Wood chipper recommend?

[rossow (mn)]

My wood lot provides a lot of branches that could offer good chips for garden mulch. Any recommendations on gas chippers to buy or avoid? I save anything over 2 inches for firewood, so a 3-inch chipper should be more than adequate. I would park a chipper to create a big pile of chips; would never haul it around in the woods or need to haul off my property. I see prices from around $400 up to $1,000, which would be my spending range. Thoughts?

(FWIW, my local utility company has provided me with chips when it is trimming power-line trees, but the supply isn't too dependable.)

 

[4wdtom]

My wood lot provides a lot of branches that could offer good chips for garden mulch. Any recommendations on gas chippers to buy or avoid? I save anything over 2 inches for firewood, so a 3-inch chipper should be more than adequate. I would park a chipper to create a big pile of chips; would never haul it around in the woods or need to haul off my property. I see prices from around $400 up to $1,000, which would be my spending range. Thoughts?

(FWIW, my local utility company has provided me with chips when it is trimming power-line trees, but the supply isn't too dependable.)

You could also make large brush piles and in a few years have compost to put in the garden and avoid the chipping and cost of the chipper. Around here the power company tree crews will bring you chips free, they are always looking for a place to dump them.

 

[Fritz Maurer]

Remember dry wood chips harder than green wood. So get a machine a little heavier than you think you need.

 

[rossow (mn)]

You could also make large brush piles and in a few years have compost to put in the garden and avoid the chipping and cost of the chipper. Around here the power company tree crews will bring you chips free, they are always looking for a place to dump them.

I do have multiple brush piles, but I like fresh chips to slow down weeds in the spring and summer gardens. The head tree-trimming guy this summer said he'd have his crews dump a couple of chip loads for me when they were trimming in the neighborhood, but nothing ever showed up, and I got overly involved in a couple of building projects so never got around to bugging him again. I'll contact him again before spring work gets in the way.

It is amazing how quickly brush piles turn into compost; I need to remember that for future use.

 

[Dieseltech]

I have a Woodland Mills TF 810 Pro PTO wood chipper that makes short work of any brush around here. It's higher priced but I don't regret getting it after seeing it work.

 

[charlie n]

Woodland Mills.Power feed 6 inch.

 

[Eman85]

Anything you buy under thousands will be a big disappointment and you'll be selling and losing money on.

 

[Stan Coryell]

I have a PTO driven Woods without power feed. It chips fine if you can get it to feed. All the branches have to be a nice V shape. Its also slow.

My money is better spent renting a regular tow behind. Much faster.

 

[Duner Wi]

I have a 5 HP one. Unless you are chipping pencil size it is very slow all around. I like a feed that you don't have to poke a piece at a time in.

 

[Jack345]

My wood lot provides a lot of branches that could offer good chips for garden mulch. Any recommendations on gas chippers to buy or avoid? I save anything over 2 inches for firewood, so a 3-inch chipper should be more than adequate. I would park a chipper to create a big pile of chips; would never haul it around in the woods or need to haul off my property. I see prices from around $400 up to $1,000, which would be my spending range. Thoughts?

(FWIW, my local utility company has provided me with chips when it is trimming power-line trees, but the supply isn't too dependable.)

Lot people give up on chippers as they have no idea how much work it takes to feed a chipper, if you need a chipper get a pto to match tractor with power feed. If you watch you may find one in your price range used but it will need work knifes, drive parts etc. Rent one for the weekend to see if you like.

 

[chvet73]

I have a 5 HP one. Unless you are chipping pencil size it is very slow all around. I like a feed that you don't have to poke a piece at a time in.

I had one like that too. I don’t think any of the cheap ones are worth trouble.

 

[Jack345]

 

[Brian G. NY]

My wood lot provides a lot of branches that could offer good chips for garden mulch. Any recommendations on gas chippers to buy or avoid? I save anything over 2 inches for firewood, so a 3-inch chipper should be more than adequate. I would park a chipper to create a big pile of chips; would never haul it around in the woods or need to haul off my property. I see prices from around $400 up to $1,000, which would be my spending range. Thoughts?

