chips-tons-yards?

[northmanlogging]

Hello, not an arborist, just a dumb logger...

Anyway, got a job coming up that owner wants all brush removed, curios as to how much 5-6 yards of chips weighs. Have a small dump truck rated at 26k, and I'll be renting the chipper. (normaly I would just leave the branches behind, but then normally I'd rather be in the brush then in a yard.).

Probably end up with 2 log loads of ceder, hemlock and fir. So I'm guessing several loads of chips.

 

[woodchuck357]

http://your.kingcounty.gov/solidwaste/business/documents/Conversions.pdf
I wouldn't worry about the weight, this chart shows wood chips at 500 lbs per yard. Seems about right to me, but I have never weighed a load of chips!

 

[flushcut]

Rent the biggest chipper, 12" or bigger, 15-20" ideal, your budget allows and you can use a skidsteer or a log grapple to feed the chipper. It will save you time and increase your profit. Chip weight is usually 300-500 per yard.

 

[imagineero]

5-6 yards of chip really isn't much, and my the sound of your job you're keeping all the logs so you'll only be chipping small diameter brush. You don't need the biggest chipper, something like a bc1000XL or a bandit 9" will do you just fine, and forget the skidsteer. Hand feeding will be just fine. Weight depends on species and whether it's all wood (heavy!) or leaf and wood. A good bet for branches only is 500lbs / cubic yard, you're safe there and not panicing if you get pulled up. Try to chip as you go if you can, or learn how to stack to feed the chipper. A rats nest or poor stack will increase your workload 5 fold.

Branches chip down by volume to about 1/10 or less of their stacked volume, sometimes as much as 1/15, so well worth stacking compared with trying to slash and load then dump. A lot more time efficient also. I think the volume of chips will be a lot less than what you're guessing. A neighbour may take the chips for their garden if you ask around, saving you dumping time. Try local schools, landscapers and golf courses also.

 

[northmanlogging]

Thanks sirs,

Have a friend with horses and 10 muddy acres, only 5 miles from this job, so dumping is solved. And I'll be getting whatever the rental place has for a chipper... choice is limited there, but I believe its a 6" tow behind. May consider renting a little excavator with a thumb depending on the price.

 

[VA-Sawyer]

Make sure there is NO Black Walnut in that brush. Black Walnut chips and horses is a bad mix. They can absorb enough poison through their hooves to make them sick.

 

[imagineero]

I can't stand slashing and piling brush on trailers to take to the dump, but I'd almost rather do that than feed it into a 6" chipper. The rental unit is most likely a vermeer, small petrol engine and an opening in the chute of 6"x6", which while you could nominally say it'll take a 6" branch the truth is that will only happen if you want to chip it a few inches at a time, and only if it has no branches coming off it, and no forks. Realistically, that machine is more like a 3-4" chipper, and then only if there are no forks in the branches. You will lose a lot of time slashing things up to fit them in that machine.

If there is a local tree company available you'd do well to sub the chipping out to them. If the site allows, pile your brush in piles, and when you're done get them in to chip the lot. They will come with a large machine (15-18" capacity) and a large truck (15-20 cubic yards) and probably a couple workers also. They'll chip the whole lot for you in an hour or two, saving you the physical effort of doing it, the fuel and hire cost of the chipper and the towing/returning of it, and the time to go and dump. Expect to pay $250-$350 per truck load for this service. From the sounds of your job, the one truck load will probably do it.

 

[climbhightree]

If the site allows, pile your brush in piles, and when you're done get them in to chip the lot.

Side note if you do this option. To make the chipping go faster/easier, have all the butts facing the same direction. That way they can just grab and chip, and not have to re-sort and untangle the brush.

say it'll take a 6" branch the truth is that will only happen if you want to chip it a few inches at a time, and only if it has no branches coming off it, and no forks. Realistically, that machine is more like a 3-4" chipper, and then only if there are no forks in the branches.

This is 100% correct. Don't expect to chip much with this machine, unless the branches are straight and mostly stripped. Though, being that you are doing hemlocks, cedars, and firs, it will be better than on spready trees (like ash, oak and maples). The thickness of the fir limbs (all the needles at the end of the branch) will probably give you the most grief, trying to squeeze through a 6" square.

A 6" will mean hand feeding the chipper one limb at a time.
A 10-12" means hand feeding arm loads at a time.
A 15"+ chippers means you can feed large limbs/tree with a skid.

Evergreens tend to fill a truck a lot faster then deciduous trees

 

[VA-Sawyer]

Stack so butts face the chipper. Also each added layer is closer to the chipper by a foot or so. That way, when you reach down and grab a butt, it is a branch on Top of the stack.

 

[flushcut]

Thanks sirs,

Have a friend with horses and 10 muddy acres, only 5 miles from this job, so dumping is solved. And I'll be getting whatever the rental place has for a chipper... choice is limited there, but I believe its a 6" tow behind. May consider renting a little excavator with a thumb depending on the price.

Contact a tree service and see if they will chip for you. A 6" chipper is just about useless and you will surely be hating life and loosing money. Bigger is better and feed it with a machine.

 

[BC WetCoast]

Double check with your friend as to whether they want the cedar chips in with their horses. I've dumped at a couple of horse farms and they didn't want any cedar.

 

[hardpan]

So, as everything else, chipping isn't as easy as it looks. A ton of good advice here.

 

[VA-Sawyer]

Well, not as easy as logging. Everybody knows, all that requires is starting a saw and cutting down everything in sight.

 

[VA-Sawyer]

Had a customer complain that we were very expensive on a man-hour basis. I offered to pay him $50 and loan him my gear if he would climb up the next tree. He stopped complaining.