PTO wood chipper on a BX

[Michael Aos]

I searched a little for a PTO wood chipper for my 2016 BX2370.

BX2370 has ~17.7 PTO horsepower. Lowest PTO wood chipper I found started @ 20HP.

Wound up purchasing the Harbor Freight 6.5HP Predator-powered Chipper Shredder for $399.

Haven't used it yet, as I'm at a little over 6000' altitude. I had to order the High Altitude carburetor kit part 15486 for $12.98. 24-48hrs to process, then ships in 5-7 business days.

Seems like there would be a market for a BX-oriented PTO chipper if it could sell for less than $1K.
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[rktman26]

I searched a little for a PTO wood chipper for my 2016 BX2370.

BX2370 has ~17.7 PTO horsepower. Lowest PTO wood chipper I found started @ 20HP.

Wound up purchasing the Harbor Freight 6.5HP Predator-powered Chipper Shredder for $399.

Haven't used it yet, as I'm at a little over 6000' altitude. I had to order the High Altitude carburetor kit part 15486 for $12.98. 24-48hrs to process, then ships in 5-7 business days.

Seems like there would be a market for a BX-oriented PTO chipper if it could sell for less than $1K.
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There is certainly a market for them, and I'd have loved to find one for under a grand.

I just ordered this one a few days ago, based on reviews (mostly here on TBN). 'm looking forward to getting it for my BX-25.


Wood Chipper Shredder | PTO Wood Chipper | Wood Shredder | Wood Chipper Attachment | Chipper for small tractor - WoodMaxx

 

[Michael Aos]

If they could cut the capacity in half (to ~4"x~3") and cut the price in half, I'd be in.

There is certainly a market for them, and I'd have loved to find one for under a grand.

I just ordered this one a few days ago, based on reviews (mostly here on TBN). 'm looking forward to getting it for my BX-25.


Wood Chipper Shredder | PTO Wood Chipper | Wood Shredder | Wood Chipper Attachment | Chipper for small tractor - WoodMaxx

 

[s219]

Quite a few people here on TBN run the Wallenstein BX-32S on Kubota BX and similar sized sub-compacts:

BX32S Wood Chipper | Wood Chippers | 3-Point Hitch - Self Feed Wood Chippers | Wallenstein Outdoor Power Equipment

Rated for 12-30 HP. It's not in your $1K range, but no good PTO-powered wood chipper will be.

 

[Michael Aos]

That looks about perfect. What is the ballpark price on one of those?

Quite a few people here on TBN run the Wallenstein BX-32S on Kubota BX and similar sized sub-compacts:

BX32S Wood Chipper | Wood Chippers | 3-Point Hitch - Self Feed Wood Chippers | Wallenstein Outdoor Power Equipment

Rated for 12-30 HP. It's not in your $1K range, but no good PTO-powered wood chipper will be.

 

[s219]

That looks about perfect. What is the ballpark price on one of those?

I think around $2500 or so. They make a more expensive chipper+shredder version (BXM-32) that is closer to $3K.

I believe Titan attachments (palletforks.com) sells Chinese knockoffs of the Wallensteins for quite a bit less money. I have no idea how good they are -- could be risky. I wouldn't buy a knockoff without seeing one in person or talking to someone who owns one (which you can probably find here on TBN).

I will say this about the Wallenstein, the quality is top notch and it's a well designed solid unit. I paid $2700 for my Wallenstein BX-42S back in 2012, and I view that as some of the best money I ever spent.

 

[ericm979]

The MacKissick/Merry Mac chipper/shredders will work on tractors under 20 pto hp. I use a MerryMac 4.5" on my B7100 with 13 pto hp. It could use a couple more hp but works fairly well for the size of the chipper.

Another option if you're closer to 20hp than 13 is the Woodmaxx TM-86H.

 

[LD48750]

I have one of these and have been impressed with what it will do behind an old worn out 9N ford.

Jinma Dealer, Wood Chipper , Compact Jinma Tractors

 

[Captain Dirty]

Wound up purchasing the Harbor Freight 6.5HP Predator-powered Chipper Shredder for $399.--

You did not specify the application. If you want to shred leaves and prunings (<2") the small HF unit may serve. If you want to chip (>1.5") with forks and crotches the HF unit may only serve to make you to re-evaluate your budget constraints. Note that the respected brands make "chipper-shredders" for half again what they charge for "chippers [only]". Although I have a 6" PTO chipper, I still use the hammer-mill shredder feature of an old Troy-built chipper-shredder to chop bones and shells and to shred leaves, straw, and raspberry canes and occasionally the "bird's nests" of small twigs that pass through the chipper. The only good things I will say about the Troy-built are that the Tecumseh keeps on chugging and that the machine was "free" except for fuel, belts, and the time (hours now extending into days) necessary to keep it repaired.

