I have run Vermeer 1600, Bandits 90, 150, 200, 250, Morbark Eeger Beaver & M17, Promark 400, Gravely 395 and Woodsman 18X. I hated the "dead space" on the Bandits and Eeger Beaver. Short pieces of wood gets stuck in there quite often and unfortunately, none of the Bandits I used had the hyd. feed wheel lift. The M17 would clog very often on stringy material like palms and I blew some blades and once a piece of wood actually ran up between the drum and top cover, making a bulge in it and creating a gap where it bolted down. Vermeer 1600, old technology, no big capacity and very noisy. Promark was great but gas engine. Gravely 395 is 5 years old and it is the longest I have ever kept a chipper. I love that little machine (9 in. cap.) for palms and ornamental pruning where I am not chipping stuff larger than 4 inch dia. Woodsman 18X is great. I have been running it a little over a year and use it 75% of the time. I have not clogged it yet and I have used it on palms and hau bush. Hau bush has an extremely stringy bark and I have had 2 other tree contractors rent my Gravely to chip it when their Bandit 200 and 250 would clog and get the bark wrapping around the disc bearing slowing down the disc. If Woodsman had any problems on their earlier machines, they must have worked it out, because the 18X is extremely well built. Look under their chippers and the area under the feed rollers are way beefier than the Morbarks and Bandits. My M17 had to have that area cut off and thicker plate welded in because it bowed so badly that wood was getting stuck on the anvil and would not feed. My M17 was an early model so hopefully Morbark has worked out the problems they had.
