Chipper/shredders opinions...

[AL A]

So I am considering getting a smallish chipper/shredder type thing. I live on a small lot but accumulate a seemingly ridiculous amount of fall leaves and similar debris. I had a pit in the back corner of my yard that we have been dumping the stuff in for 35 years, it's pretty much full now.

I mostly need to shred fall leaves, twigs and very small (1-2" tops) branches. Bigger branches become stove wood. The goal is to just reduce the volume of the stuff for my small compost bin and to just get rid of the stuff. I can haul it to the town dump, but that's no fun.

I can rent stuff like that but just prefer to own one so I can use it when I want it.

So looking at these machines, there seem to be pretty mixed reviews even among the "big name" brands. General internet reviews tend to be pretty skewed and somewhat unreliable for stuff like this, so I'm asking here. I have used large chippers a few times, but that's not what I am after here.

Any first hand opinions on what's good and what is not so good? brands, styles, types, alternatives? Hoping some of you guys might have some real world experience.

Appreciate any insight.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

it takes me less than a year to compost leaves,which go into the veggie garden, next spring. Any small branches get burned, ashes go into veggie garden.
I 'turn /restack' the compost piles( yeah 3 or 4) once every month or two. If you don't turn the pile, it'll take decades to rot down.

I gave up on a 'chipper/shreader'. Had 2 smaller ones, manual feed..PITFA. it's one machine that 'go big or go home' applies.
When I tore out 100'+ of 30 year old cedars I hauled them to neighbour for 'wildlife fencing'.

 

[Magicman]

Woodland Mills gets some good reviews.

 

[twomany]

I've been very pleased with the MacKissic TPH185.

I use it with both an 18HP and a 35HP tractor. 35 is a bit much, so the "economy 1000 rpm pto speed is used with reduced engine rpm.

Damp soil though the shredder is a problem with sticking to the discharge screen. Having a supply of woody material available to clean out the grill goes along with running "compost". through.

Chipping up to 4 inch material goes quickly. One large branch at a time. side branches must be trimmed to fit the input port chute.

I've replaced one drive belt and flipped the shredder hammer. flails twice. They need flipping one last time to present a square sharp working edge. stones dull the flails.

I've sharpened the pair of chipper knives several times. The "smoke wrench" is a necessity to get the fixing screws out. I bought a box of 100 replacement internal wrenching c'sink screws for service replacements after sharpening.

The unit is not too large or heavy. Does what I require, The outfit is still in business should parts be required. None so far, I'm on year 7 or 8. CRS.

I know nothing of the smaller TPH123 , I only have used the 185.

http://www.mackissic.com/Three Point Hitch.html

 

[SidecarFlip]

I roast it all.

 

[Michael In Tennessee]

I picked up a old Troy-bilt Super Tomahawk. In the small stand-alone chipper market, the new crop of shredders can't hold a candle to the old Troy-bilt units.

These units have a brush hopper with 12 or 16 flails to beat the crap out of the small stuff and a chipper wheel on the side for the bigger stuff. Up to 3" or so. The chipper exhausts into the flail chamber to make sure of consistent size chips. There is an exit screen of the flail chamber to control chip size. If a chip is too large, it just stays in the flail chamber until beat to a correct size. There are several screens. I have the standard 3/4" and a larger hole size. If you buy one, make sure the screen is included. Many folks remove the screen to shred wet material and they get lost. Screens are rare on the used market and go for about $200. There is a very small hole screen you can get too, but its intended to crack grain for farm animals.

 

[NWAZL3560]

We have a DR Pro400 electric start chipper/shredder that we like. It's a manual feed so chipping is slower and vibrates the hands. Shredding is super fast and easy. For it's size, it's a beast. We got the tow hitch kit.

 

[AL A]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone.

GreensvilleJay, I appreciate the sentiment, I am a go big kind of person myself, but sometimes practicality just makes the decision for me. But I get exactly what you are saying.

That Mackissic unit looks interesting though I would need to go with the smaller one as my tractor is small and I don't need a huge unit anyhow. Might have to save up for a bit longer to buy one should we go that route, but it looks like a solid tool.

I see the older "tomahawk" units come up for sale around here occasionally, I may go take a look at a few.

I appreciate you guys taking the time to reply.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

Another option would be to make friends with a local treeguy ( arborist). I've got 2 that'll drop off mulch and logs if I'm close to their jobsite. He may take your 'twigs', if there's easy access and reasonable volume and 'in the neighbourhood'. That way HE gets RID of them for you....

 

[old and tired]

...a pit in the back corner of my yard... ...it's pretty much full now... ... I can haul it to the town dump...

First thought would be to clean out that corner of the yard. Part of composting is using the material somewhere in the garden or flower beds. Or give it away. I would love to get 35 yo compost!!!

Worst case, make one trip to the dump after cleaning up that corner, then you have another 35 years to fill it back up!!!

This is mine, I like it but very noisy and stuff flies everywhere.

 

[AL A]

First thought would be to clean out that corner of the yard. Part of composting is using the material somewhere in the garden or flower beds. Or give it away. I would love to get 35 yo compost!!!

Worst case, make one trip to the dump after cleaning up that corner, then you have another 35 years to fill it back up!!!

This is mine, I like it but very noisy and stuff flies everywhere.

