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.