Wood Chipper recommendations

[Gem99ultra]

How about a demo 20 miles east of columbus

A demo? No problem! I'll be chipping here this morning. Any and all are welcome to come cut and stack, and observe me standing around, sliding a tree in the chipper every few seconds/minutes. Better hurry though - I only have another thousand trash trees to go

 

[BLSXJ]

DONT STACK!

cut and feed.... only touch our wood once! lol

 

[oosik]

There is a man - BLSXJ - that seldom chips or has a lot of help when he does chip. I cut, drag, stack and then chip 750 to 900 small( 1" to 6" on the butt) Ponderosa pines every spring as I thin my pine stands. I would burn unlimited gallons of diesel fuel if I did not use my current procedure.

Been doing it for 36 years and this is the most efficient way, for me. Identify & cut - drag and stack - chip.

 

[GSVette]

oosik,

Considering adding a chipper (rather than renting) to munch a number of tree limbs(Ponderosa Pines, like you) left over from my recent land clearing for shop build-what do you use the chips you generate for? Mulch?, ground cover? Just a big **** pile?

Thanks

 

[ericm979]

I stack brush so I can chip it efficiently. The grapple helps though grapple gathered or moved piles are harder to pull apart at the chipper than hand stacked ones. When cutting trees that have many large branches that have to go through the chipper on their own I sometimes stack and sometimes do not. It depends on how easy it will be to get the branches to the chipper. I don't want to have the chipper running a lot with nothing in it. That just makes noise and burns fuel for no reason.

I use my chips as mulch around the house, on my dirt roads, and in the garden. There's also a big pile. The chips from my Woodmaxx 8H are smaller than what you get from big selfpowered tree service chipper and they degrade faster.

 

[BLSXJ]

whatever floats your boat.

I personally dont enjoy un-tangling brush piles. I might cut/trim an area, then bring the chipper in a close as i can, start it and grab the brach and feed it in.

Do you also enjoy moving and stacking firewood?

 

[BLSXJ]

whatever floats your boat.

I personally dont enjoy un-tangling brush piles. I might cut/trim an area, then bring the chipper in a close as i can, start it and grab the brach and feed it in.

Do you also enjoy moving and stacking firewood?

 

[oosik]

OH - MAN - - are we getting double posts again. Firewood - well, back in the dark ages when I burned firewood. Fall the tree - cut to length - split the stuff - load it in the firewood trailer - haul it across my property and stack it in the firewood shed. All my firewood was harvested on my property here.

If I were to do it now - fall the tree - cut to ten foot lengths - use grapple and bring lengths to firewood shed where it would be cut to length, split and stacked in shed.

Back when I burned firewood - I had no grapple on my little Ford 1700 AND my trees here are ancient growth Ponderosa pines. Mature tree will be anywhere from 32" to 42" in diameter on the butt. You don't pick up much trunk on a 38" green pine tree.

 

[4570Man]

Do you also enjoy moving and stacking firewood?

No, but I know a guy that does. He handles it at least twice as much as I do. He says it’s good exercise.

 

[oosik]

GSVette I've never really figured out a use for all the chips I generate. One year - quite a while back - I tried using them, like gravel, in certain spots on the driveway. They looked nice, they "drove nice" - but unfortunately they were not heavy enough to stay in place and they ended up on the side of the driveway with the plowed snow. And its a pretty long trip from where I generate the chips out to the driveway - so after that one time I've not used them for that purpose again.

However - If you had enough chips and had the patience - my problem - to wait for the driveway and pine chips to freeze up, rock hard, before you do any snow plowing - - pine chips DO make a really nice driveway cover material. Soft, quiet, no dust and locally available - providing you have stuff to continue to chip.

Otherwise - I've got piles of pine chips moldering away in many spots - all over the central portion of my property. In total probably half a dozen or more pickup loads.

My main reason to chip is to get rid of all the small pines I cut when thinning all my pine stands - soooo... I've really never given much thought to using the chips.

They do make good ground cover and are OK for mulch. I think you have to add something to the mix if you are going to use them for mulch - I read somewhere but don't remember what it was.

Ah - I HAVE used them - - I hauled some to a spot where the exposed bedrock and Mt St Helens ash cause an "ash cloud" when we get our winds out of the SW. I'm out here in the scab rock lands about twelve miles due SW of Cheney - near the old town of Amber and Rock Lk. Lots of volcanic ash still hanging around - not yet covered by soil yet.

I don't know where you are relative to a purchase of a chipper - send me a pm if you would like to come out and see a Wallenstein BX62S in action.

This HOT WX - hit 105F yesterday @ 3:30pm - has got to break, sooner or later. Oosik

 

[NTG]

You're going to like the WC68. Let me know if you want some training and/or experience in the cutting & stacking phase Seriously, if you need any help with the assembly, let me know and I'll come give you a hand.

I sure appreciate it! I got it in on the 8th, but haven't had a chance to touch it. I've been working every day since it was delivered and haven't had any time at all to work with it. Hope to check it out soon.

 

[GSVette]

GSVette I've never really figured out a use for all the chips I generate. One year - quite a while back - I tried using them, like gravel, in certain spots on the driveway. They looked nice, they "drove nice" - but unfortunately they were not heavy enough to stay in place and they ended up on the side of the driveway with the plowed snow. And its a pretty long trip from where I generate the chips out to the driveway - so after that one time I've not used them for that purpose again.

