Mitts and Merrill 720 opinion

Do you have a chipper already? If not, the c & d works just fine, on straight branches, without thorns. I really have to emphasise that last one lol. Here's my chipmore i got for $1100, think i got an injector tip i gotta swap, but she's a beast. Can fill up my pickup in a hurry, if you get everything cut and stacked right. If you are going to be hand feeding it 3" on down roughly, i don't see how you could beat an old school c&d. As soon as it hits the drum it's in the truck. That being said, I'm trying to get away from chipping as i have a dump spot for the brush, and i hate cleaning up chips from a block down the street lol

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  • #3
I do not have a chipper currently. I don't have a dump spot close, or free. We pay $18 a trailer load to drop brush at the local mulch place. I'd like to get a dump trailer and a chipper and just ran across this one. I figure I'll buy it, try to get it running and use it for now, OR throw it on Craigslist if I can't fix it and let someone else try!

I figure a what, 4 to 1 reduction roughly? If I can make less trips I'm saving a lot of time and decent money. Figure probably 30-60 minutes round trip, plus the 20-30 minute unload time with one guy unloading the trailer, x 2-3 trips a day.
 
Bring a pry bar and see how much slop is in the bearings on the drum. Take the side covers off too. Those bearings are where the money will dissappear to if they're bad. But in reality, at 500 you will probably be fine. I wouldn't just discount whatever motor is on it, check it out before you swap it, might just need a couple parts and you are good. Mine i bought non running, some dipshit put an extra spring on the fuel solenoid, took that off and it fired right up lol

No dump spot close then a chipper is the way to go. Get your self an arbor trolley next, and at least a 3/4 ton truck, preferably a 1 ton. Make a plywood chip box that just sits in the bed, a loadhandler tarp dump and you are good to go. I can fit a medium sized maple tree in chips before i have to go dump. A dump trailer is gonna be nicer to have, but will cost way more than a grand.
 
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  • #6
I've got an Arbor Trolley already, and we just picked up a Load handler. We were going to try the LH first and see how much we could unload. A dump trailer would be ideal, but it's later down the road! Hopefully the chipper hasn't sold. He had a guy coming to look at it today. We'll see...
 
Me neither, the hours you put into that would be better used climbing trees and paying the finance on something usable.
 
Couple tips w the loadhandler, first the wheel wells are your enemy, so build a box that goes in between them. Secondly, get a super slick surface to use it on, the more friction and rusted bed it has to ride on the worse it will do. Finally, i welded on a 3/4 socket and use a big 3/4 rachet to dump with, because i lost the handle, but it works better imo because you can do it on the pull stroke only. Is it as good as a dump truck, hell no, but it moves chips decently. Logs not so much. Lots of line clearance crews here still run the c&d machines, simple to keep running, and if you don't have a machine to feed it, they do just fine. My buddy has a 9" vermeer, but it works so damn slow after using my c&d i thought it was broken at first lol. It will take a bigger log, but on that size machine it's quicker to just toss them in the truck
 
I have probably $4k into my Chuck and duck, purchase and mechanic repairs, beyond maintenance. I've had it now for 10 of its 40 years. It doesn't like the heat so much any more. Probably like to get a second chipper soon as possible, but want to finance a house instead.

An old employee wanted to rent mine from me instead of a bc1000, again. Same trees.
Fast fast fast on straight limbs. The longer the better.

Hydraulics have some major perks.
I don't think the "dangerous" CnD are the ones that eat people. Face screens for all chippers imo.

A hard used hydraulic machine might have more maintenance.

That telescoping, swiveling chute is a HUGE improvement over a straight discharge chute, or straight with a side/ROW discharge door.

Your never going to get a hydraulic chipper for $1000, and some hours.

If you have more time than tree jobs, seems like a reasonable risk.

Be certain you can get blades and anvils, and the blade mounting isn't screwed up in any way.

Having a back up for is huge, if you upgrade.

I have 4 trailers, one day for months unused. Yesterday, I need it. It costs me $35 for tabs a year. Backup save money.
 
I vote not worth the effort. In Ohio those can be had in running condition for 2,500 to 3,000. By the time you fight through getting that one operational I would wager you will have about that much in it.
 
