May get a new chipper

[bigtiller]

Well..... Good news, my wife thinks we need a Woodland Mills WC-68 so I ordered one today! :cool2:

Ha, funny thing, my wife agreed also. Now I just have to talk myself into letting go of the cash.

 

[bigtiller]

Please keep us updated on that........I will need to do that also!

Now I need to sell my old Bearcat 70554 Chipper/Shredder!

I'll probably keep mine, it has the blower.

Any idea what they are worth?

 

[ning]

I've been thinking about a chipper for some time now, considering the WC68, WC88, and Woodmaxx wm-8h.

Similar to most of the comments, I don't plan on chipping oak bigger than 4" as that's firewood (my woodbox has 2"-8" in it as we speak but if I have a chipper I'll probably chip more than I take to the burn pile now), but lots of my stuff isn't straight - mostly scrub oak that goes every which way but straight, so I'm leaning to the full 8" square chutes.

My main concern is PTO hp; my tractor's apparently got 29hp, which is below the suggested range for those chippers, but I'm not going to chip big stuff at speed... should be ok? Also the next tractor will be bigger haha!

 

[Underdog57]

I'll probably keep mine, it has the blower.

Any idea what they are worth?

I see a brand new Bearcat SC 5540 (same as 70554) without the blower is about $3000. (< crazy?) Mine does not have the blower.
I just took all the guards off, greased it, installed brand new knives and PTO shaft. It's ready to work.
Thinking of trying to sell it for $1000. What do you guys think? :confused3:

 

[Captain Dirty]

I've been thinking about a chipper for some time now, considering the WC68, WC88, and Woodmaxx wm-8h.

Similar to most of the comments, I don't plan on chipping oak bigger than 4" as that's firewood (my woodbox has 2"-8" in it as we speak but if I have a chipper I'll probably chip more than I take to the burn pile now), but lots of my stuff isn't straight - mostly scrub oak that goes every which way but straight, so I'm leaning to the full 8" square chutes.

See post #28 above (page 3) I empathize; the limbs on my oaks are wind-pruned. The leader was broken off and a lateral became the new main stem, often several times to produce a zig-zag. Made for a lot more cuts and a lot more "bend overs" to pick up and feed short branches. The number of handlings greatly influenced my decision to chip "firewood".

My main concern is PTO hp; my tractor's apparently got 29hp, which is below the suggested range for those chippers, but I'm not going to chip big stuff at speed... should be ok? Also the next tractor will be bigger haha!

Flywheel weight is important. A heavier flywheel stores more energy and may power through "big" stuff before loosing momentum. I have a Salsco model 627, nominally 6", 7" opening, 210 lb. flywheel, driven by 32 PTO HP. It will bog down 4-5' into a 6" eastern white pine log, and I have stalled it. You will soon learn what your chipper will handle--green and pliable, seasoned and hard, old and punky. I know my machine's vibration will disintegrate the rotten sapwood of an oversized pine and feed and chip the still sound heartwood. After the laborious process of un-jamming a clog in the throat, you will also learn how long or sharp a bend in a crook, how stout a stub of a branch, etc. will not pass though the chipper.

 

[bigtiller]

I see a brand new Bearcat SC 5540 (same as 70554) without the blower is about $3000. (< crazy?) Mine does not have the blower.
I just took all the guards off, greased it, installed brand new knives and PTO shaft. It's ready to work.
Thinking of trying to sell it for $1000. What do you guys think? :confused3:

I bought my secondhand Bearcat 7 years ago at a Deere dealer a couple towns over for $1200 plus tax. Near as I could gather, it was about 4 years old at the time and used only one summer by the janitors at a nearby school. I wondered if I was the only one to look at it for a while because he was very willing to negotiate a lower price, they had it priced around $1500.

 

[Underdog57]

I bought my secondhand Bearcat 7 years ago at a Deere dealer a couple towns over for $1200 plus tax. Near as I could gather, it was about 4 years old at the time and used only one summer by the janitors at a nearby school. I wondered if I was the only one to look at it for a while because he was very willing to negotiate a lower price, they had it priced around $1500.

I bought mine used 6 years ago, used it a few times that year but It wore me out feeding it. I had a lot of brush to clean up and ended up burning it. The previous owner cut the PTO shaft too short and I ordered new chipper knives for it, but I parked it the corner of the garage and never got around to fixing it until now, so it hasn't been used in 5 years. Should work pretty good now with new knives, new PTO shaft, and new belts!

I'm pretty excited about my new Woodland Mills WC 68 coming!

Getting ready to go out and plow snow now.

 

[ericm979]

I've been thinking about a chipper for some time now, considering the WC68, WC88, and Woodmaxx wm-8h.

Similar to most of the comments, I don't plan on chipping oak bigger than 4" as that's firewood (my woodbox has 2"-8" in it as we speak but if I have a chipper I'll probably chip more than I take to the burn pile now), but lots of my stuff isn't straight - mostly scrub oak that goes every which way but straight, so I'm leaning to the full 8" square chutes.

My main concern is PTO hp; my tractor's apparently got 29hp, which is below the suggested range for those chippers, but I'm not going to chip big stuff at speed... should be ok? Also the next tractor will be bigger haha!

My tractor's got 32hp at the PTO. When I chip larger stuff I have to slow the feed way down and/or stop and start the feed to keep the tractor from bogging down. It depends quite a bit on the species. Coast live oak is the hardest to chip since it's hard dense wood and grows crooked. Fir is so much easier.

I was frustrated with the hydraulic feed control on my 8H. It was either full on or a crawl and very difficult to set to anything else... the functional range of the adjuster was very narrow. Resarching the numbers stamped on it I found that it's a 20 gpm unit. I talked to Woodmaxx and they told me the system is 3 gpm. Well there's your problem! I replaced it with a US made direct replacement valve that's 5 gpm, and that gave me a useful adjuster. Since it looks like the Chinese valves are all 20 gpm, I would not be surprised if Woodland Mills units have the same problem.

 

[Beaver Cove Deere]

I just asked my wife and got a big NO..............:laughing:

Get a different wife. :shocked:

 

[RalphVa]

The Woodland Mills chippers come inside a box but with a metal reinforcement frame inside the box.

Here are pictures of what we made with the metal frame. The top was made into a table. The bottom was made into a dolly to sit the idle chipper onto to allow rolling it around. Cost me $70 for 300 # metal castors from TSC and $100 to get them welded.

You can also see the 2 by underneath the front of the bush hog with steel casters underneath it.

Ralph