Morbark chippers, buying first chipper

stu

Hi all,Was looking at purchasing my first chipper, my business is small so I was looking at one of the cheaper and smaller capacity 6" machines from Rayco the RC6 vemeer BC600XL or Morbark Beever R 6 C drum chipper. Anyone worked with these machines before? Are they worth investing in? Cheers stu.

Steve Tipton

The 6' Bandit is a good machine

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Heightmaster

emr

I would rather have nothing than a 6" Vermeer. The company that I used to work for had several and I hated them all. At the time, I never used a larger chipper so I didnt know what else was out there, but I still knew they were not good chippers. The units that they owned, they bought new and they were pretty much junk from day one. The dont take brush in very well. If there are any wide branch unions (like Honeylocust) you will spend more time cutting and chipping than doing actual pruning or removing. The other thing that I hated about the chippers was the difficulty of maintenance. Changing knives and adjusting the bed knife are both huge pains due to the tight quarters of the machine. I am trying to come up with one good thing to say about the 6" Vermeers but I cant think of anything right now.

Drouin Tree Service

Do NOT buy any 6" chipper is my best advice,Buy at least a 9" or you WILL regret it.

Bandits 6" with a duetz are the best of a sad sad bunch.

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

TrevMcRev

I think 6 " chippers still have their place. I ran a Bandit 6 with the diesel deutz for 5 years. Majority of my work back then was pruning, so it suited well. Cheap to run too. Easy to get into tight spots. We even unhooked & pushed it into back yards when they wanted to keep mulch, saving a lot of drag time.

Was definately the pick of the 6'ers around at the time, the 12" wide by 6" high infeed takes forky brush well for its size compared to most others that are 6x6.

The morbark could be worth a look though, a 6" drum style chipper would be interesting.

But once you go bigger you won't want to go backwards.

My advice is buy a 6" because you want a 6".

If it's for budget reasons, buy a 2nd hand bigger machine.

stu

Heh heh.. Pretty unanimous opinions there!The light weight of the 6" chippers is pretty appealing, The Morbark Beever 6 has an 11 x 6 " throat combined with light weight,single wheel infeed, but only a 27 hp Kohler. Maybe I'll start looking at a 9 inch or the Morbark 8 inch. Its just the price tag that scares me with bigger machines and the fact I'll be towing it around with a 2.8 diesel for a while. Anyone have an idea on the cost of running smaller chippers on average? Thanks for your replies.

Drouin Tree Service

China Wood Chipper. Wuhan Wholesaler, Trading Company, Retailer, Exporter

Get a qoute see how much to hobart

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

Sunraysia Tree Solutions

Stay away from the Rayco the 6 by 6 infeed is useless and they know it

I got a quote for a chinese chipper a couple of years back it was only 4 k plus shipping, if I could see these machines in person so to speak I might have bought one

Drouin Tree Service

Shipping isnt a big issue its more cut throat than road freight,I had a 500kg excavator attachment priced to ship Korea to Melbourne $260USD cheap as chips.

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

stu

Reckon they'd be any good? Might get a quote for one of those excavators....

Morbark - RSA

Best way to check out the different machines is to see them running! When your over here later this year see if you can get other manufacturers to give you a demo with your material. Puts the uncertainty out of your head - its a big expenditure when your buying your first chipper.

slartibartfast

What happened to the small morbark stump grinders. We ordered a 27hp machine when they were released and it never arrived. No explanations, just no machine. Bought vermeer instead and it arrived in two days. Been buying them ever since. Will not even ask for a quote from Morbark agents.

Morbark - RSA

We've just opened up a completely new dealership for Vic, Tas & SA in Ballarat and have no connection to the old dealers. I honestly can't say what has happened here but I will ask the factory if they know anything - do you know what year you ordered it & where the dealer was?

Mark G

If this was through the nz agents for morbark loadlift it might not be a reflection of morbarks service as loadlift are in the couldnt give a shit catergory.

slartibartfast

It was Loadlift and thier reply was that Morbark wouldnt tell them when the machine would be delivered, but only when i chased them for months for an answer. We then found out that there were a few teething problems with them but no one was being told. Thats when we bought a Vermeer. All i can say is thank goodness for the internet. You cant hide things for long.
Does anyone know how these machines (sp52 i think they are called) are going or are Morbark still working on them.

Morbark - RSA

They are going great actually (but what would expect a salesman to say!!).

Honestly I cant tell you as I've never seen one running - we are bringing a couple into stock over the next 6 months but are focusing on getting the chippers right first. Upto now we've been focused on Morbarks bigger horizontal grinders and forestry chippers.

Joe

Willard Holmen

My Morbark 2060 D chipper with 35 HP Wisconson gas now has over 800 hrs on it and it is my first chipper. I haven't had one bit of trouble with it besides a broken infeed roller spring. This machine can chip 6 inch diameter logs all day long and only burn 4 liters of fuel an hr in average brush chipping.
Morark build their machines extra heavy duty with heavier material then the average competition. I understand the president of Brush Bandit used to work for Morbark and then went on his own taking Morbark design with him, to explain the simularities in the 2 companies design.

stu

Nice one, thanks, don't think they make that model anymore Rayco have a similar looking machine run by a 35 hp vanguard. what size was the throat opening? 6x6? Did you have to do a lot of limbing?
Do you know of anyone running the Beever M6R? Its their small 6 inch drum chipper run by a 27 hp Kohler, must be what they replaced the 2060D with. Thanks.

