Chipper Do I need a chipper?

[nyone]

Why buy the cow when the milk is free? I have got delivered over 400cuyrd of wood chips for $0. All you have to do is contact a few tree companies. I used chipdrop.com 1x and it took about 9 months to get my first load. After that I told the guy to just drop off chips any time he had any and the rest was history.

With that being said chips make a decent trail base for the first 2yrs but after that they suck. To soft and never lock into place.

 

[ericm979]

I hate the chipping process in every sense of the process, and wood chips are of no use to me. If I need to dispose of debris, it's via fire. Chipping is a violent process that is hard on the ears and hands and the machine that does it. The only machines that make sense are the massive ones that I'm not buying to do my back yard chipping. As mentioned earlier, chipdrop if you want chips, fire if you want to get rid of wood.

The OP is in Western Oregon and like here, they can't burn during fire season.

My fire season is half the year. The time it's actually safe to burn is a few months in winter. I don't want to leave piles that long.

Power feed chippers aren't hard on the hands and for the noise I have good hearing protection.

 

[grsthegreat]

Why buy the cow when the milk is free? I have got delivered over 400cuyrd of wood chips for $0. All you have to do is contact a few tree companies. I used chipdrop.com 1x and it took about 9 months to get my first load. After that I told the guy to just drop off chips any time he had any and the rest was history.

With that being said chips make a decent trail base for the first 2yrs but after that they suck. To soft and never lock into place.

Personally, i like them on my trails. Just dont get them too thick. The trees i chip are referred to as junk wood (jack pine). Has so much pitch and some creosote in it that it makes poor fire wood. But that same property keeps weeds from growing on my trails. Where i have chips, no weeds for over 15 years. Where there is no chips, i have to mow weeds.

 

[oosik]

Every few years or so - I have to "clean up" the small pines that will grow right on the edge of my driveway. The DO look nice in the summer. They become a wholly nightmare in the winter. The snow load causes them to bend into the driving lane.

So...... down the driveway with the chainsaw. Cut them all down and pile them into piles on the driveway. Then down the driveway with the chipper. I blow the chips onto the driveway.