Advise me on a wood chipper purchase

I'm looking for a used heavy duty but hopefully portable (I suppose it could be trailer-mounted) wood chipper. I will shortly start wood chipping a la "Return To Eden" and have several acres that currently are barren of all topsoil. I have several hundred acres of woods so prime material will not be hard to find, but the farm is quite mountainous so accessibility is not so easy.

Since I live in Costa Rica, I will have whatever I eventually buy shipped to Miami and then by sea to my country.

Any ideas and/or suggestions will be appreciated.

You are likely looking for a gas powered chipper. We have an awesome electric chipper that my husband built using a MacKissic chipper shredder. It needs a 220V circuit for its 5HP farm duty motor. (If you're used to gas engines, that won't sound like much power, but it's actually maybe too much power.)

Also, we are in Wisconsin, so shipping to Florida would be difficult.

two questions:

What kind of power do you want: gas, diesel, electric, or PTO from a tractor?

How big of stuff do you want to chip? Keep in mind that the chipper size listed is for chipping a perfectly round straight piece, no branches. If you want to feed a Y without close-cutting if, you need a much bigger size than the actual wood.

To Julia, thanks for the response. I went to the MacKissic webpage and the 12PHT Commericial model sounds good but a new one costs more than $7.000.00, which is more than I can spend. A used one might be ok, however.

To R Scott, I would prefer a diesel version if possible but gasoline is perfectly ok. Electric is not practical since much of my farm is mountainous and I would have to tow a trailer with a 4x4 Land Rover to get close to the best sites. I don't have a tractor so PTO is not an option either. Regarding size of wood for chipping, I have 500 acres and lots of branches to choose from but I suppose 3-4 inch diameter is what I have in mind

Rick,

I spent about 6 months looking for the right affordable chipper. I assume your looking for a new one since buying used long distance is really iffy. What you want from what you describe and mention budget wise, I would suggest you look at the Wallenstein choppers, chipper/shredders. http://www.embmfg.com/forestry/chippers/BXT

Their videos were the ONLY ones which showed self-feeding branches with limbs. If you notice all the others show their 3 or 4" branches as neatly trimmed sticks. Which brings up another point. Are you planing on just doing just 3 or 4" branches? If you plan on doing limbs smaller than an inch or two than you should consider a chipper/shredder, which is what I have, since for the most part anything bigger than 3" I use for firewood or let it rot in place. The model I have has a Honda engine and the shredder will grab things out of your hand-it's wicked!

I have the BXMT 3204 and have no complaints. Cost = $4000. Even at that cost you shouldn't expect any sort of high end production rate. But those on Permies who are familiar with my writing,know I'm in to slowness .

Thanks Michael,

The link you posted doesn't work but this one does:

http://www.embmfg.com/Forestry/Chippers/BXT.aspx

They look very nice and I will definitely consider this make. Your point regarding chipper/shredder is also well taken.

If I may pick your brains a bit (not literally as Hannibal Lecter might do), do you have an opinion regarding Husqvarna wood chippers? The reason I ask is that they retail here in Costa Rica, complete with guarantees and spare parts.

Rick,

I can't comment on Husqvarna . I looked at a lot of videos,read forums and the comments about Wallenstein were consistently positive. That said having a local dealer would be a strong consideration in my opinion. Again in this price range don't expect a rapid feed rate. It's more a consideration of whether it's self feeding, whether the stem can handle a cluster of attached branches. If I overfeed the wallenstein (and I have) it's fairly easy to un jam it. What ever you do, because of the magnitude of your chippable material don't settle for anything, used or new,that's less than semi professional.

Michael

Michael,

Thanks much for your thoughts. I agree totally, whatever I get will be tough and (hopefully) as dummy-proof as possible.

We got a Woodchuck WC/11 (Deutz diesel engine 62 HP, 600 hours, 10" chipping capacity, very nice).
We are selling /renthal the chipper or we can do the cleaning work for you.
Visit us at www.maderasrecicladas.com
We are in Orotina, Costa Rica

Rick Lane wrote:Michael,

Thanks much for your thoughts. I agree totally, whatever I get will be tough and (hopefully) as dummy-proof as possible.