What do you look for in a used wood chipper?

[Modat22]

I'm thinking about buying a used wood chipper from a tree service to sell the chips to horse farms around my area (and to make cleanup easier).

I've never used one and don't know what I'm looking at, what are some areas I need to inspect on one of these beasts?

[Dale Hatfield]

you can sell chips... Most tree services around here are looking for places to get rid of them. Horse farm?????
What style chipper? Drum /disc
used drum cheap Also know as a chuck and duck
Used disc self feed not as cheap but more user friendly.

[logwalker]

I think the horse people can be pretty picky as to how they want their chips. I would be interviewing a few to find out. Maybe you have already done this. Joe

[ADAMINMO]

Don't buy it from a widow who didn't like her husband !! :D :D :D Or vice versa!!

[Modat22]

Hmm I'm not sure, I assume the ones I'm seeing for sale are the old dangerous husband killer chippers. Tow behind type, powered by a 30 to 60 HP wisconsin engine.

[moosehunter]

 I have a Valby three point hitch chipper. I believe it is a 150 model. I run it with my 40hp Kubota. I was sure it was big enough when I bought it. It's not :(
So think big. Then think a little bigger.
I thought I would chip all of my slabs with it as the infeed of the machine is 6x9 inches. It'll take that size, but it doesn't like it!
It does chip trees (round stock) very well. I had a job in June that I chipped over grown christmas trees for 6 hours straight. It worked great. Just doesn't seem to like any thing with a cut side on it, like slabs.

[wesdor]

I bought a Wallenstein about a month ago.  It chips up to 4".  Bigger than that is firewood to me.  I run it on my John Deere 4310.  Cost was $2300 and I am rather impressed with it.

Of course it isn't a stand alone, but if that isn't a requirement you might consider it.

[Dale Hatfield]

Most of the husband style killer chippers are what we know as a drum chipper. A drum with knives turning couter clockwise  with and anvil  below. all that i have been around ran off of ford 300 6cyl motors. hand set clutch and a belt drive. shut down time is long as you have to wait for drum to stop turning. They dont really like dead wood or slabs. and willow will smack you in the back side before you know what happens. They grab the branch from your hand. Hence the name chuck and duck.
Dale

[Furby]

Anyone want to give a ball park figure on what the chuck and duck, drum chippers are selling for?

[raycon]

$1500-$4500 in CT.
I have an old chipmore with a 4 cylinder Wisconsin on it.

Chips green limbs up to about 7-8" real well.
Slabs its like climb milling on a milling machine with a bad feed. It tends to take to much of a
chip/cut once it gets the slab moving through the cutter.  I still use it to chip slabs though. Real basic mechanical machine. What Dale said is pretty much my experiences as well.

[Mike_Barcaskey]

couple things
chips produced by a wood chipper are not wanted for livestock bedding (at least around here). the chips are too big and not of uniform size to be easily handled or very absorbant.
what is used is the chips from routers; smaller, thin curly-q's.
the shops that mill base and mouldings package their chips in large brown paper bags and sell by the "bale"

as for the "drum style" chippers, they are dangerous and do not produce as uniform chip as the "feed drum and cutter wheel style"
I believe it is against OSHA regs to let an employee run a "chuck and duck"

Vermeer has a screener that you can use in addition to a chipper to achieve uniform size or you can look at a Rotochopper to reduce the size of bigger chips. But they will still be chips and not very absorbant

also don't send any walnut chips to a horse farm, guess it's poisonous

[Warren]

Modat,

I've been looking at this over the past several months relative to turning cedar slabs into horse bedding also.  It seems the old drum style chippers produce chips that are variable in size and shape depending on what you feed them, how you feed them, moisture content, etc. I am not familiar with the safety issues.  My local tree guy had one for sale a few months ago for about $2,500.  The disk type chippers (Valby, Echo-Crary Bobcat) look like they can be adjusted (gap between knife and anvil) to vary the thickness of the chip.  Probably need some type of screen to recycle material until it reaches a desired particle size.  The Valby CH260 has a screen availble to crush chips down to desired size. All of the disk chipper mfg'ers recommend a hydraulic infeed roller to produce uniform chip size.  That adds another 40% to 50% to the cost of the units.

I finally bit the bullet and bought a used hammer mill from a mulch business that has multiple screens to vary the particle size.  Hope to get it home and set up in the next month.  I am betting that offering cedar bedding (with that wonderful cedar aroma!) will be more attractive to the horsey crowd than the ground pallet scrap from the local pallet shop..  I've already had a couple local ag business offer to provide referrals once I am up and running. 

Currently planning to sell by the cubic yard.  Have not settled yet on a price.   Any pricing input from other FF members would be greatly appreciated....

Warren

[dancan]

i've been using a bandit 90 for over 2 years (true 9") and does most of what i need it to do (except this week so look at my wanted listing) if the blades are sharp and the anvil is set at the correct gap the chips are clean and uniform .
things i have learned the hard way about disc style chippers is to look at the disc where the blades are bolted to make sure that the holes are still round and to much metal has not been eroded from the disc from rocks and gravel being chipped along with brush , hoses may need to be replaced at any given time without notice (at least they are cheap) , bearings that may have only greased once (from factory) may let you down the day before you are ready to start a larger clean-up , the trailer  may be in need for a suspension and light overhaul for DOT road legal ,if the used unit looks like it's been outside all it's life ... well it has so look for signs or places where water has gotten in like crankcase or down the uncovered exhaust pipe , check all bolts ,the hardware that holds the anvil (cause that sure makes some awful noise that i never ever want tot hear again ever)  and replace the ones that hold the knifes .
inspect the knives and look for abuse or cracks , try to compare to a new one to see if it has been sharpened a lot and what they cost , if they use pairs of blades per slot make sure they are the same thickness and width.
twigs , branches and brush don't make good chips
rotten wood can plug a machine if feed is to fast and your low on hp

don't know much about horses but i do know that the "in" crowd sure  will spend money on a horse

hope this helps

[barryinmn]

I bought a Ford V8 330cid 16" Lindig drum chipper 5 years ago for $800. Definitely a  maneater.
First thing to look at is engine condition. Second is bearings, third is blades. Not much else as drum machines are pretty simple.