Chipper Agriease WC42G Chipper Review Please

[Hilbilly]

Hi, all. I just introduced myself in the "Intro" thread and I'm looking for a little help.

I'm in the need for a wood chipper. I've done as much research as I can about the various PTO chippers available and would like to get the Wallenstein 4" chipper but the price is too much for the small amount of use I will have for a chipper. So I've ordered a clone which is the Agriease WC42G. In all my research I couldn't find any reviews of this chipper. Found some videos on Youtube and lots of reviews for the Wallenstein but no reviews for the Braber Agriease chiiper. I know a lot of these have been sold because I used to live close to the Canadian distributor and seen the volume of chippers that move through his lot.

Do any of the members here have an Agriease chipper and if so what has your experience been? Any experience (good or bad) would be much appreciated.

 

[Hilbilly]

Well I guess no one on this forum has one so I will be the first to report on it. It will arrive at my dealer tomorrow but I'm heading out of town to visit with family for the holidays so I won't get to try it until I return (maybe). Normally at this time of year we have so much snow a chipper would be the last thing on my tractor implement wish list. But this year winter came, dropped a bunch of snow and then spring showed up and most of the snow melted. So I decided to open up some more yard while the snow was gone. Which led to the need for a chipper. But I'm afraid that winter will return before I get I get back and everything will be covered with snow. In which case I will have to wait for a few months before I actually get to try it and give it a real workout. I will post the results after some time with it and hopefully that will help others in the future.

Even if the snow does dump while we are gone I will tromp through the snow to cut down some small brush, to run through it when I return. Just because I have to try it out. How could I possibly wait for months to use a new toy, I mean tool. That would be like getting a Christmas gift and having to wait until spring before using it. Not gonna happen.

 

[Hilbilly]

Ok so here is my initial review of the chipper. Note; I have only used it for about one hr because everything here is covered with about 2 feet of snow. I will post more info after I get more time with it.

1) The paint or powder coat is a little thin in places but not really an issue for me.
2) All nuts and bolts were checked for tightness and I found 3 of the 4 lock screws on the bearing retainers were loose.
3) The chute flange is warped and makes it stick in places when rotating it. There was no grease on the flange either. There is now and I have loosened it slightly to assist with the rotation issue. I believe this will improve as it wears in.
4) The adjustable chute discharge at the top would not adjust to the last 2 settings. Something was binding. I forced it and there did not appear to be any damage but after using it I see that the top of the chute doesn't line up at the joint and now some smaller twigs get caught in the joint occasionally. Not a big deal but I may address this later. As soon as some bigger chips come through it cleans itself anyways.
5) The ledger plate was not adjusted but I think that is usually done by the dealer and I didn't give him a chance to do that. I picked it up when it arrived from the distributor. Adjusting the ledger plate proved impossible at first until I noticed the top of the plate was hitting the housing and couldn't swing into position. I ground some off the top and now it is fine.
6) The knife - ledger plate spacing varies by 0.040" from closest to furthest.
7) After first using it the ledger plate shifted and one of the knives hit it. The knife broke but the ledger plate had very little damage. The steel definitely appears to be hardened tool steel. I attributed the shift to the lock washers being flattened, thereby not doing what they should. The dealer gave me a replacement knife. This time I used locktite and new lock washers and it seems to be fine now.
8) The rotor / knife setup seems to be well balanced as there is no vibration while running it at PTO rpm's.
9) It easily chips the snow covered brush and small trees I was able to uncover from the snow. Up to about 3" diameter. I didn't have any 4" and would not run that through anyways because that would be firewood. It was fast and didn't shudder when the larger stuff was put into it. It actually produced better chips with the larger stuff. Quite a few small twigs were spit through without much damage. But I expected this, since this is a chipper not a shredder.
10) It didn't have any problems pulling whole trees, with all the branches attached, through it. It self feeds nicely.

Before receiving this I was a little concerned that it would not be well built and that the steel used for the knives and ledger plate would not be tool steel. I've had some chinese stuff in the past that was poor quality and some that was not. After going over the chipper and the initial use I believe this is one of the better quality pieces of chinese equipment I have used / purchased.

I will provide an update on this after I've got some hours on it in the spring, after the snow melts.

 

[murphy1244]

How many blades sets on it and what is the weight of the fly wheel?

 

[Hilbilly]

There are 4 blades and according to the website info the flywheel weighs 110 lbs. The blades are about 6" long. I could measure them if you want to know for sure.
This thing is a clone of the Wallenstein 4" chipper!

Here is a link to a website that has great pics of the whole thing. http://http://www.agriease.ca/store/p2/AGRI_EASE_4%22_PTO_Wood_Chipper_WC42G.html

 

[murphy1244]

There are 4 blades and according to the website info the flywheel weighs 110 lbs. The blades are about 6" long. I could measure them if you want to know for sure.
This thing is a clone of the Wallenstein 4" chipper!