 

[ericm979]

I have a Woodmaxx chipper on order but I'm keeping the Merry Mac chipper/shredder for shredding. it's good for small stuff that's going into the compost.

 

[Michael Aos]

Was going to use the Harbor Freight chipper last weekend. Had a 5x10 dump trailer heaped with limbs.

Wound up running them over to the local landscaping place instead. They let me dump them them on their to-be-mulched pile for $6.

Seems like a good deal -vs- spending an hour lopping the limbs down small-enough to fit into the chipper.
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[rktman26]

I received my Woodmax TM-86H about three weeks ago, and have just shy of six hours on it.

So far, I've been very pleased with it's performance, coupled with my BX-25.

It's eaten everything I've thrown into it, and hardly slowed at all.

Today, I cut a down a pin, about 20' tall and 6" diameter at the base. The tree went from standing to chips in under three minutes. We're using the wood chips to fill in low/wet spots on our property for now. We'll mulch and compost some as well.

I only have two complaints, one is hardly worth mentioning. The safety bar that controls the feed doesn't like to stay in drive. The two bolts that it pivots on tend to loosen up, despite being secured with Nylock nuts.

The other, is the feed mechanism has speed settings from 1-10, but only feeds above about 4. It still feeds fine, but I'd like to be able to slow the feed way down for the bigger, heavier stuff. I'll give Woodmax a call next week and see what they say.

I've been very happy with it so far, and would recommend the TM-86H to anyone with a BX-25.

 

[ericm979]

The other, is the feed mechanism has speed settings from 1-10, but only feeds above about 4. It still feeds fine, but I'd like to be able to slow the feed way down for the bigger, heavier stuff. I'll give Woodmax a call next week and see what they say.

Did you hear anything from Woomaxx? My 8H does something similar. I measured with a contact tachometer. From '10' to '4' it's 75 fpm (45 rpm on a 6.5" diameter roller). There is very narrow band around '3.5' where the speed is 28 fpm (17 rpm). Below that it's zero.

I called Woodmaxx during business hours and no one answered the service line so I left a message. Waited a full day and then used their on line form. I got a return email the next morning which was apologetic but did not address the issue (I'd included rpm but not fpm, and the person answering was confused by that). I replied with fpm information on Thursday morning and have not heard anything back. It's not a big deal in that I can use the chipper but I'd like to have more than two feed speeds.

Maybe you can try some threadlocker compound on the safety bar nuts, or jam nuts if the bolt is long enough. I'll check mine.

 

[rktman26]

Did you hear anything from Woomaxx? My 8H does something similar. I measured with a contact tachometer. From '10' to '4' it's 75 fpm (45 rpm on a 6.5" diameter roller). There is very narrow band around '3.5' where the speed is 28 fpm (17 rpm). Below that it's zero.

I called Woodmaxx during business hours and no one answered the service line so I left a message. Waited a full day and then used their on line form. I got a return email the next morning which was apologetic but did not address the issue (I'd included rpm but not fpm, and the person answering was confused by that). I replied with fpm information on Thursday morning and have not heard anything back. It's not a big deal in that I can use the chipper but I'd like to have more than two feed speeds.

Maybe you can try some threadlocker compound on the safety bar nuts, or jam nuts if the bolt is long enough. I'll check mine.

Sorry I haven't responded. I've been traveling.

I was able to get the safety bar fixed, at least temporarily. I tightened the bolts up fairly snug and it seems to hold. I bought 18mm & 19mm wrenches that I'll keep in the document holder on top of the chipper, where the pin is stored. They came in handy when I had to open up the cover for the rotor to clear a discharge chute jam. The chipper does not mind chewing up fresh pine trees, but the needles occasionally get caught in the discharge chute and the chipper gets backed up.

I haven't tinkered with the feed speed, because I've been out of town, but I'm not to concerned either. At least not yet. I've ran some pretty big stuff through it and it has barely slowed down. I joked with my wife that Woodmaxx should infringe on the Post Office flat rate slogan: "If it fits, it chips".

I'll be doing the 50 hour service on the tractor this week, so I'll look a little more closely at the feed speed lever.

 

[Tractor Seabee]

I had a 6" JINMA that I used on my BX25. Never used it to its capacity so do not know about that part. Ran fine; you had to ramp up the speed slowly or it would stall the engine. Took a long time to wind done. You did not want to move it when ramping down or w/o setting on the ground. Once up to speed it never even knew a 3" limb was going through it. I didn't get the 6" to chip stuff that big but to have a big input chute for bunches of branches at a time. I had a huge pile of them left over from logging. It was a horizontal with a feed roller so easy to feed. They cost around $1800 new. Bought it for $1K went through 4 double sided knife sharpenings, had a mountain of chips, and sold lat fall for $900. Saved a lot of rental money.

Ron