However - If you had enough chips and had the patience - my problem - to wait for the driveway and pine chips to freeze up, rock hard, before you do any snow plowing - - pine chips DO make a really nice driveway cover material. Soft, quiet, no dust and locally available - providing you have stuff to continue to chip.

Otherwise - I've got piles of pine chips moldering away in many spots - all over the central portion of my property. In total probably half a dozen or more pickup loads.

My main reason to chip is to get rid of all the small pines I cut when thinning all my pine stands - soooo... I've really never given much thought to using the chips.

They do make good ground cover and are OK for mulch. I think you have to add something to the mix if you are going to use them for mulch - I read somewhere but don't remember what it was.

Ah - I HAVE used them - - I hauled some to a spot where the exposed bedrock and Mt St Helens ash cause an "ash cloud" when we get our winds out of the SW. I'm out here in the scab rock lands about twelve miles due SW of Cheney - near the old town of Amber and Rock Lk. Lots of volcanic ash still hanging around - not yet covered by soil yet.

I don't know where you are relative to a purchase of a chipper - send me a pm if you would like to come out and see a Wallenstein BX62S in action.

This HOT WX - hit 105F yesterday @ 3:30pm - has got to break, sooner or later. Oosik

Thanks Oosik-I think we’re coming to the decision to add a 6” chipper (likely the wallenstein) to our growing arsenal of attachments. I have looked at mulching with Pine m-doesn’t look to difficult to make a good mulch, decorative use and maybe as a compost add.

Hopefully weather breaks soon.

 

[Gem99ultra]

Good suggestion oosik, i.e. cut, de-limb, and stack. Then bring the chipper in close and let 'er rip. That Woodland WC68 sure does a nice job. I set it to feed rather slowly to produce small chips. Even at 'slow' it'll keep me humping. I'm definitely happy with it. The chipper could definitely keep two young bucks busy.

I'm amazed at how nice the place is starting to look with all of the scrubs cleared out, and the larger trees will have a better chance to grow. I'm also amazed at how long it takes to clear out one small area. Lots more trash trees and scrubs than I would have imagined. A couple of hours per day is about all of the cutting, de-limbing and stacking that I want. That's okay though - I spread the joy out as much and for long as I want

Finding a use for the chips so far has not been a problem for me. We have lots of garden space that needs walkways, trails, flower beds, and low spots in the woods that need filling. If I'm chipping at a place that not convenient to save the chips, I just flip up the chute guide and let the chips spread.

 

[fender5803]

Woodmaxx and Woodland Mills both sell 6" and 8" PTO chippers. Designed by them, made in China. I have a Woodmaxx 8H which I have been generally happy with. I had a "chuck and duck" self-feeding chipper before. The hydraulic feed is much safer and chips a larger range of material. The 8H is $2800 including shipping. Woodland Mills' 8" is a different design which you may or may not like better, and retails for about the same.

There's a lot of threads about the Woodmaxx 6" and 8" chipper, youtube videos too. Fewer threads and videos of the Woodland Mills but there are some. They're the best deal in chippers these days, unless you're lucky and find a good used unit and you're in an area where used implements are reasonably priced.

I believe I read Woodmaxx has a Made In The USA model now

 

[ericm979]

They have had two for a couple years now. An 8" and a 9". They're a different design than the chinese 8" models and cost quite a bit more.

 

[SplitHoof]

We have had the Woodmaxx 8H for several years now and love it. We have a lot of cedars and even though we don’t normally chip anything over 4 or 5 inches it’s nice having the larger feed opening for oddly shaped limbs.

 

[oosik]

Just yesterday I did a little chipping. Took me longer to drop the back blade - put on the chipper - drop the chipper - put on the back blade back on - - than the chipping itself. Its a medium sized pine that for unknown reason went horizontal up at about the twenty foot level. A lot of the limbs were gnarly, twisted - generally providing no benefit to this tree. So - I chopped them off.

First time in a real long time - a gnarly, twisted limb got stuck in the in-feed on the chipper. It was hotter than the hubs of h e l l - I was getting tired - but fortunately it came out with just a standard shovel prying on it. I left about half the twisted limbs up there by the tree - later I will go up with my little Stihl and cut them into "bite size" chunks.

It sure made me realize why my annual thinning/chipping project is in the spring of the year. Around here - chipping at this time of year is all work and no fun.

 

[NTG]

Gem99, I finally got a chance to work with my chipper! Put it together last Sunday without too much difficulty and I chipped a couple piles this past week. I agree with Oosik, chipping this time of year is no fun. LOL But I need to get the piles out of the way that have sat there, some almost 2 years. It's doing a good job and I'm excited to have a way to get rid of all these saplings. Because these piles have sat for so long, I went ahead and put chips around my arborvitae trees at the house. Looks good!

 

[oosik]

The chipping I did three days ago was not a planned event - spur of the moment. What I will do when I'm into my spring thinning/stacking/chipping project - hook up the chipper to the tractor, the day before, and get out there around first light - 5AM - chip until 9 or 10AM. If I can chip four hours a day - it will take five to six days to get all the chipping completed, By nine or ten am I'm dog tired and its starting to get real hot. I can always tell when its time to quit for the day - I start tripping over everything and may even fall a couple times too.

 

[NTG]

I'm bad about tripping when I get tired too.