Wood Chipper Advice

[Philobite]

I'm working on about 40 acres of mixed redwood/fir/tanoak and am logging the softwood as well as thinning the tanoak for firewood (50 cords/yr).

This of course produces a lot of branches, and the tanoak especially doesn't lay down like the conifer branches do, so I'm considering a chipper. We can do burn piles here but with that many branches I'd be monitoring and stacking burn piles all winter.

My question is, is there a PTO chipper that I'd mount on a 35 or so horse tractor that can handle branches up to 4-5" with a spread out crown on them reliably and quickly, or would I be sorry (for reliability and ability sake) that I didn't bite the bullet and purchase a separate commercial grade tow-behind chipper?

Remember, I'm sometimes working on skid-trails with climbs and dives and getting a tow-behind in there is not as easy as backing a PTO based chipped on the back of of a 4x4 tractor. OTOH, I could sometimes use a wheel loader and grab stacks of branches to bring them to a location to chip.

What are your comments, recommendations, warnings, etc?

 

[Philobite]

Bump...

 

[2dogs]

Maybe. 35hp is not much of a chipper. You would need a 9" chipper as a minimum 35hp would be the bare minimum hp. You would be better with 65hp and up. Call Bruce at Cal Line Equip and talk to him. For about $75K you can buy a nice full track remote control chipper that will go more places than a 35hp tractor. You can also rent a chipper or have a contractor come in with a crew and have the brush chipped. Any decent chipper will take at least 2 men to feed it. We run a Bandit 200 plus or a 250XP towed behind my old Kubota M5950 that is set up at 8' wide chipping mostly Monterey Pine. We also use the tractor and 200 Plus chipping bazillions of small willows. Manuvering the chipper with the 5950 is no big deal but you need a VERY stout hitch. Make sure the hitch is a pintle hook and not a ball.

 

[hammerlogging]

I worked on a ranch outside Mendocino for a few years. Before I was logging. When the timber was cut there (240 acre select thinning), a fellow came behind and mulched all the slash at landings, had a mulcher on a D6 or D8. Could've eaten a 38" redwood whole in about 10 minutes. If you're interested I can track down his name and number.

 

[2dogs]

Mulching is a better solution than chipping. You will have much faster return of nutrients to the soil. Burning is even beter.

 

[hammerlogging]

Honestly, I can think of too many reasons not to do any of the suggested. Deer protection for regen with tall slash, and even working big hardwood timber (w/ some really big crowns) sometimes the landowner wants low slash, I can get it down below 3'-4' without too much extra effort. Way less effort and $ than chipper or mulching. And, the slow decay of plain old slash distributed evenly throughout the stand is the best source of nutrients. I'd definately work toward avoiding the other options. Perhaps an off season choker crew next winter could really slash it for you if you don't want to have to do this part.

 

[clearance]

Mulching is a better solution than chipping. You will have much faster return of nutrients to the soil. Burning is even beter.

Agreed, kibbles & bits with a saw, gone in a couple of years.

 

[ropensaddle]

A brown tree cutter or fecon would be a great tool!

 

[Philobite]

Appreciating the replies

I'm appreciating all the input here. Thank you.

I should interject something that I realize I should have made clear in my first post. This is an NTMP on our property where we live. An NTMP results in sustainable harvest, and I'm not going in all in one year and raking in a big profit at one time. It's slower, careful, tree by tree work. I'm also back in season after season. I'm doing almost all the work myself (felling, limbing, skid trail building, skidding, bucking, decking, etc), with occasional help from family. That said, cost is a huge factor, and bringing in an outside crew, or big expensive equipment, is not going to work out in my situation. Those are great and appropriate ideas for a commercial operator, but not for me.

I'm already lopping the Tanoak limbs down to 2' elevation. The redwood boughs generally lay down. Burning is alright for some piles but too time consuming for everything, and I'm trying to be sensitive to putting out smoke to the neighbors spread throughout the area. Oh, and Redwood bark doesn't burn well.

The issues are the sheer bulk of limbs in areas where I need to work for several seasons, and/or where wild redwood seedlings are trying to gain light. Redwood boughs don't rot for years. Tripping and falling and running choker lines over brush piles on steep slopes isn't fun. The next issue is that I am obliged to put either straw or vegetative matter on the skid trails every season for erosion control. If I can chip I can use chips to do that and save some money and actually do a better job than straw in actual erosion control. Finally, the management plan requires that I substantially reduce slash for fire control (by burning, mulching, chipping, etc).

I'm not considering chipping everything, mind you, just in the areas near landings, skid trails and where larger accumulations of debris obstruct access. With that in mind, I'm thinking of a PTO chipper or a used stand-alone one for several thousand dollars... or maybe just super-aggressive lopping is what I'm stuck with. I am open to all your ideas and I really appreciate them.

 

[2dogs]

A PTO chipper will still set you back over $6K minimum. More likely $8K. a Used chipper will cost around 12K. Sorry no good news from me.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

I have no idea of the quality, but Northern sells one that seems to fit your requirements:

http://tinyurl.com/4lsc9u

• Chips logs up to 6in. diameter
• PTO-driven wood chipper attaches to tractor to chip logs and shred branches
• 23 13/16in. dia. cutter disc rotates at 1220 RPM
• Mounts to Cat. 1 hitch on tractor
• Includes PTO driveline

Says it needs 18-25 horses.

I've seen a few on YouTube. I have no clue what size tractor is required, but the videos were posted by the manufacturer, so if you can find the videos, you can get contact info so you can get the information you need.

Here's one I found by searching YouTube for "chipper shredder tractor".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCRNRW9xSdM


Here's one that came up with "chipper shredder PTO"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjL8NaFaZwM


Hope that helps!

 

[2dogs]

BRM a chipper/shredder is a home owner type machine. It would not work chipping redwood branches in quantity. Too bad, they are a whole lot cheaper than a regular chipper.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

I can buy that. What about one of these?

http://www.split-fire.com/chipper_4020.html

 

[2dogs]

I can buy that. What about one of these?

http://www.split-fire.com/chipper_4020.html

I'm not familar with these but I highly doubt they would be fast enough. You really need hp like at least 35 but 65 and up is much better. Of course hp costs big bucks.

 

[ropensaddle]

What I would recommend is a bush hog especially the brown tree cutter.I know you said money is tight so a good hog for your tractor with stump jumper will handle it! The way to make the hog work is cut the brush down where it lays on the ground let it set for winter and hog in the spring. I do it at my farm, it shreds it then the bigger stuff is just piled and burned! My old 800 tractor and hog looks like help, but it has performed wanders on my forty! I ran over brush meant for a brown tree cutter and so far it still works. If it goes down I will buy another usually in the paper for 300.00 I figure that is cheap enough for mass reducing brush and lots easier!

 

[hammerlogging]

and here I tought brown tree cutter was an ethnic reference to my off season choker crew suggestion, with all due respect.

 

[ropensaddle]

and here I tought brown tree cutter was an ethnic reference to my off season choker crew suggestion, with all due respect.

No that would be go home Inc. A brown tree cutter is a super hog
that can be powered by as little as 45 hp but indeed 70 is better
a five foot or six foot hog that runs brush 8 to even bigger and makes
minced meat of. I have ran them and sometimes you can pic one up
at an auction that may need work but cheap the hog new is seven k
I think. You really need a cage made for the tractor with one of these
bad boys