper. (Besides the wife likes to feed the chipper while I'm skidding logs or doing other jobs gaining seat time.) /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Boondox]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I can't imagine having it and the 3 pt hitch "tied Up" doing just chipping. It is far too valuable for other jobs )</font>

I thought about that, but the prospect of having yet another internal combustion engine to maintain, plus the additional winter storage space needed for the larger self-contained unit, just doesn't meet my needs. Takes me about four minutes total to swap out 3PH implements, and about ten if the backhoe is mounted. Just can't see it as that much of a bother when I batch process my work already. Like you, anything larger than 3 inches is winter firewood. Pete

 

[MajMac392]

Robert, If I were you I would read up on the Chinese Chipper like Mark mentioned. The price seems very fair for the product. They have had a few problems but it looks like whoever has one loves it and would buy again. There are also some on ebay called: "New Farm Pro 6" Woodchippers". A while back I was looking on ebay and one of the dealers, in KY I believe had a buy it now for $1450.

 

[fractal]

robert

How much would it cost you to haul it to your local county yard?

I did the analysis a couple of years ago. I generate 2-3 tons of yard waste a year, probably 10-15 yards worth. My county yard charges 25 bucks a ton to take the stuff. I haul 1000 pounds of the stuff to the yard every couple weeks during the summer in the back of my f350. I pay 10 bucks per trip in dump fees and probably half that in fuel. I can also take as much mulch (they run it through a chipper / shredder that is bigger than my house at the county yard) as I want for free, or have them deliver it for a low delivery fee.

I guess what I am getting at is ... I can get rid of my brush / weeds faster and cheaper by hauling it to someone else who chips it. It would take me a lot longer to chip it myself, and I will never make back the cost of the chipper in saved dump fees. The downside is that my truck is almost always in some stage of "being filled".

If I were to do it all over, I would probably buy a trailer. That way the trailer could sit and be filled with brush/weeds, taken to the county yard when full. It helps a LOT if your county yard will do pulloffs. Ours here in santa barbara will. The one where I used to live in santa clara county did not. Being able to drive in, untarp, and have a skip loader pull the whole load out of the truck in 30 seconds makes the process painless.

 

[JEDinNH]

I bought a Wallenstein BX40 (takes to 4") a couple of months ago for the back of my B7500. It was $2100 at the local Kubota dealer. I too was wondering if/what to get for my residential needs. Burning was an option, but it's weather dependant and I would need to move the limbs to a spot I could burn in my case. I didn't want to deal with hauling it out and dumping somewhere either. Now I cut a small area of small trees and chip it up, done. I didn't really need the shredder, so I concentrated on the chipper only models, I also felt that I didn't really need the auto feed feature given the amount of chipping I'm doing . I did look at the DR 3pt model but the weight of it (185lbs) kind of made me wonder a little about the "constitution" of it, and if the flywheel might be a little lighter, then again maybe it has no bearing on operation. The BX40 weighs 400lbs and also has a director chute to direct the chips. This unit gobbles up everything up to the 4" pieces without hesitation, and didn't cost a lot more than the DR unit, and travels nicely in the woods on the 3pt.