Wood Chipper (PTO vs stand alone)

[otherguy]

Considering buying a wood chipper and I am wondering what the better option would be, specifically work flow wise or what is most efficient working wise. I am comparing brand new PTO wood chippers to used commercial style wood chipper. I have seen used commercial type ones that aren't that much more expensive than a new PTO one, which is why I am trying to see what might be the better option.

 

[TerryR]

The virtues of a PTO model:
- No additional engine to maintain
- Easily moved to difficult locations

If these don't matter to you maybe a stand-alone model works for you.

 

[4570Man]

The virtues of a PTO model:
- No additional engine to maintain
.

If I had a dollar for every time I’d heard that I’d be rich. How many people that don’t run ethanol gas have had any problems?

 

[mikester]

Are you buying a commercial powered chipper or a homeowner unit?

Commercial units are large and expensive. PTO units are cheaper. You need plenty of PTO HP on your tractor.

I壇 strongly recommend make getting the hydraulic infeed rollers.

Homeowner units are great for things like carpal tunnel syndrome.

Try renting a commercial unit and a homeowner unit. You won稚 want the homeowner unit afterwards.

 

[Oldoak]

If I had a dollar for every time I’d heard that I’d be rich. How many people that don’t run ethanol gas have had any problems?

There's way more to properly maintaining an engine than what gas is used.

That's one of the reasons I rent a commercial chipper for my needs. And a PTO driven home owner's model just won't "hack" it. I find a commercial rental is faster, more efficient and cheaper in the long run.

 

[TerryR]

If I had a dollar for every time I’d heard that I’d be rich. How many people that don’t run ethanol gas have had any problems?

Of course you've heard it many times, and you will continue to hear it because it's true.

The gas isn't the issue, other than you have to go out of your way to keep some ethanol-free and get it from the only place in town that sells when they happen to be open. That, or run the carburetor dry after each use.

But "maintenance" means much more than that. There's the oil changes not going to be made, and the batteries not going to be replaced until they fail, for example. You guys who like tinkering with your equipment just don't get it. The rest of us just don't like doing that ... there are other things we would rather do with our time. So that stuff doesn't get done.

For example, I have a walk-behind rotary mower that I use to mow the grass around my barn and equipment shed a couple of times a month during growing season. This past summer I noticed the oil level was getting a little low (yes, I do check the oil every four or five times I use it). So this fall I changed the oil, for the first time in the 20 years we've lived here. I changed the oil in our stand-by generator about 10 years ago, I think.

So we don't do it, and won't do it, and then we have to listen to guys like you tell us how easy it is to change the oil, check the battery, wax the tractor, and the like. If I had a dollar for every time I've heard that...

 

[oosik]

I have a homeowners unit. PTO driven Wallenstein BX62S. Because I only chip Ponderosa pine - I did not get the hydraulic feed system. This willing monster will whip a pine tree out of my hands just like a child grabbing a Christmas candy cane.

One thing to consider - size of the chipper. I have the BX62S because it will handle trees/limbs up to and including 6 inches. I could have purchased the BX92S and my tractor has the power to effectively run that larger unit also. The BX92S will handle 9" stuff.

The cold hard facts - cut down a Ponderosa pine that is 9" on the base - it will stand 38' to 46' tall. Now - pick up the base and attempt to drag this tree over to your chipper. Lot of fun - isn't it. Well - every spring I thin my pine stands and will be identifying, marking, felling, dragging and chipping between 750 to 900 small (6" or less on the butt) pine trees. And - NO - I never anticipate cutting these trees in half, thirds or quarters so I can manhandle them.

I feed these trees - butt first - into my chipper. I remove NO limbs, cones, squirrels, chipmunks etc - they go in whole.

 

[disney]

... I have seen used commercial type ones that aren't that much more expensive than a new PTO one, which is why I am trying to see what might be the better option.

Sometimes buying used is akin to buying someone else's problems. I think it might be hard to find a "good used one", especially since it's likely you don't know exactly what to look out for. (unless you are a commercial chipper repair person, who knows what goes bad, and how to tell something major is about to go bad...from sound, feel, or etc...)

Part availability and cost is likely to be much more of an issue on a used (likely older) commercial chipper.

Yes a commercial one will likely be faster when it works, but how much time and money will be spent keeping it working--that is the real question.

 

[ericm979]

Used trailer chippers are quite a bit more expensive than a new PTO chipper of the same capacity. They're used commercially, which often means they're poorly maintained. My Woodmaxx 8" was $2800 shipped. The cheapest used trailer chipper I can find on craigslist is $7000, has less capacity and it's 400 miles away. Most are $10k and up.

