Disc or drum?

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OTG BOSTON

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What type of chipper do you guys prefer and why. We have both now and I am in the process of securing the funds for a new one, so I wanted some AS input! Thanks.
 
IMO drums are more economical for purchase and towing due to the disk being a a huge piece of milled steel. I've had dealers and mfr reps agree with me.

The only two points they could give me is that a disk will be more compact and have a better chip consistency.

As for what I like;

  • as much hp as you can afford
  • diesel since it does not lug down as easily as gas
  • feed wheel control and infeed speed control. It is nice to be able to adjust with different species and wood size
  • wide infeed chute so wide crotch branches can be easily fed in and break, cutting small stuff down, or curfing every lateral is a PITA
  • simple throttle controls that a newbe cannot screw up
  • easy discharge chute adjustment
  • hydraulic yoke jack for infeed and getting stuck blocks out
 
I own both and have owed 5 different disc chippers 2 morbarks and 3 brush bandits. Currently have a bandit 1590 drum and a 254 disc. both are good chippers, but I have to say the drum is the way to go it is so much easier to change blades and it also seems to chip better than the disk. I believe that is mostly due to the fact that the brush going in to the disk is forced to the side of the disk to chip where as the drum lays flat so the brush gets chipped all across the drum. Just my 2 cents but I would stay with the drum.
 
i have used both.

i like drum performance better.seems to be more compact and doesn't seem to work as hard on the big stuff.

there seems to be more variety with disc and they seem to be cheaper.especially used.

feed wheel design is my biggest concern.i'm tired of Vermeer.our next will be woodchuck,bandit,or morbark.
 
If I am chipping whole trees into 100 yard trailers I want a disk
For GTW I want a drum like a 1590 or a 1890.
 
I will have to say I have had a Vermeer BC1000

I think this is one of the best units on the market for general trim work. Small compact easy to tow with a 1ton and has enough hp to get the job done.

Too bad the exhaust through the discharge did not work. On tight spaces it was nice to know you would not torch any foliage. I did seem to reduce noise some too.
 
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I'm a drum person myself, but if you guys see how Hartney has their chippers set up... I think that's really only fiesable with a disc due to how the belts are run.
 
Our BC1000 we routed the exhaust right through the hood this reduced the compression on the backside of the turbo give us a little more umf. Not very hard to do at all just takes a little time.
Jared
 
Our BC1000 we routed the exhaust right through the hood this reduced the compression on the backside of the turbo give us a little more umf. Not very hard to do at all just takes a little time.
Jared

That is how they started out, they used it as a selling point, but there were performance problems and rusting so the recalled them.
 
In terms of high production whole tree chippers that I've used, it would be the Morbark 2400 Hurricane hydraulically fed drum chipper.

I've fed 80-90 foot eucs into the 250 HP diesel chipper with a crane and watched it disappear in a couple of minutes, barely activating the autofeed as it went through.

A very impressive and scary piece of tree equipment, it's the top dog chipper in my experience so far.

jomoco
 

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