Kinda been following the thread. It all depends on "your" needs. When Dad retired and I let the business go, we sold all of our F600 dumps and Asplundh 16" chippers. I kept all the gear I needed to do side work. I was still licensed and insured. I also had an F250 4X4 as my main truck, and I thought about buying one of those chipper/dump trailer combo's because it was perfect for my needs at the time. When Dad was still in business we didn't want a real big chipper because we wholesaled out most of our wood to a local vegetable stand. He was on the way home and we got $50 bucks for an F600 load. That was in the 80's and I think $50 covered the fuel for a crew for a week. Our goal was to make as few trips back to our wood lot per day as possible. When you chip brush it makes the brush more compact, so fewer trips to the shop. When you start chipping wood it takes a very compact load and makes it much, much more bulky, so more trips to the shop. Now, another local company was based on a big farm and had a top soil business also. He got the biggest towable chippers made and chipped virtually everything. Took it back to the farm and let it rot, then mixed it in with the top soil, for organic matter. My uncles business was a lot like ours and he tried a couple of the real big chippers and found they beat his trucks up so bad he went back to smaller units, smaller was 10 to 12 inch units.
I rented a Dosco and a Vermeer 6" once each, worthless, I could stack brush faster. Then I found a rental place that had 2 Morbarks that had 10 inch feeds, with a 25 horse, air cooled diesel. Those things were fantastic. They would fold side branches in and towed behind a pick up easy. After about 20 years he got rid of them and went to Vermeer BC1000's. They were a bit heavier on a pick up but did well. So, you need to work out what's the best plan for your needs, Joe.
