Woodland Mills WC68 vs WC88?

   / Woodland Mills WC68 vs WC88? #11  
No - no price listed outright on any web site. With all the "goodies" I would guess - - near $22K to $24K.

There is a reason such a HD chipper is listed for a 35hp tractor.
- 600 pound chipping wheel
- in-feed sensor. It stops the in-feed roller when it senses a drop in the chipping wheel rpm. Allows it to build speed back up and then engages the in-feed roller again. Well demonstrated on one of the videos on their site.
Other goodies - hydraulic in-feed roller lift system. Operator can manually lift the in-feed roller so the roller does not have to climb up
and over large limbs or trees

A really nice chipper. Way to expensive for the homeowners casual use.

If you dig deep into this site - you will see the wrist and ankle "safety bands". To be worn on the ankle and wrist. Stops the chipper dead if one of the bands is detected by the sensor. Sensor is located half way down the throat of feed chute.
 
   / Woodland Mills WC68 vs WC88?
  • Thread Starter
#12  
It sure is a very nice machine. Lots of goodies, and the auto start/stop is pretty awesome for a smaller tractor. But that's a production level chipper for sure, and more than I can swing for . But thanks for posting it! Cool to see the other features out there

I heard back from Woodland Mills, and they mentioned that with the 68, I could probably chip up to a 6" branch, but with the 88 only a 5" since some power would be getting robbed to keep the flywheel going. Makes sense that more energy has to go in to keep everything spinning at some point. (Not that I am chipping stuff that big usually, but might happen if it's some nasty box elder or honeysuckle)

I'm still on the fence between the two. Hmmmm.
 
   / Woodland Mills WC68 vs WC88? #13  
This was my thinking when I upgraded my tractor - Ford 1700, 4WD, 26hp to Kubota M6040, 4WD, 64hp. I had a Wallenstein BX42S. Capable of up to 4" material. I could have gone with their BX107S - up to 10" material.

Then I looked at the BX62S. Same size chipping wheel as the 107 - 200#. Then I went out and fell a young pine - 7" on the butt cut. It was just more than I could drag. 6" pine was just within my limits. And that was 12 years ago. I choose to go with the BX62S. What was their 107S is now called their 102S now - I think.

When I thin a stand of small pines - it ends up looking like a giants game of "Pick-Up-Sticks". Felled trees are lying everywhere and all over each other. The worse part of the entire thinning operation - dragging all these fallen pines to a single pile. I stumble - I fall - Lord knows, I fall. I seldom really hurt myself but it's just not what I call - lots of fun. I will normally end up with 14 to 16 piles before I quit the felling part and begin the chipping part.

Chipping is the fun part. Back up to a pile and start feeding in the small pines.

My decision between the two chippers you are considering - go with the chipper with the heavier chipping flywheel. It will be easier on your tractor - it will maintain a higher rotational speed, due to flywheel weight - it will throw the chips further and resist plugging better.
 
   / Woodland Mills WC68 vs WC88? #14  
Ah man now I want one of those salaco 10inch hydro feed chippers love the dual feed wheels too..definitly over kill for what I need...lol

I will probably end up buying a woodland Mills wc88 tho..it's all I really need and it's made in Canada where I'm from for not too bad a price.
 
   / Woodland Mills WC68 vs WC88?
  • Thread Starter
#15  
Ah man now I want one of those salaco 10inch hydro feed chippers love the dual feed wheels too..definitly over kill for what I need...lol

I will probably end up buying a woodland Mills wc88 tho..it's all I really need and it's made in Canada where I'm from for not too bad a price.
Heads up they are not made in Canada. The chippers are made overseas and shipped in. I'm not knocking them because they are designed and supported by a Canadian firm, and they clearly offer to support their product. Just wanted you to not be bummed when the Country of Origin is different than you were expecting.
 
   / Woodland Mills WC68 vs WC88? #16  
Really eh..I did not know that. it is still the best bang for buck as far as a chipper for my 40 acre property go tho I think
 
   / Woodland Mills WC68 vs WC88? #17  
Question for anyone that has used either or both of these 3PH wood chippers.

Trying to decide between the two for use on a Massey 135, so in the sweet spot on the WC68 vs low end of the WC88. From combing through the specs, there are a few key differences that I am curious about .

- Flywheel: WC68 is 34" thick, WC88 is 1". Im thinking more weight = more inertia, so thats good.
- Flywheel Speed: WC68 direct drive off PTO @ 540 RPM, WC88 belt driven up to 1100 RPM.
- Knife Size: This is the one that stood out to me. The WC68 uses 4 knives spaced 90 degrees apart on the flywheel that are "full height", or they span most of the opening from the feed chute. The WC88 uses 4 knives also at 90 degrees, but they are half height, and are staggered, where one is on the outside edge of the flywheel, while one is closer to the center.

The knife thing makes me wonder if that would cause an issue where material might get fed before its able to be cut if it hits the "blank" spot, but then again the flywheel is spinning twice as fast so has the same amount of chances to take a bite assuming the feed rates are the same between the two machines.

I was leaning towards the larger machine for the bigger feed opening, and thinking the belt drive would help keep some shock load off of the tractors driveline a bit.

Any thoughts?
True more weight = more inertia. If you watch their videos, you can image how big difference they are.

 
   / Woodland Mills WC68 vs WC88?
  • Thread Starter
#18  
Really eh..I did not know that. it is still the best bang for buck as far as a chipper for my 40 acre property go tho I think
I agree, they seem to be very well designed and have good build quality.

The only thing I seem to be able to read about is the lack of fine control on the hydro feed. Looks like the flow control valve is rated for a much higher flow than the pump outputs, so there isn't as much adjustability as there could be. But if that's an issue a new valve looks to be around $100 that should tighten that range up.
 
   / Woodland Mills WC68 vs WC88? #19  
Ah man now I want one of those salaco 10inch hydro feed chippers love the dual feed wheels too..definitly over kill for what I need...lol

The popular Woodmaxx 8H has dual feed rollers and a handle to manually lift the top roller. I chose it over the Woodland Mills 8" after watching videos of people using the chippers. Woodland Mill's own video showed that feeding the chipper with its single roller was harder than getting the Woodmaxx to feed. With the upper roller lift I can pick up the roller and toss in a short stub that would be hard to feed safely otherwise.

There's no auto feed start/stop but when I need it I can do it manually.

OTOH the Woodland Mills has some features that I wish the Woodmaxx had, like the clamshell rotor housing that seems like it would make knife replacement easier.
 
   / Woodland Mills WC68 vs WC88? #20  
I agree, they seem to be very well designed and have good build quality.

The only thing I seem to be able to read about is the lack of fine control on the hydro feed. Looks like the flow control valve is rated for a much higher flow than the pump outputs, so there isn't as much adjustability as there could be. But if that's an issue a new valve looks to be around $100 that should tighten that range up.

I did that on my Woodmaxx 8H. I think I'm the only one. I like controls that work right. To be honest though, most of the time it's on full speed, and maybe half the time that it's not, it's on the minimum speed I can get. With the original valve I could only get full and minimum speeds, so most of my situations were covered by the original valve. But when I do want something in between, I can get it now.
 
 
 
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