PTO Chipper recommendations

[frysl]

I’ve recently some logging done on my 30 acre lot. I’d like to buy a PTO driven chipper for clean up. Recommendations?
It‘ll be strapped to an L3301.
thanks

 

[rc51stierhoff]

I have a woodland mills wc-68 which I use paired with my B…suits my needs. (I have no experience with another PTO brand to make a comparison). Makes great ballast too, but it hangs back a bit. As far as I am concerned it’s like an angry beaver and will take up to 6”. I don’t have any complaints with mine and I would buy it again. I Think if you go to a Paul Bunyan or logging show you might be able to compare some side by side and try. It be nice to try or demo before purchase, but I don’t have a brick and mortar place near me. I got mine as a drop shipment that was inside a metal crate…it was packaged well but one of the corners was damaged (not the sellers fault unless they loaded truck like that, but the machine itself was just fine…very well protected and packaged very nice and instructions easy to follow. I hope this helps.

 

[old and tired]

Pile and burn... too much work for a chipper. You'll be better off spending money on a grapple to help you pile and burn it.

 

[Elliott in GA]

You really need to describe what you want to chip - size and how much.
I have a WoodMaxx MX series chipper, and it did a great job of turning a good size pile of 2-4 inch 10-15 feet long privet into chips, today.
However, 30 acres of woods to clean up probably is too big a job for any chipper your tractor could power. You might need to rent a chipper that eats logs or as suggested burn it.

 

[jkrubi12]

Here's my B2601 with my Woodland Mills WC68 attached; got in four hours of chipping today. Chipper is in 'travel' mode, with feed chute folded up. Had to take my BH70 off (first time since acquiring it 3 months ago), that process was much easier than I anticipated. My BH dolly works great, but rolling it around the garage really reminds one how heavy that BH is.

My WC68 had a slight hiccup today (it's first in about 20 hours of use); I had chipped up two loads of newly-cut birch & ash and the 'green' wood caused a clog in the discharge chute. It was really packed in there, took ten minutes to clear it out; easily done by opening the flywheel cover (one bolt) and rotating the flywheel backwards, along with using a screwdriver to dig out the clog. I sprayed a serious coating of silicone lube in the chute, then ran some dead pine branches through it, seemed to solve the problem. I will add that I had the discharge chute pointed to the 'left' (driver's side) which is not in sync with the spinning of the chipper's flywheel (clockwise when viewing the chipper from the rear).

I later fed a whole bunch of freshly cut long-needled pine without any issue; the chipper ate 6" logs and produced very nice chips which I used for my blueberry bushes.

 

[mdhughes]

I have a WoodMaxx WM-8M that I used with my L3901DT. We took out 18 trees to put in a garage and used it to chip up the tops, most of the wood went for firewood. I chip most of the tops from the tree I fell for firewood, not real big on burning in the woods. I also chip limbs with I trim the driveway and private road.

If you are just chipping up the stuff that is too small to burn for firewood, I think you would be alright chipping the tops up.

If the wood is still really green, watch the piles of chips, then can get pretty hot.

 

[GreensvilleJay]

The tree guys around me chip everything smaller than 7-8" round. Neat to hear their machines 'grunt', once or twice....all day long it does get on one's nerves.

Agree more info is needed. The size and quantity of material is really important. Also a 'one day' event or several smaller ones ? In 30 acres ,you could have 10 or 1000 trees to deal with....
if there is a LOT of them, consider 'chipping stations' as you could end up with a LOT of mulch !

 

[Utopia Texas]

We’ve had 225 pecan trees on our place that are 53 years old now so we have a lot of limbs down especially after storms. 25 years ago we bought a used chipper with 45 hp from our light company. It was massive and worked well. We finally decided that a pint of diesel and a match was a lot easier than 8 hot hours work with ear muffs on. It also used 2 gallons of gasoline a hour so we were using 100’s of gallons a year. Sold the unit and never looked back. Even with huge chippers loading one limb at a time is a huge time consuming job.

