Wood chipper versus brush chipper recommendations

[EggsOverGreasy]

Where are the lines between wood chippers and brush chippers?

I was at our major construction rental outlet near Burlington, Vermont, this week asking which chipper I should rent if I primarily have brush. (They offer the Morbark line.) They said they don't have any such machines and that brush will clog up all of their machines, which tend to be the larger ones. They said that they normally recommend burning brush and tops. Me, I'm looking to get into making soil from chipping branches no more than 3" width.

So, which direction do I look in buying a chipper that won't choke on branches / bush / small stuff but can also handle 6"... Seems that Morbark and, say, Bandit, sell chippers labeled as brush chippers (in the 6" and higher range).

Thanks.

 

[ericm979]

Morbark and Bandit are commercial chippers.

For home use you can get a chipper or chipper/shredder with an engine, or a PTO driven chipper or chipper/shredder. The difference between chipper and shredder is that a chipper has sharp blades, usually 2 or 4, and can chip solid wood. A hammer mill shredder uses a bunch of hammers that smash up the material. They work better on small stuff- leaves and stems- but are limited in the size of solid wood they can handle.

I was using a MacKissick 5.5" chipper/shredder on a Kubota with 14hp at the PTO. It was a little underpowered but was acceptable. I'm now doing a lot more chipping and chipping larger material using a hydraulic feed Woodmaxx 8" chipper on a Branson with 32 pto hp. The Woodmaxx is superior to the MackKissick's manual feed chipper but the MackKissick's shredder works better for shredding green material for compost. I can get the Woodmaxx to feed branches down to about 1/2" but it's a little more difficult than just dropping them in the shredder hopper on the MacKissick. The manual on that says it will take up to 1 1/2" material in the shredder but about 1" is really the limit if you have any mechanical sympathy.

If you're getting a tractor I recommend a PTO chipper. One less engine to maintain, and being on the PTO makes it easy to transport.

The Woodmaxx 6" chipper may handle small stuff better than the 8" one as the feed chute is angled up instead of being flat. That's not as good for big stuff however. If you want to chip material up to a true 6" then you will need chipper with larger capacity than 6" as most trees aren't perfectly straight and there's often branch stubs. You'll also want a tractor with decent HP. My 32 pto HP can handle 6" material but I have to turn the feed rate down. If I was doing lots of that I'd want more power.

 

[CalG]

Where are the lines between wood chippers and brush chippers?

I was at our major construction rental outlet near Burlington, Vermont, this week asking which chipper I should rent if I primarily have brush. (They offer the Morbark line.) They said they don't have any such machines and that brush will clog up all of their machines, which tend to be the larger ones. They said that they normally recommend burning brush and tops. Me, I'm looking to get into making soil from chipping branches no more than 3" width.

So, which direction do I look in buying a chipper that won't choke on branches / bush / small stuff but can also handle 6"... Seems that Morbark and, say, Bandit, sell chippers labeled as brush chippers (in the 6" and higher range).

Thanks.

If you wish to make soil, You want a chipper/ SHREDDER!

I was using the McKissick today powered by the Kubota B7200. (First time use with that tractor. Not as unstoppable as when powered with the 35hp Hurlimann, but the Kubota did fine)

Through the chipper went the wood of a couple clumps of Witch Hazel that had grown to 25 feet and now topped to 8 feet., a beech about 15 years old (30 feet tall) a peach that had sprouted on the root stock. Also was a pile of hardwood bark left over from last fall fire wood splitting.

The chipper definitely chokes on the fresh green material. When the tops are fed into the chipper chute, as the foliage came near and the limbs were thumb size or smaller, the material is pulled from the chute and pushed into the hammer shredder hopper. With a whoosh and a bang, they are pulled in and spit out the bottom in shreds.

The chipped and shredded material was loaded into the utility wagon and brought to the flower beds my wife had weeded and cleared only yesterday. It's such good weed halting ground mulch. (Our compost/ garden soil piles are big enough, so the fresh material was not wanted there.

The chipper shredder is a bit of a work out with forked branches etc. It's best to keep a lopper at hand.
But this McKissick machine has been a significant contribution to our soils and gardens.

