Disc or Drum

treelinx

We are in the process (read procrastination) of looking at what chipper best suits our needs.
In that regard I am posting here to get as much feedback as possible before purchasing.
Our criteria is - small machine capable of working all day with ripped hardwood trunk, minimum 250mm (10") but larger acceptable.
The weight is a big factor lighter the better, but without sacrificing sturdiness and reliability. We are a company that operates in the inner city, confined spaces, tight access for machinery.
Should it be 'disc' or 'drum'.
We don't do a lot of 'big' trees but they do happen.
Small and tough without being hard to get along with, the chipper that is.
Is it fanciful to believe there is a machine out there that can perform all these functions?
Look forward to reading your feedback.

Garry Brockley

The drum chippers are heavier generally by approx 1 ton towing weight, but i think the drum system is superior to the disc system, i work with both in the week,the disc system doesn't have any problems working all day everyday, its a single axle which gives good manouverability especially when reversing.
just my 0.02c worth

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treelinx

Thanks for that info Galbee.
The other thing I meant to put up as a criteria is what about palms?
We do a lot of cocos palms and it would be good if we could stop taking them to the 'recycling centre'
They have a special price for palms ($130 tonne) so there is an opportunity to save few bucks if the trade off is practical.

Garry Brockley

Palm juice eats metals like crazy, just take a look at ekka saws, corrotion on a grand scale.
I know of people who did chip palms but they bought an old chipper especially for the job and it only lasted three years then it was totalled.
personally i wouldnt put a palm anywhere near the chipper unless the contract is worth a mint in order to pay for it.
hope that helps G

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Cole

my boss here has 10 drum bandit chippers all diffrent sizes and 18 disk the drum bandits kick ass

JohN Dee

Drum FTW!

Like Galbee I work with both everyday of the week.

Discs are lighter and more manouverable, but are a PITA when feeding big stuff in (near capacity and so on) also if you are doing alot of road side chipping the stupid bloody 45* degree angle offset of the disc love to swing long branches around possibly into somebody (AND IT REALLY HURTS) or into a car... Drums are heavier although you can still get single axle ones. Oh and drum knives are 5x easier to change and swap...

We only run Bandit (6 of them) they are a sturdy machine running from our smallest 12" all the way to our 24". Palms - no problem (except on the blades) my favourite power to weight/size ratio would have to be the 1590xp. Overall the reason why we only stock bandit is because of their Customer Service in the Sydney metro area.

I'm sure many more people will be on with their input into different brands and for different reasons

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We are what we repeatedly do... Excellence then, is not an act, but HABIT...

Red : Green : Blue

windthrown

I would opt for a disc chipper myself. As for the 45 degree thing, they make straight feed 90 degree disc chippers as well (I owned one, a Brush Bandit 95). All disc chippers are going to swing the branches toward the anvil side though. Its not the 45 degree angle, its the fact that the disc knives spin and force the butt ends toward the anvil (or bed knife, whichever you want to call it). You learn to feed branches and back off or walk ahead of the feed shoot to avoid getting hit. Disk knives are easy to flip and swap out; you just have to get good hardened bolts and use an extention lever on a socket wrench. Takes me 5 minutes max per knife. Not a real issue. Nothing was too big for any of my disc chippers either. Keep the knives and anvil sharp. With green wood, its not a big deal. Chipping old seasoned hardwood? That can be a problem. I do not know about chipping palm trees; we do not have many here.

If you want a lighter weight chipper for tight places and for city work, I would avoid a drum chipper. They are a lot heavierand bulkier. Yes, they eat the wood faster, but there are trade-offs. Personally I would never own a drum chipper, but that's me. The big logging companies in the woods here use tub grinders, if you want a massive machine that does the job in a hurry. I prefer Bandit chippers (I have owned several medium and small sized ones) over Vermeer. Bandits do not grenade like the other brand of disc chippers are prone to do.

JohN Dee

I would say it is the 45 degree angle that causes the spinning of the branches not directly the anvil. See 90 degree angle of disc makes the blade cut the wood in the same downward motion as a drum would with its 90 degree angle where as with the 45 degree angle of a disc tends to makes the wood twist. I cant think of the exact science (or maybe just the words?)behind the 45 degree angle branch spinning, but i'd bet my bottom dollar it is to do with that 45 degree angle. Maybe even possibly inconjunction with the distance between the disc and feed rollers due to the fact of the 45 degree angle. Hmm, just thought of this probably got to do with the end of the wood not hitting the chipper at the same time...

As for learning to feed branches properly by doing it from the side and walking off, yes that is best practice and common sense (but hey common sense isn't so common anymore), but here in Australia with our OHS laws we are and must always be in the process of hazard and risk management dealing with hazards in the order of Hierachy of control - The first being to eliminate the hazard which would be 90 degree angle, as for proper practice well that comes in at 4th out of the 6 (Admin controls).

May take 5 minutes for yourself on your disc, but when you need ergonomics because the machine goes through many hands - drum knife swapping cant be beaten, myself I would say I could swap them as fast as 2 minutes per knife (Air ratchet). Compared to the average 10 - 15 minutes on the discs (Manual socket with breaker bar etc)

Chipping fresh hardwood here in Aus mate - she's BLOODY HARD.

Don't get me wrong I like disc chippers as well, just pointing out their not so obvious flaws... Oh just thought of another one, STALLING THE MACHINE! With discs the wood loves to get jammed in between the anvil and disc... Not saying drums don't but I haven't had to bust my ass off so far unjamming a drum..