 

[NorthwoodsLife]

If you are set on a PTO chipper, then go for it. I can't recommend the size or brand because I have no experience with a PTO tractor mounted chipper.

But: I'll mildly suggest you buy a chipper with its own power and trailer wheels. Leave it off of the tractor, no PTO to tie your tractor down. Hook it to a hitch on your ATV, side by side or pickup truck. They're usually cheaper to purchase and it leaves your tractor available to do something else. Like push limbs over to the chipper.

 

[Tropical Jack]

You will get lots of opinions about burn vs chip. I personally do not want to burn for a variety of reasons. I also have an L3301. I purchased a Woodmaxx WM8H. It works fine, but does have some drawbacks. It only uses 2 knives whereas I think that 4 knives is a better design. It is difficult to adjust the clearance between the knives and the knife “bed”; requires unbolting the bottom of the inlet chute to gain access. The inlet chute does not fold up like some other units on the market. My unit has hydraulic feed. I personally would not buy a chipper that was manual feed. If I had to do it again, I would probably go Woodland Mills.

Jack

 

[GreensvilleJay]

Try, before you buy !!
If you haven't already done so, rent a selfpowered chipper for a day or weekend. See how it performs on YOUR tress and how much physical work it is to 'chip'. Renting allows you to SEE how much HP is needed, to chip your materials up as well as the 'operation' and 'logistics' of chipping.
I'm thinking 30 ACRES is a big bush,could have a LIFETIME of cutting and chipping.... If you're young and have lots of time, great...but if you've got wife,kids, hobbies..not so great.
Even with the 'perfect' chipper , it's a LOT OF HARD LABOUR...
Options, always look into options.

 

[UpNorthMI]

I use a WoodMaxx MX9900 on a L3200 or L3901 and will run it for days at a time for cleanup projects. A lot depends on your future anticipated use.

the MX series is made in the US and WoodMaxx has great support. My MX9900 has been flawless and is a beast. The powered vari speed infeed system is reliable and makes it so productive, we often have 3 people feeding it.

 

[drumminj]

new WC68 owner here, bought based on the good recommendations here.

We've cleared (and have more to do ) on our 28 acres and had been burning the branches up to this point. Decided to get the chipper so we can turn the tops into mulch vs spending half a day burning. The trunks and larger limbs become firewood.

Haven't used it enough to have a strong opinion, but wanted to chime in that Woodland Mills support has been great (asked for help/feedback on how to get larger branches to feed) and the packaging and delivery was great. Like rc51stierhoff, FedEx did their best to try to damage it, but just ended up with scuffed up paint in a few places. WM got touch-up paint in the mail 2 days later.

 

[PA452]

I have a woodland mills wc-68 which I use paired with my B…suits my needs. (I have no experience with another PTO brand to make a comparison). Makes great ballast too, but it hangs back a bit. As far as I am concerned it’s like an angry beaver and will take up to 6”. I don’t have any complaints with mine and I would buy it again. I Think if you go to a Paul Bunyan or logging show you might be able to compare some side by side and try. It be nice to try or demo before purchase, but I don’t have a brick and mortar place near me. I got mine as a drop shipment that was inside a metal crate…it was packaged well but one of the corners was damaged (not the sellers fault unless they loaded truck like that, but the machine itself was just fine…very well protected and packaged very nice and instructions easy to follow. I hope this helps.

How much chipping to fill a bed like you have there? I've thought about getting a chipper to make my own mulch, but I've been advised it will be way too slow and take a much greater amount of material to make any sizable amount than I might expect.

 

[rc51stierhoff]

How much chipping to fill a bed like you have there? I've thought about getting a chipper to make my own mulch, but I've been advised it will be way too slow and take a much greater amount of material to make any sizable amount than I might expect.

