# chipper/chip box combo



## Tree Critter

Was looking at www.banditchippers.com and saw a trailer mounted chip box with a chipper mounted on a turntable at the front of the trailer. Has anyone out there used a setup like that? Did you like it? The chip box looks kinda small, but I don't need much. Nice thing is that I could use my truck to pull it. Thanks in advance.


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## Deere John

Makes good sense to me. My bucket truck had a built-in chipper and chip bin - freed up the pickup. As them to demo one for you.


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## Treebeard

I just got some literature from Bandit & saw the same unit...looked interesting but got me thinking about using plywood to box in my trailer as a chip box. It would hold more but not be a one unit set-up. I'm checking with them for weight & cost to see if its really a reasonable tow for my truck & how much that box adds to the cost of the base chipper unit.


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## Cicero

I have used one of these units. It is nice because of what you said. I believe you will pay approx. 20K for it maybe a little less. Comes with their 6" chipper and a 35hp gas engine (the one I used anyhow). Morbark also makes one that utilizes a 10" chipper with a 65 or 85hp diesel. Problem is that you will probaly give 30K for the unit. The brush bandit has had some turntable problems and the chipper is kinda small. 

I have had other customers actually modify a dump trailer to accept the 6" chipper sitting on the tongue of the trailer. If you do your homework and design it right you can accomplish the same thing for a lot less money. It will also give you the option to chip into your truck and load logs into the trailer, or just chip into the dump portion of the trailer.

Just food for thought.


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## sgreanbeans

i dont think its a bad idea but i would fill that box in no time!


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## Grizzly

The chipper box combo is a great idea, but when you go to the dump with a full truck and a full trailer, I have a strong feeling that you'll have to detach it unless you dump the truck while the trailer is almost jack knived and drive a circle to dump. The guys at the dump hate it when you drive in circles to dump a load. I've been useing a flat bed trailer to haul the brush for a while. When I go to the dump to ditch that crap; I'll take off a side and the tarp and drive in a circle to lose most of it. 

Yet on the other hand it is a good concept.


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## Tree Machine

My Dad bought a 4" capacity chipper and mounted it on the front of a trailer, like the Bandit chip box combo. It works pretty well for him, but he's not a treeguy. He's a lawn service and does palms, which are really bulky, or bushes and small trees. He works out of a van

He mounted it so it would swivel as a turntable, but in the couple years he's had it he has never swivelled it once. Says you almost always feed from the curb-side and if the brush is coming from the other direction it's easier to just turn the whole rig around.

It's handy, he loves it as he can get rid of chips for free whereas anything else he pays to dispose of at the recycler. He says the entire rig has paid for itself just in the savings from not having to go to the recycler as well as not having to take the extra time to load, stomp and dice trailerloads of bulky small material.

I don't think it would be the right rig for many operations, but for the smaller companies the benefit of having your pickup freed up to take your tools and the logs gives you that level of economy and low overhead that's appealing. I very seriously considered a chipbox combo early in my career and think I would have been happy had I made that choice. I enjoy using Dad's setup when I go and work down there on vacation.


p.s. the attached picture is of Dad and a lady across the street helping chip. I've already addressed the lack of PPE, so no commentary on that is needed.


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## PTS

I can see lots of advantages to this type set up but I have to agree that I would fill it in a quick hurry. One advantage is that you could increase your chip capacity if you are pulling this behind a large chipper truck. you fill the truck then you fill the box on the back of the chipper. Another advantage is that if you a doing a climb removal and have a tree that has a trunk that is 10 feet high or so and the rest of the tree is all top. The top gets chipped and then you are left with the trunk. if you are pulling this trailer/chipper combo behind a flatbed you can throw your log onto it and the chips into the chipper box on the trailer eliminating one truck from your job site.

The point was raised that you would have to drop the trailer in order to dump you truck. I am not sure what kind of set up you all are using but I have to do that every day. Unless I want to pull the chipper through the chips. The only thing that would eliminate that is a side dump truck pulling this combo. 

We often fight the equipment war as to what to take to what site, and crews wanting the same pieces of equipment for their site. I think this would help free up a truck for a climbing crew, and potentially free up a dump trailer because the flatbed could serve that purpose.

