Chipper/shredders opinions...

[AL A]

Again, some interesting discussion and good info here. Thanks guys.

I am unfortunately in a place where burning it is not much of an option, property is not that large, too close to other houses and the local authorities get all upset about it. Wish that weren't so, but here I am.

O&T, thanks for the pictures and info. That helps. My tractor is a subcompact (BX1880) and I don't have that much PTO HP. A unit like that may not be ideal.

Have to see what turns up. I'm asking around to see if I know anyone that has one I could test drive and see how much I hate it or not. May see if I can rent one around here. I'm not doing much branch chipping, mostly small stuff.

Thanks again for taking the time to chime in.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

I've been rethinking about this 'brush' problem....
to me a chipper/shreader is like a log splitter. A great tool to have, but only used a few times a year. Maybe see about renting one. Get prepped first by having a HUGE pile of material, then get 2-3 buddies to help 'feed the machine'. That way the mess is done in a day,you'll need the next two days off though cause your body WILL be sore .

just another option to think about

 

[old and tired]

...They do not "cut" like a sharp edge knife...

The chipping is done with sharp knifes from the side of the chipper shredder. Since the OP said earlier that he doesn't need to chip anything over 2"... I left that part of the description out.

To the OP, I would say this is overkill for you but with regards to the HP needs, It doesn't take much. This unit is pretty much the same setup as ones that run on 6 hp motors.

Have you thought about Electric Leaf Shredder?

 

[Lencho]

Hi Al, it is easier to just burn everything but we need all the organic matter we can get here in the Southwest.
I have used the small MTD/craftsman type chipper shredder for years and they are ok for small stuff but your back feels it because they are low to the ground.
I now have a McKissic merrymac tph 122 and it is one of my favorite attachments. It eats up any limbs below firewood size and the shredder handles the small stuff as well as leaves and weeds. There are several size output screens available but I only have two, the 1” hole and the cross bar.
I use the 1” for limbs and dry material and the bar screen for wet material.
I think this would be a good size for your tractor.

 

[AL A]

Hi Al, it is easier to just burn everything but we need all the organic matter we can get here in the Southwest.
I have used the small MTD/craftsman type chipper shredder for years and they are ok for small stuff but your back feels it because they are low to the ground.
I now have a McKissic merrymac tph 122 and it is one of my favorite attachments. It eats up any limbs below firewood size and the shredder handles the small stuff as well as leaves and weeds. There are several size output screens available but I only have two, the 1” hole and the cross bar.
I use the 1” for limbs and dry material and the bar screen for wet material.
I think this would be a good size for your tractor.

On one hand I wish I could burn the stuff, but not enough space for that here and it is frowned upon by the local authorities unfortunately. The PTO powered things are clearly overkill.

I really also want to compost the stuff as my garden could use it.

O&T, I never though of those electric ones. Wonder of they are any good. Something else to research.

GreensvilleJay, I am pretty sure that I can rent one in most any reasonable size around here. I may go that route just to see if it's even worth the trouble.

Thanks again everyone for taking the time to reply.

 

[CaveCreekRay]

I was going to sell my Tomahawk II because I couldn't move it easily around my property. After jamming tons of cut limbs into my dumpster, I figured out how to make a hitch for the chipper and now it's very easy to move around the ranch. I sharpened the chipper blade and it turns nasty thorny limbs into soft wet biomass. No way will I sell this thing now. I turned a pile of tree limbs the size of a car into chips and goo in about 30 minutes.

Here is the chipper blade with the feed chute removed.

This cuts 90% of your material. It gobbles solid limbs up to the chute size limit. I jamb small limbs in here too with all the micro branches still attached. The blade cuts them all nicely and makes quick work of them. The chipper chute is the safer chute because the chipper blade does not yank the material (and your hand) into the blade. It takes effort to jamb stuff in there.

My 12 year-old daughter was scared to heck of this machine until she used the chipper chute to grind up the Christmas tree trunk. It's like feeding a giant pencil sharpener. It vibrates, sometimes loudly, but it stops the minute you stop pushing material. She enjoyed making fresh chips out of the pine trunk. The shredder chute is the scary part...

Here are the shredder "hammers..."

