Buying Advice Wood Chipper for 12 acres

[Jchonline]

I have a WC88, used it 1 season so far. Great machine. I agree with other comments it will wear you out. Also stay within your HP range. Low HP will really slow down the chipping.

 

[rademamj1]

All good points and advice from owners. I had completed selective clearing on 5 acres a few years ago. Had many piles of wood debris 10 feet high or more, intending to burn. Unfortunately being a new resident and unaware, my first burn pile brought the McLennan County Sherriff attention, and my first awareness of Texas policy on a rural burn ban in the summertime.

I rented a Vermeer 26HP chipper with Kohler engine and each burn pile was gone in 15 minutes. I purchased the Woodmax 9900 PTO Chipper, and powered by my Kioti tractor Diesel with 33Hp at the Pto, it's far more powerful than the commercial Vermeer I rented.

 

[ericm979]

I have about 70 hours on my Woodmaxx 8H, all on my Branson 3725. I had a MacKissick TH186 before, which I used on a Kubota B7100. It's a 4.5" chipper while the 8H is 8". The macKissick is a "chuck and duck" self feeding chipper. You have to tilt the material up to get it in the upwards pointing chute. Then pull your hands away quick when the chipper catches it, because it will pull it in fast. Sometimes it has to be rotated to get it to "catch".

The 8H's chute is horizontal so it's easier to get larger heavier material in it. Sometimes I lift the butt up onto the chute and then go lift the other end and push it in. But usually I cut it small enough to be readily picked up. That's still way larger than what I had to do for the MacKissick. That chipper required much more cutting to get material into it, and more careful feeding as well.

The 8H is hydraulic feed. It's much easier to get it to feed, and since the feed speed is controlled, it's also safer. At this point I would not go back to a non hydraulic feed chipper.
My tractor has 32 HP at the PTO and there's been times I could use more. We have a lot of wood so I chip stuff that other people might use for firewood.

Around here used commercial trailer type stand alone chippers are expensive. They might be cheaper where you are. There's also renting. I don't like renting because of the time it takes to pick up and drop off but maybe you're closer, and able to arrange your piles to make a rental day worth while. Renting once would also let you try out hydraulic feed to see if you like it.

 

[abunchofidiots]

Whatever you look into, look for hydraulic feed. Manual feed (self feed) requires one person to stand there and feed the entire time.

 

[Industrial Toys]

For safety, I prefer one person be in charge of the hopper or infeed.

 

[oosik]

Neither of my two manual feed Wallensteins required somebody to continuously push the material into the hopper. Once the tree makes contact with the chipper blades - the system is self feeding. It pulls & feeds so rapidly - it has often frightened the new & uninitiated helper.

That is one of the best features I've found with both Wallys. Get the tree in the chipper and it starts chipping. Now you can turn and grab the next tree to feed into the chipper.

If you have to continuously push the tree/limb into the chipper to get it to chip - something is very wrong.

 

[Industrial Toys]

Which is why it should be one persons responibility to supervise the machine. I got wacked a couple of times a few weeks ago as stuff enters violently twisting and turning.

 

[5030]

There’s always the free option. View attachment 659022

Thats me. Had a power infeed pto chipper and sold it. Much easier roasting the limbs, less aggravation, no fuel (except the accelerant to get the fire going), no piles of chips and no maintenance on yet another implement.

 

[oosik]

IT - exactly. One must alway be aware that the tree might shift/twist with a whole lot of force as it is pulled into the chipper. Getting whacked in the arm or back isn't so bad. When the @#$% tree hits me in the head and knocks my hat off............. For me, because I'm always chipping small pines( 1" to 6" on the butt ) - it's more of a shock and nuisance. If it were a large limb - a different matter.

I didn't thin/chip this spring. Resting up. Next year it will be catch up. Next year my son & his friend WILL be helping.

 

[rademamj1]

I got whacked hard last month, when a branch feeding into the chipper, rotated 180 degrees very violently and hit me. Despite me seeing it start to rotate, and trying to quickly jump away, it still hit me hard. Ouch! Happened in less than a second.

The overall Safety with these tractor PTO Chippers is still very very good. However, a lot of people are injured on the towed commercial chippers, and this usually due to a loss of focus on the job or stupidity.