I have a whole bunch of saplings that I need to address on my property. Just trash trees that need to go to make room for the good stuff to grow. So I have been looking at wood chippers to turn that trash into something useful. I am thinking that anything 4 inches in diameter and up I can use for firewood but the stuff that is below that and there is plenty of it, I could chip into mulch for the trails and garden walk ways etc. A PTO unit for the tractor would be ideal but is out of my budget, so I wave been looking around and found this thing. seem decently made and has a spout on it that allows me to blow the chips into an IBC tote or trailer. Do any of you have this thing or would reccoment something different that would fit my needs ?? Any input much appreciated. And no I am not going to buy a bass boat to chip the brush, trees etc on my property.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/DK2-3-i...09364392?ITC=AUC-179600-23-12140#overlay

I have a bigger DR, and it has done very well with no problems. It can be pulled down the road too.

I would seriously consider renting. A vermeer 6 inch or similar is pretty cheap to rent and will actually chip 4 inch material. I wouldn't want to chip anything much over an inch with the small units like you posted. A local tree service would likely be willing to give or sell you a load of chips and you would save over $1,000 and likely some fusteration

I'd go with the PTO or a DR.

Not a cheap one..They're just headaches.

Renting is going to be way ore expensive than buying as I have to do this sort of work when I have the time and the weather cooperates. I have 45 acres of woodland with some pretty steep slopes on it. I'll likely be doing this a half acre at a time and once I am through, I can start again at the beginning i would think. Its like painting a large bridge. its never really done. Larger units or PTO driven are just not in the budget

If you could find an old "chuck and duck" it would work really good for your application and not cost much more than a new small unit.

For chippers Vermeer is top notch.

I have a 635 and have no problem chipping 6" material. The nice thing about a smaller one is low fuel consumption, and portability.

The bad thing with renting is most places have no problem sending out a half dull machine. You are paying full price for a machine doing less than half it's capability.

If you buy a low quality unit most likely it will shake it's self to pieces. And resale will be poor.

WS

Scuba, here are some pics of my DR that has a 18 horse vanguard. Sorry didn't get it out in the open, hope you can see it well enough. Been a good machine, maybe they have some factory rebuilds or used equipment.

Well, it depends...lol

Frankly I wouldn't want to chip that much product, on 45 acres I'd probably make brushpiles for your wild critters, anything over a couple inches will make firewood. A tree guy would likely give you all the chippings you want for free for a place to dump it.

I had to rent a unit to turn several really large trees worth of branches into chips, it was a long day....I borrowed a small one to chip an out of control wisteria vine that took over my house, it worked ,but another long day....

Unless you insist on a park like landscape, ,,,like my grandfather....he was German too,

I have a pto driven one, a woodmaxx, I think its the 8800?
It has top driven feed rollers.
I had a smaller gravity fed one that had a briggs engine.
No comparison.
Nothing worse than the gravity feed, you have to stand by it alot to make sure stuff fed in.

If I had to buy again I'd buy the larger Woodmaxx with top and bottom in feed rollers.
Occasionally stuff will need to be pushed in to keep it going.

Couple of issues with a chipper.
1st if your chipping stuff in the woods you'll spend way more time picking stuff up walking it to the chipper and walking out to get the next one. The chipper will be running without material in it way more than chipping.
2nd Type of wood you chip makes a BIG difference. I can chip as big as stuff as I can fit in the chipper as long as its popple, pine, spruce but Sugar maple and Ironwood, Forget about it, it'll chip about 1/2 the size of softer wood.
3rd I find you have to chip into something or you spend too much time pickup and shoveling chips. I chip into a yard trailer with 4ft high sides on it.

To be honest I have thought of selling mine, the chips are nice and if there is a big pile of stuff to chip it goes fast. But when you have to walk around to get stuff to chip it isn't worth the work.
I rather work in a small area and toss the stuff on pile then burn it. Added benefit of burning is the resulting ash pile is a great place to seed with grasses and forbs.

Resettled on this little thing for now. I am sure to upgrade at a later date, but for now it will do what needs done.

just watch for the mud on the branches = blade dullers-pdq

If were me and like we do all the time is burn it. Pile all unwanted branches and unusable material and burn it. Cheap and less labor involved.

I want the wood chips for the gardens as our soil here is pretty poor stuff and needs every bit of help we can give it. I get what you are saying and would love to take the easy way out of this one, but Woodchips are a resource I can't ignore.

Go to your local Electrical Supplier and see if you can have their chips from when they cut/trim trees. Tell them you have a place for them to dump a few loads. Here we can get all the chip a man could use if you ask them for them. It wouldn't hurt a call and see what they say.

Save you the cost of a chipper and time. My 2¢.

Chips will build soil nut will also zap nitrogen out of the soil as they decompose. So be sure to add some extra to off set it.

You can tell the local tree companies you will let them dump chips as well as the power company contractors. Thay are always glad to have a closer place to dump.

I guess I'll have to make a few calls then . Thanks for the heads up