Does anyone have a Woodmaxx WM-8H with 29 PTO HP?

[ngiovas]

I am planning to buy a PTO driven chipper for my Kubota 3560 tractor. I have been looking at both the Woodland Mills and the Woodmaxx. I have been leaning towards the WM-8H, but I am concerned about how well it will run with only 29 PTO HP. I don't plan to run larger pieces frequently, but how large of a piece will it realistically run? The listed HP range is pretty wide. I was also worried that since it is belt-driven, not as much of the direct torque will transfer to the chipper.

I spoke with Woodland Mills and they said the belt-driven machines will not do as well with less HP and I would be better off with a smaller machine that is direct drive. Just looking for opinions based on real-world experience.

Nick

 

[JJT]

I run my Woodmaxx WM-8M on a Kubota L3710, (30 pto hp), with no issues. The 8"x8" chipper throat will eat whatever I can feed it. I've tested it with a chunk of 4" hickory, at 8' the chipper did start to slow down. That was a one time test, normally anything over 3" gets cut into firewood.

 

[Stan B]

I'm running a WM-8H with 29.7 PTO HP (according to tractordata.com) and have no issues. The tractor RPMs audibly dropped when I fed it a 7" oak log at full feed speed, but it didn't stop it. That was mainly just a test to see what it would handle as there's no way I'd normally chip something that large. If I had to chip things that large on the regular, I might just stand along side the chipper and "shift" the feed between forward and neutral while monitoring the RPMs. Even huge commercial chippers do that, albeit automatically.

Regarding belt or direct drive, I prefer belt driven because they run the flywheel faster, which means it can be lighter but still store as much energy as a heavier weight flywheel running slower. Belts may also help absorb some chipping shock so as to not send that vibration back into the tractor.

 

[RalphVa]

I've a Woodland Mills WC46, a 4" chipper good for 15-30 hp. If you figure 15 hp to do 4 inch and hp going up by square root of diameter, then an 8 inch chipper would need 21 hp.

My 24.5 hp JD 2025R loafs at 2700 rpm (3000 is 540 speed on PTO) at up to 4 inch stuff in the WC46.

I highly recommend WM stuff. Great stuff. Great service. Delivery on Wed after ordering the previous Friday.

Made the metal reinforcement of the shipping box top into a table and am having casters welded onto the bottom part to use as a dolly in storage.

The WC46 is direct off the PTO but has a belt that drives the hydraulic feeder. It has 4 chipper blades. It was either the Woodmaxx or another one I looked at that only have 2 chipper blades but think they rotate them faster.

The WC46 has a shear bolt on the tractor side of the PTO. Came with 2 spare shear bolts.

Ralph

 

[rademamj1]

The WM-8H will be just fine at your tractor PTO rating.
Been using a WoodMax chipper 4 years (285 hrs) now and absolutely no issues. I have trimmed about a 1000 oak trees to head height on about 14 acres on my property, or thats about 20 tons of tree limbs we chipped. We also did much additional work for City Parks Authority on contract work. Already paid for the chipper based on the contract revenue. More importantly, a 30Hp tractor running a chipper, can definitely compete with the commercial towed Vermeer chippers out there.

 

[ericm979]

I've got a Woodmax 8H that I run on my Branson with 32 PTO HP. For larger diameter hardwood I have to slow the feed way down or stop and start the feed with the valve. When I'm chipping larger stuff I wish for more HP. But I don't do a lot of that, especially now that I have a decent wood stove and burn the larger stuff instead of chipping it.

Coast live oak is especially hard to chip- the wood is dense and it grows any way but straight, and the branches are grabby. Douglas fir is a dream to chip in comparison.

The belts never slip that I can detect, unlike my previous chipper. Not even at startup. V-belt drives do not lose much power- B series belts lose 3-4% at rated power.

I think the issue with the belt vs direct drive is that the belt drive on the 8H doubles the rotor speed, which doubles the inertia. And the rotor is already heavy. My Branson with a 2.1L engine has no problem getting the chipper turning at idle, and that's with an independent PTO that has a short clutch engagement period compared to doing it manually with a clutch. Your Kubota with a 1.8L engine might not have enough torque at idle, or enough flywheel, or faster engaging PTO clutch. It would probably handle it but I'd check with someone who has both a L3560 and a 8H.

