Does anyone have a Woodmaxx WM-8H with 29 PTO HP?

[ngiovas]

If you add your location to your profile, you might even find someone nearby that would let you try out an 8H on your machine. There are a lot of them out there. Just a thought.

Profile updated. I live in Clarkston, MI, but my property and tractor are in Kalkaska, MI.

Call and get on their waiting list. They're made in batches in China and basically, they call you when the container ship shows up! LOL Getting on the list doesn't require a deposit or anything.

I tried, but they don't do a waiting list anymore. They said if they did it would be over a year to get one, so they stopped. Now you have to sign up for an email notification and hope you can order one before they run out again.

Interesting thing is that they have 3 of them listed on their scratch and dent page for a few hundred dollars off, but they are pickup only. There are no signs of wear in the photos and they only have around 0.2 hours of usage. From my house to their location would be about 4 hours if I cut through Canada, which isn't terrible to do in a day, but due to Covid, they won't let you pass through Canada even if you don't stop. Going down and around would be 8 hours each way which is definitely not worth it.

 

[Stan B]

Profile updated. I live in Clarkston, MI, but my property and tractor are in Kalkaska, MI.

I tried, but they don't do a waiting list anymore. They said if they did it would be over a year to get one, so they stopped. Now you have to sign up for an email notification and hope you can order one before they run out again.

Interesting thing is that they have 3 of them listed on their scratch and dent page for a few hundred dollars off, but they are pickup only. There are no signs of wear in the photos and they only have around 0.2 hours of usage. From my house to their location would be about 4 hours if I cut through Canada, which isn't terrible to do in a day, but due to Covid, they won't let you pass through Canada even if you don't stop. Going down and around would be 8 hours each way which is definitely not worth it.

Oh man, if you were a little closer, I'd toss mine in the pickup and bring it over for a demo!

That's a bummer about the waiting list. I wonder if you could directly contact a feight forwarder close to their factory and have them palletize it and truck freight it to you.

OTOH, you might want to give these guys a call:
WC-8H Hydraulic Wood Chipper with Self Contained Motor and Controls - Victory Tractor Implements

I bought a flail mower from them and the customer serivce was pretty darn good.

 

[dennis103]

I wouldn't hesitate to get the 8" woodmax chipper. I have the same WH-8h w/ hyd feed. Having a chipper that is too large for your HP is not a problem unless you are trying to put the max size wood thru it. If you get a smaller chipper say 4" the only difference is you can only put 4" wood in it. I would get the 8" it is adjustable feed and once you find the size wood that makes your tractor work too hard don't put that size in any more. I have a 60 hp tractor and playing around I can make that grunt with wood too big. Also if you get a bigger tractor you won't need a larger chipper. Best of luck with what ever you decide.

 

[ngiovas]

Oh man, if you were a little closer, I'd toss mine in the pickup and bring it over for a demo!

That's a bummer about the waiting list. I wonder if you could directly contact a feight forwarder close to their factory and have them palletize it and truck freight it to you.

OTOH, you might want to give these guys a call:
WC-8H Hydraulic Wood Chipper with Self Contained Motor and Controls - Victory Tractor Implements

I bought a flail mower from them and the customer serivce was pretty darn good.

I called them about having a trucking company pick it up, but they said it was cash only, first come, first served.

I clicked on the link you posted, it says out of stock, but I may give them a call anyway. The price they posted is a few hundred dollars cheaper than buying direct. I am wondering if they haven't had them in recently and that is an old page.

 

[rademamj1]

Just a quick comment, I was under the impression that WoodMax no longer sourced parts or equipment from China, and has now brought all the fabrication for their implements to the USA. This occured in 3rd quarter 2018. Am I wrong in this thinking??

Also Woodmax "Scratch and Dent" inventory, currently lists three WM-8H chippers currently available today, and no waiting list. They say pickup only....maybe will do Shipping.

 

[oosik]

No experience with any Woodmaxx product. However - I ran a Wallenstein BX42S on my original Ford 1700. That has a claimed 23 PTO hp. More than just sufficient power to chip anything I could stuff down the intake chute.

Having a larger chipper can be a definite advantage - larger, heavier rotor. Remember - just because you have a larger chipper doesn't mean you have to chip larger stuff.

Every spring I thin and chip my many pine stands. I'll be chipping green pines - 1" to 6" on the butt. I chip all the pines "in the round". Meaning - I remove no limbs and just stuff the tree down the intake chute - butt first.

