# Vermeer 800 vs Ditch Witch 850



## pistol pete (Jan 2, 2015)

Have any of you run either of these machines? I had the vermeer for a weekend, and I am getting the ditch witch in a few days. 

The vermeer performed well, and it seems to be better engineered than the witch(the operator platform on the ditch witch, sticks out and will definitely be a problem. I buried the vermeer and had to push out with the bucket. The witch would have just dug in, in the same situation. However, the witch is diesel and it is made in Oklahoma, which is where I operate.

Another issue has to do with having the same color equipment. Vermeer makes and sells everything I plan to buy this year (mini skid, chipper, stump grinder). Ditch Witch does not make a chipper. Is having all of your equipment from the same company important?


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## BuckmasterStumpGrinding (Jan 2, 2015)

We have a boxer dealer at I-35 somewhere around I-240 in okc if you want to compare them as well.


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## treebilly (Jan 2, 2015)

Getting everything from one company could get you some discounts and possibly some extras. Customer loyalty counts to some companies


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## BC WetCoast (Jan 2, 2015)

If you have a REALLY good dealer then it may be worth having all your equipment from the same manufacturer. However, it would be very low on my decision making tree.


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## defensiblespace (Jan 3, 2015)

I have a vermeer bc1000 and an sc252, but run a ditch witch sk650. I am a huge fan of the ditch witch minis. That new 850 is one bad ass piece of equipment. I would give it serious consideration before choosing the Vermeer. Give both machines a close look at the specs that are most important to your operation. For example, I load into a dump trailer often, so the height of the hinge pin is important to us. Another example is that we often operate on rocky terrain, so ground clearance is crucial. I think either way you'll be happy, but don't choose based on brand loyalty. We've put almost 800 hours of beating on our sk650 and it's been great. I would have to assume the 850 is a big step up.


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## pistol pete (Jan 9, 2015)

Ditch Witch brought me the 850, and the 750 to demo. After running both machines, in similar situations, I can't tell much of a difference in performance. For strictly loading large logs, all three machines performed about the same. 

I ran the 750 today, on a large removal. It loaded giant pieces of wood with ease.


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## climbhightree (Jan 16, 2015)

pistol pete said:


> Ditch Witch brought me the 850, and the 750 to demo. After running both machines, in similar situations, I can't tell much of a difference in performance. For strictly loading large logs, all three machines performed about the same.
> 
> I ran the 750 today, on a large removal. It loaded giant pieces of wood with ease.



So what do you think you are going to go with? How did you bury the mini?

I only got mine stuck once, I hit some kind of water hole and it just sunk. It was a raining day and I had felt this area getting soft, and then suddenly it dropped out.






If your buying a vermeer chipper you may want to check out something new they have now. It is a remote that allows you to run the feed wheels via the mini, or where ever you mount it.


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## mattfr12 (Jan 24, 2015)

You can get the remotes on most chippers. We can open feed wheels forward, reverse, pretty much all the functions even move the chute.

We use it while feeding with a track hoe. I Wish track hoes didn't mess yards up so bad because man you can feed the chipper and load wood fast. it's like having a mobile Prentice loader.


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## arborjockey (Jan 27, 2015)

No wonder it says 
"The bulldog "


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## pistol pete (Feb 1, 2015)

Purchased the ditch witch 850. This thing will out work the vermeer for two reasons. The 850 has full speed in reverse (800 seems to be about half speed), and the dual stick control allows for amazing responsiveness. The 850 is also a yanmar, 38 horse diesel.


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## Coen (Mar 1, 2015)

Mind saying what you gave for it?


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## pistol pete (Sep 16, 2015)

29000

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