(FWIW, my local utility company has provided me with chips when it is trimming power-line trees, but the supply isn't too dependable.)

Funny, every time I hear the word woodchipper, two things come to mind: The movie "Fargo" and the woodchipper murder in Connecticut a few decades ago.
BTW, I thought "Fargo" was a great movie.

 

[Bob Bancroft]

My wood lot provides a lot of branches that could offer good chips for garden mulch. Any recommendations on gas chippers to buy or avoid? I save anything over 2 inches for firewood, so a 3-inch chipper should be more than adequate. I would park a chipper to create a big pile of chips; would never haul it around in the woods or need to haul off my property. I see prices from around $400 up to $1,000, which would be my spending range. Thoughts?

(FWIW, my local utility company has provided me with chips when it is trimming power-line trees, but the supply isn't too dependable.)

When I got a PTO one I cheaped out and got mechanical feed. I figured it would probably be too fast. It was. I did a lot of screwing around with metric pulleys, belts, etc slowing down the gearbox. The major drawback is the upper roll is powered, the lower one is not. It plugs up and stops. If only one was to be driven, it should be the lower one. If I had to do it again, I'd get hydraulic feed drive, and would certainly check which or how many feed rolls are driven. It does produce a nice product.

 

[Bob Bancroft]

Funny, every time I hear the word woodchipper, two things come to mind: The movie "Fargo" and the woodchipper murder in Connecticut a few decades ago.
BTW, I thought "Fargo" was a great movie.

Couple of girls were run through a brush chipper in Dryden in 1996.

 

[Dieseltech]

When I got a PTO one I cheaped out and got mechanical feed. I figured it would probably be too fast. It was. I did a lot of screwing around with metric pulleys, belts, etc slowing down the gearbox. The major drawback is the upper roll is powered, the lower one is not. It plugs up and stops. If only one was to be driven, it should be the lower one. If I had to do it again, I'd get hydraulic feed drive, and would certainly check which or how many feed rolls are driven. It does produce a nice product.

The TF 810 with the hydraulic feed was the main reason I chose that model. The single aggressive feed roller does a good job of moving the limbs into the cutter head, and it goes up/down as needed. Once it grabs a limb you can walk away and get another. It's on a 65 PTO HP tractor now, and the feed speed is almost maxed out and tractor pulls it just fine.

 

[greenmech]

I agree with a pto unit. I have a Woodland Mills on my 38 Hp tractor with hydraulic feed. Ron MN

 

[MKinON]

We got a 5" Wallenstein chipper because we burn most good stuff from 3" up. The in-feed chute is like a funnel from about 30"x30" down to 5" square. That is a real problem getting gnarly twisted limbs to feed, even if they're only 2" diameter and even though it's powered. So get way bigger than 3" unless you're only chipping real straight branches or get ready to do a lot of cutting into small pieces and spending a lot of time chipping. The other thing is the fan speed is too slow if you feed a lot too quick, clogging up easily. I intend to demo a Woodland Mills TF 810. I like it's 8" throat, straight-in feed, self-contained hydraulics and twin flywheel with high speed fan. Even it sometimes had feed challenges as per the reviews. Feeding a woodchipper gets old very quickly, especially if you are old. I'm in my 60's and in good physical condition. I think everyone assumes that power feed is the thing that makes them work like the big chippers the tree guys use. It's not. Those big dollar, high horse chippers have huge throats, powerful, crushing in-feed rollers and massive fans to blow the chips. You can never go too big with a chipper, unless you're just trimming your garden shrubs!

 

[MKinON]

Also, unless it's hardwood, wood chips as garden mulch rob nitrogen from the plants, because they burn up as they break down. We only ever used hardwood chips, but mostly well composted pine-bark mulch from the forestry operations up in Northern Ontario.

 

[Steve in VA]

The TF 810 with the hydraulic feed was the main reason I chose that model. The single aggressive feed roller does a good job of moving the limbs into the cutter head, and it goes up/down as needed. Once it grabs a limb you can walk away and get another. It's on a 65 PTO HP tractor now, and the feed speed is almost maxed out and tractor pulls it just fine.

I too went for hyd feed on my Valby. It's out of his given price range though.