Wood Chippers?

Recommendations on a PTO driven wood chipper for a compact tractor with low 15 HP PTO? Or... recommendations for a gas powered tow behind chipper? I am getting excited to amp up my production or ramial - myco-rhyzzal fun this year!

Thanks everyone and bless you Michael.

Hello Jon,
I bought a PTO wood chipper 6-8 years ago and after one season I sold it.
As much as I loved the idea to make wood chips, it took forever to chip a decent amount of wood and my arms were shaking after a whole day with the wood chipper on. Also it was expensive and the noise was unberable.
After that I contacted the utility company and other local timber companies and had them deliver me wood chips when working close to my farm. I always tipped the driver $20 per load, that seemed to be working....
My two cents......
Best of luck.
Fabio

Fabio's experience was our own with a 6 inch wood chipper until we scaled up to a big boy 12 inch wood chipper that pulls limbs in, rather than relies on the chipper-person to shove them in with every ounce of their strength. With the 12 inch chipper, we basically just grab a pile and set it on the platform, give it a nudge, and the chipper takes over. Neither chipper we've used was pto driven, both gas-powered tow-behind. We've often toyed with the idea of purchasing a wood chipper for timing flexibility, but we have decided that seasonal renting is the way to go in our situation. We can rent the 12 inch chipper for a weekend here and there (pick up on Friday afternoon, return on Monday morning) for $285 a pop. If we play our cards right, we can do all our pruning in a weekend, but as grass starts to grow, we typically do it twice this time of year since we want to chip up what we've already pruned as the grass grows through the piles, but still have pruning to do. It sounds expensive and a hassle to pick up/drop off, but here is the single enormous plus: we never ever have to worry about sharpening blades or any other maintenance. Nor, obviously, shell out for the very large onetime purchase of a 12 inch woodchipper.

Kordick Family Farm
Westfield, NC
Zone 7a

we bought a new 4" chipper last spring for under a grand, delivered from dr power equipment. i just checked, it's 1300 now, cuz everything is more expensive...including our fruit come the fall?

if i had to do it again, i may get the optional tow bar but it's easy enough to maneuver. we only chip the small branches, three inch diameter being the magical ramial wood number. if it's any larger, we put it in the firewood pile. yes, it's loud. yes, it vibrates. if you own it, you can chip at your leisure. i do a tank of gas or less at a time. then i go find something else to do and save more bending over for the next day. and yes, you do have to grease and sharpen. i am weak on mechanical skills, but this easier than getting the '67 tractor going in the spring.

we haven't had any luck yet on the sourcing of free wood chips but even if we had, that doesn't solve the "what to do with the prunings" issue.

Thank you everyone.

We just got a Woodland Mills WC68, which might be a bit more power than your tractor has (I can't recall the details), but they make a lower spec version, as well. Their chippers are very highly reviewed online (in tractor forums, at least!). We are still assembling it, hopefully we can start chipping before the season gets too hot.

This is a 6", self-propelled model, with a safety cut off. All of those seemed like nice features. I had not even heard of 12" chippers, honestly...that seems like a nice option, too!

Earthworks
Zone 7a in West-Central MD
Non-commercial, ~100 fruit trees, dwarf to MM106

Another vote for the Woodland Mills WC68; I got one in spring 2000. I use it on my Deere 2520, which has ~19.5 PTO HP (I think!)

It is great, has handled everything I feed into it.

As someone mentioned, it does take a long time to make any meaningful amount of chips (nature of the beast, not that this machine is slow ... I can barely keep up with feeding it even if I organize things into piles before starting).

The chips I make do end up being better and more "ramial" than what I get from the tree service guys.