Anyone hear of a Vermeer 606 PTO Chipper? I just bought one.

[Piston]

I'm not sure if I made a good purchase or not, but nevertheless, I made the purchase  :D

I had been looking for a PTO chipper for my 40 PTO HP tractor.  I can't afford to buy the model I want new, so I've been on the lookout on craigslist for a good deal to come along.  I found many chippers that were in my price range, but none of them had hydraulic feed, and I wanted hydraulic feed.  The one's I found with the hydro feed, were much more than I wanted to spend. 

I finally came across a chipper with hydro feed in my price range, well, slightly above my price range but I did good negotiating  ;)
I bought a Vermeer chipper, it is a model 606 that attaches to the PTO.  The hydraulic feed is self contained within the unit from what I understand, and runs off the PTO shaft somehow. 

I couldn't find much information online about them, so I posted a question on another forum as well, and only got a few responses. 

From what I found, the chipper has a 6" capacity and weighs in at 1,350 lbs.  I haven't been able to try it out yet as I won't be back on the land where it is, for another 3 weeks. 

Does anyone have one of these or have any experience with them?  I know that Vermeer is a good quality name but are their PTO chippers any good as well?  I didn't even know they made PTO versions (in fact I don't think they do anymore) until I found this one. 

The gentleman that I bought it from was nice enough to lend out his Kubota M9540 tractor to load it.  My father picked it up for me as I was away, and I'm jealous I didn't go as I would have been able to run the tractor  ;D

I'd appreciate any advice on these chippers specifically, but also any advice on PTO chippers in general.  I've never used a chipper before aside from a cheap home depot model with a 1" capacity ONE time, so I am not at all familiar with them. 
So, if you have any advice, tips, tricks, or any info to share, I'm all ears.  smiley_bigears

I'll get some pics uploaded and post them on here. 

[beenthere]

Is the chipper head direct drive, or belted up to a higher rpm than the 540 PTO rpm?

I've heard that at 540 rpm, they clog up easy and don't spit out chips very far.

Is that you in the video?

[thecfarm]

I've never used a chipper. But that hyd feed sounds good. My chipper is my brush pile. But know that is not an options for everyone.

[Piston]

It's direct drive to the PTO, not belted, so it spins at 540 as well.  That's my father in the video, he couldn't wait till I got home to try it, I don't blame him.  :D

Here are some pics of it, these are all pics either my wife or father took, I still haven't seen it in person  >:(

Here it is in the barn when my dad picked it up for me, then the next pic is the Kubota M9540 that he loaded it with.  I would have liked to take that tractor for a test drive  ;D
 

  

 


Here is the chipper after he unloaded it at my house.  Then finally on my tractor. 
 

  

 

Apparently the hydraulic feed is adjustable from slow to fast, and anywhere in between, then the large bar you see on the infeed shoot is what operates the infeed, outfeed, or neutral position of the feed rollers. 

[thecfarm]

If size matters,that will do the job.

[jdonovan]

I'd appreciate any advice on these chippers specifically, but also any advice on PTO chippers in general.  I've never used a chipper before aside from a cheap home depot model with a 1" capacity ONE time, so I am not at all familiar with them. 
So, if you have any advice, tips, tricks, or any info to share, I'm all ears.  smiley_bigears

I've got a bearcat that I run on a 45 PTO HP tractor. Mine has a sensor on the chipping disk so if it slows down to much it shuts down the feed till the engine can get it spun up again. Mine is a 10", and it takes a big log to cause it to pause.

The adjustable feed is very nice, and you can really make it work well if you've got consistently sized stuff. 

I find it takes 2-3 people to keep the chipper working full time and a mountain of brush can be chipped in short order.

Keep the knives sharp. As they dull it takes more power to chip. I got a knife sharpener that fits the blade, and I can open the knife access cover and give them a quick in the field tune up. Kinda like this one. http://www.amazon.com/AccuSharp-1-001-Knife-Sharpener/dp/B00004VWKQ/  I had to try a few before I got one that could work on such a thick blade.  I find about 6 hours of chipping per sharpening... but I can get through a lot of brush in that time.

Probably my most expensive attachement, but does so much work so fast its hard to imagine working the woods with out it.

[bill m]

I can't tell you anything specific about your chipper but I Know Vermeer makes a very good product. Keeping your knives sharp is important but keeping the anvil adjusted properly is just as important. One of the problems with using the hand held sharpener is getting the right angle. You need to hold it so it only puts a bevel on one side and those sharpeners are made to do both sides. If you start getting a bevel on the back side it will rob horsepower and some materials will not very well. Think about how well a plane would work if you put a bevel on both sides of the knife.