There are other brands, But only the largest really have a chance at being anything less than a pain in the butt.

Moving material out from under the machine as it collects is one thing to be sure you have covered.
I either keep a manure fork at the machine, or plan to pull forward every 10 minutes or so.

This afternoons efforts yielded about a yard of chipped and shredded material. Might have consumed a gallon of fuel in the process.

Anything larger than 3 inches goes to the wood pile for fuel wood. So a large "Chipper" is not needed nor wanted.
If I were "clearing" established forest, a chipper would be a better tool. One that craves horsepower.

 

[ericm979]

A shredder will make better mulch or compost than a chipper. But the MackKissick 5.5" is the largest PTO chipper/shredder I know of. It's more expensive than the Woodmaxx 8H and has significantly less chipping capacity. I forgot about having to move the MackKissick frequently. The Woodmaxx doesn't require that. It's a pain if you are chipping a pile. The Woodmaxx hydraulic feed is very useful. It's better and safer than the "chuck and duck" manual feed type.

Most of my chipping is brush or tree parts. We can't burn brush piles here and we don't burn any significant wood for heat. I put what I can through the chipper unless it's a species I can get rid of as firewood.

 

[firemech]

Have a Woodmax 8M chipper behind my 2320 Kubota and it chips anything from 1/2" to 4 " with no problem (my L3400 looks after the big stuff but we use anything over 4" for the cookstove). Very happy with the results. Are currently clearing a build site on our 10 acre property and the Woodmax is meeting all of our needs

 

[EggsOverGreasy]

The chipper shredders all seem to have to have two feed openings. Anyway. The five that I had noted seem targeted for home or light use while I'm looking for something with more production capacity.

Brands
Wallenstein
Chipper/Shredders | Wallenstein Outdoor Power Equipment
Chipper/Shredders | Wallenstein Outdoor Power Equipment
Bear Cat
ECHO Bear Cat | Products
ECHO Bear Cat | Products
Negri
Negri, il marchio verde - Prodotti - Biotrituratori, Cippatori, Arieggiatori, Aspirafoglie con motori elettrici, benzina, diesel, a scoppio
Goossen (Now Harper)
https://www.harperturfequipment.com/shredders/chipper-shredder/
Mackissic
http://www.mackissic.com/Commercial Chipper-Shredders.html

Will check the cited WoodMax

 

[oosik]

I have a pto driven Wallenstein BX62s. Its a chipper - not a shredder. The chips that come out of this unit are DEFINITELY NOT mulch - they are ground cover.

I thin my pine stands every spring and chip between 800-900 small(6" and less) pine trees - in the round. Meaning - I do not limb any of the pines - its butt end in first and swoop/gobble/crunch/crunch. The chipper has no problems chipping the fresh, green pine branches when fed this way.

From experience - I've found that if fed only fresh, green pine branches, the chipper will eventually choke up. The operation will need to be shut down so the chipper can be opened up and cleaned out. Its a matter of too much pine pitch build up in the chipping chamber - bits & pieces of limbs sticking to all the pitch and eventually a plug up happens. My solution - tell my son, who is out helping dad, QUIT WITH THE LIMBING. Limbing is just a waste of time and will eventually result in a plugged chipper.

When the fresh pine trees are chipped, in the round, the large, heavy pine chunks will carry enough pine pitch up and out of the chipper and prevent plugging.

 

[ericm979]

The chipper shredders all seem to have to have two feed openings.

That's how they all work. Shredders can't handle large material so they need separate feed chutes. On the MackKissick the chipper feeds into the hammer mill shredder. It doesn't affect wood chips but it does reduce leaves that make it through the chipper.

Some commercial chippers are called shredders for some reason. Even though they take entire trees and are nothing like the home use shredders that produce fine material.

 

[bigtiller]

My Bear Cat will chip 5" but I never do. More importantly, it will shred 1.5".

 

[vsteel]

My Woodmaxx has never had issues with small branches and chews them up perfectly. I won't get as small of results as a shredder but never plugged and gives me small chips if I turn down the feed.