Chipper PTO CHIPPER Suggestions

[Rowski]

I also have a Valby 160 hydraulic feed (single feed roller). As Andy says it's one good unit. I cleared a small area of trees this summer. We had three guys working and the chipper never let up. It would take a 20' tree limbs and all.

 

[fractal]

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Knives need to be sharpened so ease of removal and replacement is another criterion. The dealer I worked with indicated that I would probably have to sharpen the knives each day and I had resigned myself to this but have found that I rarely have to do this. So far, I have removed the knives a couple of times and touched up the edges lightly and that's been enough.

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So maybe THAT's what is wrong with my chipper. It USED to suck down leaves faster than you could say Doooh. Now it cloggs up even if I feed it slow. Guess 10 yrs of use kinda dulled the blades

From my point of view (mostly leaves, twigs, stray fruit, the occasional slow moving pet (just kidding) ), a 5hp mtd chipper used to work just fine. I will pop it open and see what it takes to sharpen the blades before the next round of leaves this weekend. Other than the recent clogging, my ONLY complaint has been the size of the throat. The unit claims to take 1 1/2 inch in the shreader and 3 inches in the chipper. The chipper throat is like 4 inches across. The shreader throat is maybe 8. Trying to cram an untrimmed branch down the throat of it was impossible. Maybe power feed will solve the problem but I spend most of my time either trimming everything that goes into the shreader, or pushing like crazy to get the branches past the throat. I can understand having to trim branches that took a chainsaw to cut but branches you cut off with loppers? I guess it takes a 3grand unit to handle those as my 500 dollar unit didn't.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Funny, I got the 5HP MTD when I lived on 1/2 acre. It
seemed like a pretty cool piece of equipment back then.

Now it is my nemesis. I can't tell you how much I
loathe it. I admit it's okay for leaves, and that makes
it just useful enough where I can't justify getting
another one. It clogs up after maybe two bagfulls though.

You will have a project on your hands when you attempt
to sharpen the blades. First of all, you will note that
there are about ten bolts you have to take off. Next,
the blades are made out of crappy metal, and quickly
become u-shaped. So you have to sharpen them often.

I've been trying to use mine just lately to shred all
our paper -- or I should say chip our paper. The
shredder isn't up to it. It keeps stalling out on
me. I got so mad at it just the other day that I made
judicious use of that vital tool we call the steel-toed
boot, and the gas cap popped off and I can't find it. I
can't tell you how much I hate this machine. I keep
having to take tha $%$%@##$^ chipper feed off to
unclog the thing. It's all wobbly now and probably
dangerous as hell.

By the way, the shredder uses hammers, which I didn't
think to examine for sharpness. I've always gotten
fine leaf suction so long as the chute is not clogged.
If I remember right there are two pairs of blades on
either side of the "flywheel", which is laughably small.

I long ago gave up on chipping wood. My 5' brush hog
chips much bigger wood than the MTD, except of course
it tends to cut only so long as the limb is poking up
off the ground. If I try to put a hard, dry 3" limb
into my MTD the vibration is literally quite painful.
It's a circus trying to use this thing.

Sorry for the rant. I'm glad you are so satisfied with
your MTD. I wish my experience was as good as yours.

Maybe if I'd never gotten the $500 thing in the first
place I would now be able to justify dropping $3,000
on a nice PTO version that takes a full 6".

Oddly enough, I expected that the shredders on the
market would come with a vaccuum tube for leaves,
but none seem to have this. It seems silly to pick
up a big pile of leaves when the blades create so
much suction.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

You might want to try the GMC or ground mantince unit also you might have herd of the 18P or 24P chipper you might want to look at the discussion form they had a 18P discussion