Chipper?

[DDM]

Okay Ive decided Not to buy a New chipper but a used one. Mainly because i hate the thought of payments. Ive looked at .
Bandit's
Vermeer's
Woodsman's
&
Morbark's

With Gas & Diesel's
I'd like a 12" machine for 10,000.00 or under.

Suggestions,Personal experiences, Gripes
Please.

Thanks,

 

[DDM]

Originally posted by netree
I think we've already gone through this.

O Yeah like this would be the 1st topic ever gone over more than a few times?

 

[xander9727]

I would rank them in the following order:

Woodsman
Bandit
Morbark
Chuck n duck
DR chipper
Craftsman
Garbage disposal
Beaver
Pencil sharpener
Vermeer

 

[DDM]

I have a Chuck-N-Duck I want something that will take Dead stuff easier. I get pretty good chips from mine with the occasional A$$ Beating.

 

[DDM]

Originally posted by netree
Do you have the flaps in place?

O That annoying Rubber Piece? Yep its there.

 

[BewtifulTreeMan]

I have a small chuck and duck, and i have found it to work far better without the rubber flaps, all they seem to do is make it harder to see what is going on in there. I rely on my face sheild to protect me from chucks flying out of the feed.

I'm in the market for a 12" chipper and for me it is between bandit and vermeer, just because those are the two dealers near me. At this point i am leaning toward the vermeer bc1000 just because it is more compact then the equal sized bandit. I like the idea of being able to fit it into small spaces. plus it seems like the vermeer has better protection of the internals of the machine against vandals and what not, which is important to me because i dont have a garage to park it in

any thoughts?

 

[MasterBlaster]

Bandit.

 

[Stumper]

Obviously Xander hates Vermeer. Erik loves them (and he is arguably one of the most intelligent and reasonable regulars on the site.) Frankly, I think that you ought to look at price and condition more than brand. I have been pretty pleased with my Olathe. No it isn't the perfect chipper, but it serves me well. A lot of the older 12" discs look like clones whatever the brand. My own experience wth chippers is too thin to be able to compare them. The one Vermeer I have run was excellent.
Nothing surpasses a Chuck and Duck for fast processing of brush (As far as I'm concerned the stuff over10-12 inches isn't brush-those are called LOGS.) Now that Erik has demonstrated how good chip quality can be with HIS settings I think that I'll probably get a Chuck & Duck in the not too distant future-but then again I don't do that much clearing and theOlathe works pretty nicely-I'll have to mull.

Xander- You left off Wood -Pro-a WP beats a DR six ways from Sunday.

 

[Stumper]

Originally posted by netree
Justin... DR makes a chipper?

Erik, I think it is theoretical product. They think it might process tree limbs into chips.

 

[Koa Man]

Originally posted by Stumper

Nothing surpasses a Chuck and Duck for fast processing of brush

I don't disagree with that statement, but even though my Woodsman 18X chips at only about 80 fpm vs a c&d's 300 fpm, the sheer volume it can take at one time will easily surpass the c&d's speed. Much less limbing is required and there is no way a c&d will be able to take a real bushy 20 ft. long 8" dia. piece at one time. The big chipper with feedwheels will eat that piece easily. Volume will surpass speed. Much like a gust of wind at 30mph will easily out blow your blower's 150mph wind speed. I like the Mitts & Merrill chippers best among all the c&d's out there.

 

[a_lopa]

been lazy erik im going to your settings monday,for the money a chuck'n'duck or suck'n'swallow will do 95% of what others do with no headaches, blockages,there a good simple design.saying that i am looking at a 150 bandit

 

[Koa Man]

Don't get me wrong, I like c&d's. In some situations they are about the best. What I don't like about them is the knives have to be sharp and spot on to pull brush in effectively. A self feeder will still pull brush in even with dull knives and a .100 gap setting. (Not good for the longevity of the chipper) I'm like you, I ignore the factory settings for the blade gap and set mine at .015. When we do takedowns, quite often we feed even longer limbs than 20 ft. into the chipper. I have run a 30 ft. long 10 inch piece before. With autofeed you just let that sucker go and have about 4 guys grab the next one. Of course that is not the situation that suits the c&d best. For small pruning jobs, limbs no more than 4 inch dia., they are hard, if not impossile to beat. My main beef with them is what I said earlier about the knives and no swivel chute., except for the M&M. BTW the chips you are getting out of your machine are really really good for a c&d, but you will not get that kind of quality chipping palms. For palms a disc with a 90* cut is tops, like the Gravelys and Bandit's 95.

 

[a_lopa]

Originally posted by aussie_lopa
you get way better knife life using a drum, a 12'' disc being fed 12'' for the day aint got much good edge left on the top of the knifes.one of the good things with a c'n'd is on a big job you can throw as many groundies on it and they aint standing waiting, or watching leaf rap around rollers.OMO. there really is no perfect chipper, altec comes close for the money and maintanance. aust chip.

 

[Koa Man]

I do believe the drum is a superior design as far as productivity and knife life is concerned. My Woodsman is a self-feeding drum. My Gravely is a disc. No chipper design will beat a 90* angle cut disc for chip quality. I can get chips down to 1/8 inch if I run the adjustable feed rate at 70 fpm. Even at top speed of 175 fpm the chips are only 3/4 inch size. The knife does wear out mainly on the half that is toward the outer rim of the disc, while the other half stays pretty sharp. The Woodsman has wear pretty evenly on the whole knife.

 

[a_lopa]

ever used a chipper that ran off the truck p.t.o? some of them rock the disc spins that hard

 

[Toddppm]

Well your poll makes the decision easy doesn't it? Pretty evenly split!

Here's a decent looking older 150 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=3850148444&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT

 

[ORclimber]

Originally posted by netree

The key to a drum is in the knife and anvil settings. My experience has shown that you get much better results when you ignore the factory recommendations, and go with mine.

What are those settings again? And how do you measure for them in those tight spaces?

My drum is 30 years old and a bit dinged up, hard to get consistent measure of how far the blade is sticking out all the way accross.

 

[DDM]

O I'll agree that Nothing is Faster than a CND. But the job we did today I now have about 4 truck loads of 8-12" X 12' logs to haul out and the Chips are left on the job site. Its about a 90 Min drive round trip to
Dump the logs.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I wonder which style is responsible for the most injurys? I'm betting it's the CND. I've seen it spit back a chunk of wood that knocked out a groundies tooth before.

 

[MasterBlaster]

Ya think? Hmmm...