Used chipper prices?

[ultrarunner]

84... soon to be 85

Things would be perfect if it was not for Alzheimer's

 

[Tomtint]

How did you find the gravity feed worked?

Honestly, I was a bit unimpressed it. I found that it was slow, and it clogged with pine needles if chipping pine. I used it 2-3 times and now just pick stuff ups with the grapple and build a burn pile instead of chipping.

 

[ericm979]

I've had both gravity feed and hydraulic feed. I would not go back to gravity feed. I have a Woodmaxx 8H hydraulic feed chippper with 50 hours on it.

With gravity feed I have to tilt the material way up in the air to get it in the chute. That's a lot of extra work with long material. The gravity feed chippers don't feed well all the time. I spent a lot more time trying to get stuff in at the just right angle to get it to feed. With the 8H it usually just goes. The gravity feed is really self-feeding. When it gets going it grabs the material and sucks it in at high speed. That can be dangerous if you're not paying attention. The power feed goes at a measured rate, and there's a safety to stop it. You can't stop a self-feeding chipper once it's gotten going on a large branch. If you got your hand caught in that branch you're in trouble. It never happened to me but I was really careful.

The only extra maintenance on the 8H's power feed has been a couple more zerks to grease and checking the hydraulic fluid level a few times.

I like having my own chipper so I can go do an hour or two's work when I have time. It takes at least two hours to go to town, pick up a rental thing, and drop it off when I'm done. I can get the tractor with chipper on the back into places that I can't back a trailer into.

 

[ultrarunner]

^^^Pretty much sums up my experience except Wood Max 9900

 

[dennis103]

I bought a new wood maxx 8H last year for $3000 delivered. 8" hydraulic feed. I don't use it lots but for that money I didn't want to screw around with a used one.

 

[Oldoak]

new guy here, I have looked at chippers and have come to the conclusion that renting a big unit for a weekend is cheaper and you can feed a lot of branches thru a bigger chipper.

I with you on that.

When I maintained our 3 acre apple orchard I always rented a commercial chipper. We always had the trees pruned with all the butt ends laying in the same direction before I rented the chipper. Chipped ever thing in a single weekend without being hurried to finish because all the time was spent chipping, not cutting and pruning limbs at the same time as we went down the rows. Evergreen branches would be a breeze to handle the same way.

The advantage of the rental unit was a much bigger machine than I could ever afford, along with a very large throat and power feed. That machine ate branches faster than my wife and I could feed it. Repeated that every 4 years or so for quite some time.

To the O.P., whether you rent or buy your own, I wouldn't be without a power feed.

 

[ultrarunner]

You guys are able rent full on commercial machines without restriction?

 

[Oldoak]

You guys are able rent full on commercial machines without restriction?

In my area, we can. Well, at least the size I always rented. They had a capacity to take anything up to 8" in diameter. Don't remember the H.P. That may be on the lower end of a commercial series chipper. And lucky for me, the rental place is only 12 miles away.

 

[ultrarunner]

The one I was looking at and reserved was a 12 inch... but the Dealer said they couldn't rent me the 8 inch either...

I know they rent to the city public works and I doubt the city has a contractors license...

Anyway... saved myself thousands...

 

[plowhog]

I looked for a year or more for a used chipper and barely found anything at any price.

I bought a Woodland Mills chipper with 8" hydraulic feed. I have about 30 hours on it and it has worked well. I have chipped black oak (LOTS), pine, and cedar. The only thing it didnt like was pin oak-- that is a difficult thing to handle let alone chip. But I slowed the hydraulic input speed down and it ate all the pin oak limbs without problem.