Rayco 12' Drum Woodchipper

[AussieTreeman]

Im looking into the purchase of a Rayco 12' Drum woodchipper for the Local Authority i work for here in Australia. The Rayco brand is fairly new out here and the majority of Woodchippers used in Australia are Disc type woodchippers. Any advice would be greatly appreciated on the pros and cons of Drum Chippers

 

[Lifesabeach]

I saw those in the latest T&L equipment trader, looked pretty cool. I'd like to hear from anyone whose used or demoed one. I can tell you that Rayco makes an awesome stumpgrinder, I think they are new to the chippers but I bet they are more than just Ok. If you've never used a drum before be careful. It's the general consensus here that a drum will kill where a disk would injure.

Good luck, and keep in mind that most likely the one to get it will not be you but your employee.

 

[ROLLACOSTA]

HI there Aussietreeman you have company on here check out 'a lopa' he's from Melbourne too

 

[Lawn Masters]

It's the general consensus here that a drum will kill where a disk would injure.

This seems to be wrong, according to my logic, but there's probably someone who will show me what I'm not thinking about here.

the way I see it, a drum chipper will merely sever part of the arm, while the disc, with its hydraulic feed wheels will pull you in and you dont stand a very good chance of surviving unless you have an extreme tolerance for pain, and massive nerve control to boot, otherwise, you're screwed when you get caught in one of those things. again, this is just how I see it, but I've been wrong before.


Actually, either type can be lethal, you just have to be careful and not do something stupid like use your foot to unjam one when it gets jammed.

 

[Lifesabeach]

I suppose it's most accurate to say that any chipper with hydraulic feeders will pull you in with deadly certainty.

Another thing is never let anyone run the chipper alone. Once it has you you've got a chance if youre not alone.

 

[rbtree]

Correct, beach.

Almost all chippere mfr's make self feeding drum chippers these days, as well as disc. Old style hand fed drum chippers are still made, which lack feed rollers. Duje to the higher rotational speed of this drum style, and it being visible, plus the high speed whine, they are perceived as being more dangerous. However, statistics show that the self feeder accident rate is higher, certainly because their use is less intimidating.

 

[darkstar]

rbtree is a freaking genius why are you a tree dog bro ? but i think drum chipper with no hyd. feed are far more dangerous ..its just that statistics show .... well there are alot more hyd feed chippers out there .. IMO drum style with no hyd feed is no good and very dangerous ... drum style w/ hyd feed is good .. it depends on what type of chip you want .... disc and drum produce different type chip usually .... dark

 

[rbtree]

Darkstar, I didn't say accidents, but accident rate. It has been shown to be higher with self feeders. Chuck and ducks scare people into being cautious, self feeders lull you to being careless.

For years, I had the best hand fed chipper ever made, IMO, the Mitts and Merrill. Still made and sold by Karl Kuemmerling, it has a different design than all other hand feds. Due to the position of the bed knife, and the 12 staggered knives,the feed rate is much slower, and the chip quality was better than my Bandit 250, especially with small and stringy material.

The only drawbacks were the non full swivel chute, 8 inch capacity, and longer knife change procedure. No hydraulics, and only 3500 lb were a big plus...

 

[Dadatwins]

Self - feeders will eat WHATEVER touches the feed wheels without discretion. Old style drum non -hydraulic units, while sounding more dangerous and faster to chip have a tendency to spit back out more than pull in. JMO

 

[darkstar]

karl kummerling huh ...i see their salesman about once every other month ... i wondered about those chippers i dunno i can see how you can become complacent with hyd feed ... but chuck and ducks ...seems you could get pulled in really fast by clothing etc. vines or getting hiooked up with a limb .. around here we call umm suicide chippers ....dark