Good day. Happy 4th? What’s too slow? I did not time it with a stop watch…the raised bed is 20’x5’ and about 20” tall. For the amount of fill in the picture which leveled out to about 8- 12” +/- of chips…that took about or close to an hour I would estimate. I started with a pile of branches that were 4 or 5 feet high and maybe 8-10 feet wide at the bottom just to give an idea. IMO it went pretty quick. I sort of think the opposite about how much it makes…I think it makes more mulch than I expected.

So I guess I come back to ‘what’s too slow’…what does that mean? For me I still think a whole lot easier / faster chipping branches than cutting the tree up itself…I burn firewood and love the size that doesn’t require to split, so even large branches I cut up and burn in the stove…. but there is much more labor in cutting the tree than chipping the branches IMO. When you say 30 acres, does that mean selective timbering, or are you completely clear cut / timbering and left with a mountain of tree tops from 30 acres woods? Maintaining trails? To me chipping makes sense if you are already cutting up the tree anyway and you want mulch and plan to use regularly. For me personally I think it takes a lot of time to safely burn because you have to stand there and feed it not to mention it doesn’t take much of a fire before an individual will not be able to put it out if it gets out of control. If you have to stand there to feed the fire and haul water out to where planning to burn, at that point, then might as well mulch it it not have to stand next to the fire. The other issue for me with burning is the wind…it’s windy at our place and stars planets and satellites have to align for me to have nothing else to do on the days it’s damp out and low wind…you can chip when you want and don’t really have to worry about blowing smoke in directions you don’t want or the risk of a fire getting out of control.

I know you did not ask for all that, but ‘slow’ is not really any sort of criteria. Depending on what really doing with your 30 acres, I think trying one (rent or borrow or help someone that has one) might help convince you one way or the other.

I am not sure that helps?

 

[PA452]

Thanks for the reply.

I think you misunderstood the 'slow' part, but I didn't clarify it well. Also I'm not the OP with the 30 acres. My intent was to accumulate mulch by chipping up limbs and such as needed. Basically as trees come down, cut them up for firewood and chip the little stuff for mulch. I wasn't told the chipping process would be slow, I was told the accumulation of mulch would be slow. As in, it takes a lot more material than I may think to produce a useful amount of mulch.

 

[rc51stierhoff]

Thanks for the reply.

I think you misunderstood the 'slow' part, but I didn't clarify it well. Also I'm not the OP with the 30 acres. My intent was to accumulate mulch by chipping up limbs and such as needed. Basically as trees come down, cut them up for firewood and chip the little stuff for mulch. I wasn't told the chipping process would be slow, I was told the accumulation of mulch would be slow. As in, it takes a lot more material than I may think to produce a useful amount of mulch.

I am sorry if I misunderstood….you can make 3 or so waist high piles in an hour very easily. I am not sure how much mulch that would be, but you will be thankful to have a loader on your tractor to scoop and move it. I think it produced more mulch than I expected from the little bit of branches…depends on what expecting…I don’t have a good way to estimate the volume. I keep the chipper at my residence where I only have a few acres…it makes more than enough for our muching needs on just a few acres…and that’s for gardens, chicken coop and pathways. We compost it too for soil amendments. That still really doesn’t explain volume though.

 

[firgus]

We have the Woodland Mills WC68 on the L3901. We've chipped several 8 ft tall piles of junipers/mesquite without issue. I don't have experience with any other chippers but I have no reservations recommending this one.

 

[Wooangs]

We’ve been clearing our land in Maine using a Woodmaxx wm8H. It really works great on the smaller stuff and branches. We have also burned but that is too wether dependent ( first you need to dry it then wait for the appropriate weather to get a fire permit). Neighbor did a burn in May without a permit and created a forest fire. The state called in a helicopter. The poor guy is now on the hook for cost. The bigger stuff I skidded out using the tractor and will be milling the pine. We use all the chips to build paths on the 20 acres. I would definitely buy the chipper again.