Chipper PTO Chipper on a JD 4110 or similar machine?

2nstonge · Sep 14, 2006

I'm considering a PTO driven chipper for my 4110. Chipper specs say it will take 4 1/2 diameter material, anything over a couple of inches is firewood in my book so I wouldn't be pushing the chipper to its max. My 4110 pulls a 48" tiller through 5-6 inches of virgin Vermont glacial leftovers without a problem so it seems as though I have decent power for a small tractor.

Anybody with a 4110 or similar machine in a different color running a PTO chipper?

The chipper specs say 19hp min off the PTO, the 4110 is 17hp - am I setting myself up for a miserable time?

Anybody have experience with the DR PTO chipper (DR® Power Equipment)? Good? Bad? Indifferent? The factory for parts & service is not too far from me which has me looking more closely at them vs Jinma, Befco, etc. I prefer the PTO drive vs having to maintain yet another seperate engine.

Thanks in advance, -Norm

crd · Sep 14, 2006

I have the Bearcat 5" PTO chipper on my BX2350, which is pretty similar sized to your machine. Highly recommended, if a bit pricey -- although I don't know if they come in green.

It's worked extremely well cleaning up around the edge of my woods, eats up to 3 inch material of any length without breaking a sweat. But as the stuff gets more than 4" the engine will bog down after 6-8 feet of limb - so now I chainsaw the larger material into shorter lengths and have no problem.

I'd take the chipper folks' specs with a grain of salt - I think they set those based on what will fit down the feed throat. I'd say mine's realistically a 4" chipper -- so the DR may be similarly challenged.

Whith our smaller tractors, I'd also recommend getting the heaviest flywheel you can buy - physics say that a larger flywheel will keep the thing chipping away even if the PTO HP starts to fall behind. The DRs have light flywheels -- 35pounds or so vs. the 125 pound flywheel in the Bearcat.

2nstonge · Sep 15, 2006

Thanks CRD. Did you buy your Bearcat locally?

Surprisingly, none of the tractor dealers over here carry any woodchippers...they'll order me one (at list price) but they can't provide any real product knowledge. The DR folks have been very helpful but I'm willing to look beyond them if there's a good local source, the Keene area is closer to me than the DR factory.

Thanks much, -Norm

Ductape · Sep 15, 2006

I think if you are looking at the DR or similar you are on the right track. I have a similarly sized machine, though its an older unit i bought used. My tractor is also 18hp, with about 16 or so at the PTO. My chipper will do about a 4 inch stick, but honestly, that is firewood to me. Most of the stuff i chip is brush, so i don't use it to capacity as i burn anything bigger than that in the stove. Mine has a shredder on it also, which is fantastic for the leafy small stuff. As far as the manual feed, auto feed argument..... i'm sure an auto feed must be better, but definitely not necessary for what i do with mine. I've never owned a machine with auto feed, but i can tell you i tuned up my chipper this summer (sharpened blades, new anvil, set clearances) and it works fantastic. A light push on the limb is all it takes, the chipper actually draws it in pretty well on its own. If you aren't doing alot of large hardwood, i think a DR sized machine is all you will ever need.

crd · Sep 15, 2006

Norm - I PM'd you with the dealer info.

I'd second ductape's comments on the shredder and autofeed. I use my shredder hopper as much or more than the chipper feed; and I've never had to really force anything into the machine such that I'd feel any need for auto-feed.

-Craig

GuglioLS · Sep 15, 2006

The Dr."CoolStuff" are a high quality product and have excellent customer service. IMHO, however the Dr.Chipper chute opening is too small.

My experience with mine is that you wind up trimming just about every gnarly branch to one stick, which takes forever and defeats the purpose.

I wanted a chipper where I could just trim off the tree what I was not going to burn in the wood stove and chip the rest with out farting around triming every single branch. - I sold it and got the Jinma 6". Not that I needed to chip 6" logs - the Jinma feed chute is HUGE and the auto feed sucks in just about everything I can cram in there. I am not sorry I got it, there are a few who do not like the Jinma chipper. It's not the best or highest quality but it does work and parts can be obtained from many sources. I have mine for 2 years and use the snot out of it with no failures to date.

