Woodland Mill vs. Woodmax chipper?

[tmeric7]

FWIW Woodmax is “American designed” but it’s made in China so all applicable tariffs apply.

The Woodmaxx 8800 is made in USA. Some units are made in China, but that one that the OP is considering is a USA model.

8" PTO Wood Chipper Shredder | Made in the USA | 3pt. Wood Chipper Attachment -WoodMaxx

WoodMaxx? offers a 8" PTO wood chipper ($5,225) made in the USA | Buy direct from the manufacturer| industry leading 200lb- 24" dia. flywheel | patent pending | Free shipping | See our full line of chippers, visit woodmaxx.com

woodmaxx.com

I've had an 8800 for several years and I think it's great. My tractor is 29hp and I need to slow down the infeed with really thick material. Sometimes (with thick stuff) the tractor bogs down so you just slide the infeed to neutral, let the drum spin up again, then open the infeed again.

The hydro infeed is really wonderful. When I purchased I was also considering some Woods non-hydro model, and I'm really happy with this feature plus the horizontal feed direction. I've shoved some 15 ft branches into it and it just gobbles it up!

 

[Jimmyob]

I had the same experience here in CA. All the used trailer chippers were either expensive and beat up, or really expensive and not so beat up. I think they command a premim as wihoyou

My tractor's 32hp at the PTO and it is slow when chipping stuff over about 4". Much above that and it depends on the species of wood. Some chip easier than others.

I have the WM8H on my LX3310. It's a beast! Gotta have the hydraulic feed.
Easy to clear jams. No problem with 6" hardwood. Heavy flywheel is key. 200 lbs I believe. I went with 8" over 6" for easier feeding. It won't chip 7-8" hardwood. I don't have any softwood. Love this machine!

 

[Bigbutler1532]

I have a Woodland Mills WC68 I use on a Massey 1532 (29ish PTO hp). It eats decent sized wood without complaint and minimal bogging, certainly anything small enough that I wouldn't turn it into firewood. I give it the occasional 6" log, usually softwood, and it will bog down a bit, but so long as the log isn't overly long, it's a non-issue. The hydraulic infeed roller is a bit finnicky at times, but I've seen some tips on youtube on how to improve that (I haven't had time to try). It does plug up when fed a lot of needles or fresh leaves. I'd be very interested to compare it to the newer models that have two speed/dual flywheels. I can't complain for the money (if memory serves, WM and Woodmaxx were both about half the cost of anything else with hydraulic infeed), it is easy to service (one wrench to access the flywheel/fan), delivery was prompt, and I haven't had a major breakdown yet. It is not a commercial grade chipper like you'd see a tree service company use or like one you'd rent from a tool rental. It is a reasonably priced unit for a small farm/homeowner/homesteader who has wood waste to clean up or who can make use of a supply of woodchips.

 

[mediplt]

I own a woodland mills WC88 and run it behind a Kubota M7060 tractor. Very pleased with this set up. The WC88 will take an 8" log, but it doesn't like it. I try to put no more than 6" stuff into it. Even 6" needs to be "bumped in" sometimes. The trick I found is slowing down the feed setting. I run mine on about a 4 with a cheat of 600 PTO rpm and have for about 800 hours.
I also sharpen my blades about every 25-30 hours using a 60 grit flap disk on my side grinder. They say to only use the grade 8 bolts twice. Tractor supply has the bolts(metric) pretty cheap. No need to order them from woodland mills.
Also I feed it in fat end first and if it is the same size the whole length then I try to feed something smaller in right behind it, touching. The spring on the feed drum will drop in behind the log and if it's pushing the limit, it will bind and jam. Order an extra set of belts, you will need them until you get the hang of it.
My other complaint is if you are blowing chips into a trailer and trying to completely fill the trailer, there needs to be a "half" setting on the chute direction. I solved this with a C-clamp and little piece of wood.
Overall I am extremely happy with mine and would buy it again today if needed.
I chose Woodland mills because during covid woodmax put me on a waiting list of 4 months and then never notified me when I was removed from that list. Poor communication with them.

 

[NewmanDon]

I have 31hp at the pto. So, woodland Mills supports a 6 inch chipper. Woodmax 6, 8, or 9. 95 pct of chipping is fresh cut cedar. I like the woodmax 8800 but for some reason it has 2 blades. Bothe the woodmax 6 inch and 9 inch have 4 blades. Any thoughts on these 2 brands. Any experience or thoughts on 2 blades vs. 4?

I have a woodmaxx 8H on a Kubota L35 with 31 hp at the PTO. I've had it for five years and it's been a workhorse. The chipper is overdriven by a belt drive so the flywheel turns faster than the PTO. I think the belt drive absorbs a lot of the intense vibration that can be produced by the chipper - it's a lot kinder to the tractor and PTO system. The hydraulic feed system is self contained and driven by a belt off the pto. I've had zero mechanical problems. You'll definitely want the hydraulic feed. If you're chipping something big then you'll need to "beep" the wood into the chipper and let it recover each time before feeding a little wood more into the knives. The flywheel is very heavy and it takes a few seconds for the chipper to get back to speed if it bogs down. 31hp is plenty to operate the chipper but if you chip anything bigger than 4 inch then you'll need to pay attention to chipper rpm. I mostly chip softwoods like douglas fir and pines both green and dry.