A larger chipper also means a larger intake chute = less trimming of limbs off the main trunk. With the hydraulic in-feed you can slow things down if you get into bigger or harder stuff.

 

[Stan B]

Just a quick comment, I was under the impression that WoodMax no longer sourced parts or equipment from China, and has now brought all the fabrication for their implements to the USA. This occured in 3rd quarter 2018. Am I wrong in this thinking??

My WM-8H bought in 2020 was made in China. They have a couple higher end models that are made in USA. It doesn't look like they have any better availablity.

 

[jjp8182]

Can't speak to the WM-8H, but have run either the WM-8M (or it's older/cheaper sibling - can't recall exactly) and for the items I was chipping the tractor wasn't an issue. The in-feed was; both the roller and the belt system driving the roller - at least it was on the old rusty unit I'd borrowed.

Was chipping a mix of semi-dried out Bradford pear trees (dropped the entire tree that was 40' across), pin oak trimmings and some other small trees/bushes. May just have been the specific unit, or the weather and wood amount/conditions, but the belt slipping for the in-feed roller and the in-feed roller wanting grind rather than pull material in ended up making burning the wood easier than chipping it. When the chipper fed things in it did great, when it didn't ..... Again, I'm not going to judge the entire product line on my experience with that one unit I had borrowed (and would caution others against doing so as well), but it was a data point that helped educate me on a few things to look at when it comes to buying a wood chipper.

Having said that I'm still looking to buy a Wood Maxx chipper in the next few years, but am more inclined to go with the WoodMaxx MX-9900 even if I need to reduce the in-feed rate. From what I've seen (both from that unit I'd borrowed and commercial trailer mounted ones I've used) the energy in the fly-wheel is more important than the input HP. Higher HP can result in faster recovery times and potentially reduce the RPM drop, but the flywheel is ultimately there for a reason..... so I'm inclined to go with the chipper that has the biggest heaviest flywheel my tractor could handle.

Likewise the larger in-feed greatly helps reduce the amount of cutting that has to be done for highly forked limbs/branches to feed into the the chipping blades. Which is usually more helpful than being able to feed the larger solid pieces (given trees tend to have many more limbs than trunks :thumbsup. ...and if the in-feed is built so that it can grab and really pull (and maybe even snap smaller branches) into the chipper then :thumbsup::thumbsup:

(btw have bogged down a large 12" 89HP Vermeer tow-behind with semi-dried 6-ish inch plus crape myrtle trunks/trees before so I know more HP isn't always the answer ...however, a good/strong grabbing in-feed system and being able to control the in-feed rate are very much useful things in a wood chipper)

Just my :2cents:

One last thought when chipping branches/trees; a cordless reciprocating saw with a wood or pruning blade (depending on how green the wood is) is an extremely handy thing to have on hand -- perhaps even more so than a gas chainsaw.

 

[ericm979]

The 8H feed is hydraulic drive. The pump is driven off a belt but on mine it does not slip. Depending on how I adjust the relief valve either the valve will open and let the rollers stall or the rollers will chew up the material if it's stuck and not feeding. How often things jam depends on the wood you're chipping (live oak is one of the more difficult ones) and how good you are at cutting branches so they will chip.

With the hydraulic feed I can reverse the piece to get it out and feed it in a different orientation or put it aside to be trimmed more later.

 

[NWOH_Grizz]

I'm using a WM-8H on my New Holland with 33 PTO HP. I'm very happy with it, chews up and spits out anything I would feed into it, which is 4" or less. Of course, had to try out some larger pieces, and at about 6", it will bog down the tractor. Playing with the feed valve (on-off, on-off, etc) will make it take the entire limb, but that is firewood size for me. As previously mentioned above, I'm not happy with the size of the hydraulic valve. It is way oversize, and is either on or off. I'll have to change that some day to get better control over the feed rate. I have almost 3 years on it, and have not flipped the blades over yet. The belt drive is a non-issue, but I do think the belt drive is a little easier on everything. No big shock when the PTO is engaged at idle. I have not experienced any belt slip. I bought it with the standard PTO shaft, didn't even have to cut it. Keep it greased, and you shouldn't need to spend the extra $$$ on the extra-cost European shaft. Buy the set of extra blades, and the maintenance kit. Should be a once-in-a-lifetime purchase unless you're really hard on stuff.