What to look for in used small chippers

[Patrick A]

On the hunt for the the perfect used 6 to 8" diameter capable brush chipper. I see two main types around. The automatic centrifugal clutch and some with an engagement bar (Rayco RC6D). Anyone familiar with one or the other type and what can go wrong with these engagement systems? Engines (Honda, Kohler) seem to be off the shelf unlike the bigger chipper engines that are built in the chipper. To be specific, I am looking at a used Rayco 6" and a used Altec 6" and the differences/similarities.

Thanks

 

[Bermy]

Ok so mine isn't either of those brands but it is a 6" automatic clutch, i.e as soon as you start it the disk starts turning.
I've ad it two years and I am the third owner, so far so good. Every now and then I inspect the belts for tension and wear. Running down to near idle at the end of the job seems to be an important issue, my instruction manual says not to run it at less than 2000rpm, just shut it off...
Mine has an auto feed, I had to re-set the tacho to get it to operate properly, the old owner had it all wrong.

When I started looking at used chippers the guys here said GREASE, look for grease. If there is lots then odds are the owner has been diligent in greasing the important stuff.
If anything that shouldn't wobble, wobbles, that's not good...disk bearings etc. If you read a manual before you go look at it, you'll know more what to look for.
Check the condition of the anvil and the knives, bashed and dinged up might indicate they haven't been very nice to it...and has implications for how well or badly it might have been maintained and operated
Check the usual stuff on the engine, mine's a little diesel, I like diesel.
Make sure emergency controls work as they are supposed to.
Someone also said, bring some bits of wood, get them to fire up the chipper and see how well it actually chips.
I replaced the knives and flipped the anvil and reset the gap on mine, the old owner had the gap way too wide.

Always carry a spare set of knives and fasteners...against the day you chip a 3/8" bolt...yeah.

 

[Patrick A]

Thanks, it all makes sense. I asked the Morbark/Boxer rep about the automatic clutch and its maintenance and did not get much info. I will definitely have some wood to try the candidates.

 

[Merle Nelson]

Bits of wood....., bring a truck load at the least. Chip what you intend for it to do for you. As in if you thought a 6 inch chipper was going to chip 6 inch limbs every day make sure you have plenty of that in your load.

More to follow....

Definitely search out Bermy thread when she bought her small chipper - good info there.

 

[Bermy]

...different kinds of 6" wood too, dry, green...what is your usual chipper fodder?
I get lots of elm, ash, sweetgum, oak, no problem.
My chipper hates leafy tops of eucalyptus, It just goes round and round.

 

[frans]

Bits of wood....., bring a truck load at the least

Definitely search out Bermy thread when she bought her small chipper - good info there.

Hey Merle could you give an exact link? I can't seem to find the thread...

 

[Patrick A]

Mostly hardwoods: lots of maples, cherry and hemlock branches from topped trees that developed many leaders.

 

[Bermy]

Just bring some of that along when you go to look...different sizes too.

 

[Stumpshot]

Probably not much Osage Orange around your parts, but that's our gold standard for chipper showdown test fodder! American elm can be twisty and curved, too -- so it's a good test. But if you do a lot of that (and full pine tops), you'll probably wish you had a bigger throat anyway! 18x24" feed wheel opening, slightly bigger throat is good for our nearly exclusive hardwood diet!

 

[frans]

Thanks, it all makes sense. I asked the Morbark/Boxer rep about the automatic clutch and its maintenance and did not get much info. I will definitely have some wood to try the candidates.

Make sure you have a variety of stuff to chip for your demo. Anyone wanting a small chipper is going to chip all kinds of stuff. Palm, mushy green stalks, clean logs, looong cypress/juniper type limbs, weak floppy green material, etc etc

I searched Long and hard for a light weight chipper I could easily pull with a pickup but still do the job.
I lucked out with the gravely 9" chipper. Not made anymore to my knowledge, but they are still around.

Another point to consider, disk or drum? If disk, beware of the angled disk. It leaves a 'dead' spot which jamms sticks and brush into it causing a job shut down (refer to me saying bring different crap to demo)
I was super impressed with this tiny morbark chipper: it is a drum, but wow! Drop crap into it and it would work it out!

