Anyone have experience with 3pt chippers

[Bill G]

I am looking at buying a 3pt chipper and wondering if anyone has experience with them.

 

[KiwiBro]

Did a fair bit of research a while ago and settled on Woodmaxx being a good place to buy one from.
http://www.woodmaxx.com/WoodMaxx_PTO_Wood_Chippers_s/12.htm
They have years of experience importing the smaller Chinese chippers I was looking at at the time, tweaking a few things and selling and servicing them. And a proven track record with customers.

 

[bowtechmadman]

I have one Bill...don't ask what brand been a couple years since I've run it. It does ok with small brush, throat will take up to 3" and it is not self feeding, running it with a small tractor (19hp at the PTO). Does pretty nice job also on mulching leaves/brush under 1". I picked mine up used (brand had good reviews I can look when I get home today if you want). It will be used a lot this winter/spring I have about 30 trees to take down around my house for my wife's pool.

 

[Bill G]

I am looking for something that will take a 6 inch trunk. I have had 12"' and 16" drum machines here but I want someone safter for the kids to run

 

[blades]

no such thing as a safe chipper- same as chainsaws.

 

[Bill G]

no such thing as a safe chipper- same as chainsaws.

Well there are safer units that chuck and ducks

 

[blades]

This is true, still are not idiot proof.

 

[Bill G]

This is true, still are not idiot proof.

At what point dis I ever say they were?

I do believe the question I asked was ............

I am looking at buying a 3pt chipper and wondering if anyone has experience with them.

So do you have experience or just a arm chair critic?

 

[blades]

I have experience with chippers- chuck and ducks as well as self feed. just not with a 3 point - hp is king- there is a percentage of loss hp wise through the pto- as evidenced in my own tractor and attachments ( 35 hp up front around 30 out back) MF 1230, most of these units do list a minimum hp at the pto. Running on the low side of hp dosen't work out to well- stalling and jamming- also look to see how easy it is to clear a jam ( it will happen- Murphy's law 101). self feed/ controlled is the way to go if available. Been a number of years since I looked at them - went self contained instead. Ya another eng and ect to maintain but then I have the tractor available to collect more refuse with out lugging the chipper or separating the 2, additionally I am not putting hours on the tractor.

 

[Bill G]

The majority of tractors I have to run it on are 130-160hp so power is not an issue. I am just wondering if the 3pt units are worth the cost

 

[blades]

Used self contained might be a thing to look at , 6 " is the minimum useful size, with 8" being about the most popular, followed by the 10 inch. How much are you going to be useing it? Lot of Brush clearing? If a lot of Brush you definitely want something with a good sized intake that is self feeding. takes forever to trim stuff down smaller to fit some of those tiny intakes. My current unit is a Echo Bearcat 5" 20hp chipper shredder it fits my needs- but it does take time to trim all the branches off , the intake is 5x5 manual for the chipper portion the shredder will handle up to 1" dia. items, about 18" sq. intake hopper on that portion. I do not have to jam any thing unless the blades get exceedingly dull- I never let them get that far. I have run 5" diameter buck-thorn dry and green through it and never had to help it or hold the the trunk back because it was over loading and bogging the drive. Gravity fed, once the blades get into it feeds itself. Chuck and ducks name comes from horizontal manual feed until the blades catch the material- have a habit of spitting back out the intake hence the duck part.

 

[Bill G]

I have had a few 12 and 16" drum machines with the 300 and 330 fords simply looking for those folks that have used a 3pt machine