Sean, i agree, the c&ds don't eat people as long as they don't do dumb shit like kick or push small pieces in with their hand. The first thing you don't when running one is make a push stick from a limb, and leave it under the chute so it's always right there. I wear my handsaw on my leg as i chip, so that way a quick stroke will put a notch that allows you to shove wider branches in by them tearing. Don't try to feed too many rakings in at once, maybe a small armful then a good branch to suck it all in. The whole tree chippers scare me, with the massive power and huge limbs. I read somewhere that the danger with them is when you are walking away and the limb twists in the rollers, limb smacks you, then sucks you in as you are trying to figure out what just happened. Rare I'm sure, quicker than my little c&d for sure, costs more than i paid for my house, but will make you more money. The c&d is a good starter chipper for sure tho, and for $1000 and a week of messing with it after work for a few hours you will have something that will make you more money than what you had before. I guess it's how you want to grow your business. Some guys finance gear, and make more money sooner. Some idiots like me don't want to assume more debt right now (esp part time guys like me), so we must make do with what we can, buy older gear, wrench on it, and then work it to the ground lol.
 
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  • #16
It was gone to the first guy that called. I don't have enough work to justify a monthly payment on one right now, so the "fiddle with it to get it running" time wouldn't have bothered me. If I could've had it running for under a grand I'd've been happy. It costs us $180-300 a day to rent one depending on 6" or 12". That's fine if you get everything done in one day, but every additional day really eats into any profit. That's why we usually haul and dump. I do have some big trees I could anchor to and roll the brush off the trailer with, but we haven't tried it yet. I assume you're talking about a couple ropes/straps anchored at the back of the trailer, run up to the front and the brush laid on top? Then lay the rope back over the top and anchor behind the trailer and drive forward?
 
My first chip was a Wayne CnD. F*ck did that thing lay a flogging on yah if you gave it a moments inattenton. Sure beat cutting brush down in the back of the truck with a saw though.
 
They are aptly named! I always used to laugh as I warned anyone that ran it. You will bleed by the end of the day, so don't be shocked when it happens.
 
Lol the best is when they are like "yeah i know how to do this" then the thing whips them like a red headed stepchild, then they just look at you like what happened lol that's the best.
 
I will get some pictures and post them when I get back to the shop. I don't really do it anymore but I'm sure I can get the method shown with the back of my dump truck.
 
It was gone to the first guy that called. I don't have enough work to justify a monthly payment on one right now, so the "fiddle with it to get it running" time wouldn't have bothered me. If I could've had it running for under a grand I'd've been happy. It costs us $180-300 a day to rent one depending on 6" or 12". That's fine if you get everything done in one day, but every additional day really eats into any profit. That's why we usually haul and dump. I do have some big trees I could anchor to and roll the brush off the trailer with, but we haven't tried it yet. I assume you're talking about a couple ropes/straps anchored at the back of the trailer, run up to the front and the brush laid on top? Then lay the rope back over the top and anchor behind the trailer and drive forward?

You can use a cinching method that will compact the brush, rather than "parbuckling" the brush.

Both have their places.


What is the set-up of your brush dump spot? Can you leave a movable anchor point?
 
Doesn't look like today will work for pictures but let me see if I can explain while I sit here waiting for a customer.

First off you will need a bull rope, for example using 1/2" arborplex and having it snap won't help you.

Lay the rope across the back half of the trailer, straight across, with about 8' hanging of one side and the rope in a pile on the other.

Stack your brush on it with the butts facing the back of the trailer. Not sure if you have experience using Chuck and duck chippers but if you do trim the brush the same way you would to run it into one when you stack it on the trailer. You will get a lot more on it that way.

When the trailer is loaded take the short end of rope and tie a running bowline with the longer end so the rope will choke the brush.

When you get to the dump back up to something solid, such as your other truck or a tree. The straighter the better.

Tie off to that with a knot that can be untied under load. I used to just get a few wraps on a tree in my back lot so I could get it off, because it will be tight and under load when you yank the load off.

When I used to do this we could get a 16' trailer unloaded in about 5 minutes.
 
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