Chipper recommendation

[5030]

The one overlying issue that not only applies to ANY wood chipper as well as a chainsaw is... The knives on ANY chipper must be kept reasonably sharp and the cutting / chipping angle must be maintained correctly for the unit to chip efficiently. Same applies to a chainsaw. Don't matter how much arse a saw or shipper has, dull knifes will decrease the cutting action and with a chipper, can clog the chute.

I sharpen chipper knives for commercial tree companies and I'm always busy as commercial tree companies know that sharp knives increase throughput and make any job go faster.

 

[2manyrocks]

Lots of great info to chew here, although with only 4 acres, I'm not probably generating nearly as much material as most of you with these larger units. My biggest "burn burden" is green stuff coming out of flower beds, which for annuals can still contain the potted dirt they came in. I do have a lot of tree branches, but I'm only discarding the 1" - 3" diameter stuff. Anything much smaller just gets mowed over, and anything much larger gets cut and stacked with the firewood.

This probably pushes me more toward a chipper shredder, than a standard chipper. That said, I do see the advantage of hydraulic feed, especially if it will suck in a widely-forking branch. For example, this group of piles was one of my several chores yesterday:

View attachment 789251

So, to redirect a biit:

1. Any smaller (< 4" max) units with hydraulic feed?
2. Any type of unit that's more adept at handling green leafy stuff, possibly with soil still stuck to roots?

Maybe this is more a question for a gardening forum than a tractor forum, although they'd have no clue on 3-point options, if such a thing even exists in this class.

For that amount of wood, have you considered an outdoor fire ring rather than buying an expensive chipper and having to maintain it? We burn a considerable amount of wood just having an outdoor camp fire some evenings.

 

[WinterDeere]

For that amount of wood, have you considered an outdoor fire ring rather than buying an expensive chipper and having to maintain it? We burn a considerable amount of wood just having an outdoor camp fire some evenings.

hah... I guess you didn't read the OP.

Yes, I have an outdoor fire ring, I filled it and burned it down about a dozen times this weekend. It's my go-to solution for winter, but in nicer weather the prevailing winds take the smoke straight toward a neighbor's house, and it causes them some frustration since I'm making a lot of smoke burning a lot of green stuff (or even more often after our too-frequent rains).

So, this is a solution to be used primarily in spring/summer/fall, I'll continue to burn all scrap in winter.

 

[2manyrocks]

Sorry.

There are those spendy "smokeless" burn rings you can buy, and there is at least one youtube video on building a smokeless burn barrel from two 55 gallon metal drums. Or do those just not work?

 

[stevem5215]

I have a Mighty Mac from the 70's with a old 7.5hp Briggs engine. It still works. It's work to use but it's basically been free to me as it came from a 99year old lady down the street. Those things just keep going. Look for a used one. It's well worth it.

 

[kenmbz]

I have 6 acres, but only need to chip the smaller stuff on about 2 acres, the rest stays in the wood or is firewood.
I have a small chipper/shredder which I pull around with a lawn tractor, the SCUT I have is used for bigger stuff.

I use a 4 wheeled cart and either move it by hand or by lawn tractor.

I use a grabber to lift.

For bigger stuff, I use forks or the BH with thumb to move them to be bucked or stacked.

I have a lot of dead ash and autumn Olive and find with my small area, the little chipper works fine up to about 3"

If I need bigger stuff chipped, I call a tree guy I know. Still working those big chip piles into my trail.

 

[doneill127]

I have an older used 3pt MacKissac on a 22hp tractor. For my purposes which is mostly shredding garden debris, shrub and tree pruning the hammer mill on the thing is great. Chipping for me is secondary and it handles up to 3 inches and has a fairly wide chute compared to most. Downside is chipping/debris discharge to the ground and either has to be raked out of the way occasionally or move the tractor forward a bit. Being an older machine, it has pretty much no safety devices everything is pretty much wide open which I’m ok with.
If my primary use was chipping wood, I would have bought a chipper

 

[Whitbread]

I have a woodmaxx wm8m and it's fantastic. Anything over 4" is firewood, but the 8x8 throat saves on secondary trimming. Heck, I wish the opening was 12x12, it would be even better! As other's have said, don't bother with a gravity feed chipper. The power feed gently grabs a branch and you walk away.

 

[MichiganIron]

I have a woodmaxx wm8m and it's fantastic. Anything over 4" is firewood, but the 8x8 throat saves on secondary trimming. Heck, I wish the opening was 12x12, it would be even better! As other's have said, don't bother with a gravity feed chipper. The power feed gently grabs a branch and you walk away. View attachment 791691

Our vote goes to the Woodmaxx WM8-H. Wonderful Machine, simple to operate, reasonable price, and makes a ton of mulch in an afternoon. With the standard raised discharge chute, it fills our dump trailer in an hour. Just could not be happier with the machine.

 

[WinterDeere]

Dump trailer, you say? I was using mine to move topsoil, just yesterday!