This unit is an 8hp model with a 60 lb inertia wheel. It will rip whatever you stick in the shredder chute out of your hands and shred it instantly. It only takes a time or two having the hammers snatch what your hands are holding towards the chute to get your attention. My machine comes with a plastic packing tool that will not go down the chute. That is the ONLY way to use a shredder. Be extremely careful. That said, if you jamb a large limb into this chute, you will likely stall the machine. It only has so much energy to offer and lots of surface area to dissipate that energy. The chipper chute is focused on the small blade so I jamb as much as possible in there first. Leftovers go in the shredder chute.

The actor Tim Allen bought a Tomahawk II years ago. He said in an interview that it had nearly 30 of the scariest warning stickers all over it, including one depicting sheared fingers. He said it was THE scariest machine he had ever used. I had to laugh because I knew he was right. Respect the machine and you'll get loads of work done you could not do otherwise.

 

[B737]

This is something ive been thinking about too. Even a few uses a year I feel like will be worth it. Here, its $1500-$2500 a day for a tree service to show up. So it wouldn't take long to pay for itself.

WoodMaxx TM-86H is made for sub compact tractors and might be the only one in its class with its own built in hydraulic feed.

https://www.woodmaxx.com/TM_86H_PTO_Wood_Chipper_p/tm-86h.htm

an aside, im fortunate enough our township will remove brush piles placed at the curb 4x a year and ive def pushed their limits. The TM-86H is on my wish list of implements. They don't allow us to burn here.

 

[CaveCreekRay]

If I had had a tractor 30 years ago, I would have bought a PTO unit. B737 makes a great point. You can pay for the implement in short order.

 

[twomany]

Will a chipper such as the Woodmax shown in the post above, shred hardwood LEAVES?

That is the most often used function I have for the MacKissic TPH184.

But there are times I could use a more capable chipper.

 

[i7win7]

Will a chipper such as the Woodmax shown in the post above, shred hardwood LEAVES?

That is the most often used function I have for the MacKissic TPH184.

But there are times I could use a more capable chipper.

I think you are looking for a lawn vacuum. Get one with 6" diameter hose, easier to suck them up than hand feed stationary tool. Around $1200 for tow behind machine. 3pt machines exist higher $, they are not wood chippers.

 

[PoTreeBoy]

I have access to my neighbor's Craftsman chipper/shredder. It's an oldie with 8 HP B&S manual start. The rotor is so heavy I usually pull the rope 2 or 3 times to get it up to starting speed! It works fine for leaves and branches up to about 1". I rake it all into the shredder hopper - it's less trouble since you don't have to trim all the side shoots off to get branches in the chipper. Works fine except for vines. They plug the screen. The chipper will take up to about 3" but it's slow, noisy, and vibrates your hand like crazy. The whole operation is dusty.
After a few uses, I decided that getting it out and in place, raking the leaves etc. to it, dealing with the dust, and wheelbarrowing the compost to the pile was too much work. I started leaving the shrub prunings where they fall. Then I run over it a couple of times with my MTD clone Husky to mulch it and use the bagger to pick it up. Anything too big to mulch I throw in the bag and drive off to the compost pile.
So, yes, the chipper/shredder gets the job done but the logistics of getting everything to it can be a PITA. Oh yeah, forget about the little electric jobs. They're little more than glorified string trimmers.

 

[WFM]

I was using my China chipper earlier this morning for about 1 1/2 hours. Works great. Ive had it for four years I think.
Its Heavy , well made and I don't have rear hydraulics so it being self contained is great. I even saw the same model I have on a JD in another town close by. Yes it was Kubota orange. Looked good on the JD.

 

[AL A]

Soooo, just to circle back on this:

After a bunch more thinking on all this, I came across someone a few towns over selling a five year old MacKissic LCS1100 like this one:

MacKissic Inc.

I tend to over think stuff like this so sometimes I have to just pull the trigger on something and see how it goes. I figured that if I did not find it all that great, I'd just sell it again.

It was about five years old and he had used it for about the same things I had in mind, mostly just to shred leaves and such. It looked in great shape and ran well, so I bought it for what I felt was a fair price.

Finally got some time to try it out today and I have to say I'm pretty impressed. It took me a bit to figure out how best to feed it and I probably have more to learn. I shredded up a fair sized pile of 1-2" branches and a bunch of last fall's leaves. Reduced a fair size pile of stuff to not much more than a trash can of finely shredded chips.