Renting a chipper adds two hours to my day to pick it up and drop it off. When I own the chipper I can spend that time working, and I don't have to wait until there's a day's worth of piles to chip.

 

[RalphVa]

I've had both. Agree with what TerryR said but, in addition, you cannot beat the torque of diesel power which you typically do not get in a separate unit. Think I've only ever stalled my tractor mounted unit unit maybe one time; whereas, I was forever stalling the old Troybilt

You only need 18.5 hp to run a 3 1/2" chipper. That's what I had when I bought my first PTO unit, a Mackissic TPH-122 (TPH = three point hitch). Now have 24.5 hp because JD refuses to make a smaller tractor running the same Mac. In fact, I recently completely replaced all the hammers and spacers after about 12 years.

I also use mine for shredding leaves. Think a hammer unit is better for this vs. an all knife, mainly chipper, unit. I pick up over a 100 bags of leaves that town homeowners just throw away (and our local business turns them into mulch, compost or soil that he sells back).

I highly recommend the Mac TPH-122 if a 3 1/2" and smaller unit would meet your needs. It is so easy to work on. Before, I had a Troybilt Tomahawk, which is an absolute beast to work on. Why? The spacers between its hammers get beat and beat up and misshapen such that they "weld" themselves to the shafts. You can then spend hours hammering those shafts back out. (Maybe, if you had a 2nd person applying a torch to those spacers, it might get easier.) The hammers on both the Tomahawk and the Mac are the same: 4 corners and 2 shaft holes. You can rotate them 3 times when each leading corner gets rounded off. Chipper blade changeout on the Mac is easier, too, once you know how, because you don't have to reach inside to get a backer tool onto the head of the bolts holding the chipper blade. On the Mac, they're screws.

ALWAYS use a face shield and long gloves. I once had a hand pruner thrown back out at me from a bunch of leaves I lifted with 2 hands and let dribble into the Mac. Didn't catch the hand pruners in there until they caught ME coming back out.

Ralph

 

[Budweiser John]

My Woodmax hydraulic tractor driven Chipper has done everything I’ve asked to do.
I welded up a dedicated wheeled dolly for the Chipper so it’s a snap to install on the 3Ph and when not in use, can be rolled to a dark corner of the machine shed. This machine will happily digest a steady diet of three to four inch saplings with without removing the side limbs and although touted to consume eight inch logs, I think that capacity is more advertising hype than fact. The reality is material over four inches goes to the firewood pile so it’s a non issue for me.
Being able to drive the tractor with Chipper along fence rows or woodland trails it’s cut chip and move on.
I think a stand alone unit would be a PITA to maintain, house, and haul around but different strokes for different folks.
B. John

 

[otherguy]

thanks for all the input, I think i will stick with the PTO driven one.

Think it will either be the WoodMaxx WM-8H or the MX-8800, they seem very similar, will have to call to see what the price tag difference is, they seem like very similar machines.

 

[ericm979]

The MX has hydrostatic drive. The 8H's hydraulic drive is difficult to adjust between full speed and about 1/4 speed. It's essentially no movement of the adjuster lever. It's only slightly better from 1/4 to zero. That makes it difficult to get a repeatable feed speed. I think the flow adjuster they use is too large- it's a 16 gpm and the system is 3 gpm. Having a narrow adjustment range is what the text books say happens in that case. I have a 5 gpm adjuster to try, haven't had time to install it.

The MX also does not have the open slots for the upper feed wheel that the 8H has. Sometimes branches with stubs can wedge in there. I've had that happen twice in 32 hours of operation. I'm still happy with the 8H.

 

[hslogger]

I have the Woodmaxx WM-8H for three or four years now and it has been a great "now and then" machine for MY use. Cleaning up debris from twenty some fruit trees, limbing up some firs, cedars, cottonwood, cherry is fine. I keep the larger diameter stuff for firewood. I have some larger firs I might remove sometime but I will probably use a commercial machine for that simply because................. a big machine can take the wood, nonstop and consistantly. I once did residential tree work for many years using a pull behind arborist quality machine. When you have a guy in the air and a couple brush apes on the ground, when working in harmony, the stuff comes down and wham into the chipper. It is a labor thing. If time is of no real importance, running that stuff in my PTO machine is fine. I plan on keeping this Woodmaxx machine forever unless some one buys it off me and then I will get the BIGGER ONE that I need like another hole in the head.

