Does anyone have a Woodmaxx WM-8H with 29 PTO HP?

[ngiovas]

Thanks to everyone for the input. I decided that the WM-8H was what I wanted. Woodmaxx has been out of stock for some time and said they typically sell out in 30 minutes once they are posted. Since they no longer take pre-orders, I decided to investigate other options.

First I did some investigating and found that the Woodmaxx is manufactured by Fred Manufacturing, so I contacted them to find out if I could purchase one directly. They referred me to Woodmaxx for single unit purchases.

Thanks to Stan B for the suggestion on Victory. They sell the WC-8H which is the same machine with a couple of very minor differences (safety bar under the shoot, no tachometer, minor difference on the 3 point hitch mount). I'm sure that Fred made these modifications to avoid issues with their contract with Woodmaxx. With that said, Victory was super helpful and had no problem letting me pre-order a unit that is on its way and should arrive in about 6 weeks. Not only did I avoid having to play the lottery on getting a machine from Woodmaxx in the next several months, but the delivered price also ended up being several hundred dollars less, which is a bonus. The timing is fine since we will have snow on the ground until that time anyway.

I will post back here once I get it and have some time to use it.

Nick

 

[ericm979]

The safety bar looks like it might be a better design than the Woodmaxx one. The Woodmaxx's operation is a bit unintuitive.

The Victory unit looks from the pics like it uses a simple restrictor to control flow. Early Woodmaxxes used that though they later went to a flow control valve, which is what I replaced with a lower flow unit. That was a direct bolt on but putting that on this chipper will require making a mount and some changes to the hoses. I suspect there might be a small difference in the plumbing since the restrictor has only two ports and the flow control has three (one is the bypass). If you need pics of the Woodmaxx setup to see how it's run for adapting the flow control valve let me know.

 

[ngiovas]

The safety bar looks like it might be a better design than the Woodmaxx one. The Woodmaxx's operation is a bit unintuitive.

The Victory unit looks from the pics like it uses a simple restrictor to control flow. Early Woodmaxxes used that though they later went to a flow control valve, which is what I replaced with a lower flow unit. That was a direct bolt on but putting that on this chipper will require making a mount and some changes to the hoses. I suspect there might be a small difference in the plumbing since the restrictor has only two ports and the flow control has three (one is the bypass). If you need pics of the Woodmaxx setup to see how it's run for adapting the flow control valve let me know.

Someone had mentioned in one of the forestry forums that when they got their unit, Victory had changed to the same style flow control valve as the Woodmaxx. We will have to see how mine comes setup. I think the valve, like the one you installed will make it easier to control.

If you happen to be near your machine and can take a few photos, that would be great. No hurry since I won't be working on it anytime soon.

 

[sideskraft]

Just a quick comment about PTO chippers based on my observations. If you want the most cost effective, fastest chipper and won't be using the chips, get a BX62S. Check out the videos on YT and you'll see how fast (but not too fast) and well it pulls in the branches for being a manual feed model. Some people run it close to 1000 rpm PTO speed with good results but it can be run at 540 like the rest of them or something in between. It has a heavy flywheel and the intake chute is quite low and easy to feed. The design is proven over decades and is as simple and reliable as they come. The only potential drawback is the inconsistent chip size and many good sized twigs make it through untouched. If you're letting the chips stay on the ground where they fall then it's a non issue.

 

[ngiovas]

I wanted to post an update on my chipper and how I like it so far. My WM-8H shipped in 6 weeks just like Victory estimated. It took about 5 days to get from California to Michigan. It then sat on the dock for about a week and a half because the shipping company was short-staffed and the truck sat unloaded. Finally, after a couple of calls checking on the status, they hired a third party to deliver the chipper to me.

It took a few weeks before I finally got it up to my property, but I finally got it up there and put together. The first thing I noticed was that the materials seemed to be good quality based on the price of the unit. The sheet metal was thicker than I expected it to be. Overall, it seems like the unit will hold up well to heavy use. With that said, there were a couple of issues.

1. The instructions were terrible. They were not even close to complete and there were many steps missing. Fortunately, I had watched enough videos and read the manuals from similar units, so I was able to get everything together, but it took a little bit of trial and error on a few parts. In the end, everything fit together as expected and I had no extra parts when I was done with the assembly .

2. The unit is advertised as quick hitch compatible. Since it is pretty much a copy of the woodmaxx, I didn't really question this. Unfortunately, this is not the case. The lower pins are about 1/2" too wide on either side, plus due to the way they mount, there is a collar on the inside edge that makes them another 1/8" too wide. No matter how I tried to line up my tractor, there was no way it was going to fit on the quick hitch. This is the only attachment I have had any issues with. As far as the top pin, it sits back too far and too close to the belt cover and the top hook will not come close to fitting. I could use a top hook adapter if this was the only issue, but because of the bottom pin spacing, there is just no way to make it fit on the quick hitch. I am going to see if I can make some modifications to the bottom mounting arms, but I don't know when I will get to that. This was definitely a major disappointment for me.