[jdonovan]

I use the hand sharpener to get the last hour of a days work in vs. changing a blade.  My chipper has 4 knives, and it takes quite a while to get them swapped out. Also requires tools I don't normally have with me in the field.

[bill m]

I tried using the hand sharpener one full season a long time ago but found that when I took the blades off and had them ground you had to take a lot of material off to eliminate the bevel on the back side. Over the long run I got a lot less life span out of the blades. It was better just to use a flat file to get thru the end of the day before a knife change.

[drobertson]

Nice looking piece of equipment piston, all thats left now is feeding the beast.

[Piston]

Ya feeding it could be a challenge with only one of me!  The chipper did come with an extra set of new blades so I'm hoping I'll be able to change them out without too much trouble, then sharpen the set that I take off when I have time. 

I plan on using the chipper a lot when I get back home.  I have a lot of cleanup from the storm and not to mention the random piles of brush I've accumulated over the years.  It seems to me that the most difficult part if using this, is going to be 'untangling' all the brush from the piles when I'm feeding the chipper. 

I've got a bearcat that I run on a 45 PTO HP tractor.

Have you put a 10" log through it?  If so, how does it take it?  That is a heck of a large log to chip and pretty impressive to say the least! According to the specs, I need 45hp for max rated capacity of my chipper.  I imagine you can get away with the larger chipper due to the speed sensor you mentioned.  That seems like a really nice feature to have! 

I lucked out on the price, I wouldn't be able to justify something this expensive if I had to pay what it's worth.  I will mostly only use it for personal use, although my dad already had a paying job with it this last Friday  :D

Do you use your chipper for business use? 

[Piston]

Here are the pics that my dad sent me from a storm cleanup job he did a couple days ago.

Before........


After.......


He said that between him and one other guy, they couldn't keep it fed.  He said as fast as you could load it it would chip it, although granted, most of the brush was on the small side, less than 3".  He did put a couple 5" limbs through it and said the tractor didn't even hiccup.  I'm pretty happy with that.   ;D

[thecfarm]

That's the way you want it. The chipper should be waiting for you. Sounds like you have a winner.

[jdonovan]

Have you put a 10" log through it?  If so, how does it take it?

9.5" pine, 9" poplar, and tried a 10.5" poplar. It jammed it in fairly tight and was a bit of work to un-stick it.

8" poplar, 50' long < 10-15 seconds.

I imagine you can get away with the larger chipper due to the speed sensor you mentioned.  That seems like a really nice feature to have! 

Without the speed sensor, you'd have to run it at a slower feed rate. With the sensor I can set it for very fast when working 3-4" brush, and the occassional 6-8 just causes it to pause, a time or two.

Do you use your chipper for business use?

Personal right now. Have 25 acres of woods, putting in roads, clearing a home site, sawmill site, drain field etc-al.

All the smaller/lower value stuff is getting chipped. The Va pines, smaller poplar, tree of heaven etc... The bigger stuff gets saved to be sawed, and some of the topps are becoming firewood. But a man can only use so much firewood, and I've mostly passed that point now, so quite a bit more chipping now.

Long term the chipper will help me dispose of/compost the slabs from the mill.

It seems to me that the most difficult part if using this, is going to be 'untangling' all the brush from the piles when I'm feeding the chipper

Put a set of forks on the loader, and spread out the pile some. When it becomes hard to pull sticks, shut the chipper down, and break up the pile again. Use the machine to do the grunt work, you do the finesse work.

[Jedjames]

The Vermeer 606 pto chipper is the same as the Vermeer BC625 towable, without the towability or engine. 625 = 6" capacity & 25 HP engine, typically a Kohler, sometimes a Honda. I have one. works great within it's limits/ a 6" log is hard to feed due to the feed roller spring tension. Parts are not cheap though.....

[711ac]

Treat it like your chainsaw, good sharp knives and clean wood. Preferably green, hard & dry is quicker to dull your knives. 
I had a tow behind Vermeer and a dealer handy for machining the knives. After a couple of years I renewed my relationship with fire (Burn piles) since all my use was on my farm. The anvil is important as mentioned above and iirc it requires periodic sharpening also. Matt you'll have to be patient with 40hp especially when getting up to the 6" range. 
It looks like a great machine in very nice condition. 👍