 

[Code54]

We also have the Woodmaxx WM-8H - while I use it frequently I don't use it for very long at a time. Often and hour or two at a time. Mainly go out, get the mini and dig around a tree and push it over, top it, and chip the brush. Even on 100' tree I mostly don't spend more than 2 hrs chipping (after I limb it all of course and pile it in a central location). With a rental I would never do this, plus by not having the stand alone machine I never have to mess with a separate machine. Just hook it up to my 3pt, use it, grease it, put it back away. Really like having it for when I need it.

 

[Rustyiron]

Considering buying a wood chipper and I am wondering what the better option would be, specifically work flow wise or what is most efficient working wise. I am comparing brand new PTO wood chippers to used commercial style wood chipper. I have seen used commercial type ones that aren't that much more expensive than a new PTO one, which is why I am trying to see what might be the better option.

A commercial unit will run circles around any pto chipper. I had a large pto chipper and sold it for a real (Vermeer) disk type chipper with feed rollers.
Now for running around the yard chipping some trimmings the pto will get it done. If your dragging it to jobs planning on making a living, you need a big gas or diesel pull behind chipper.

 

[JimP]

What is the intended use? A PTO chipper vs commercial trailed chipper: are very different classes of equipment. I had a lot of big slash cleanup to do and stated with a BX42 with hydraulic feed on my Kubota 5240. It chipped some small stuff ok but I spent a lot of time cutting the slash up to fit into the chipper and clearing chipper jams. I sold the chipper (on the plus side sold for more than I paid for it) and bought a used commercial Bandit RM990 drum chipper with a 90 hp diesel. There is no comparison between this small 12 inch capacity commercial chipper and a PTO chipper. 3 people can barely keep it fed if they hustle. The Bandit has a hydraulic winch so I can pull an entire tree in. The big throat means almost no cutting of branches to get them to feed. The Bandit was a lot more expensive than the PTO chipper but it did a lot more work. It was also great having equipment on site. I could hitch up and chip on my schedule rather than having to set aside a whole day to pick up and drop off a rental. A commercial chipper is probably overkill for most maintenance. If you can cut ahead of time you can do a lot of chipping with a one or two day rental.

Whatever you decide be careful, chippers do not tolerate inattention. Get a forestry helmet with good ear protection, you will be smacked with a moving branch at some point and they are LOUD.



Not sure why the picture is upside down.

 

[Rustyiron]

What is the intended use? A PTO chipper vs commercial trailed chipper: are very different classes of equipment. 3 people can barely keep it fed if they hustle. .

That's for sure!

 

[oosik]

Soooo....... does the OP have the need for a high capacity commercial chipper. Is the OP going to have three guys feeding the commercial chipper to maintain optimal efficiency. Recognizing that to have three guys feeding a chipper you will have to identify, fell, limb, pile whatever you have, ahead of time, so these guys aren't waiting for material to feed the chipper.

 

[shui5612]

Personally I agree with what most has been said but in my opinion it depends on what you are chipping.

I personally had a wood chipper that had a 4inch capacity. Anything larger and I would cut it into logs and I've had plenty of people come take them for free to make into firewood or I burned down some sections myself in an outdoor fire pit.

Stand alone vs pto?

Depends on how much power you have.

Realistically a stand alone will do a better job since it can be towed from site to site, and can be resold quite easily (atleast here) versus a pto powered one that NEEDs a tractor and the potential buyer needs one that is of the same or similar capacity...

I.e. if you get a pto chipper that needs a 250 hp tractor to run or is designed for s 15hp tractor... you might have issues finding a buyer if the majority of the tractors in your area are in the 60-110 hp range..

If you plan on keeping the set-up for 5-7 years and up.. then it doesn't matter what you would get since it would pay off for itself in that time..

Get something that suits your needs. Also. If a chipper has a 6inch max diameter.. and you plan on cutting down 6 inch logs to feed it... please look into a machine capable of 8inches.. you'll be a lot happier since it will chip faster and you'll put less wear on the machine...

I was close to getting a tow-behind chipper a couple months ago with a 16 inch capacity... used machine for a great price.. probably would only feed it logs up to 5 inches at most in diameter.. but it was cheap.. and I know it would re-sell fast after I was done with it in a season or two.
(Ended up not getting it because I found a guy who would take whatever I would cut down, and would park 3 trailers in my yard to fill up that he would come empty every day or 2 or as soon as they were full).