Buying Advice Wood Chipper for 12 acres

[grsthegreat]

ive been using my Jimna 6 chipper since i purchased it for $1,200 new back in 2006.

the part i hate about it is the NON hydraulic feed. the mechanical feed has always been an issue. i have been looking at selling it and buying one of 3 different hydraulic feed units. Ive looked at the units from Quick Attach, Woodmaxx and Woodland mills.

ive contacted each and waiting to hear what shipping will run.

I watched the video on the woodland mills unit and i LOVE the clamshell design to access chipper blades. I just changed the blades on my Jimna and its a 3 hour ordeal. Mind you it cuts like new again, but its a chore.

 

[ericm979]

It's not hard to change the knives on a Woodmaxx 8H. There are little doors you unbolt to get to them. The bed knife however is another issue. I can just get to it by laying half in the feed chute, after I have removed the springs for the upper roller and securely blocked it up. But I'm tall and thin. Normal shaped persons will need to take the chute off.
So far I have dropped a bolt into the housing once while changing knives. They provide a small door at the bottom of the housing to retrieve stuff like that. But if it's on the other side of the rotor, where mine was, you can't get it past the rotor and out the door. I taped one of those small parts pickup things with tiny jaws on it to a straightened coat hanger along with a cheap bore scope so I could see what I was doing.

The clamshell design looks a lot better for knife access. However the 8" Woodland Mills has a single feed roller and watching videos it looked like it's harder to get that to feed than the Woodmaxx's two rollers plus lifter to pull up the spring loaded roller.

It's tough to figure out which is better just from videos. It'd be great to run them side by side but that's not possible with these sales models.

 

[PEJ5]

Mike,
Is the B2650 enough power for the WC68? I'm just starting to look at chippers as the mulch would do me a lot more benefit than ash.
I watched the you tube demo and looked great but they were using a 38hp. I have the B2650 with back hoe and very happy with it but like you state only 19hp at pto.
If I commit to that much money I want to make sure I am happy with the power output.

One aspect of selecting the "right size" chipper is the PTO connection. I predict that putting a WC46 on a 50HP tractor would cause considerable angle on the PTO shaft which is hard on the life of the PTO universal joints. Selecting the WC-68 DOES create a level PTO connection on my 50hp.

What is the PTO angle on the B2650 connected to a WC-68?

 

[grsthegreat]

I did not see 2 rollers in the woodmaxx video I watched.... interesting.

 

[grsthegreat]

I also wondered what the difference between hydraulic feed woodmaxx and hydrostatic feed woodmaxx...l $1,000 difference. I emailed them to ask

 

[oosik]

Some excellent points being made here. I can rest the Wally - flat on the ground - and the PTO has almost NO angle. The feed chute is not horizontal - nor is it 45 degrees. It's somewhere in between. If the feed chute on the model you are looking at is already somewhere near 45 degrees and you have to raise the unit up to get the PTO horizontal - it will be more difficult to get the material into the chute. You will have to lift "whatever" up higher.

I've never needed anything other than a manual feed system. All I ever chip is green pines. They are quite soft and chip easily.

The way I operate - four steps - identity, fell, drag to a pile, chip. I will be pulling the pines from off a pile with the butt end facing me and the chipper. I will be working A WHOLE LOT harder than the chipper. I put the butt end of a 4" pine that is 24 feet long up on the lip of the chute. Walk back and lift the tree and start it chipping. It will have completely chipped that tree before I can drag a new one over to the chute.

I CAN work harder/faster but I then risk tripping/falling. The chipper is still sitting there, happily spinning - I'm flat on the ground exhausted.

 

[grsthegreat]

Some excellent points being made here. I can rest the Wally - flat on the ground - and the PTO has almost NO angle. The feed chute is not horizontal - nor is it 45 degrees. It's somewhere in between. If the feed chute on the model you are looking at is already somewhere near 45 degrees and you have to raise the unit up to get the PTO horizontal - it will be more difficult to get the material into the chute. You will have to lift "whatever" up higher.

I've never needed anything other than a manual feed system. All I ever chip is green pines. They are quite soft and chip easily.

The way I operate - four steps - identity, fell, drag to a pile, chip. I will be pulling the pines from off a pile with the butt end facing me and the chipper. I will be working A WHOLE LOT harder than the chipper. I put the butt end of a 4" pine that is 24 feet long up on the lip of the chute. Walk back and lift the tree and start it chipping. It will have completely chipped that tree before I can drag a new one over to the chute.

I CAN work harder/faster but I then risk tripping/falling. The chipper is still sitting there, happily spinning - I'm flat on the ground exhausted.

Shoot... come buy my jimna 6

 

[oldballs]

One aspect of selecting the "right size" chipper is the PTO connection. I predict that putting a WC46 on a 50HP tractor would cause considerable angle on the PTO shaft which is hard on the life of the PTO universal joints. Selecting the WC-68 DOES create a level PTO connection on my 50hp.

What is the PTO angle on the B2650 connected to a WC-68?

From memory, I'd say the connection between the WC68 and the PTO shaft of the B2650 is nearly horizontal...at zero degrees

 

[ericm979]

The Woodmaxx 8H has two feed rollers. The 6" one has one roller. When I was shopping I was comparing the 8" models. I should have mentioned that.

The Woodmaxx MX series is made in the USA. The other models are made in China to Woodmaxx's design and specs. Woodmaxx told me that the hydrostatic feed is more easily variable than the 8H's. This was when I was complaining to them that it was hard to get my 8H to feed at anything between full speed and very slow. The effective range on the flow adjuster was very narrow. The problem is the hydraulic system flows 3 gpm but they used a 16 gpm flow control valve. I replaced it with a US made 5 gpm valve that was a direct plug in (thanks to people here who recommended that) and now it's easy to get a medium feed speed. The flow control issue does not bother most people. I like controls that work right, and I chip larger stuff than many people do.

 

[grsthegreat]

You know, some people say bad things about the Jimna chippers, but i love their simplicity . I just had a scare about 2 hours ago. I had spent about 1-1/2 hours shoving knarley pine branches thru the machine with new knives and was so happy with how it was working when suddenly the entire thing started shaking and screeching something fierce. Shut it down and returned to my shop. I feared i wrecked it and started opening up the shrouds.

I saw the flywheel was striking the metal frame....not good. Then i saw some brass bushings protruding from under one of the pillow block bearing units . I retrieved my sockets and found out one of the bearing had loosened up. I replaced bushings and re-torqued pillow blocks....runs like new again.

I swear i checked those at start of this season....but maybe i only thought i did.

Retightened all nuts snd re-greased. She runs like new.

Maybe the old girl heard that im thinking of selling her. Maybe ill just keep her and skip on a new unit.