I looked at:
dosko: yea...works sorta. Not willing to overlook crappy performance while weighing my purchase price vrs performance
Bandit: the angled cutter disk is worthless. The manufacture should be spanked. IF you buy the right angle cutter disk, AND you buy the optional Diesel engine, that is a good buy. Except for the weight for easily hauling around with a little 4x4 to get into backyards.
Vermeer. No models I know of that cater to small professional operations
In short, the Morebark drum is surprising competent
Gravely 9" is the only one with full on Diesel engine, heavy clutch, disk chipper, and easily sourced parts.
If you have money to burn, buy a bandit 90XP with the deautz (sp) engine

That's all I got for advice buddy!

 

[SkwerI]

I've done tree work for 30 years and never owned my own chipper. I mostly worked as a freelance climber then as a freelance bucket truck owner/operator. 18 months ago I actually hired an employee and then built my business to focus on full service for my customers instead of freelancing. I bought a chipper and chip truck for my employee to drive.

My first chipper was a 9" Brush Bandit. Great little machine and did quite well, but it only took 2-3 months to figure out it was way too small for me. I then found a 13" Morbark drum chipper local to me, pointed out by a fellow forum member who lives in Virginia and saw it on Equipment Trader. It was twice my budget and then needed a couple thousand dollars of work but it has turned out to be an excellent investment.

My advice is to double your budget and buy a machine twice as big as what you're currently looking at. Buy the biggest machine your truck can pull (and then next year you can buy a bigger truck). If you're going to make a living with it then you need something big enough to support the workload required to make a decent living. Those machines you're looking at are probably fine for hobby work but not big enough to ever make you any decent money.

 

[MasterBlaster]

A 9" is fine if most of your jobs are on the small side and you do a lot of trimming, but if you ever start doing lots of TDs you will definitely need to go bigger.

 

[Stumpshot]

A year ago we were chipping almost exclusively, unless it was prime milling wood (white oak, black walnut) or good keeper firewood (osage, ash). Now with our grapple truck, we're saving most logs and just chipping brush (who'da thought the BC in BC1800 stands for "brush chipper"?). So ironically, even though we're taking down huge trees that others don't want to touch, we're chipping a lot less and now have thoughts for a 12-14" Bandit for most work, esp. if we roll out with a bucket truck with a forestry package. That plus the log truck would handle most of our job profiles. The current chip truck and larger 18" chipper would be relegated to more extreme jobs to cut down on loads to the chip dump. So ironically, we would be sizing down equipment even as we are growing!

 

[frans]

I've done tree work for 30 years and never owned my own chipper. I mostly worked as a freelance climber then as a freelance bucket truck owner/operator. 18 months ago I actually hired an employee and then built my business to focus on full service for my customers instead of freelancing. I bought a chipper and chip truck for my employee to drive.

My first chipper was a 9" Brush Bandit. Great little machine and did quite well, but it only took 2-3 months to figure out it was way too small for me. I then found a 13" Morbark drum chipper local to me, pointed out by a fellow forum member who lives in Virginia and saw it on Equipment Trader. It was twice my budget and then needed a couple thousand dollars of work but it has turned out to be an excellent investment.

My advice is to double your budget and buy a machine twice as big as what you're currently looking at. Buy the biggest machine your truck can pull (and then next year you can buy a bigger truck). If you're going to make a living with it then you need something big enough to support the workload required to make a decent living. Those machines you're looking at are probably fine for hobby work but not big enough to ever make you any decent money.

Good advice Brian. My business plan depends on zero debt. I will not work to pay off a loan. Ever.
But, in a business sense, you can offset loan costs with taxes, etc etc.
just not for me.
I always figure I can instantly walk away from tree work, drive my trucks off a cliff and feel no pain. Maybe I am old school

 

[treebilly]

As long as you’re not in the trucks when they go over the cliff.

You can make a lot happen with a 9” chipper. I started with an old aspen c&d. The thing was a terrible pain in the ass, but it beat stacking on a trailer. Then I bought a 12” Vermeer (bc1250). I ran that for quite a while. That chipper made a lot of money for me. I replaced the engine and shortly after bought a bandit 250xp. It is a beast compared to the Vermeer. I kept the Vermeer as a spare but am finally gonna sell it. Some days I wish it was bigger but it works well for my “side work” and for my trucks. In a pinch I can tow it with my Tahoe but still is big enough to get stuff done in a hurry.