It clearly is not a giant tree eating machine but like any tool, if you use it within the limits of its design it does the job pretty well. Good hearing protection is a must (I use bluetooth OSHA rated earplugs) and I clearly need some better gloves. Everything here has been really dry and my yard is half dug up so it was pretty dusty running it. But my initial impression is good so far.

Thanks for all the input and discussion. Always interesting to hear everyone's take on stuff like this.

 

[PaulR]

This is something ive been thinking about too. Even a few uses a year I feel like will be worth it. Here, its $1500-$2500 a day for a tree service to show up. So it wouldn't take long to pay for itself.

WoodMaxx TM-86H is made for sub compact tractors and might be the only one in its class with its own built in hydraulic feed.

https://www.woodmaxx.com/TM_86H_PTO_Wood_Chipper_p/tm-86h.htm

an aside, im fortunate enough our township will remove brush piles placed at the curb 4x a year and ive def pushed their limits. The TM-86H is on my wish list of implements. They don't allow us to burn here.

BTT.
Looking at getting a Chipper for my BX23S next month.
I don't see any reason to NOT get this one.
May see what my dealer has for fun, Landpride I assume.
I wonder since Woodmaxx specializes that this unit would be better than the comparable Landpride unit?

 

[PaulR]

That'd be fun, but as the movie quote goes: "That's illegal in Massachusetts"

(joking, we do have a burn season out here in Western part of the state)

 

[B737]

I have the same problem too Paul, no burning here either, its bs. Looking forward to seeing which chipper you pick.

 

[mikester]

Machine weight is your friend. I'd suggest renting various machines to figure out what works best for you. I have a no name chinesium 8 inch chipper with mechanical infeed roller that was converted to hydraulic infeed. Done lots of mods. Unit seems to have breakdowns every 15 minutes.

If I was to get another chipper I'd get a self powered diesel vermeer 12 inch unit with hydraulic infeed. I want to use less chainsaw and have a reliable chipper do all the work.

 

[Old_Paint]

If your primary use is going to be leaves, I'd recommend a bagger on your riding mower, along with a chopping block and a light axe for the small amounts of brush to cut it up small enough for the compost pile. If you still want a small chipper, as others have pointed out, they're quite violent and will work your butt off. I spent every bit of available free time for 6 months feeding a 3" Murray to clean up after a tornado. Folks knock 'cheap' Murray products, but I chipped a couple tons of brush and made a LOT of mulch with one. The infeed chute for brush is plastic, so it eventually cracked near the metal spout where it attaches to the knife side. It also has a fold-down chute for the shredder side. What I found on the shredder is that it actually increased how much work I was doing. I have a lot of water oak and elm leaves, which are pretty small anyway. Raking those, putting them in the shredder which bagged them, then dumping them into a means of hauling them to a pile, hauling them to the pile, etc, etc. I could just load the leaves straight on the trailer and haul them. After I got a bagger on my rider, I pick up the leaves with that, dump 'em in the trailer, and dump 'em in the ditch. A chipper/shredder will work you harder, but is an advantage to get sticks and small brush reduced to compost faster. You still don't want to use the chips for bedding in flower beds, particularly close to your house, because that stuff is a buffet for termites.

If you want one with shredding capabilities, it's going to be high speed. You'll need to be very careful sharpening the knives or flails and weigh them very accurately to keep the machine balanced. Otherwise it will vibrate and shake itself to pieces, no matter how good the machine is. Chippers/shredders are violent machines. They're hard work, especially if they don't have powered infeed rolls. Smaller ones are a pain to use because you have to make sure everything is cut straight enough and small enough to shove into an unpowered infeed. The shock that comes back through a broom-handle sized piece of brush is HARD on your hands, and likely to do some nerve damage if you don't wear high quality protective equipment. The knives MUST be kept super sharp on the smaller machines,

 

[B737]

If I was to get another chipper I'd get a self powered diesel vermeer 12 inch unit with hydraulic infeed. I want to use less chainsaw and have a reliable chipper do all the work.

a $40,000 unit may not be ideal for many here.

 

[PaulR]

I was gonna say, Vermeer? That's what the really real tree guys use.
Not sure I need something with a daily duty rating.