Recommendations for wood chipper for small material

[ericm979]

The 10hp or so homestore chipper/shredder we started out with was nearly useless, and my wife couldn't start it. It was too hard to pull start. She could run the PTO chipper if it was on the tractor. Mounting it is probably more than she can do. But it's so fast that the amount of chipping she needs takes me hardly any time. The rest of the time its used to chip brush and tree parts that I dealt with.

 

[2manyrocks]

If there's a lot of this kind of material to chip for fire protection purposes on a good sized acreage, I tend to think you'd be more satisfied with a PTO chipper that's pretty fast at chipping material whole. It would be frustrating to buy something that requires you to prune the branches down to smaller sizes just to get them to feed, and then be slow at chipping them, too.

And with the goal being fire protection, I'd say that warrants spending more if need be.

 

[MAX-24-Dean]

I understand the rest of your family's desire for a nonPTO unit. While there are self powered chippers, in my experience, it is all too easy to find underpowered models.

FWIW: many of the pull behind shredders don't have a lot of power and translates into slow processing. If the plan is to do vines, leaves and some small twigs, they are great and will produce a finely shredded material.

I would try renting one first to see how it does with what you want to use it for.

All the best,

Peter

@ponytug has some good insight and I agree with his post.
Quite a big difference between the torque of a diesel driving a PTO chipper vs a self powered gas engine. Most of the chipper shredders I have seen are gas engines.

I have a Mackissic chipper shredder that is good for up to 3". It is a slower process than I now prefer. Nothing wrong with it, but it just take considerably more time than my neighbors pto chipper.
If you are going to be processing large volumes of material, I would recommend a PTO chipper with at least a 4" to 5" feed capacity.

 

[Joel/ak]

We have a DR chipper. Works for our needs. Friends have used it and were happy.

Down side is gotta keep the main bearing greased. Not really a downside but just a matter of note.

Gas powered

 

[5030]

Just roast it. Lots cheaper and more fun.

 

[nyone]

I have to just shake my head at buying a chipper if you can burn it. Less time, money, energy and labor to burn it.

 

[Hughman]

Because the OP (like me) is in the Calif. foothills. Burning is the worst option.

 

[ericm979]

People in the rest of the country may not know that in most of California there's at least six months over the summer where there is no rain at all. In some places the dry season is longer. If you want to burn you have to wait until it's dry enough for the piles to burn but not too dry that you risk starting a wildfire. That only happens in the spring. A few counties like mine have additional restrictions that make it difficult to get a burn permit, but those aren't in the sierra foothills. Much of Oregon and Washington also have summer dry seasons.

 

[beowulf]

I have to just shake my head at buying a chipper if you can burn it. Less time, money, energy and labor to burn it.

Many reasons actually.

It takes a lot of work: preparing a burn pit, grading a bit around it, dragging the material to the pit (it is never all nearby), and then the time
to burn it and babysit the fire until it is out (hours) and getting 'smoked up' a good bit. And also making sure you have water there - several 100 foot hoses hooked together at times. For most of the areas where you would logically burn there is no water source anywhere near close enough so that means bringing in 55 gallon barrels of water, and buckets, to a burn site by the tractor. We can move a chipper from site to site easily, instead of dragging limbs and such to one burn site (at least one site at a time - and preparing more sites as necessary) as the distance increases. Also, we have at least two and usually four of us doing this. It is not the worse job - once we tried making smores - but it makes for a long day, eyes take a hit, and you just can't burn in some areas. And we have a whole lot to burn in areas where we cannot have water standing by - unless we lug 55 gallon barrels over some rough terrain at times - another PITA.

So, I am not sure that, as you say, it would involve less time and energy and labor to just burn it - but maybe less money. But I guess I could see your point if we did not have so much to burn and such a large area - 90 rolling and wooded foothill acres. And we can only burn at certain times - we have to check to see if it is a 'burn day' at our elevation before we can burn. And it is a short 'burn calendar'- just a few months when this is permitted and safe to do so. Anyway, we began to consider the chipper option as we could not figure out a more practical way to get rid of the wood piled up all over 90 acres. It would be a job we would never finish.

And finally, earlier today - based on the comments here - I ordered the Woodland Mills WC68 wood chipper. Went with your all advice and went with a PTO chipper. Free shipping right now.

 

[JasperFrank]

If your family has a history of Viking Hand, or medically known as Dupuytren's disease, .....don't personally run a chipper. The medical costs will out weigh the utility and cost savings of the chipper. I thought this was the way to go, till my hands started to crab inwards. The doc said it was the vibrations of feeding the chipper that set this off, and/or, that I was an alcoholic.