Which woodchipper for strictly evergreen diet?

[hddnis]

Some time back when I needed a chipper I was looking at PTO chippers and decided against them because they plug up too often with evergreens. I'd run big chippers in the past when I did high climbing and really wanted that capability, but it comes at a price.

After a bit of shopping I picked up a used Bandit disc chipper with 125hp and 14" capacity with 18" infeed opening. It is a small chipper compared to what I used to run, but big enough that I wouldn't be fighting to feed stuff through it. It cost me less than what a PTO chipper with half the capacity costs. The main advantage has been that the chipper hooked to the truck leaves the tractor free to move material.

A note on safety, we never run the big chippers alone, ever. Rule is if someone is feeding someone else is standing by just watching. When you have a chipper that can devour a whole tree in thirty seconds you only have two or three seconds to react if some gets caught in brush that is being pulled in.

 

[Industrial Toys]

If anyone is feeding my Brush Bandit, I make sure I am there with my hands on the infeed control. Not very efficient for manpower, but either is having your help suddenly disappear!

 

[sixdogs]

Wasn't it last fall where a commercial contractor was doing a commercial job and the owner went through the chipper?

 

[ericm979]

If I could buy a running 14" Bandit for only twice what I paid for the Woodmaxx 8H I'd get one! Around here a chipper that size that's well used but still runs starts at about five to seven times what the 8H cost.

 

[Industrial Toys]

The used commercial chipper market is more dangerous than the chippers themselves. Normally I endorse used commercial equipment saying it really costs you nothing in the end, but chippers are just too difficult to figure out.

I got a PTO model just to take the engine out of the used equasion and then drove to MN from Ontario Canada to buy the 12" hardly used Brush Bandit, simply because there are virtually no larger commercial PTO chippers out there.

 

[sixdogs]

I'm the OP on this and here's what I found that has worked chipping a steady diet of evergreen branches. I found a used Wallenstein chipper and sorry I don't know the size but it will chip 6". I run it around 540 RPM's behind 70 HP and can chip Norway Spruce evergreen branches all day long and no plugging. I have yet to plug it and worked six hours yesterday with no issues.

I'ver used a number of chippers and for a PTO powered chipper, this is the best. It chips hardwood branches like they were toothpicks and takes 12' long spruce branches one after another after another, etc.

 

[RalphVa]

I've never plugged the chipper area of the MacKissic TPH-122 I've had for 15 years. Have gummed up the hammer area with greenery and have had to put some dry limbs in there to ungum it. Of course, the chipper on the Mac feeds into the hammer area.

Shredding/chipping just drops onto the ground. So, there's no chute to clog.

Those limbs you want to chip would easily feed into the Mac's chipper chute, too. Where it gives trouble is something like autumn olives that have little branches every which way.

Ralph

 

[oosik]

sixdogs - glad you found something that works for you. It's not a lot of fun having to unplug a chipper. Usually, by the time it's all plugged up - it's the chute and chipping chamber also. You keep feeding - all of a sudden you notice - no discharge.

There is no doubt - the BX62S on my M6040 throws the chips & pine needles twice as far as the BX42S on the Ford 1700. More power, larger chips, bigger chute, more air flow.

The dog & I went out and surveilled the property the other day. I've got only about eight stands that need to be thinned. Kind of in keeping with my energy level this spring.

 

[sixdogs]

sixdogs - glad you found something that works for you. It's not a lot of fun having to unplug a chipper. Usually, by the time it's all plugged up - it's the chute and chipping chamber also. You keep feeding - all of a sudden you notice - no discharge.

There is no doubt - the BX62S on my M6040 throws the chips & pine needles twice as far as the BX42S on the Ford 1700. More power, larger chips, bigger chute, more air flow.

The dog & I went out and surveilled the property the other day. I've got only about eight stands that need to be thinned. Kind of in keeping with my energy level this spring.

I used to have a beautiful auto feed smaller chipper for 3"--forgot the brand name--but it plugged all the time on greenery. Must have been meant for fruit groves somewhere. Anyway, it took me an hour to unplug it and it was a happy day when I sold it. The Wallenstein, mine is a BX52 I think--will blow stuff 20 feet away if I want.

