Wood Chippers

Brother in law got a small, maybe 4 inch rated, 3pt wood chipper.

We used it one afternoon. Had cut out firewood, was piles of brush left, small stuff as I cut firewood down to pretty small.

Spent 3 hours, most of the time I was still using the chainsaw cutting the brush smaller to fit in the chipper.

We worked and sweated and pushed and scratched ourselves up and were wore out.

And we had only done a very small amount of brush, and had a very small pile of chips.

The next day I put the forks on my loader on the tractor, picked up the 4/5 or the branches remaining and dumped them in a ravine. Only took me an hour to do that.

We've never pulled the chipper out again, and that was nearly a decade ago. What a miserably slow and worthless thing. And I believe that one is bigger than the one you are describing.

I hear the big chippers rated at maybe 6 inches, with powered feed rolls to grab and smash the brush into the chipper are good units and work well. They have a big enough throat to let forked branches feed in. But, these are many thousand dollar machines......

The little ones are just not worth bothering with.

Was never so disappointed with a machine in my life.

(Until I bought a Jet brand wire winder a couple years ago, but lets not go there....)

Paul

I see I'm in the minority here. We use a Stanley 15hp one, with an electric start because I'm a wuss. We get lots of windstorms here, and when the branches have accumulated in a pile, I shred them up and use the chips in the runs of the turkey house, the chicken coop, pathways around the barn or house, or make mud-free trails for the RTV to the manure pile.

In the fall, I roll it over by the garden and fill it with leaves, and then spread the tiny flecks all over the garden and till them in. By spring, the leaves are invisible, but nutrients and organic matter have been added.

I find it to be fast, easy, mindless work for days when I really need to be doing something productive, but just don't have the energy to do very much. It's one of the tools that, like a log splitter or pressure washer, can sure be rented; but it's great to have available to work with on MY schedule. I'm really glad we have it.

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‎"The trouble with quotes over the Internet is that you never know if they are genuine." - Abraham Lincoln

I used my 6.5 horse shredder for putting corn stalks through in the market garden.

It really worked well. Then I discovered my Dexters would do the job for me and fertilize to boot.

Takes only an hour to put a temporary fence around that acre and they clean up everything.

Interestingly they will also devour any small green braches with leaves from pruning apple trees and shrubs. I think they must be part goat. Any trees in the pasture are all trimmed as far up as they can reach.

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Some folks are well off. I'm just a little off.

Last year I bought a Cub Cadet chipper, used, that was craigslit. I'm kind of happy with it, but when they say 3 inch capacity, they mean that the chute is 3 inches wide. That means the effective size branch is much smaller when you account for knurls, small branches coming off, curves in the branch, etc. I usually use wood down to 1 inch anyway, but I was still disappointed in how difficult it was to feed branches in. They have to be awlfully straight to feed 2 inch branches into my 3 inch chipper. It still serves me when I don't feel like burning, though. Curt

I have a 15HP also I must have had that old thing for 18 years or more. still works. wouldn't part with it. never found it a bit dangerous . armed with my goggles and ear protectors and a stick for poking when it gets clogged I could spend whole days at it. to each his own though.~Georgia.

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Georgians