Morbark - RSA

Their is an older one running in Mt Gambier and I would assume that their would be a couple in QLD. When all our stock starts arriving you'll be the first to see the 6" running. In the meantime I'll find out about 2060D.

HolmenTree - have you used any other size of Morbark?

JohN Dee

Psst, we own a Bandit 1990xp (200+ horsies) 6 ton stock standard weight. We also own the biggest tow behind chipper in Australia the Bandit 2090xp (325 horsies) - 9 tonnes. 3 Tonnes worth of extra steel in the construction. Great for feeding with our excavator (no more bent side walls).


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I'm not sure if this is fact, but I heard that the owner of bandit and rayco are brothers. Rayco brother used to work with and for Bandit brother - got shit the shits and went and started his own company: Rayco.. :S

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P.S I'll be putting up a thread with pics and videos in the not so distant future.

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Steve Tipton

I've never heard of a Morbark stump grinder!

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Heightmaster

slartibartfast

Probably because they forgot to supply them to their prospective customers.

Eric Frei

Hats off to Joe from Morbark, many manf or their reps don't comment, or threaten to sue those that do!

Redroo is the other mob who comment a lot, they have Woodsman, Carlton and some of their own stuff.

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Red Roo

stu, I couldn't agree with Joe more.

Determine your requirements, research the equipment and the supplier, create a short list, organise a demonstration, check the facts, make a decision. It's just that simple

Joe, as an aside, is Morbark - RSA affiliated with Arborlink in Brisbane as a Morbark distributor/dealer/agent? And welcome to Treeworld!

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Willard Holmen

My Morbark 2060D originally had a 12"X6" throat opening, now 12"X7". I enlarged the infeed table and throat top and bottom 1 inch[ 1/2" top 1/2" bottom], couldn't make it 2" to make 8" because the knives wouldn't be long enough. But that one extra inch makes a big difference. I now call it a 8" chipper because all logs are on the average are oval shaped right? So a 9"X7" log [9"+7"= 16"] divided by 2 is a 8" log.
My 35HP Wisconson gas is a heavy duty V-4 engine which put out much more torque and inertia then the 35hp Vangaurd. A 35 hp diesel is available.
The 2060D is now called the Beever M8D, almost identical to the 2060D, just 2" bigger. I quess the 2060 is still a good proven product.
The Beever M6 is just for landscapers.
Here is a pic of my Morbark 2060D chipper/ stump grinder/ side dump trailer unit that I built.

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Willard Holmen

You have to see the big Morbarks ,over 1,000 hp. I'm almost positive of the Morbark/Bandit connection.

Willard Holmen

If I bought another 2060D again it would be the 35 hp diesel but I am very happy with the 35 hp gas Wisconson. The Wisconson has been around since the 1940s.

No I haven't used a bigger chipper, but as you see in my above photo the 2060 unit is all I need. Just last week I finished a 5 acre land clearing contract, stumps and all with my unit and 3 hired hands. All piled wood and chips stayed on site.
But where my setup shines is in residential tree and stump removal. Low impact and I can get into tight spaces and traffic.

JohN Dee

A 1,000hp machine over hear wouldn't be legal to tow due to weight limits let alone only being able to tow it during certain hours because it is wider then legal limits.

Bandit build those big 1,000hp machines heck even Rayco does, but I'm talking about power to weight ratio while being legal to tow. While being affordable without having to do massive land clearing everyday just to pay it off. As well as making statements like they use more steel in construction then their avg. competitor. Heck did you know their, biggest tow behind at 325horsies only comes in at 6 and a half tonnes?

Hmmm, sorry if it seems I'm attacking you, I'm not, just trying to put my point across.

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Willard Holmen

No offense taken JohN, I got good thick skin. I believe the question where this thread originated was about a 1st chipper in Morbark. And my first and only chipper is a Morbark 2060D 6" inch which is the heaviest construction of any other 6" I know of. Now like I said earlier there is a connection between Morbark and Bandit. Even my knives are used in the two different companies 6 inches. They both also have the same chipper/dump trailer idea.
Take a look yourself at all the Morbark chippers if you get the chance and you will see their heavy duty construction. Over here in Canada we have lots to choose from.
Correction on my chipper's infeed throat, its 13" wide not 12". The Bandit 6" chipper is the same also.

Morbark - RSA

No, Arborlink are a completely seperate agent with no link to us other than they are the brush chipper dealer for QLD. We are the national dealers for all the bigger equipment - we do have service centres in Brisbane(its also our headquarters), Perth & Wollongong but Recycling Systems Australia (RSA) are the dealers in VIC, SA, TAS based out of Ballarat for all Morbark equipment.

Thanks for the welcome!