A couple of positive things I wasn't expecting - The chipper came with an extra set of knives. It also has a cable/lever that allows you to adjust the flap on top of the discharge chute so that you can adjust how far the chips are thrown. I didn't know about this when I bought it. This is a nice touch since I can't reach the top of the chute from the ground.

I bought two 5 gallon buckets of Traveler Premium Hydraulic Fluid for $35 each and used about 1.5 buckets to fill the tank. Based on the specs showing a capacity of 8 gallons, this is about right.

There was no information on measuring or cutting the PTO shaft, but there are a ton of videos on youtube that do a great job of explaining this process. I got the shaft cut and installed without much difficulty.

Then it was finally time to use the chipper. I fired up the unit and grabbed a couple of small branches and fed them into the hopper. It chewed them up with no issues, so I decided to try a couple of larger branches that were between 3 and 4 inches in diameter. It slowed down on one of them that had a V in the branch, but still pulled it through. I had one more branch lying near the tractor, so I decided to toss it in. It was about 4" in diameter, but it was very old, dry and gray which was much more difficult to chip. The machine slowed down some, but it pulled it through. The only issue was that with this harder branch, the machine was shaking a fair amount as it was pulled through. For reference, I have a Kubota L3560 which I think has 29 PTO HP.

One other note - the flow control valve that is used for the roller speed is the small inline type and doesn't really work very well. I had planned to replace it anyway and already have a nice unit ready to install that should give me much better control. I wanted to run everything stock for a while first to ensure there are no issues. I hope to install the new flow control valve soon.

For reference, my chipper from Victory was $2649.00 delivered to my house. The Woodmaxx WM-8H would have been $3492 with tax. My initial thoughts are that it was worth it based on the $843 cost savings over the Woodmaxx. This assumes that I come up with a way to make the quick hitch work without spending too much money.

I will probably post another update once I have a few hours on it.

Nick

 

[Stan B]

I wanted to post an update on my chipper and how I like it so far.

Thanks for the update! I'm wishing I would have saved myself some money and bought the one from Victory as well instead!

Every time I buy something of Chinese origin, I'm surprised if the manual doesn't suck. To be fair though, there was quite a bit of fiddling with the input chute on my WM to get it right.

On my WoodMaxx one, the 3ph attachment points on the chipper are adjustable and are on bars held in with pins. Are yours the same? If so, I have to believe the lower ones could be replaced or modified pretty easily to fit the quick hitch. The main reason I've never pursued a quick hitch though is for fear of this sort of disappointment. I think the standards are somewhat loose around the 3ph quick hitch dimensions (I could be wrong), compared to the skid steer quick attach on the front, which just works with everything it seems.

I wonder if it would be worthwhile to check how sharp the stock blades are. Using a similar PTO HP tractor, only large hardwoods slow mine down. WoodMaxx is pretty proud of their blades, so maybe there's a different there.

Again, thanks for following-up with an update. Toss us a video of it working if you get a chance!

 

[GSVette]

I have the Victory chipper as well. Yes, the instructions totally suck-mine didnt even have the details for the roller reversal linkage shown. Had to figure that out from the photo.

Discovered the quick hitch incompatibility as well- luckily my Farm Hand Cat II to Cat I just clears the shoulders of the lower pins. The extender for the top link solved that problem.

Chipper overall works great and was priced very competitively. I was surprised to find the second set of knives. Only wish it had a folding chute for reduced footprint.

 

[ranger danger]

I've run my wm8h on as little as 19 pto hp. It just reduces the size of material it will handle. I am now running it behind my M6060 with 56 pto hp. It will eat a 8" soft wood and 6" hard wood with ease! 29 hp will be good.

 

[ngiovas]

I have the Victory chipper as well. Yes, the instructions totally suck-mine didnt even have the details for the roller reversal linkage shown. Had to figure that out from the photo.

Discovered the quick hitch incompatibility as well- luckily my Farm Hand Cat II to Cat I just clears the shoulders of the lower pins. The extender for the top link solved that problem.

Chipper overall works great and was priced very competitively. I was surprised to find the second set of knives. Only wish it had a folding chute for reduced footprint.

the roller linkage did take some trial and error to figure out. the bar sits a bit lower than shown in the picture. I'm not sure if this can be adjusted, but it would be more useful if it was closer to the edge of the chute so you can hit it easier in an emergency.

How much does your speed adjust and how fast does the wheel turn at the highest speed? Mine is slower than what I have seen in videos for similar chippers. I am not sure if being low on hydraulic fluid would cause this.

Yes, the folding chute would be a huge plus. I am going to see if I can't modify my lower arms to work with the quick hitch. The base appears to be exactly the same as the woodmaxx, so it should be possible.

Overall I am happy, but I am hoping I can make it even better with some tweaking.

 

[sea2summit]

I've run my wm8h on as little as 19 pto hp. It just reduces the size of material it will handle. I am now running it behind my M6060 with 56 pto hp. It will eat a 8" soft wood and 6" hard wood with ease! 29 hp will be good.

I run my 9900 on an MX 5800 and the M4-071, the difference in performance/speed is staggering. I haven't seen the 8H in person but I can't imagine it's really useful spinning one with less than 25PTO HP.