Woodmaxx WM-8H vs MX-8800

[Western Sierra]

Hey guys,

Title says most of it. What say you? Tractor is a CK3510. It has adequate pto hp and lift capacity for either. I have hundreds of trees to clear and I知 sick of feeding burn piles, lol

Thanks for your responses!

 

[Stan B]

I have the same tractor and just bought a WM-8H. I was on the backorder waiting list for both, and the 8H became available first, so that made the decision for me. The main attraction for me of the 8800 was the variable hydrostatic drive, which after running the 8H for several hours now, I can say the variablity is unnecessary. The 8H on my tractor was able to chip ~6" diameter red oak, running the hydraulic rollers at full speed, without a problem. It bogged down just slightly, but frankly I was only chipping something that large to test it. Normally that would be fire wood. The 8" opening is so that I don't have to break down a little tree with three 2" branches in a "W" shape!

Save yourself the extra thousand $.

 

[ericm979]

I have an 8H. I found that with material above about 5" I have to back the feed speed down to minimum to keep the chipper from dragging the rpms down. That's with 32 pto HP. Yours has a little less. It's the same with all of the tree species I chip- madrone, bay, tan oak, doug fir.

The 8H's feed control is pretty much either full speed or very slow. It's because they used a 16 gpm flow valve on a 3 gpm system. I replaced it with a 5 gpm valve and that lets me use intermediate speeds. According to Woodmaxx the MX series does not have this problem.

On the 8H the bed knife is way down in the chute. I'm 6', thin and limber, and I can just barely get in there to replace the bed knife. Most people are going to have to take the chute off, and it's heavy.

The 8H's hydraulic tank's cap/vent is on the back left corner of the tank. My land is steep. If I park the tractor so the vent/cap is on the low side, it can start dribbling oil once it warms up. The MX being hydrostatic probably would not do that.

Other than those fairly mild issues the 8H has been reliable and works well.

 

[Rebeldad1]

I have the Woodmaxx with the manual feed. Less to ever go wrong and works well on everything I put into it. Have had this for 4 years now.

For us anything over 3" is firewood. We hardly ever use the furnace.

 

[Katahdin]

After several years of feeding staghorn sumac through a WM-8H, we moved to making burn piles! LOL!

In fairness the staghorn sumac was a pain because it required a lot of cutting to feed. The burn piles are hot and quick after seasoning for a year.

 

[hslogger]

You might want to further describe your hundreds of trees. What species, what DBH, diameter breast height.... I have the WM8H and use it around a farmstead. I chip oak limbs, douglas fir limbs and branches, ditto valley ponderosa pine and western red cedar. The conifers will clog up the machine if you feed them too quickly because of the richness and moisture in the needles. I have run commercial machines at great length and opted for this machine. It has and continues to meet my needs and expectations. A minor drawback is the non clamshell design of the wheel housing. The other brand with their fold open housing makes it much easier to maintain the knives.

I have freinds who have purchased the big chipper for a fuels reduction project in the coast range of Oregon and they flat out love it.

 

[Western Sierra]

You might want to further describe your hundreds of trees.

The property has a mixture of interior live oak, black oak, Doug fir and ponderosa pine. I plan on chipping anything under 4-5” on softwoods and under 3” for hardwoods.

I had read about the “on or off” nature of the hydraulic valve on the 8H. The primary consideration for the 8800 was being built in the USA. The secondary reason being ease of blade access.

It’s the $1000 question...

 

[ericm979]

The other option is the Woodland Mills 8". It's a clamshell design with a folding chute. I didn't get one because the videos they made of it being operated made it look like more work to get the single feed roller to 'catch' on larger material. The 8H has a handle to lift the upper spring loaded feed roller. I use that for larger stuff. Also when chipping short stubs- lift the roller with one hand and slide the stub in with the other.

But for your material size ranges those may be less of an issue for you. It was a close decision for me. They're both NA designed and China made and the prices were comparable 3 years ago.

 

[PEJ5]

We have the Woodland Mills WC-68 and love it. The hydraulic feed works well and you can set the speed and therefore, the size of the chips. We enjoy only handling branches once, we can chip on burn-ban days, and no tending a fire for hours (or lugging water to put it out).

 

[VroomVroom]

Can you use these chips as a source of home heating? I just ask the same question in another post. Seems like I’m seeing more of people using these chippers