Any recommendations for a chipper for B2601?

BX23S-1 · Oct 12, 2020

Just make a pile over time, then go rent a chipper. Chippers are a pain in the ***. They sit around and take up alot of space.
And most of these chippers aren`t even worth having on a sub compact or a compact tractor.

diesel85 · Oct 12, 2020

^ That is basically what I did.

I was happy I didn't need to worry about storing it, maintenance, and sharpening knives. I'm sure I put a LOT of wear and tear on it that weekend. I setup the logs so I had a system going with the machine. I was feeding it pretty much non-stop. So it's duty cycle was above 90% load.

Only time it got a break was my bathroom breaks, food time, and diesel time... other than that, it was on and being fed logs. I wanted to make sure I got my $750 out of it. lol

When I went in and told them initially what I was going to do, they had just the machine on yard. Signed the paper work, payed the fees, showed me how to use it, and hitched the beast to the truck. When I got home, I unhitched it from the truck, used the trailer mover on the tractor and brought it where I wanted to on my property. Then had at it Friday evening till late Sunday night.

After, I was done, I just brought it back up front, hitched it back onto the truck, stopped by the diesel stop, topped it off, and brought it back.

That's my type of "maintenance". Let someone else deal with it...

BX23S-1 · Oct 13, 2020

diesel85 said:
^ That is basically what I did.

I was happy I didn't need to worry about storing it, maintenance, and sharpening knives. I'm sure I put a LOT of wear and tear on it that weekend. I setup the logs so I had a system going with the machine. I was feeding it pretty much non-stop. So it's duty cycle was above 90% load.

Only time it got a break was my bathroom breaks, food time, and diesel time... other than that, it was on and being fed logs. I wanted to make sure I got my $750 out of it. lol

When I went in and told them initially what I was going to do, they had just the machine on yard. Signed the paper work, payed the fees, showed me how to use it, and hitched the beast to the truck. When I got home, I unhitched it from the truck, used the trailer mover on the tractor and brought it where I wanted to on my property. Then had at it Friday evening till late Sunday night.

After, I was done, I just brought it back up front, hitched it back onto the truck, stopped by the diesel stop, topped it off, and brought it back.

That's my type of "maintenance". Let someone else deal with it...

EXACTLY!!! Last one i had, i ended up working harder not smarter, and wasted money just to use it a couple times of year, if i was lucky. Rest of the time i spent moving it out of my way all the time.
Let someone else deal with the maintenance and upkeep on it. I swear i worked on it more than i used it. Some things just aren`t worth owning, a chipper definitely fits in that category of heck no, for me.

River19 · Oct 13, 2020

PaPow said:
EXACTLY!!! Last one i had, i ended up working harder not smarter, and wasted money just to use it a couple times of year, if i was lucky. Rest of the time i spent moving it out of my way all the time.
Let someone else deal with the maintenance and upkeep on it. I swear i worked on it more than i used it. Some things just aren`t worth owning, a chipper definitely fits in that category of heck no, for me.

It's funny, before I started looking hard at compact tractors I had looked at stand alone chippers and without going big bucks everything was limited to 3-4" maybe and the reviews on all of them were "ok" to "meh"......realized I like fires more than maintenance......and storing and dealing with a chipper limited to ~3" branches wasn't really worth it......sounds like the same can be said on the PTO versions as well

oosik · Oct 13, 2020

I can see your point. If you have little need for a chipper - why purchase one. On the other hand - I would be lost without a good chipper. It just so happens that Wallenstein fits that bill, just fine. Yes - it requires maintenance. I grease the two pillow bearings annually. And I grease the four knife edges after my spring project( rust prevention ). Around here - summer burning is a definite - No, No. And green pines don't burn well in the winter or anytime.

When I upgraded to the BX62S I also checked out the BX92S. Then I realized the 62S will chip up to 6" trees. So I go into a stand of pines and fell what I want. I looks like a game of "Pick-Up-Sticks". It's hard enough to drag a 26' tall by 6" butt diameter tree out on the flat. It really, really hard to drag this same tree out of a game of Pick-Up-Sticks. You stumble, trip, fall quite often.

See what you think - fall a pine that's 6" on the butt. Grab it and drag it 50 feet. Now realize that 30% of the 1200 trees I fell will be 6". It's no joy ride.

Now if I had the BX92S I could chip 9" trees. There is no Bloody Way in H*LL I could drag a tree that's 9" on the butt. I don't need the added weight of the rotor on the 92S. The 62S chips 6" pines easily.

There is no way I can use my grapple for this project either. However - if we didn't have CV-19 this year - my son and his two buddies were available to drag & pile.

The pine stands aren't going anywhere. There is alway the coming years.

oldballs · Oct 13, 2020

It is safe to say that most of us live in different physical circumstances and have different codes to rule our lives. Burning works OK but has it's down sides some of which are weather related, personal time related, safety related and certainly code related.

I do both...burn and chip/shred. I have a stand alone, towable 10 HP chipper / shredder. It is handy for small stuff that builds up in small piles around my place. I can move it around with my Case 448 garden tractor....or road it to a city friend's house to take care of some small stuff, that is too much for the trash service.

Then there is my PTO powered Woodland WC-68 chipper that is used for certain bigger jobs around my place. I use the chips in various ways as mulch and in paths. Really big dead pine etc. gets burned when everything is right. I haven't found maintenance or storage to be a major problem, any more so than life itself.:2cents:

Cheers,
Mike

hseII · Oct 13, 2020

PaPow said:
Just make a pile over time, then go rent a chipper. Chippers are a pain in the ***. They sit around and take up alot of space.
And most of these chippers aren`t even worth having on a sub compact or a compact tractor.

After owning a BX60 I could not agree more.