On my 8H I was frustrated with the flow control valve that was either full on or a crawl but very difficult to get between the two. It was way too large for the chipper's hydraulic system. I replaced it with one that's apprpriately sized and it works much better. Not everyone notices this or is bothered by it.

 

[ngiovas]

Thanks for all of the responses. The Woodmaxx WM-8H is currently my first choice. It seems like the dual rollers will be better for grabbing wood, but I could be wrong. I also like the larger capacity, mostly so I can push through branches that may have some smaller limbs sticking out, but also because it may come in handy if I every upgrade my tractor (I currently have no plans to upgrade as my current tractor has been able to do everything I need it to do). So far I haven't found any info online about someone with this same chipper and a Kubota L3560, but I will keep looking.

On the flip side, I have also been looking at the Woodland Mills WC68. It has a smaller capacity (6") but is direct drive. Based on the reviews I have seen, it seems to work really well. I also like that the hopper folds up which would be nice for storage and for transporting it through the woods on the back of the tractor. Lastly, the cover is hinged giving you easy access to the knives for maintenance. The Woodmaxx appears to have a small access door which could be a pain if you drop a bolt while changing the knives.

Right now the Woodmaxx is hard to get (they are always out of stock). Hopefully, I am able to get one soon. I think for now, I will wait to see if I am able to get one in the coming weeks since I won't really be using it until the snow melts, but if it ends up being too difficult, the WC68 may be a good alternative. With my luck, they will both be out of stock by the time I make a decision .

 

[ericm979]

I dropped a knife bolt in my 8H but it was on the side of the rotor opposite the door. The clearance between the housing and rotor is too tight for it to pass. I got it with one of those remote grabbers with the little fingers on the end, taped to a bore scope and a coathanger to get it around the fan blades. The manual talks about getting stuff out: it says to not drop things in there in the first place. If you're careful and plan what you're doing it's not hard to change knives without dropping anything.... most of the time.

The dual rollers work well and the gap and spring pressure is adjustable. The video of the Woodland Mills 8" being operated made it look like getting the single large roller to grab material is often significantly harder than getting the 8H to do it, and it's what made me go with the 8H. But there's a lot of aspects of the Woodland Mills design that I like better.

 

[Stan B]

I also like the larger capacity, mostly so I can push through branches that may have some smaller limbs sticking out

The bigger the opening the better for best productivity. It is surprising how often a couple 1" branches in a bad config get stuck in the 8" opening. If it was an option, I'd get a 12"!

So far I haven't found any info online about someone with this same chipper and a Kubota L3560, but I will keep looking.

If you add your location to your profile, you might even find someone nearby that would let you try out an 8H on your machine. There are a lot of them out there. Just a thought.

I also like that the hopper folds up which would be nice for storage and for transporting it through the woods on the back of the tractor. Lastly, the cover is hinged giving you easy access to the knives for maintenance. The Woodmaxx appears to have a small access door which could be a pain if you drop a bolt while changing the knives.

The fold up infeed would be nice for storage, but the output chute catches more branches than the infeed it seems. The clearances are pretty tight on the blade access ports on the 8H. I'm not certain you could drop the bolts in there. As a preventative measure, stick a strong magnet right below the hole.

Right now the Woodmaxx is hard to get (they are always out of stock). Hopefully, I am able to get one soon. I think for now, I will wait to see if I am able to get one in the coming weeks since I won't really be using it until the snow melts, but if it ends up being too difficult, the WC68 may be a good alternative. With my luck, they will both be out of stock by the time I make a decision .

Call and get on their waiting list. They're made in batches in China and basically they call you when the container ship shows up! LOL Getting on the list doesn't require a deposit or anything.

 

[ngiovas]

The dual rollers work well and the gap and spring pressure is adjustable. The video of the Woodland Mills 8" being operated made it look like getting the single large roller to grab material is often significantly harder than getting the 8H to do it, and it's what made me go with the 8H. But there's a lot of aspects of the Woodland Mills design that I like better.

I saw a couple of videos where the reviewer commented on the single roller and that is what had me worried. Not that is a major issue, but they stated that sometimes it is difficult to get the single roller to grab some branches - especially softer or even rotten wood. They said the wheel tends to just grind at the wood rather than grabbing it. I don't think this would be happening all of the time, but it seems like the double wheels would make this less of an issue.