You have to pay attention to the flow of chips out the chute, if it starts to clog the chip flow will slow and land closer to the chipper. Clogging is especially likely if you're chipping lots of small branches because they can turn sideways in the feed chute and the chipper cuts off long pieces. You'll have to remove the chute and clean out the chipper exit once in a while. You DON'T WANT to clog the chipper. It's a tough job to remove all the access plates and pry all the compressed chips out of the chipper. The safety bar occasionally falls down to the neutral position due to strong chipper vibration and it stops feeding.

I bought a spare set of flywheel knives and bed knife so I just replace the parts when it's time. A local machine shop grinds the knives on a knife grinder. Access inside the chipper is pretty tight but not impossible. You'll need a helper on the outside when replacing knives. It's a bit of a hassle to get the bed knife set in the right place so the gap is correct with the knives in the flywheel. I've replaced the hydraulic filter on the feed system once but the filter I removed was clean. I have adjusted drive belt and hydraulic feed pump belt tension a couple of times, it takes some time but it's not difficult

 

[ScipioUSA]

Wanted to add my thoughts. I bought the WC68 based on my tractor HP. Decision for me was based on the folding indeed chute for storage and the ease of access for knives and clearing a jam. One bolt and you have that clamshell open and can lock the flywheel to get in there.

They have great customer service and it's a well made machine.

I also have the dead band on the feed speed control. The valve they supply is 4-20 GPM I think and the pump output is maybe 6? (Would need to search around to verify that). There are a few places to swap in a valve if you want to dial it in better. For my use case it's OK to run it a little slower on the indeed. For smaller branches it can get going at full tilt and have no problems. Only clogs I never had were a lot of leafy honeysuckle that got tangled in the chute when I had "help" feeding it.

 

[Ty306]

I bought the MX9900 last summer, and have about 15 hours on it so far, running it on my LX3310. At 27 PTO HP, I'm on the low end of the power requirement, but so far I've had zero issues with operation. I decided on this model for several reasons, in no particular order:
-The large 9x9 infeed
-The heavy 225 lb flywheel weight
-4 blades, vs 2 on nearly all other PTO chippers
-Faster flywheel speed, at 1200 RPM
-Woodmaxx is veteran owned, and I myself am a veteran.
-USA made (MX line, WM line is made in China)
I also decided to "buy once, cry once", because I'll never buy a smaller tractor, but this model can be safely used on much larger machines as well, if that ever becomes a potential in the future. I've fed some rather large material, possibly near the 9 inch max into it. As long as you feed slowly, the heavy 4-blade flywheel handles it fine.
***One important suggestion I have - buy an overrun clutch!! It'll help preserve your internal PTO brake and components, as it allows the heavy flywheel to freewheel to a stop upon disengaging your PTO.

 

[PeteN]

I just had a contact with WoodMaxx and posed the 2 vs 4 blade question. Here is their response:

"The advantage of 4 chipper knives vs. 2 is twice as many hits per second on the fed material resulting in more efficient chipping. For example, on the MX-8800 you'll get 18 hits per second and on the MX-9900 you'll get 36 hits per second and with the staggered knives it chips half the face of the log with each hit rather than the entire face which allows for larger capacity at a lower horsepower."

I'd like more info on the overrun clutch posted in the previous post. Where is that installed (part of the PTO shaft?) and where do you buy? I don't like the instantaneous load on the system when the PTO is engaged on my LS MT357 and wonder about the wind down when I disengage. It's an issue with the wood chipper and the bush hog cutter. On my JD 2020 there is a clutch that engages the PTO so that you can slowly get it up to speed without the clunk on have on my LS.

Pete

 

[MJZ]

I just had a contact with WoodMaxx and posed the 2 vs 4 blade question. Here is their response:

"The advantage of 4 chipper knives vs. 2 is twice as many hits per second on the fed material resulting in more efficient chipping. For example, on the MX-8800 you'll get 18 hits per second and on the MX-9900 you'll get 36 hits per second and with the staggered knives it chips half the face of the log with each hit rather than the entire face which allows for larger capacity at a lower horsepower."

I'd like more info on the overrun clutch posted in the previous post. Where is that installed (part of the PTO shaft?) and where do you buy? I don't like the instantaneous load on the system when the PTO is engaged on my LS MT357 and wonder about the wind down when I disengage. It's and issue with the wood chipper and the bush hog cutter. On my JD 2020 there is a clutch that engages the PTO so that you can slowly get it up to speed without the clunk on have on my LS.

Pete

Thanks for the insight on blades. It's odd to me that the 8600 and 9900 have 4 blades while the 8800 has 2.

 

[ning]

I've also seen this:

BX72RSH heavy duty professional wood chipper

No personal experience.