__________________
We are what we repeatedly do... Excellence then, is not an act, but HABIT...

Red : Green : Blue

Drouin Tree Service

Disc cause i got one

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Drouin Tree Services | Excavator Hire - Drouin and SE Gippsland | Landclearing Melbourne

windthrown

I seriously doubt that it has anything to do with the 45 degree angle. If anything I think that the 45 degree angle cuts down on the movement of limbs in the feed shute. I have owned both Bandit 90 and Bandit 95 chippers. They are based on the same size disc and frame. The bandit 90 has a 45 degree cant on the disc, while the 95 is a 90 degree cant. They both swing the branches toward the anvil with the knives that thwap and twist the rest of the limb around as a result. If anything the 90 degree Bandit 95 branches spin more, becasue they are cut flat by the knives and the butts of the limbs can spin after each cut. The Bandit 90 (at 45 degrees) takes a bigger chunk out of the limbs with each rotation, and cuts the butt end of the limbs into a wedge between the knives and the feed rollers. The cut limbs cannot spin as easy in that orientation. The 95 tends to take a smaller chunk out of the limbs per cut, and cuts them flatter, which makes them better for cutting vines and thin limb material. They were invented for that reason, and they are called "West Coast Chippers" becasue of all the blackberry and ivy vines that we have out here growing on trees. 90 degree disc chippers are far rarer here in the US. If all you are cutting is woody limbs I would opt for the 45 degree canted disc chipper to reduce the movement of limbs in the feed chute. If you have a smaller engine, or chip up a lot of vines and smaller material, the 90 degree disc chipper is better. I never stalled a disc chipper in service, BTW. Ran out of gas, but never stalled one feeding it limbs. Even with 9 inch limbs slowing the engine way down. Usually I would ease up on the roller controller if it started fo bog. Also they tend to bog down far more with furry pine tops clogging the disc and exit chute rather than on fat branches. Or the feed area between the roller and knives gets jammed up with what I call "Flintstone axles". They are 10-12 inch logs with the ends whittled down. Also the knives only need to be swapped or flipped every 20 hours or so, so I do not see the big deal about gaining 3 minutes per knife swap. Its a non-issue compared to all the other regular maintenance that chippers have. We also have a lot of hardwoods here, and green hardwoods are typically way softer than any kind of seasoned hardwood. Like Madrone. If you want to dull a chainsaw or chipper in a hurry, cut or chip seasoned or dry Madrone. Its about the same as Eucalyptus (there are eucs here and a lot more down in California, as well as Madrone). I chipped mainly pine and firs though. Dry piles of hardwood I would decline to bid on for that reason. Let the Mexicans dull up their chipper knives.

My 2 cents worth, from a disc chipper guy.

Morbark - RSA

The arguement for disc over drum has been repeated many times but its always good to hear different perspectives and ideas!

We stock 3 different types of 12" chipper - two disc and one drum chipper. This allows flexibility for different operators. Our 12" disc (M12D) comes in at 2.4ton, the other (Storm 12) weighs in at 2.9ton and then we have a drum (M12R) at 2.5ton.

Really when it comes down to it the desision is based around preference - disk give a better chip, drum does it faster. Personally I'm a drum fan - but we do 1,000HP drum and disc chippers - now they are a sight to watch!

Joe

Drouin Tree Service

Well link us a video Joe,Youtube a short one of these 1000hp machines.

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Drouin Tree Services | Excavator Hire - Drouin and SE Gippsland | Landclearing Melbourne

Morbark - RSA

Model 30 Disk Chipper (can chip upto 30") for export chip used in paper production. We have these running up and down the country.


50/48 Drum Chipper - used to produce biofuel. 1000HP Cummings running in Tassy.

Each can produce in excess of 100Ton/hr.

Biggest we do in brush chippers is a 325HP Drum chipper with 20" chipping capacity - M20R. Big machine (comes with/without loader or a live infeed bed) for easy loading with bobcats and excavators (these are really popular at the moment)).

spidermike

we use a 20in disc 12in disc and a 12ton 100ft crane and i have used a lot of drums (chuck and duck) and i love my big daddy disc lot of big wood

orivne

I worked morbark50/36 mountain goat but cutting knives only stand 100 oil palm trunk life spand with maximum 150 palm chipping, i almost need to replace the 10 pieces knives twice, anyone can supply longer life span knives to reduce downtime and costs?
from Orivne.

Centec Equipment

I think your best bet is a commercial disc Chipper, I actually
have a 2001 Wood Chuck Hyroller 1200, that I'm trying to sell, the chipper is a 12' Disc Chipper, with a Perkins diesel engine, the chipper has been Recently refurbish, I can provide you the Service Records.


Price: $14,900 OBO

let me know if I can help you
941.328.9403

orivne

I am a oil palm replanting contractorin Malaysia and we are talking thousand of hectres of oil palm trees to be mulched and new mature plants to be replanted just next rows of the mulched old trees.Your model could not go for commercialise basic as we mulched at least 150 palm trees by using Morbark 50/36 montain goat on the terrain relief.Each palm weight approximately 300kg and its bulky in fibreous trunk of 25 to 35 feet height.Hope to hear from you more productivity idea in this type of commercial application.
TQ.

Centec Equipment

you are right no chipper would be good for thousands of oil trees, what you probably need is a Tub grinder, for this type of operation

orivne

Is there any one has tub grinder workable with this type of oil palm replanting requirements? I hope to have Morbark to explore some engineering of solution for this enormous market for the tree chipper sales as well.

ARGTrees

I may be able to help you out PM me and we can have a chat.

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ARGtrees Truck and Chipper Hire Australia

orivne

Thank you for the proposal of using tub grinder for my needs but remember I need to pulverize the oil palm trees insitu with terrain relief in oil palm estates in our tropical country, cost build up in logistic to stock piles on yards. Please discuss.
TQ.