 

[ngiovas]

If you add your location to your profile, you might even find someone nearby that would let you try out an 8H on your machine. There are a lot of them out there. Just a thought.

Profile updated. I live in Clarkston, MI, but my property and tractor are in Kalkaska, MI.

Call and get on their waiting list. They're made in batches in China and basically, they call you when the container ship shows up! LOL Getting on the list doesn't require a deposit or anything.

I tried, but they don't do a waiting list anymore. They said if they did it would be over a year to get one, so they stopped. Now you have to sign up for an email notification and hope you can order one before they run out again.

Interesting thing is that they have 3 of them listed on their scratch and dent page for a few hundred dollars off, but they are pickup only. There are no signs of wear in the photos and they only have around 0.2 hours of usage. From my house to their location would be about 4 hours if I cut through Canada, which isn't terrible to do in a day, but due to Covid, they won't let you pass through Canada even if you don't stop. Going down and around would be 8 hours each way which is definitely not worth it.

 

[Stan B]

Profile updated. I live in Clarkston, MI, but my property and tractor are in Kalkaska, MI.

I tried, but they don't do a waiting list anymore. They said if they did it would be over a year to get one, so they stopped. Now you have to sign up for an email notification and hope you can order one before they run out again.

Interesting thing is that they have 3 of them listed on their scratch and dent page for a few hundred dollars off, but they are pickup only. There are no signs of wear in the photos and they only have around 0.2 hours of usage. From my house to their location would be about 4 hours if I cut through Canada, which isn't terrible to do in a day, but due to Covid, they won't let you pass through Canada even if you don't stop. Going down and around would be 8 hours each way which is definitely not worth it.

Oh man, if you were a little closer, I'd toss mine in the pickup and bring it over for a demo!

That's a bummer about the waiting list. I wonder if you could directly contact a feight forwarder close to their factory and have them palletize it and truck freight it to you.

OTOH, you might want to give these guys a call:
WC-8H Hydraulic Wood Chipper with Self Contained Motor and Controls - Victory Tractor Implements

I bought a flail mower from them and the customer serivce was pretty darn good.

 

[dennis103]

I wouldn't hesitate to get the 8" woodmax chipper. I have the same WH-8h w/ hyd feed. Having a chipper that is too large for your HP is not a problem unless you are trying to put the max size wood thru it. If you get a smaller chipper say 4" the only difference is you can only put 4" wood in it. I would get the 8" it is adjustable feed and once you find the size wood that makes your tractor work too hard don't put that size in any more. I have a 60 hp tractor and playing around I can make that grunt with wood too big. Also if you get a bigger tractor you won't need a larger chipper. Best of luck with what ever you decide.

 

[ngiovas]

Oh man, if you were a little closer, I'd toss mine in the pickup and bring it over for a demo!

That's a bummer about the waiting list. I wonder if you could directly contact a feight forwarder close to their factory and have them palletize it and truck freight it to you.

OTOH, you might want to give these guys a call:
WC-8H Hydraulic Wood Chipper with Self Contained Motor and Controls - Victory Tractor Implements

I bought a flail mower from them and the customer serivce was pretty darn good.

I called them about having a trucking company pick it up, but they said it was cash only, first come, first served.

I clicked on the link you posted, it says out of stock, but I may give them a call anyway. The price they posted is a few hundred dollars cheaper than buying direct. I am wondering if they haven't had them in recently and that is an old page.

 

[rademamj1]

Just a quick comment, I was under the impression that WoodMax no longer sourced parts or equipment from China, and has now brought all the fabrication for their implements to the USA. This occured in 3rd quarter 2018. Am I wrong in this thinking??

Also Woodmax "Scratch and Dent" inventory, currently lists three WM-8H chippers currently available today, and no waiting list. They say pickup only....maybe will do Shipping.

 

[oosik]

No experience with any Woodmaxx product. However - I ran a Wallenstein BX42S on my original Ford 1700. That has a claimed 23 PTO hp. More than just sufficient power to chip anything I could stuff down the intake chute.

Having a larger chipper can be a definite advantage - larger, heavier rotor. Remember - just because you have a larger chipper doesn't mean you have to chip larger stuff.

Every spring I thin and chip my many pine stands. I'll be chipping green pines - 1" to 6" on the butt. I chip all the pines "in the round". Meaning - I remove no limbs and just stuff the tree down the intake chute - butt first.