The only thing missing on this set up is a front mounted log loader which could load the logs for you into the back of the truck you are pulling it with and then you would have something.

Tree Machine Brings up a really good point about the swivel. Save the money and turn the truck around.


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## Grizzly

Tree Machine said:


> My Dad bought a 4" capacity chipper and mounted it on the front of a trailer, like the Bandit chip box combo. It works pretty well for him, but he's not a treeguy. He's a lawn service and does palms, which are really bulky, or bushes and small trees. He works out of a van
> 
> He mounted it so it would swivel as a turntable, but in the couple years he's had it he has never swivelled it once. Says you almost always feed from the curb-side and if the brush is coming from the other direction it's easier to just turn the whole rig around.
> 
> It's handy, he loves it as he can get rid of chips for free whereas anything else he pays to dispose of at the recycler. He says the entire rig has paid for itself just in the savings from not having to go to the recycler as well as not having to take the extra time to load, stomp and dice trailerloads of bulky small material.
> 
> I don't think it would be the right rig for many operations, but for the smaller companies the benefit of having your pickup freed up to take your tools and the logs gives you that level of economy and low overhead that's appealing. I very seriously considered a chipbox combo early in my career and think I would have been happy had I made that choice. I enjoy using Dad's setup when I go and work down there on vacation.
> 
> 
> p.s. the attached picture is of Dad and a lady across the street helping chip. I've already addressed the lack of PPE, so no commentary on that is needed.



It seems like a great set up, but how many tarps do you go through in a job. I know that even for what I put through a chipper when I rent them, it would be suicidal to be in the way of the debris coming out of the shoot.


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## Tree Machine

The tarp gets missed, the chips fly under. I've since bought him nursery shadecloth. Before, there was no place for dust to escape except right back out where it came in.

A system with limitations, I think no treeguy should have a 4" chipper. Too small. The system, for a lawn guy, is a fabulous godsend. He gets into bushes and small trees and palm fronds. That's all he'll ever get into (except when I come down).


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## Grizzly

So for some one thats just getting ready to purchase a chipper, what do you think would be a reasonable sized chipper. I take trees down at least two to three times a month. I know that I could fill a large chipper truck if I had a big enough job to do that. When I have jobs that big, I know I can cut and chip about 5 tons in a day. thats with grass clippings and everything else that comes off the job. It may not seem much for some tree companies, but I do my best to make the money and do a good job when I'm doing it.


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## Tree Machine

*chip box combo video*

You'll get 50 different answers from 50 different guys on that. Also, there are at least 50 different threads that have gone into that. This thread is about the chipper chip box combo. Here's the Bandit video on their unit.


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## Grizzly

it seems like a good consept, but what if you have to back in to a pile that needs chipping. I know they are expensive adn kick ass macj=hines to have but would it be worth wresling the brush into the chipper or pulling up he drive way to the road for chipping.


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## Tree Machine

I guess that depends. The bottom line is, if you have a chipper, you have to have something to chip into. If you chip into something, you have to eventually unload the chips. The chipbox combo offers all that and allows you to use your pickup to carry and secure your tools.

If you owned the chipbox combo you would take measures to not stack brush where it would be inconvenient. If it was someone else who stacked the brush in an inconvenient place, charge em more, angle the box in as best you can, choker a rope around the pile and drag it to the entrance of the drive, then pull up along side it.... I dunno. Tree work is all about problem solving.

If I had a chip box combo, I'd figure out how to make it work best. I'd go with the 9" option.


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## Kpnail

Tree Critter said:


> Was looking at Home - Bandit Industries, Inc. and saw a trailer mounted chip box with a chipper mounted on a turntable at the front of the trailer. Has anyone out there used a setup like that? Did you like it? The chip box looks kinda small, but I don't need much. Nice thing is that I could use my truck to pull it. Thanks in advance.



I am in the process of designing a combo trailer now using a vermeer chipper with dump box.
If your interested in knowing how or what size, you can ask...will be happy to help...

Ken


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## arbor pro

if interested in a combo unit:

http://www.arboristsite.com/large-equipment/202490.htm


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## ronnyb

Holy Chit. Old thread.


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