Woodchipper or new car?

Glowplug · Oct 16, 2006

I have numerous mountains of brush all over my property. I also have many trees I plan to remove. I read on this forum about the Valby PTO driven wood chippers. I checked it out. It is extremely impressive. I would really love to have one of these. Of course, the tractor that I am going to get is rather large. So I was looking at the higher end models. The top-end CH 260 is the model that I would love to have. I e-mailed the company. It costs $9,970.00!!

It looks like a fine piece of equipment and I'm sure it's worth it. But I don't know if I can afford to own one. I may have to look into renting. Has anyone ever heard of any place renting these machines?

IslandTractor · Oct 16, 2006

You don't need to buy the biggest version which is probably designed/built for professional use. You can get a very fine PTO chipper for half that price and a decent Chinese version for under 1500.

ScottAR · Oct 16, 2006

You might also look at Bearcat, salsco, and vermeer. They all make largeish pto chippers. If I remember, all are american made.

Highbeam · Oct 16, 2006

How about looking for a used, stand alone, tow behind, professional chipper like you see towed behind the power line cleaner's trucks? I would not pay 10k$ for a huge chipper that doesn't even have an engine.

HomeBrew2 · Oct 16, 2006

I picked up an early '60's Fitchburg w/ I6 Ford gas for under $3K. Nice to have the tractor w/ brush forks free to break the piles up, etc.

JRobyn · Oct 16, 2006

If you have some time, know exactly what you're needs are, and watch Ebay carefully, good used ones can be found. I bought my 6" hydr feed Morbark from an old dairy farmer in Wisconsin for $3000. It's very similar to the Valbys, but even heavier. I think I got an awesome deal. It had a max of a few hundred hours on it and works and looks like new. Look for the smaller Vermeers, but be careful of ones that are sold after being rental units; some can be beat up bad. Even so, the machines are very simple and rugged, and even one in rough shape can be rebuilt relatively inexpensively. Most on E-bay are powered units, but a few PTO-drives occasionally come up. Just be patient.

BarryinMN · Oct 16, 2006

I cleared my place the same way - mountains of brush too big for the brush hog.

Getting the biggest strongest nastiest chipper eliminates prep work trimming branches before going in the chute.

I bought a 16" drum type 1960's Ford V8 powered unit out of a junk yard for $800. New wiring and runs like a champ. It has no safety features to speak of - new machines are hydraulic with E-stops. It eats about 100 fpm about 10x faster than newer hydraulic feed units.

Rent centers have back yard ~ 20 hp units, not seen any monsters for rent. Might try calling an Arborist or Landscaper to rent his over a weekend. Liability might get a little tricky but worth a try.

A PTO powered unit may cause the tractor to wear the debris depending on wind variations.

Be sure to add action pix's of your work.

McDenny's · Oct 16, 2006

I have a Patu C170 chipper with hydraulic feed rolls. To me it would be nice to have a separate chipper not attached to my tractor at times. I also have a Fransgaurd 4000 logging winch. I use the pallet forks to move what I can. I will use the winch to drag all my trees into one spot, then grab my Normand 1920 dump trailer and park it where I will be chipping. When I start I just aim all my chips into the trailer. The chipper is just awesome. The rolls are adjustable on the front so you can slow the speed down as needed. When I bought my tractor it came with 11 attachments. I probably wouldn't of bought a chipper as a implement because I don't use it that often, but it does come in handy when needed. Plus I think I have gained more "friends" since I bought my tractor.