Chipper DR Chipper first impressions

[Boondox]

Got a call from Country Home Products this morning telling me the 3ph chippers had finally come in and would I like one? Drove to Vergennes, dodging some HUGE thunderstorms along the way, and after poking around their showroom I paid for the chipper and a little slip of a girl wrestled a 200# cardboard box off the loading dock into the back of my truck. I ran over to help, but she had the thing in place in the blink of an eye! An unexpected surprise, since they had free shipping and I had driven over to pick the unit up...they dropped the price by $130! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Drove home and found ten yards of gravel blocking the driveway. Darn. Forgot about that! So spend an hour spreading it with the bucket, then drove to the garage and used the bucket to transfer the box from truck to garage. Then decided since the sun was shining to mow the lower field. Only then did I take the time to check out the chipper.

Opened the box and peered inside. The chipper is tiny. Absolutely tiny! I really had doubts right then and there! In fact, I used the bucket hooks to lift the unit out of the box just in case the box was needed for the return trip.

Good instructions, albeit with some rather humorous lawyer warnings. "Soft wood processes easier than hard wood." "Do not adjust knife blade while unit is in operation." Love that stuff! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Installed the hopper chute and the deflector. Didn't have to cut the PTO shaft at all. Read the operating instructions, then drove to the lower field for a test run.

It shakes and rattles. And with those sound attenuating earmuffs it sounds like a bell ringing with a tractor in the background. But it chips! I mean it really gobbled up the saplings I ran through it! The biggest piece was about three inches in diameter; we heat with wood so anything bigger than that goes into the firewood shed. But it took a huge pile of brush and saplings, and in about 45 minutes all I had left was a pretty good pile of chips. Not bad at all!

But I can't get over the smallness of the unit. Looks like the first time I forget to raise the 3ph before driving off the unit will fold up like a pretzel. So the verdict is mixed at this point. More later, including some pics.

Pete

 

[Cliff_Johns]

I look forward to your further adventures with the Dr. as well as the pictures.
Cliff

 

[Egon]

Next thing Pete is to make a wood chip feeder for your wood stove. Dry chips would burn more efficiently than solid wood.

Egon

 

[Boondox]

Well, I used it hard all three days this Memorial Day weekend and the verdict is still out. It stalled only once, with a huge cloud of black smoke as the belt slid over the stationary pulley wheel, and I learned it doesn't care much for punky wood. In that case, a partially rotted birch branch full of moisture managed to clog the discharge chute. Seems to handle just about everything else I feed into it, though.

The advertised capacity is 4.5 inches. I found this to be true for softwoods and some of the softer deciduous trees like greenstripe. Maple, oak and beech, no way. The limit is more like 3 inches for the tough stuff.

Tamara and I have been clearing the brush at the edge of our meadow to discourage the coyotes from checking out our sheep...and to give me a clear shot if they are not to be discouraged. The DR seems perfect for long straight saplings or branches. Gentle curves feed in just fine, but abrupt changes in direction don't fit through the hopper and have to be cut with the chainsaw before feeding them. Not unique to the DR; any small chipper will have this issue.

The DR is not a shredder. It chips wood. At the end of a limb the little twigs get cut into smaller pieces, but still some of them are a foot long, especially the tiny stuff like on birch trees. Leaves come out more or less intact, though obviously a little folded and mutilated. I've found it's best to toss leaved branches in with the sheep for a couple of hours, then later chip the picked clean branches.

The 3PH model does not come with a top discharge option. I've found the easiest way to deal with the piles of chips is to discharge into a box, then dump the box into either the bucket for transport or into the bed of the truck. I used the truck because the meadow was pretty soggy and I didn't want the aggies carving ruts in the muck.

Here's a pic of a truckload of chips ready for the garden.

Pete

 

[Boondox]

And a pic of the garden with the walkways all covered in fresh chips.

 

[cisco]

Got one.
Had it for over 6 months, and used it for a few hours today. My system today was my son or I (alternately) trimming lower tree branches from a platform I've fashioned for my FEL, and the one of us "on the ground" moves the tractor around, adjusts FEL height, and takes cut branches from the ground to the DR unit mounted on the 3ph, so when we got through trimming a tree of low hanging branches (the ones that get in my face when I'm bush hogging the property) all there was to show for it was a pile of shredded stuff on the ground (WEAR HEARING PROTECTION).
It works for what I got it for, and for the price is reasonable. It will not take 4" hardwood (much less 4.5"), and I've found the exit chute will clog if a bunch of small branches with lots of juicy leaves are fed into the intake chute (dried leaves are fine). Hand feeding in branches slows things down, but in my case speed is limited by the person cutting branches. When I had a backlog of shredding to do, and a large pile to work on, I rented a large Vermeer with an auto-feed, and the pile disappeared in half a day (would have taken days with the DR). As stated, you have to trim (I've a 2 handed clipper that can handle 2" limbs, and a small Stihl) all large branches from the main trunk, or you'll never be able to stuff a large branch in the intake chute. I trim all major side branches that I can't manually break. I've had no mechanical problems with the DR. It will rust (painted, but has bare metal on the flywheel, and thinly covered metal in other spots), so keep it indoors.
I've a 3410 GST, so far more pto than the 18hp gas unit on DR's highest end self-contained shredder (same shredding unit as the 3ph). I have no idea how DR makes the 4.5 inch claim (? dry pine).
My one hint - keep the single cutting blade sharp (every 10 hours is what's recommended) - it makes a difference.

 

[RebelYell]

Nice looking dogs, garden, truck, chip pile; now how about a pic of the chipper. With the amount of chips you have I assume you are very pleased with the chipper.

 

[Boondox]

Hah! I knew I'd forgotten something! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Hard to take a pic of myself running branches thru the chipper, but I can get one of the unit installed on ol' Clementine. Sorry for the oversight! Old Timers' Disease strikes again! /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Anyway, here's one of the chipper eating a small birch.

Pete

 

[MadDog]

Yah, I like your landscaping assistants, too. I'm sure they're a lot of help. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif I have a black lab and a newfie and they think that all outdoor work with the tractor means "playtime" and the lab regards all branches, sticks, etc. as her personal toys. If you're gonna chip one, you also have to throw one. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

The newfie could care less about sticks; he prefers to "herd" the lab and divert her from bringing the sticks back. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Boondox]

Well, my concerns about the durability of the chipper were reinforced this morning when, after a total of six or so hours of use, I fed a 3" beech branch into the hopper and the drive belt immediately snapped. Remember, the rated capacity of the unit is 4.5 inches. The belt separated at the splice, so it looks like a manufacturing defect. And remember, this belt was smoked for a few seconds when wet wood blocked the discharge chute last weekend and the unit jammed. So if it was weak to begin with that certainly didn't help.

Tech support was great, though, and a replacement is on the way. I'll let you know how the installation goes. Might as well swap out the knife while I'm in there so I can relate the whole maintenance experience.

So it's back to the winch and harvesting firewood for next winter.

Pete