Wood chipper tow behind or pto

[MrRastos]

I have recently acquired 322 acres of woodand with about a mile of lakefrontage. I'm planning on managing the forest and at some point selling off lake lots. This will mean some cleanup for aethetics and road building.

Obviously I've outgrown my Chinese four inch pto chipper. It was ok for occassional yard work. Now I'm trying to decide between a used tow behind Vermeer 12" 1000xl with 85hp diesel, or a new Wallenstein 10" 102ri pto chipper with hydraulic intellifeed. I have an 80hp Kubota tractor.

The tractor and pto chipper would be easy to get around with, but then the tractor would be tied up and I'd be adding a lot of hours to an old machine.

The stand alone unit may be good to load with my log loader trailer and tractor, but then another engine to maintain and a 5000 pound machine to tow around that doesn't look off road friendly. Any opinions from those with experience?

[mike_belben]

tow behind, no question.  Dont tie up your only tractor if you have the option not to.  The tractor can do many things you will need to do, and swapping attachments will just make the whole project take longer as you steadily build resentment to spending cumulative hours switching attachments.  That resentment grows into "not today.. Maybe tomorrow."  

Switching attachments is unproductive time and its putting un-necessary hours on the tractor. Literally expending your chief tool tocdo something some other less critical, versatile tool could be expended for.


Let a chipper wear itself out chipping while your tractor stays young.  

[Tin Horse]

Mike seems to have point out the painful truth, at least in my case. I purchased a slightly used Wallenstien 72 Rx a few months back. I've got the timber winch on the back of the tractor and just don't get around to chipping. Haven't used it yet. I know if it was self contained it would have done work by now. I sure hope it holds its value. I'd opt for a tow behind next time.

[mudfarmer]

another engine to maintain and a 5000 pound machine to tow around that doesn't look off road friendly. Any opinions from those with experience?

With this in mind maybe don't rule out renting? I don't have a chipper but do build up piles to be chipped later, then rent a tow behind for a day and bang out a huge pile. No knives to sharpen, no engine to maintain. The models I have rented are not good offroad :-[ :-[ :-[

[btulloh]

Probably should think about hiring a forestry mulcher for some or most of that. They can do a lot of work in a short time and there are no limbs or anything else left to cleanup. Very efficient. 

[MrRastos]

There's too much work to rent long term, and I'm in a situation where I'd rather have money tied up in equipment than sitting in the bank, especially these days. Having said that it may be a good idea to rent a tow behind chipper for a day to see if it's a good fit before I buy anything. 

As for hiring it done, this land is my long term project, and I'd like to do anything I can do myself. 

[MrRastos]

Anyone here ever load a chipper with a log loader? Is it worth considering? 

[Clark]

Anyone here ever load a chipper with a log loader? Is it worth considering?

Yes and it is very efficient. It would be pretty efficient, if the tractor has a claw/tongs on the bucket to pick up a load, bring it to the chipper and feed it with the tractor or by hand off the bucket. Of course, if you had a ball mounted in the bucket you could pull the chipper around and possibly never set foot on the ground.

Clark

[230Dforme]

Good evening

I bought a Eager Beaver 290 a few 
years ago, $ 6800
Original condition, not beat up, believe 
from municipality
Great machine, no issues
I load into dump truck

I think for chippers, you need that engine and the flywheel mass

I would like a larger one, but the pricing 
is 20, 30, 40K ...
And I would keep this one 

Heavy machine, but a workhorse 

[BargeMonkey]

 We feed our chipper all the time with a mini excavator or log loader, best way to go. 
 Like mike said ☝️ unless it's a rarely used attachment I cant justify a PTO chipper. I've got a BC-XL1800 Vermeer, winch all that fun stuff, if they say a chipper is good for 18" it will run great with 12" stuff, unless your into a BIG chipper they never run at full capacity and like it, apply that math to the 10-12" chipper your looking at. 85hp tractor shouldn't have a problem moving that 12" vermeer chipper. Your going to find that if feeding decent sized stuff you want that chipper hooked to something, tractor, truck, we normally leave it hooked to our track skidsteer, put in a decent tree it will tip down. 

[Onthesauk]

The Verneer's use to show up at auctions often here in the NW, don't know about your area.

[MrRastos]

We feed our chipper all the time with a mini excavator or log loader, best way to go.
Like mike said ☝️ unless it's a rarely used attachment I cant justify a PTO chipper. I've got a BC-XL1800 Vermeer, winch all that fun stuff, if they say a chipper is good for 18" it will run great with 12" stuff, unless your into a BIG chipper they never run at full capacity and like it, apply that math to the 10-12" chipper your looking at. 85hp tractor shouldn't have a problem moving that 12" vermeer chipper. Your going to find that if feeding decent sized stuff you want that chipper hooked to something, tractor, truck, we normally leave it hooked to our track skidsteer, put in a decent tree it will tip down.

I have an old IH 434 gas tractor that should be able to move the chipper around. 

[krusty]

I have been helping a buddy who is an arborist and he has a power feed towable with a 3 cyl deutz on it. Man I need one of those! It would be easy to pull behind tractor, unhitch and use at your work area. I can generally feed it as fast as it can chip by hand. Also consider renting it out to a responsible person for some extra cash. I am always amazed at how many people buy new equipment, or expensive equipment only to have it sit there without being used. Any machine needs to be making $$ 40 hours a week. Well especially if you paid big $$ for it :D