I currently chip into a pile and then when it's dry pick up with a loader to burn. That's a pain so I've decided to get a a wagon I can pull alongside the chipper like a grain cart and not have to pick up afterwards. Can just take to burn pile and let it sit there to dry a little. I've got lower branches on maybe 300 spruce left to do so have the next few years booked
.

 

[oosik]

A wagon with a big deflector board - chunk of 4x8 plywood. I'm fortunate - I just let it fly and it slowly molders down.

The BX52S is a newer model. Looks like the BX42 & BX62 have been replaced with the BX52 & BX72 models.

I thought my BX62 was expensive. Just looked at the 52 & 72 .......WoW!!!

 

[Ford850]

I’ve been considering a chipper for a variety of things including evergreens. I like the looks of the BX52S and think it would fit what I need, size wise. Most videos only show feeding it nice long beanpole saplings, but I wouldn’t use it much for that. Spruce pine and fir boughs, and a lot of crooked hardwood limbs would be the steady diet here. My question is, how do these chippers handle small brush and prunings? I could get a lot more use out of it if it handled the small stuff too.

 

[hslogger]

I used to have a beautiful auto feed smaller chipper for 3"--forgot the brand name--but it plugged all the time on greenery. Must have been meant for fruit groves somewhere. Anyway, it took me an hour to unplug it and it was a happy day when I sold it. The Wallenstein, mine is a BX52 I think--will blow stuff 20 feet away if I want.

I currently chip into a pile and then when it's dry pick up with a loader to burn. That's a pain so I've decided to get a a wagon I can pull alongside the chipper like a grain cart and not have to pick up afterwards. Can just take to burn pile and let it sit there to dry a little. I've got lower branches on maybe 300 spruce left to do so have the next few years booked
.

I don't get it.... Why do you go through the process of chipping brush, and then haul it someplace to burn it? Can't you find a use for it ?

 

[oosik]

My BX62S is just a hair bigger than the '52 and a hair smaller than the '72. A WHOLE LOT of what I thin every spring is 1" to 1 1/2" Ponderosa pines. They chip just fine. It slurps them down like candy. So I would guess that boughs would chip just fine also.

Come to think of it - I did chip a whole lot of brush about four years ago. I have Buck brush. Max diameter is 1" and about 2 1/2' high. I took my Stihl 350 weed whacker to a large patch. About a quarter acre. It all chipped up just great. My Buck brush grows as thick as hair on the back of a coon dog.

You might consider a chipper/shredder. But they are so God-awful expensive.

Now, your crooked hardwood limbs. Unless you get a hydraulic feed - you might have to cut some of those limbs into chunks - at the crooks or bends. I chipped six old dead apple trees. Hard as ebony. I had to chunk up a couple limbs on each of the six trees. Otherwise - it was loud, it shook a whole lot - it did a fantastic job. However - hardwood limbs should be pulled right in and chipped, no problem.

Give you an example. I had a crooked 4 1/2" rock hard apple limb. I could see it would not go thru the chipper - all the way. Cut it at the bend and all went well.

One major recommendation on any chipper. Whatever you are going to chip - keep it out of the dirt. Man - dirt, sand, mud, etc, etc will dull the chipping blades - real quick. This will be my 6th spring thinning/chipping my pine stands. Looks like it will be around 800 to 850 pines. Ranging from 1" to 6" on the butt. I normally chip 900 to 1200 every spring. Being lazy this spring. Six years of chipping every spring and I'm still on the same side of the blades. It chips fast, nice clean chips, throws the chips out 40 to 45 feet.

 

[sixdogs]

I致e been considering a chipper for a variety of things including evergreens. I like the looks of the BX52S and think it would fit what I need, size wise. Most videos only show feeding it nice long beanpole saplings, but I wouldn稚 use it much for that. Spruce pine and fir boughs, and a lot of crooked hardwood limbs would be the steady diet here. My question is, how do these chippers handle small brush and prunings? I could get a lot more use out of it if it handled the small stuff too.

I'm the OP and stuff in small clippings my wife gives me in the chipper. Not a lot but it's garden type things I don't really want to chip. After I start chipping I put bunches of the soft things in and then let a branch go through. It pulls the small stuff with it and it's gone. I have limited experience with small brushy garden things but have not had any problems. I think what helps me is 70 HP and 540 RPM. I don't think 40 HP would work as well.
I wouldn't want to handle very much fluffy stuff because it's hard to get into the chute and could be dangerous in that regard. Plus, the chipper lets some small straight things the size of straws pass through unchipped.