Here is a link to a website that has great pics of the whole thing. http://http://www.agriease.ca/store/p2/AGRI_EASE_4%22_PTO_Wood_Chipper_WC42G.html

I asked cause I have a wally bxm-42

 

[DavesTractor]

We sell these Agriease chippers and customers have been pleased with them so far. I've probably sold a half dozen in the last year or so, not a big sample...but we haven't had any issues. They make a larger hydraulic feed model now as well.

 

[Hilbilly]

I asked cause I have a wally bxm-42

I'm guessing you're happy with yours. I think this will turn out to be a good buy. Time will tell.

We sell these Agriease chippers and customers have been pleased with them so far. I've probably sold a half dozen in the last year or so, not a big sample...but we haven't had any issues. They make a larger hydraulic feed model now as well.

Good to know and thanks for the response.

I couldn't help myself and went outside and dug another 2 piles of trees and brush out from under the snow, just so I could do some more chipping. Works like a champ. Even chipped one poplar tree that was about 4" at the base, complete with branches. No problem.

 

[John Dougherty]

I'll add my two cents. I bought mine with my Max28xl. It was delivered in February of 2015. I have used it for about five hours. Not a long sampling, but enough to get the feel for what it can do. I too struggled to get information on this product and like an earlier poster, I didn't want to pay the extra jack for something that was not a primary implement. Having said that, I am reasonably pleased so far. I have oak trees. Some are down and have dry, seasoned wood. Today I chipped a freshly cut oak. It claims to chip 4" material and it may indeed. I would cut up and burn wood of that size so I did not attempt it. My goal was too produce wood chips for ground cover. What I have found is that it excels at chipping 1-3" limbs. The smaller ancillary branches will chip, but tend to come out of the shoot in varying lengths. Leaves are almost untouched. So, what you have is a pile that is a mix of desirable chips, many leaves and twigs that can run several inches long. Is it fodder for ground cover? Well, yes and no. The issue I had with chipping small branches w/ multi-stems was that the chipper would clog up. This necessitated shutting the machine COMPLETELY down and opening it up. Pretty simple, really. One bolt and you're in. I will say that this only happened two times while running it. I doubt that I would have this problem if I stayed with trimmed branches that were in that 1-3" range. It just doesn't like small twig sized branches that much. I would think that these should be chipped with a gas powered chipper designed for smaller 'garden' waste, but I haven't any experience with such chippers. Or should I call them shreaders? I am of the opinion that these are two distinct functions and unrealistic to expect this unit or a similar one to achieve. If you insert a 'nude' limb or one with a few stems then it will 'gravity' feed. Most likely you will still be manually feeding it into the shoot. I will admit to feeding in some multi-stem branches that fed successfully. It's not like you have to cut every stem off of the limb. It actually is more effective to leave them on so they are chipped at the same time. If you don't and feed them in separately, then it is more likely that you will have a clog or have to deal with them differently. Either way, they will not be chipped in the classic sense. They will be stems, not smaller. Am I okay with my purchase? Yes. Does it perform like I thought? Not really, but that is okay. That is a me problem, not the fault of the chipper machine. I may at some point, get a shreader machine for the smaller stuff. This machine/tractor makes noise. Don't laugh. If you have neighbors, it is a consideration. I run mine for about an hour at a time. Plus I am usually worn out enough from using the chainsaw and chipping by then. On the other hand, you can get quite a bit of progress done in that time. I'm just saying...

 

[John Dougherty]

A follow up to my previous post. After continued use I have a word of warning. I was feeding a 4" diameter butt section of a freshly cut oak limb into the chipper shoot. For some reason one of the 'knives' bit into the limb, but did not chip it and everything came to an abrupt stop. That is, the chipper, the tractor, everything. It was running at the recommended rpm. The shear bolt did not give way as it is supposed to. I happened to talk to the local dealer this morning and he said that I was lucky that nothing in the tractor was damaged. According to him, if there had been damage to the tractor running gear, then it wouldn't have been covered under the warranty. We checked the same chipper that he happened to have in his inventory, but could not find a hardness number on the bolt. It may be obscured by the paint. If you own one of these chippers the manufacturer will tell you not to replace the original shear bolt with a bolt with greater hardness (for this reason). All I can say is that I will replace this bolt (found at one end of the pto drive shaft that is supplied with the chipper with one that is much softer. Even w/o the hardness number shown I can go 'soft' and work up from there. Be aware, this could be a huge problem. Another thing to consider is re-setting the factory clearance between the knives and the plate that creates the chip. Closing that space down will produce a thinner chip that may be more desirable for you depending on your requirements. I would imagine that this will reduce the chance of it digging in and stopping the tractor. In any case I would be very concerned about this issue. I have no idea whether other chippers have the same issue, but a $1 bolt that is wrong can really ruin your day. The other thing that I have started to do is when I feed a limb into the shoot I stop when I get to the fork in the 'stems' that hold the leaves. The leaves are not the problem, but are an indicator of when you are getting too small. As described above, stems just are too much of a hassle. Jamming is frequent and not worth trying to chip. For one thing, the product that you will get as a result is not enough to take the chance of clogging. It's going to happen. I pull them back out and throw them into a pile to burn.