I've got a 30 HP tractor and on the small stuff like I think your going to chip it doesnt phase the engine one bit. I did stick a real long ~ 10 foot 4"-5" cedar in there just for fun and I really noticed the load on the engine about 1/2 way through after it lost some of the inerta from the flywheel.

Dr."Stuff" will take anything back if you don't like it though. Can't beat that

2nstonge · Sep 16, 2006

Thanks for the replies and info, just what I was looking for. Going to do a little more homework on non-DR brands....hope to pull the trigger in the next 2-3 weeks.

Thanks again, -Norm

RalphVa · Sep 17, 2006

I use a MacKissic (think it's a) TPH-122 chipper/shredder. Have NEVER bogged it down with up to 3" into the chipper and various and sundry branched and leaf material into the shredder. My 4010 is about 2 hp less than your 4110. I would not want either a chipper-only or shredder-only machine. Sold a MacKissic shredder-only machine that I got as a package with my Gravely stuff to a guy who had a DR chipper on his bigger tractor and was planning on putting this on his Gravely. He wanted it for grinding leaves and raspberry canes. I'd only used the shredder only for leaves because they'd feed better than through my old Troy Bilt chipper/shredder.

The only machine that'll do more than 3" and still stay around $1,500-1,700 is the Jinma. Bear in mind though that this is about a 900 # device to hang out the back. Hp requirement goes up by square root of the diameter ratio. So, your 4110 would probably drive the Jinma, but you're putting 900 # onto the back of a 1,400 # machine, maybe 2,200 if you have bucket out front. Friend of mine bought a Jinma and had a time assembling it. Later on, the auto feed gave him some problems. He ran it off about an old, about 24 hp John Deere.

The MacKissics are available through Northern Tool. I bought mine from the local JD dealer.

Ralph

2nstonge · Sep 18, 2006

Ralph (and others) do you have a top dishcarge chute? If you don't, do you wish you did? I can see where these would be useful (to me) in loading material into a pickup or dump trailer.

Thanks again, -Norm

ADin · Sep 18, 2006

2nstone,

How hard do you intend to work the chipper and type material to chip, etc (e.g. lots of <1-2" sapplings or 3" hardwood)? Will it be for occasional light chipping/cleanup or random major chipping events? This will tell a lot.

Depending upon your answers and expectations, I would *strongly* recommend you rent one one of the HD autofeed 6" chippers to calibrate your expectations. GulioLS hit many of my points of concern. I think I was in a very similar position to you 2 months ago and I rented a HD chipper. I spent 3 very long days chipping and while most of what I was chipping was admittedly worstcase scenario (Hawthorns - hard, twisted, and thorns) I chipped a wide variety of other material (big, little, long/short, hard/soft, etc). The HD chipper was amazing but it was also clear lesser chippers wouldn't come close. One major point GulioLS highlighted and shouldn't be understated was that many limbs with bends or branches simply will not go in the feeder unless you do a fair bit of work trimming or cutting down to very short pieces. Remember it doesn't take much of a bend or ill placed knot or limb to prevent even a 2" from going down a 4.5" throat. What I quickly noticed and appreciated about the HD chipper with hydraulic autofeed was that it could generate enough brute force to literally smash, break, and/or rip the branches and even the bends in the main trunk itself on many really good sized limbs. Manual feed - forget it, no way. Even still all the muscle getting some limbs into the unit was like trying to lower a cat into a bucket of water.

I not saying you can't accomplish a great deal with any of the discussed chippers or that they won't have long term pay back value for you, but depending upon your needs, those chippers simply may not do what you are hoping to accomplish. Once you start pushing them beyond their true design limits, performance will fall off very, very quickly. Renting occasionally or burning instead of chipping (if possible and perhaps augmented with purchase of grapple toy) could end up being cheaper and/or a less frustrating experience in the end.