Yee indeed, that corner of the yard is getting dug out to use some of that material for sure. I have a few stumps to get out of the way (they were just tiny saplings when I started! should have paid more attention...) but then filling it back up again won't work as that is going to become the space for a small shed to park my tractor in.

I'm asking around to see who I might know that has one of these machines or rent one, just to see how it goes. They seem to be a "love 'em or hate 'em" sort of thing. I should probably try one out for a while and see where I fall in that spectrum.

That looks like a pretty serious machine you have there. is that a hammer-and-flail type thing? How much PTO HP does that require to run?

 

[Tornado]

I roast it all.

Same. I rake em up into piles and burn them. Sometimes I'll dump them on top of stumps I want to burn out and burn them. It works good to get rid of stumps. Areas where I dont want to kill my grass with fires I just mow them into powder with the lawn mower.

The thought of owning a wood chipper has always been appealing but I never can pull the trigger, as I live in a rural area where I can just so easily burn limbs and such. Chipping limbs would only add more work for me.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Same. I rake em up into piles and burn them. Sometimes I'll dump them on top of stumps I want to burn out and burn them. It works good to get rid of stumps. Areas where I dont want to kill my grass with fires I just mow them into powder with the lawn mower.

The thought of owning a wood chipper has always been appealing but I never can pull the trigger, as I live in a rural area where I can just so easily burn limbs and such. Chipping limbs would only add more work for me.

I had a pto chipper for a couple years and sold it once I realized how hard they are on your hands and arms, feeding in the stuff. The limbs need guided into the infeed rollers and they vibrate terrible and it's very hard on your hands and arms. Much easier to just roast them and the ashes make for good garden compost anyway.

Good thing was, I sold it on CL in a day for as much as I paid for it. Didn't loose a dime but I certainly saved my arms and hands from the torture.

I'm in process of building yet another bonfire pile of limbs. Gonna be a good blaze.

 

[Tornado]

On the subject of PTo driven wood chipper...Ive often wonder if some of these attachments could damage the pto of a compact tractor. Maybe not a small wood chipper but a larger one, or these neat stump grinders ive seen ppl use on youtube videos that mount to a rear pto. I see that stump grinder just slamming into stumps and have always wondered to myself "I wonder how bad that is on a tractor rear pto..." Just a lot of impact force over and over. It may not be a big deal Ive just always wondered that, with some of these attachments.

 

[jkcolo22]

On the subject of PTo driven wood chipper...Ive often wonder if some of these attachments could damage the pto of a compact tractor. Maybe not a small wood chipper but a larger one, or these neat stump grinders ive seen ppl use on youtube videos that mount to a rear pto. I see that stump grinder just slamming into stumps and have always wondered to myself "I wonder how bad that is on a tractor rear pto..." Just a lot of impact force over and over. It may not be a big deal Ive just always wondered that, with some of these attachments.

That’s why implements are sized to HP... Too big an implement on too small a tractor... you can definitely break something.


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[SidecarFlip]

However... You can go the other way.......

I ran my last PTO driven chipper (was rated for 24 pto horsepower), on the back end of one of my M9's which make around 80 pto horsepower.

In the interest of not tearing it up, I added a Weasler multi plate slip clutch and set the clutch fairly light so I didn't grenade the chipper.

Better to slip the clutch than screw the pooch.

 

[old and tired]

....That looks like a pretty serious machine you have there. is that a hammer-and-flail type thing? How much PTO HP does that require to run?

I just looked, 18 to 25 HP it's not much. It is pretty serious machine!!! It does take work to "feed" the beast... I'm about 50/50 with chipping vs. picking it up and drop the brush into one of my compost piles.

 

[Russell King]

In my area there is a company that has a industry of shredding wood into mulch. The have a lot where people can dump off their brush for minimal fee ($5 per truck load).

Many of the cities also do similar operation for their citizens. I happen to live very far away from the site in the city so don’t utilize it but pay to drop off.

I did rent chippers a couple of times but it turned out to be cheaper (and less work) to just load the limbs up, drop off and if wanted pay for a load of finished mulch, than to rent the chipper.


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[old and tired]

...is that a hammer-and-flail type thing?

It's knives that can rotate around a shaft. Several shafts and a rotating drum. At the bottom, I have 1.25" hole screen - you can get smaller screens to chop up to finer pieces...

 

[twomany]

It's knives that can rotate around a shaft. Several shafts and a rotating drum. At the bottom, I have 1.25" hole screen - you can get smaller screens to chop up to finer pieces...

That pictured machine has knives fixed to a disc on the end of the central shaft for chipping.

It has swinging hammers, flails, or you can call them knives on the drum pins shown in the image.

They are just flat steel about 1 1/2 inch wide, 6 inches long and 1/4 inch thick.
Two holes drilled to fit the drum pins and allow "flipping" to present a square edge.

They do not "cut" like a sharp edge knife, rather, they beat the material into small pieces.
SHREDDING large and fibrous material. crumbling friable stuff, and throwing rocks to kingdom come! ;-)

Regarding tractor size and input power. The MacKissic unit has a poly v input belt drive in a "speeder" configuration. Excess input power will slip the belt, a Jamb will either throw the belt off the pulley, or smoke you out. ;-) Self limiting.