I don't get it.... Why do you go through the process of chipping brush, and then haul it someplace to burn it? Can't you find a use for it ?

Have no use for the chips. I don't normally chip and haul but I live on the black dirt flat plains where every square inch is farmed and land is valuable for rental. One year is corn and the next soybeans. The following spring after corn it is not possible to burn in the spring because of the danger of catching the corn stubble from the past fall on fire. These are tough fires to put out because the fields are huge and with the black dirt you can't get on them if they are wet. A fire would have to burn to a road to stop it and there are many tens of thousand of acres of crops around me.

I could burn in the winter if I could reliably count on snow cover and frozen ground together but that doesn't always happen when we want. This year was almost no snow and the ground never froze enough to support equipment.

So, I can't burn until the spring ground is worked and the corn stubble incorporated. That's just the way it is because I have to burn only 10 ft away from cropland. Now, if last year were soybeans, I could burn now with no problem because there is no stubble to burn. There is no waste and woodland or out behind the house places to burn here. Everything is farmed. Few farm animals; just crops.

So, my plan is to find a cheap trailer I can fill with chips when I can't burn and then feed out to my controlled fire when conditions permit. Plus, it's fewer trips over my lawn with ag tires. I have zero use for wood chips around the house and can't even give them away.

 

[oosik]

There are two main reasons I chip. I don't want stands that look like Pick-Up-Sticks. Wildfires. The only really safe time to burn is winter when there is snow on the ground. Six years ago there was a wildfire that got right up to my property. Watermelon Hill wildfire. I have first hand experience in this regard. It was frightening - like CV. I don't ever want to experience that again.

It's very frightening when there is an event - wildfire - that you can have no control over. All I could do was evacuate and hope. I was lucky - the wind changed and the farmers with their LARGE tractors and disks finally got it out. I can still remember seeing those large tractors - pulling disks right ahead of the burning front. Several lost their tires because they choose to stop the fires. They too, were lucky. Nobody got hurt.

I have a well maintained fire break on the west property line - 1320 feet. It would have been a JOKE. The wind was blowing "fire balls" a hundred yards ahead of the burning front. My firebreak would have been of no value, what-so-ever.

Anyhow - sixdogs - chip away and be safe.

 

[Ford850]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I did see a used chipper/shredder for sale, but noticed they only have 2 blades on the chipper wheel compared to 4 on the dedicated chipper models. I think the BX52 would work fine for me if I decide to get one.

 

[sixdogs]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I did see a used chipper/shredder for sale, but noticed they only have 2 blades on the chipper wheel compared to 4 on the dedicated chipper models. I think the BX52 would work fine for me if I decide to get one.

Not sure but I think the BX52 has three knives.

 

[oosik]

No, six dogs - the BX52 has four knives and a 125# rotor. I've had/used both the BX42S and now the BX62S. There is one major difference between these two chippers - other than the size of limb/tree they can handle.

The weight of the rotor. BX42S is 75#. BX62S is 198#. This makes a TREMENDOUS difference. Momentum is a significant factor when chipping. The BX52S comes in at 125#.

Actually when I was considering upgrading I looked seriously at the Valby 500. It has a 600# rotor. The problem - closest dealer is in Montana.

 

[sixdogs]

No, six dogs - the BX52 has four knives and a 125# rotor. I've had/used both the BX42S and now the BX62S. There is one major difference between these two chippers - other than the size of limb/tree they can handle.

The weight of the rotor. BX42S is 75#. BX62S is 198#. This makes a TREMENDOUS difference. Momentum is a significant factor when chipping. The BX52S comes in at 125#.

Actually when I was considering upgrading I looked seriously at the Valby 500. It has a 600# rotor. The problem - closest dealer is in Montana.

Good to know, thank you. The Wallenstein BX52, for me, is the best chipper I've ever used. I've never even slowed it down.

 

[Silvic]

I purchased one by Salsco back in Dec 2007 and have never looked back.
Hydraulic feed and a 10 inch capability.
Runs very well and does just what I want. It is not a shredder however it is a chipper only.
The main impeller is a mere 410 lb., 1” thick x 42” diameter.
Not much stops it. The wife says it is her frustration release device. As long as she does not take a scene out of Fargo I am good with that.

Heard a lot of good about the Wallenstein however.