Last fall, I went through hours and hours and hours of research and conversations with folks here before buying my first tractor and set of attachments. I am going to post a few reviews so that others can benefit from what I have learned. One of the biggest purchases that I made, and the one that probably took me the most time and energy, was a chipper.
I have an infinite supply of redwood slash on my 170 acre property, some of which is in annoying places and needs to be chipped. I also have lots of branches of various species of oak and madrone (I am in the firewood business, among others), and lots and lots of tan oak brush that needs to be chipped as it is cleared.
My first question was, do I buy a PTO driven chipper, or a stand-alone unit. The thing that drove me here was price. I was able to buy my chipper for a little over $5k, and I could not find a good stand-alone unit with similar specs for anywhere near that price. A decent towed Vermeer chipper or similar in the 8" category was well over $10k used.
I settled on the Woodmaxx brand largely because they are made in the USA. I feel pretty strongly about supporting American businesses when I can. I also spoke to them on the phone, and they came across as knowledgeable and reasonably customer centric. I settled on the MX9900 simply because it was the biggest chipper that they offered, and I felt that my MX6000 could drive it comfortably. I also wanted the hydraulic feed just because I am lazy lol. I probably have 50+ hours on the chipper at this point.
The unit arrived in good shape, and the initial setup was easy. It is important to remember that the legs can be extended - it is much easier to mount if they are raised up a bit, at least on my tractor. The hydraulic oil did foam quite a bit at first, as mentioned in the manual, but that went away quickly.
I did have a number of early teething pains, all of which can be put down to what might be charitably categorized as a drive for efficiency on the part of the manufacturer. These things vibrate when they run. A lot. Any nut or bolt that is not torqued or better yet Locktite'd will vibrate loose, and a bunch of mine did. The rod under the feed chute that drives the speed control came apart (nut vibrated loose), which left us unable to control the speed of the wheel. The main drive belt cover bolts backed themselves out and the cover fell open. In my view, all of these bolts should have lock nuts or Locktite on them, and they do not as the unit comes from Woodmaxx.
But once those issues were dealt with, the unit has been outstanding. It does what the specs say that it will do, at least with softwoods like redwood. 8-9" limbs are no problem. With oak, esp. dry hard oak or madrone, we do have to be more careful or the unit will jam. 4-5" is probably the max for a really stout oak limb that is dry and hard. But overall, I am extremely pleased. Having a chipper on site has proven to be a huge win over renting one. Having the largest chipper that my tractor could drive similarly. I really like the hydraulic feed with speed control, it makes chipping an easy two man job assuming that you have some way to weight down the tractor driver's seat or otherwise defeat the safety switch. Given that we have complete control of the speed of the wheel, including a neutral setting, from the chipper control station, I feel comfortable with that. It is possible to chip with just one person, but one to haul and the other to feed makes for quick work.
Overall, I am very pleased. The chipper has been reliable and performs as expected. It was expensive, but compared to a towed unit, it was very reasonably priced. I had to call Woodmaxx a couple of times during that early phase, and they were responsive and knowledgeable as expected. I feel that this chipper is good value for money, and I would make the same decision again.
Hope this is useful. Lots of folks here helped me before I made my various purchases, and I would like to pay that back a bit...
I have an infinite supply of redwood slash on my 170 acre property, some of which is in annoying places and needs to be chipped. I also have lots of branches of various species of oak and madrone (I am in the firewood business, among others), and lots and lots of tan oak brush that needs to be chipped as it is cleared.
My first question was, do I buy a PTO driven chipper, or a stand-alone unit. The thing that drove me here was price. I was able to buy my chipper for a little over $5k, and I could not find a good stand-alone unit with similar specs for anywhere near that price. A decent towed Vermeer chipper or similar in the 8" category was well over $10k used.
I settled on the Woodmaxx brand largely because they are made in the USA. I feel pretty strongly about supporting American businesses when I can. I also spoke to them on the phone, and they came across as knowledgeable and reasonably customer centric. I settled on the MX9900 simply because it was the biggest chipper that they offered, and I felt that my MX6000 could drive it comfortably. I also wanted the hydraulic feed just because I am lazy lol. I probably have 50+ hours on the chipper at this point.
The unit arrived in good shape, and the initial setup was easy. It is important to remember that the legs can be extended - it is much easier to mount if they are raised up a bit, at least on my tractor. The hydraulic oil did foam quite a bit at first, as mentioned in the manual, but that went away quickly.
I did have a number of early teething pains, all of which can be put down to what might be charitably categorized as a drive for efficiency on the part of the manufacturer. These things vibrate when they run. A lot. Any nut or bolt that is not torqued or better yet Locktite'd will vibrate loose, and a bunch of mine did. The rod under the feed chute that drives the speed control came apart (nut vibrated loose), which left us unable to control the speed of the wheel. The main drive belt cover bolts backed themselves out and the cover fell open. In my view, all of these bolts should have lock nuts or Locktite on them, and they do not as the unit comes from Woodmaxx.
But once those issues were dealt with, the unit has been outstanding. It does what the specs say that it will do, at least with softwoods like redwood. 8-9" limbs are no problem. With oak, esp. dry hard oak or madrone, we do have to be more careful or the unit will jam. 4-5" is probably the max for a really stout oak limb that is dry and hard. But overall, I am extremely pleased. Having a chipper on site has proven to be a huge win over renting one. Having the largest chipper that my tractor could drive similarly. I really like the hydraulic feed with speed control, it makes chipping an easy two man job assuming that you have some way to weight down the tractor driver's seat or otherwise defeat the safety switch. Given that we have complete control of the speed of the wheel, including a neutral setting, from the chipper control station, I feel comfortable with that. It is possible to chip with just one person, but one to haul and the other to feed makes for quick work.
Overall, I am very pleased. The chipper has been reliable and performs as expected. It was expensive, but compared to a towed unit, it was very reasonably priced. I had to call Woodmaxx a couple of times during that early phase, and they were responsive and knowledgeable as expected. I feel that this chipper is good value for money, and I would make the same decision again.
Hope this is useful. Lots of folks here helped me before I made my various purchases, and I would like to pay that back a bit...