 

[Patrick A]

Good discussion going on. Thanks for all the chiming in! @Rich. The Chuck and Duck is a drum based design, right?

 

[Altissimus]

I love my Morbark 7" w Deutz Diesel ... Industrial grade yet small

 

[treebilly]

Yes. C&D chippers are great for getting rid of long,straight, smaller size limbs in a hurry. After getting a chipper with feed rollers, I would never go back to a c&d.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Just say no to C & D chippers.

 

[Tree09]

I love mine. But having said that, I'll going to no chip in the future. It's all in how and where you have to lose material. Compared to a 6" feed wheel machine i would think one was broken in a race against my $1100 c&d. Knowing what i know now, i would rather buy a truck, dump trailer, mini, then consider a chipper. Material handling for the win and a chipper consolidates material, not handles it. A big one with a winch is a different story tho...

 

[Merle Nelson]

My chipper hates leafy tops of eucalyptus, It just goes round and round.

How do you deal with tops - that material?

Hey Merle could you give an exact link? I can't seem to find the thread...

https://www.masterblasterhome.com/s...ng-at-a-used-chipper&highlight=small+chippers

Frans I typed small chipper in the searchbar and it was about 8 or 10 down on the list. If I didn't find it that way I would have gone to Bermy's profile since she posted the thread and looked back through her old posts till I found that thread.

 

[Bermy]

I mix up what goes in, don't feed all leafy stuff at the same time, mix some larger branches in then chuck a log in after.
I think years of cutting to load my truck lead me to cut stuff too small, cutting for the chipper, I now leave things longer so there is more branch wood going in along with the leaves.
Eucalyptus leaves are kinda like palms...long and stringy. But then I don't cut a lot of euc.

Fit the size of the chipper to the size of your work, most of my work is fine pruning, 6" is adequate, anything bigger than that is firewood, any large logs, I hire my mate with a truck and loader.

 

[CurSedVoyce]

Bandit disc and an older Morbark, both being 6" disk, worked best for me thus far. Hated the Vermeer and Rayco.

 

[Merle Nelson]

Yeah Fiona (Bermy) finessing it. I think a lot of people underestimate the value of finessing it.

Stephen maybe you could say what you didn't like about the Rayco. ( I had heard to watch out for them, but forget what or why.)

Patrick if you can I would get a Bandit into the comparison for a chipper you want. If you think Frans is on the mark about 45 degree angle disk chippers they make a 95XP that feeds perpendicular to the feed wheels (marketed toward a lot of palm and vine stuff), and I think the 75XP may be perpendicular too. I don't have a lot of trouble with that problem because I feed my older 6 inch Bandit in a way to minimize it and I had hydraulic lift and crush put on my new 9 inch Bandit so I can lift feed wheels and clear easily if they jam.

You're right chuck and ducks are drum. But as frustrating as they can be because you can get slapped by material so often, they can work fine and make money. They still produce them and sell them new to a lot of line clearance crews - a lot of small material disposal.

A post or two here recommended buying a much bigger chipper than you had planned. I know we are all different, I could make money forever with my custom built 90XP and doing mostly pruning like I love, and removals 7 foot dia and bigger when I want to. I could even go back to just a 6 or 7 inch chipper if I wanted to only use a pick up to work, and make plenty of money. (Hope my wife doesn't see this because after a tracked lift I want to get a tracked 15 or 18 inch chipper.) I love nice equipment.

One thing I would recommend, over investigate. Study and research here and elsewhere on the web. When you think you might want x chipper google from different angles "problems with x chipper." Rent and try different chippers you think you might want. When you narrow it down trade time - go and help out for a day someone who has the exact machine you want to buy if you have to. A chipper can save you tons of work, the wrong chipper can add to your frustration and workload.

 

[Bermy]

By the sounds of it I did well with my little Chipstar, 6.5 x 12" opening, lift and crush hydraulic feed wheel with auto feed, 27hp deutz diesel...yeah I'm smiling.