Chipper recommendation

[WinterDeere]

My parameters:

4 acre lawn with ~85 mature trees that drop miles of branches (+60 more under 10 year age, that will be soon enough)
A lot of landscaping around the house, hedges, shrubs, flower beds, etc.
5 acre adjacent woods that I don't own, but help maintain
woodburner, processing 6 - 10 cords per year, generates lots of loose bark and swarf
one tractor = Deere 3033R (33hp)
one wagon = 4x8 dump (Country Mfg. 8300), which is always filled with firewood in cold weather, but could be made available in summer

I have been burning branches, hedge trimmings, and wood processing swarf nearly every second or third weekend for the last 12 years. But due to changes in surrounding properties, I'm in a situation where the prevailing summer wind takes the smoke right toward a neighbor's house and property, so I'm looking for an alternative to use at least during nicer weather. I have a good place to put the chippings, either the perimeter of the woods, or along my property line, so no issues there.

Debating what type of chipper might be best for me, and what the workflow might be. With a 3-point/PTO unit, I'd lose use of my loader while running the chipper, but I could use the loader to build a pile on the ground, before backing up to that with the chipper and then doing my work. With a separately-powered unit, I have another engine to maintain, probably higher cost and lower HP, but it does free up the tractor.

Since I heat my home with wood, I really have no need to ever chip anything over 3" - 4" diameter, I can put that stuff in the wood pile (or scrap burn pile). But I do have need for a input chute wide enough to handle branching messes of 1" stuff, I don't want to be breaking them up and feeding this thing one stick at a time. Ideally, it'd be something that can take wide swaths of small diameter trimmings.

Advice? Not so much needing brand and model (although that's welcome), but initially more workflow and type.

 

[Fxfymn413]

Why not look at a PTO powered chipper instead of a hydraulic powered unit? The PTO models are plentiful on the used market and will do everything you want for no more than $2500.00 for a good used unit. 33 HP is plenty adequate for these units as well.

 

[sea2summit]

We'll you sound like a one man show so not sure why you're worried about using your loader while your chipping? I typically make 3-4 large piles of material, or what I estimate is as much as I want to chip in a day, then I chip into my ranger from the pile and dump it wherever I want to use it. Generally I pile it for hog bedding and compost pile.

Anyway, a PTO mounted unit dollar for dollar is going to outperform a self powered unit until you get to some of the commercial level chippers. I would just chip into your wagon and put it where needed or in your case you might even be able to just make your pile where you plan to use the chips just as easily. You'll actually be surprised at how much material you have to chip to actually get a meaningful amount of chips if you're trying to use it for anything like bedding or compost.

I have a woodmaxx and would recommend, mine is probably too large for your tractor but they make smaller gravity fed units that would work.

 

[nisaacs]

I recommend one with two infeed rollers and a clam shell type flywheel housing. This is the one I have but use the tractor remotes for hydraulics. This one is self contained. I use a 33 hp JD970 but, like you, anything over 3" is fire wood.

BX72RSH heavy duty wood chipper

 

[ericm979]

I usually build piles by hand. Sometimes I load material into the grapple and use it to carry to a pile, or use the grapple to move or consolidate piles. Then I put the PTO chipper on and chip into a trailer or into a pile. I like to have a pile ready to go so I can keep a constant feed to the chipper rather than having it running doing nothing while I'm finding the next branch.

I have a Woodmaxx 8H, which is an 8" square throat hydraulic feed chipper. The tractor has 32hp at the PTO. That's enough to chip stuff up to about 4" at full feed speed. Larger than that and I need to slow the feed down, or even stop and start the feed to let the tractor pull the flywheel back up to speed. I try to burn stuff that needs that but sometimes it gets chipped.

I used to use a manual feed chipper and find the hydraulic feed to be safer and work better. There are a few people here who are happy with manual feed but often they are chipping the easier to chip species like pine.

Woodmaxx and Woodland Mills sell inexpensive 8" chippers designed in North America and made in China. There are a lot of Woodmaxx 8H users here and a lot of videos on youtube so there's a lot of info about them. The Woodland Mills has some nice features but in the end I went with the Woodmaxx.

It's difficult to burn in my county and the land is very productive so I do a lot of chipping. The Woodmaxx, while it has a few design features I'd like to improve, has been very useful for me and I would not hesitate to recommend it.

 

[Omega Woods]

I just bought a Woodmaxx MX-8600. I wanted something USA made because that's just the way I am.

I have 17 acres but only maintain about six of it. I almost went with the 8800 but I wanted something I could run with either tractor (45 HP Branson or 20+ HP Kubota) so I saved myself the money and went with the smaller unit. In your case, I'd probably go with the 8800 or the 8h if you don't care about it being from China. For me, anything smaller than 4" is firewood anyway and I don't get in a hurry to get stuff done so I'm anticipating being just fine with the 8600 smaller size. I didn't want to get anything with a gravity or manual feed so the 8600 seemed perfect for what I have. I'll come back and post photo/video when it arrives.

 

[oosik]

My chipping operation does not match what most are doing. I have 80 acres and it's covered with stands of Ponderosa pines. So...every other year or so - I thin and chip the stands of young pines. 800 to 1200 small pines ( 1" to 6" on the butt ) in one operation.

I - identify - fell - drag to piles - pull and chip from the piles. A single stand will end up looking like a giants game of Pick-Up-Sticks. Then I drag all the fallen trees to a pile. I will usually end up with ten to twelve piles. This project can take up to two months.

I have a Wallenstein BX62S. It's gravity feed and works very well. No limbs are ever trimmed - just feed the tree, butt first - into the chipper.

I've had two Wallenstein PTO chippers. First was the BX42S - now the BX62S. Wallenstein makes a superior chipper. The BX62S is powered with my 62hp Kubota M6040.

 

[ericm979]

If I was to buy the tractor and chipper now I'd get a tractor with more power and probably a Woodmaxx MX8800. I like the level chute design on my WM8H vs a chute that angles up as it allows me to chip a branch that's too heavy for me to lift up at an angle. I only have to be able to lift the butt end into the chute and lift the other end enough to get the rollers to grab it.

The 8H has dual feel rollers while the MX series has single rollers. I have not used a single roller chipper but one of the factors that made me decide on the 8H vs the Woodland Mills 8" was their videos, which made it look like it takes effort to get the single roller to bite. The 8H dual rollers are smaller and won't grab a big square butt, but there's a manual lift lever to lift the upper roller up and on top of the material. It works pretty well.

 

[oosik]

Eric - that's the same way I do my largest pine trees. Huff the butt end up and over the lip of the chute. Walk out to the mid point - lift the entire tree - push it into the chipper. The majority - lift at the mid point and slide it into the chipper. The chipper pulls so hard when its chipping - it often frightens those who have come to help.

I've found I must wear gloves. After an hour or so of chipping - without gloves - the bark on the pines will abrade the palms of my hand to the point they will be bleeding. I wear heavy duty leather gloves. Aerostich - Elk skin ropers. Actually - I wear these leather gloves throughout the entire process.

 

[ericm979]

With the level chute bottom I only have to lift the tree up to chute level to get it to feed. When the chute is at an angle I have to lift the tree higher than the lip of the chute to get it to feed. Basically the tree has to be at the same angle as the chute. When it's a long tree that can be a lot of weight to lift up high. My manual feed chipper has a chute that's fairly high up and at a steep angle, which made getting anything that was long and heavy in there a challenge.

Today I was chipping long fir branches off a pile that was as high as the chute. I didn't even have to hold the ends of the branches up. All I had to do was get the butt end into the chute and let the chipper eat.