large personal Chipper

Steve_inaus

I am looking for a small chipper. I am not a tree surgeon / arborist but am pretty good with ropes and cutting down trees and have a couple of gum trees to cut down.

I know I could pay someone else to do it but truth be told, I enjoy doing this. I am not looking for advice as to whether I should be doing the job or not but simply in relation to a couple of chippers I have found on Ebay as to whether they are any good.

I can pay hundreds to tip the smaller branches (a number of trailer loads to the tip), the larger limbs will be cut up for firewood and then also pay hundreds for wood chip for the garden or alternatively pay hundreds for a small chipper and chip the small branches for the garden.

My chainsaw is a husky and I generally buy quality.

I have short listed:
1. 15HP MICHIGAN USA CHIPPER WOOD MULCHER GARDEN SHREDDER | eBay - which I believe sells for approx. $600 (I believe is made in China and has nothing to do with Michigan USA).

2. DUCAR COMMERCIAL CHIPPER MULCHER GARDEN SHREDDER | eBay - which I also believe sells for approx. $600, is made in China and has nothing to do with USA.

These look almost identical and seem like they are reasonable priced and at a size which I would be comfortable with - unless they are rubbish???

Anyone have any ideas?

Is there an alternative of a similar size that would be worth looking at?

I would be happy to buy second hand.

Any and all advice appreciated.

Steve

Rob Chace

any tree of more than 4m height, dont bother with those chippers. Go to lacal vermeer/bandit/morbark or who ever (some stihl husqy retailers also) and hire a 6in or 12in towable unit, even if this means you also hire a ute. The productivity is incomparable.
ONLY use something with a top chute (like can throw the chips into a bin, not just onto the ground)

Trust me, those units are for a branch or two at home only.
My neighbours have one and i still drive the truck and chipper over there and chip all their braches when they prune their trees, usually takes me ten minutes, when they are dragging the limbs over to me/chipper.

Apocalypsse

If you are willing to fork out $600 for a garden chipper, you may as well just cut and stack the branches and call in a tree crew to chip the pile for you and leave you the mulch. It will probably be cheaper as well.

derwoodii

Agree with Robstar them top load hand feed units will waste your time.
Most local large hire shops have 4 to 6 inch chippers for about $250 per day well worth it and you'll get good quality chip for the garden made by yourself

Steve Tipton

That's good advice I reckon.

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Heightmaster

OldNick

FWIW my thinking is with the other guys. I have an 11hp chipper, top feed type. It's better than a little electric one, but:
- you are fighting all the time to get stuff down the chute in any large amount. It will take hours of frustrating work. I am in a simlar situation to yours ATM and the chipper stays at another property while I dump the smaller stuff (sub 3/4 inch) on the ground and run over it with the fairly high powered rotary mulcher/mower that I have. I honestly find that at least as easy!
- the " 3" " branch hole on those things goes blunt and the vibrations as you try to get a branch down them will be up to painful level. Let somebody else worry about sharpening blades. Let the hydraulic freed do your pushing for you.
- the amount of mulch that you get for the garden will be absolutely nothing from the leaves and twigs. From my experience, using a 9" chipper for a few years, and due to logic, nearly _all_ the bulk of the chip comes from the bigger stuff. So you are better to hire a chipper and do the branches you were going to take to the tip, saving you money and getting more realistic mulch from it.

The biggest difference you _will_ get is that the garden variety will be a "hammer" type (basically lines of big removable mower blades.) and will give a much finer chip than the rotary one...more of a potting mix than a chip. IME the best way to overcome that is to _then_ run the chip through a smaller unit, if you have to. Still a lot of work if there is much.

phew! That's it!

I will admit that I probably will not hire a chipper, as I am going to use the 3/4-3" stuff as kindling for huge stuff I have got from the tree. However I have done a lot of chipping, domestic and farm and I would definitely hire.

Nick

derwoodii

Ha, gettin big hard wood into small holes, tis what we chipper operators are dam good n proud of

OldNick

Hmpph! Yeah but then it gets so _damaged_ and that's not supposed to be a part of the equation!

Nick

dingo

seems like your options are:

a) hire ute and hire small capacity towable chipper

or

b)contact business that does contract chipping charged by the hour- big capacity chipper

I would say option b is going to save you time and money

ArbTrain

Hi, chipper choice is real simple- there's vermeer & bandit.. end of story..that was the simple bit,, now the hard road, mate, you may not want advice on what you should and should not do, but hey, your on tree world buddy- have agood look at your post,, something like " im not an arborist but im pretty good with ropes and cutting down trees. ",, you dont need to be an arborist to fell a tree but you DO need to know what you are doing ( and im not saying you dont) OHS stats tell the story plain as day- the blood flows when someone a/ cuts a corner , or, b/ tries to do a job they are not trained for. . Not having a go mate, its my job, ( and all our jobs) to give give a shit about OHS in the tree game. All the best. Geoffro , Arb Train

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