Used chipper prices?

[crazyal]

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

I tried a couple places but they wouldn't let me leave the yard because I only had a 1/2t full size truck. They said 3/4 ton or more. That meant paying to have them drop it off and pick it up. At that point it was easier to just burn it.

 

[s219]

Around here used chipper prices are crazy. That gives me hope, as I have been thinking of selling my Wallenstein BX-42 (4" x 10" throat) and moving up a size. If I go by pricing on the internet, I can almost get back the original cost of the Wallenstein from 2012 when I bought it. Of course new ones cost quite a bit more now in 2019, but just looking at the long term cost/return, it would be amazing to sell a piece of equipment for near/at what I paid years ago.

BTW, gravity feed has worked fine for me, and the machine sucks in material extremely fast. I learned to drop material in and get out of the way.

The downfall of a gravity-feed chipper is that it doesn't do well on leafy/twiggy material unless that material is being dragged in with a thicker limb (either attached to the limb or fed at the same time). If I have a lot of leafy/twiggy material, I have to alternate that with bigger limbs so the bigger limbs can periodically clear the feed chute by dragging everything else through. That's the only downside I have found, and don't consider it to be a real issue for my occasional use (few days every couple months). If I had more frequent use I'd probably want hydraulic feed.

If looking to buy used, I'd say keep your eyes and ears open and wait for a good opportunity. Be flexible. And beware of the cheapo Chinese knockoffs. They seem to give mixed results when brand new and I imagine used units are a crap shoot.

 

[sixdogs]

I'm the OP on this and sure wish I could buy a chipper but it just doesn't make sense. My own chipper would be easier since I could chip at my leisure. I have around 300, 25' tall spruces I want to cut some of the bottom branches off and that's a lot of cutting to get ready for one day with the rental chipper. Plus, I really can only cut in the spring and if the grass starts to grow where I dragged the branches, it gets damaged and takes a while to recover. Because the trees are tightly spaced, there are more branches than there is space to put them. So, it's not ideal when you have to do a lot of work all at once. There are no waste and woodland areas where I could pile things.

So, I'm going to rent a Woods engine driven 6"-7" chipper for as much of it as I can and just burn the rest. I rented it before and it's a powerhouse and never plugged. It will require an effort to haul and then toss branches on the pile plus I live on flat ground where the wind always blows the wrong way. There's also lots of corn trash in the fields so when it's dry enough to burn it's also dry enough to catch other things and you have to be careful. Rental, it is unless a find a super deal and I don't think that will happen. Used chippers sell for way too much. Thank you for the response.

 

[oosik]

I've had two brand new chippers. The first was a Wallenstein BX42S. Current one is a Wallenstein BX62S. The only thing I chip is young pine trees. Plugging with the 62S has been zero. Maintenance - I chip upwards of 900 small pines every spring. I've had the 62S for six years. It's going to need blade sharpening in ten years or so. I haven't even had to rotate the blades yet.

Slow - if it chipped the 6" x 30' pines any faster you would need a high speed camera just to see the action.

Both of my chippers were/are gravity feed only.

Maintenance - I put the chipper in storage for the season. Apply a liberal coating of grease on the cutting edge of each blade. Give each of the two grease zerks a couple strokes of the grease gun. It's ready for next spring.