Considering a 3 pt. wood chipper

[oldballs]

I've never had a burn pile that was "out" by dusk... If the pile is big enough to burn.....it will be hot all night and into the next day. My weather forcast is the determinant for starting the burn.

Some years I don't have a burn pile. That's when the chipper (WoodlandMills WC 68)and/or the chipper/shredder (MacKissic 1650) is used. Sometimes the large logs (2 ft diameter)are just stacked up.... sometimes....or cut into 3 foot lengths and dumped into a overgrown handy ravine/erosion ....to rot away and slow down the erosion.

Cheers,
Mike

 

[Bigbutler1532]

I have a 6" Woodland Mills (WC68) with hydraulic infeed on a Massey 1532 (26ish PTO hp) and I'm fairly satisfied with it. It will eat 6" wood as long as it's reasonably soft or green for the harder woods. I generally don't chip wood that size though since it fits in the woodstove better. It does struggle a bit when there are a lot of leaves or pine needles in the branches: it clogs the fan and the chute up sometimes. I'm pretty curious about the newer model (TF68 Pro) that have a secondary fan that runs at a faster rpm than the main chipper flywheel, I would hope that solves the problem and gets the smaller/lighter debris out of the chute more effectively. The hydraulic feed is at times finnicky, but generally it works well and prevents the machine from pulling in wood in an uncontrolled fashion and allows you to reverse pieces out if they are causing problems.

Burning is cheaper for sure, and renting a pull behind may be cheaper as well (it used to be $125/day around here for a 6"), and the rental units are often more capable. That being the case, we seem to have fewer good burn days here in Maine then we used to, and the wood chips are useful for me for mulch or to keep hogs happy when I have some. If you want the flexibility of having a chipper available to you when you need one and $3-5k is in the budget, I think it's a worthwhile investment. They are a decent counterweight too, at least for my tractor.

 

[dstriplett]

We have a Woodland Mills hydraulically fed chipper that works well but it's limited to 6". They do make a larger model though.

 

[m5guy]

I have a Chinese chipper like the one above. It works fine, won't wingshot a speed competition. But it was cheap and gets rid of brush. I run it on 36 PTO hp. Will take 6" if you can finagle it into the chute.

 

[hslogger]

I have extensive experience running commercial arborist pull behind machines. self feed and hydraulic feed. Decades of use. I have a tractor that produces PTO 39hp and run an eight inch hydraulic feed Woodmaxx chipper. It is one of the earlier models. Get a chipper bigger than you think you need if you don't have a clue what your are doing. If it is more than you want, sell it. Bigger and stronger is better. I chip orchard trimmings, fence row clearing, oak limbs, small firs and pines.

This chipper does all I want it to do. I do run 8 inch limbed stuff if I want. But I firewood that mostly. So much depends on species, density, limb size. Wet or Dry. If you want to dehorn all your stuff and chip big nasty limbs as you go, my machine is a great option. The throat is not wide like a commercial machine. If you want to chip tree length in one fell swoop, a large commercial type machine is what you want. Is it worth it? Only you can decide what is what. Many people like to torch everything they can. I find it wasteful, so therefore that is my attitude towards it. There are real good 3 pt machines on the market with different abilities. Chip quality is the proof of the pudding. poorly maintained machines make crappy chips. Sharp well adjusted machines make a great chip for many uses.

If you can get feedback from different owners, their first hand experiences, that would help. Also, go rent a couple different machines from town. Above all, a hydraulic feed machine is the only only only way to go. I used to stack brush from my orchard and fence rows then burn the stuff.

At some point I conversed with a PTO chipper owner north of me 50 miles and he convinced me that this machine I have would do what I needed and invited me to run his. He was running precommercial thinnings of douglas fir. I took his word for it, bought one the next day. Nothing beats personal experience. Final tip.. If you are going to pre pile your brush, do not do it willy nilly. Stack your brush with all butts in one direction. Do not make a rats' nest out of your piles. Go buy something that will last many years with proper maintenance.

 

[Jstpssng]

Stack your brush with all butts in one direction

We did that with a trailer chipper. The truck had a ball on front so one person drove while two of us lifted the butts to feed into the chute. No need to drag it twice...