Rent or buy a chipper-- I need to decide soon

[plowhog]

I am hiring a company to trim the huge oak trees at our property in a few weeks. These are mature, huge oak trees. Everyone that sees these trees calls them gigantic. Unbelievably the all-in cost for end weight reduction and trimming is upward of $10k -- after getting multiple bids. They are just that big, needing that much work needing specialized equipment with a very high reach.

I will process the downed limbs into firewood, using my tractor/grapple/splitter/etc. But for the debris, I need to rent or buy a chipper. I am looking at the Woodland Mills chipper, or the Woodmax 8H with hydraulic feed. Locally I can rent a Bearcat chipper or Vermeer 1000 chipper.

The decision is difficult-- I need strong chipping capacity soon, so a rental unit could handle that. But I could also use a chipper throughout the year chipping up trees and using the chips to lay down on roads and trails. I've heard that the chippers you own require a lot of maintenance-- making renting more attractive. But I also prefer to own, so I don't have to go through the hassles of renting.

Any voices of experience out there that could supply some insight?

 

[quicksandfarmer]

I own a 6" chipper, I've had it for about ten years, I get it out a couple of times a year, but not as much as I thought I would. While I had dreams of endless supply of wood chips for landscaping, what I've found is that chipping is slow. Think hours per cubic yard instead of cubic yards per hour. Unless I have an immediate need for chips, or the brush is in an inaccessible spot, I find it faster to load it onto a wagon, haul it out to a field, and burn it. The more you have the more sense burning makes, because increasing the size of the pile doesn't seem to increase burn time, it just burns faster. When chipping, doubling the size of the pile means twice as much time to chip.

There's a guy locally who sells chips for $6/cubic yard. It doesn't make sense to spend all day making chips for a few dollars worth. And yeah, the chipper needs to be adjusted, lubricated and sharpened a lot, it's a high-impact tool, and it breaks every now and then and needs to be fixed.

Freshly chipped wood is not landscape quality, it will have a lot of small branches and leaves, it needs to cure for a while.

Those are the downsides. I do use my chipper, it's great if I have a bunch of stuff in a tight spot by the house, or if I need the brush gone now and I don't have a burn pile going. But I wouldn't use it for large amounts.

 

[plowhog]

I can't burn in summer. Too hot and dry. But I can in winter. I have many burn piles already stacked up, ready to go. Good input-- thanks!

 

[GirlWhoWantsTractor]

I hope you're having your trees trimmed by a licensed arborist.

 

[plowhog]

Yes. No fly by night hack artists-- It's been hard to get quotes because most tree professionals are out of County fighting fires ..

 

[Wyobuckaroo]

In my work harvesting firewood and clearing bush from our pasture I'm at the point where I need a chipper. I don't want to just pile it anymore because access in winter to this area is too much trouble to get permits to burn the piles.

My plan is to buy a pto driven chipper and make that part of my harvest/clear/chip routine in doing this job. I wouldn't want to rent a chipper, get it home to find out regardless of what is said about its condition that it is grossly overdue for maintenance, sharp blades, you name the problem. That would make it hard to use, possibly dangerous to use, inefficient, and cost more to get the job done.

My 5 cents of opinion.

 

[lpigott]

I own the Woodland Mills chipper you mention. It is an awesome machine, well made, best value on the market, and great performance. I would rate maintenance on it as very low. All you have to do is grease a few fittings before use. Access to blades is really easy to. I would buy the same unit again for sure. WM offers great phone support which seems to be rare these days. Shipping is fast and painless also.

 

[ning]

I'm also looking for a chipper for similar reasons. I'm sick of burning - not only can't I burn from Memorial Day or earlier (depending on dryness) until... until it rains really good, looking like November sometime this year. Lots and lots of brush and tree trimmings will stack up in that amount of time, and it gets to be a pain to pull it apart to have reasonable burn piles later. Also, I usually cut stuff up there on my hill, and I burn down there in the open where I can get to water and keep everything else from catching on fire that PG&E didn't get burned down last time they screwed up.

We're supposed to have "4 foot diameter burn piles". 4 feet? Basically I'm in violation every time I burn, but it takes long enough to burn a decent amount of brush and wood, no way am I going to feed a 4 foot pile, and the fire danger here unless everything's completely saturated is such that I need to be working within sight of the pile, more or less. Then, there's the piles getting wet in the rain, or you burn and make tons of smoke.

Burning sucks; I'd rather have mulch or compost and not contribute to pollution, so I'm going to chip.
I'm just gradually hardening my resolution that it's going to cost me nearly $3k to do it - the used 3pt implement market here is pretty much nonexistent.

 

[joefromga]

Have you considered a burn incenerator that makes burning much faster and cleaner?

I've had one for about 6 years and it's super fast and stainless steel makes it last. No smoke and very few embers. This is Nothing like using a 55 gallon drum or converted trash can.

Cheap enough to try before you drop $3000

Burn Barrel | Home & Trash Incinerator | 1% Stainless Steel

 

[ning]

Have you considered a burn incenerator that makes burning much faster and cleaner?

I've had one for about 6 years and it's super fast and stainless steel makes it last. No smoke and very few embers. This is Nothing like using a 55 gallon drum or converted trash can.

Cheap enough to try before you drop $3000

Burn Barrel | Home & Trash Incinerator | 1% Stainless SteelView attachment 574588View attachment 574589

Burn barrels aren't allowed here by law - they're too often used to incinerate trash (often emitting dioxins) - not to mention, it's a lot of effort to get a large pile of brush into one.