A larger chipper also means a larger intake chute = less trimming of limbs off the main trunk. With the hydraulic in-feed you can slow things down if you get into bigger or harder stuff.

 

[Stan B]

Just a quick comment, I was under the impression that WoodMax no longer sourced parts or equipment from China, and has now brought all the fabrication for their implements to the USA. This occured in 3rd quarter 2018. Am I wrong in this thinking??

My WM-8H bought in 2020 was made in China. They have a couple higher end models that are made in USA. It doesn't look like they have any better availablity.

 

[jjp8182]

Can't speak to the WM-8H, but have run either the WM-8M (or it's older/cheaper sibling - can't recall exactly) and for the items I was chipping the tractor wasn't an issue. The in-feed was; both the roller and the belt system driving the roller - at least it was on the old rusty unit I'd borrowed.

Was chipping a mix of semi-dried out Bradford pear trees (dropped the entire tree that was 40' across), pin oak trimmings and some other small trees/bushes. May just have been the specific unit, or the weather and wood amount/conditions, but the belt slipping for the in-feed roller and the in-feed roller wanting grind rather than pull material in ended up making burning the wood easier than chipping it. When the chipper fed things in it did great, when it didn't ..... Again, I'm not going to judge the entire product line on my experience with that one unit I had borrowed (and would caution others against doing so as well), but it was a data point that helped educate me on a few things to look at when it comes to buying a wood chipper.

Having said that I'm still looking to buy a Wood Maxx chipper in the next few years, but am more inclined to go with the WoodMaxx MX-9900 even if I need to reduce the in-feed rate. From what I've seen (both from that unit I'd borrowed and commercial trailer mounted ones I've used) the energy in the fly-wheel is more important than the input HP. Higher HP can result in faster recovery times and potentially reduce the RPM drop, but the flywheel is ultimately there for a reason..... so I'm inclined to go with the chipper that has the biggest heaviest flywheel my tractor could handle.

Likewise the larger in-feed greatly helps reduce the amount of cutting that has to be done for highly forked limbs/branches to feed into the the chipping blades. Which is usually more helpful than being able to feed the larger solid pieces (given trees tend to have many more limbs than trunks :thumbsup. ...and if the in-feed is built so that it can grab and really pull (and maybe even snap smaller branches) into the chipper then :thumbsup::thumbsup:

(btw have bogged down a large 12" 89HP Vermeer tow-behind with semi-dried 6-ish inch plus crape myrtle trunks/trees before so I know more HP isn't always the answer ...however, a good/strong grabbing in-feed system and being able to control the in-feed rate are very much useful things in a wood chipper)

Just my :2cents:

One last thought when chipping branches/trees; a cordless reciprocating saw with a wood or pruning blade (depending on how green the wood is) is an extremely handy thing to have on hand -- perhaps even more so than a gas chainsaw.

 

[ericm979]

The 8H feed is hydraulic drive. The pump is driven off a belt but on mine it does not slip. Depending on how I adjust the relief valve either the valve will open and let the rollers stall or the rollers will chew up the material if it's stuck and not feeding. How often things jam depends on the wood you're chipping (live oak is one of the more difficult ones) and how good you are at cutting branches so they will chip.

With the hydraulic feed I can reverse the piece to get it out and feed it in a different orientation or put it aside to be trimmed more later.

 

[NWOH_Grizz]

I'm using a WM-8H on my New Holland with 33 PTO HP. I'm very happy with it, chews up and spits out anything I would feed into it, which is 4" or less. Of course, had to try out some larger pieces, and at about 6", it will bog down the tractor. Playing with the feed valve (on-off, on-off, etc) will make it take the entire limb, but that is firewood size for me. As previously mentioned above, I'm not happy with the size of the hydraulic valve. It is way oversize, and is either on or off. I'll have to change that some day to get better control over the feed rate. I have almost 3 years on it, and have not flipped the blades over yet. The belt drive is a non-issue, but I do think the belt drive is a little easier on everything. No big shock when the PTO is engaged at idle. I have not experienced any belt slip. I bought it with the standard PTO shaft, didn't even have to cut it. Keep it greased, and you shouldn't need to spend the extra $$$ on the extra-cost European shaft. Buy the set of extra blades, and the maintenance kit. Should be a once-in-a-lifetime purchase unless you're really hard on stuff.