Are there limitations to chipper mounted winchs?

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Greenclimber

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Hello, I wasn't sure if this was the right place to post this or not.

I was just curious what the largest size branches and logs most factory winches were actually capable of pulling into the chipper's in feed. I want to build one on my chipper, but I wasn't sure about the length and angle. I have looked up as many pictures as I can of Bandit's winches, but I haven't found one that has the size specs available.

My buddy has a larger bandit chipper (larger than 12") and I recall him saying that they weren't really able to pull logs into the chipper. That they would get stuck under the in-feed tray. His winch didn't have any problems with smaller branches and such, but larger logs was a problem and they just used their mini skid to load logs.

Does anyone else have this problem?

I know that Vermeer has it's own winch design. Same with Morbark and Carlton.

I just wanted to see what other people had to say.

Thanks!
 
Use mine all the time. Mostly for brush as it's only a 12" chipper. It'll put a log on the infeed no problem, unless you're on a steep downhill and the log picks up some momentum. My bandit is an older model without a fold down feed table so it works best to hook it about a foot from the end, as the fairlead sticks out a bit. I've worked alot with another model that bad the fold down table and it was best to hook up at the end of the log or throw a half hitch in there. Now that I have a mini skid I don't rely on the winch as much but the nice thing about the winch is it's on every job that the chipper is on.
 
Hello, I wasn't sure if this was the right place to post this or not.

I was just curious what the largest size branches and logs most factory winches were actually capable of pulling into the chipper's in feed. I want to build one on my chipper, but I wasn't sure about the length and angle. I have looked up as many pictures as I can of Bandit's winches, but I haven't found one that has the size specs available.

My buddy has a larger bandit chipper (larger than 12") and I recall him saying that they weren't really able to pull logs into the chipper. That they would get stuck under the in-feed tray. His winch didn't have any problems with smaller branches and such, but larger logs was a problem and they just used their mini skid to load logs.

Does anyone else have this problem?

I know that Vermeer has it's own winch design. Same with Morbark and Carlton.

I just wanted to see what other people had to say.

Thanks!
I always pull large logs into my Bandit you have to have a helper pick the end up slowly and help it in, dont wack his hands!
 
Hello, I wasn't sure if this was the right place to post this or not.

I was just curious what the largest size branches and logs most factory winches were actually capable of pulling into the chipper's in feed. I want to build one on my chipper, but I wasn't sure about the length and angle. I have looked up as many pictures as I can of Bandit's winches, but I haven't found one that has the size specs available.

My buddy has a larger bandit chipper (larger than 12") and I recall him saying that they weren't really able to pull logs into the chipper. That they would get stuck under the in-feed tray. His winch didn't have any problems with smaller branches and such, but larger logs was a problem and they just used their mini skid to load logs.

Does anyone else have this problem?

I know that Vermeer has it's own winch design. Same with Morbark and Carlton.

I just wanted to see what other people had to say.

Thanks!
Hi GC, when you're winching material to be chipped you need to attach your strop as close to the end of the wood as possible. This will prevent jamming under the infeed tray when winching to the chipper (and making for a better drag). Once the wood is above the tray then remove the strop and place it a few metres (or more, depending on the length of the material to chip) along the wood, winch onto the feed rollers then engage feed rollers for a second to grab the wood. Then take the strop off, winch in the rope and store the hook (we use the Chook- I suppose it means a chippable hook as it is plastic) out of the way and continue chipping. We've dragged max chippable logs to our 12" Bandit no problem, but if you're going to do a lot of that sort of thing then get machinery, we use a 3.5t digger with rotating grapple and it is so much faster and safer, not to mention easier on the body.

Hansa chippers in New Zealand have a 9" chipper with a winch (I think the model is a C90), I haven't seen any other smaller chippers with winches on them but I would imagine they're out there.

Cheers,

Fraser
 
Thanks everyone for the replies. I have a Bandit 1590 and I just decided to overbuild the winch boom. I had it a little on the short side originally as I was trying to copy what I was seeing on the other bandit chippers... However at that length I could pick up larger logs. They would just get stuck under the in-feed tray.

I think the winch boom is going to look a little silly because it is so long, but I shouldn't have a problem pulling 16-17" logs/trees into it. My machine is only rated for 15" material, but the infeed is something like 20" x 17 3/4". I have seen it eat everything 17 1/2" logs before and it seemed to handle it okay.

Yes, I agree it would be nice to have a little mini skid or some sort of loader, but I just don't at the moment.
 
I got lots of experience w/ the vermeer 18" chipper. I liked the older model better but we now have a 2019 18". The winch will pull a good size tree in(18" diameter wood). We winch the logs/trees to the winch outrigger, then unhook the winch line and move it back the required distance to get the tree/log into feed wheels. Once I'm sure it's in the drum I quickly bump the wheels into reverse(to prevent excessive heat from the drum rubbing on log) and unhook winch line. Put wheels back in motion and away she goes. Then onto the next log/tree/branch. Winch is a life/back saver and I couldn't imagine not having one. Never used a mini skid but would get one if chipper didn't have winch. But to answer your question vermeers 18"xl winch is pretty powerful but has it's limits. It pulls 95% of what we ask it to do, if it's too much we just cut the piece in half
 
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