small chipper

[Soundguy]

Just got the OK from the CFO to get a small chipper. so far am looking at the 2.5 hp electrical ones, and the 5.5 hp gas jobs. anyone have comments on either?

what brought this about is that yearly I clean our fence line and it usually yeilds a bunch on 1/4 to 1/2" sapplings, with an occasional 1" green weed or similar. normally I just lay them over with the machhette or swing flig and let nature take over.. however... apparrently the wife is getting tired of the couple weeks it takes for them to get flattened by the animals.

thus last week i got a walk behind string trimmer to neat up the fence line and around the buildings where the tractor can't get... and now have the 'ok' for a small light duty chipper for said small material.

( no need for limbs or anything like that.. )

any opinions?

I have power out on the farm and out on theremote farm property.. so I can use the laoder and brush tines to scoop up the clippings and take them to a spot to chip if needed.. so gas or electric will work for me..

it's so rare that I get the OK for a real tool other than a hand tool that I always like to jump on it before she changes her mind. luckilly she is much impressed with the walk behind string trimmer

soundguy

 

[jenkinsph]

Never have seen any chippers that small but I guess someone makes them.

How about buying a big garbage disposal.:confused2:

Usually I run over stuff that small with my mower a few times.

 

[bigtiller]

I just bought this one but the bad part if it is the people that built it went out of business in the 70's. After owning a Bear Cat 14 HP. model several years ago, I was very surprised how well a little 5 HP. chipper-shredder works. Craigs List has these small ones in my area almost weekly for $250 or less. So many of them in fact that I wonder how well the newer ones work and hold up. There has to be a reason so many are for sale. I don't want to scare you away from them, they have their place in the world, they are a life saver at times and a pain in the neck other times.

 

[Treemonkey1000]

I bought a small gas chipper with a 7 horse motor on it. With gravity feed chute. It did fine if you had straight branches. The chute was so small it was really a pain in the posterior. I ended up selling it and getting a Vermeer. I know that isn't practical to have unless you are doing a lot of chipping which I do. You could rent one of those electric or small gas chippers to see what you think. Other wise I would suggest goats. Branches and briers in the front end of them and fertilizer comes out the exhaust.

 

[MtHam]

Having owned several small chipper/shredders in the past, I wouldn't waste my money. They all go to crap shortly. Rental yards only rent larger units because they are the only ones to hold up. A PTO driven unit such as the Wallenstein BMX32 ($2900) seems to be good reasonably priced option.

 

[jbooth]

So just lay them out and use a mower to cut them up. Mower should handle anything a string trimmer will cut. Use a mulcher blade if the mower does not cut fine enough. However, if you have the CFO on board maybe try for some kind of tool.

 

[grnspot110]

I bought a 5 HP leaf shredder w/chipper for $67 on ebay, 1-1/2" capacity was stretching it, so now I use it (with the screen out) for garden waste, green stuff. Later bought a "slightly used" 10HP Troy-built for 1/2 new price, works very good for up to 2-1/2", anything bigger makes firewood. ~~ grnspot110

 

[Code54]

I would just get a small brush hog (if you dont have one) and run them over with a pass or two and use it to cut other areas. I have a BX42 chipper and the real small stuff is almost too small to chip. 1" is fine but 1/2 is just twigs and dont chip up that hot

 

[Gittyup]

Most small ones seem to take forever. They are more work than they are worth to me. My advice, for what it's worth, is to either get a used one on the larger size (7 hp and up) that also has a shredder, or just push then into a pile and use your bush hog on them.

 

[k0ua]

Does anyone have any experience with the DR. pto driven chippers? my wife has wanted one of those for a long time. I was wondering if they were worth having.
James K0UA