Opinion on small chipper

[joezilla11]

I've been on the hunt for a small chipper and found an 04 bandit 65aw with the 27hp kohler. App 1000 hrs. Guy used it for weekend jobs, stored indoors, regular maintenance. Nice looking chipper with a height adjustable chute which I haven't seen on the smaller ones before. Only issues he's had is auto feed stopped working and he had to touch up a few cracked welds. Is this a common issue with the welds or is this an idicator of another issue. He did say the machine vibrates pretty good and that's what probably caused it. Thanks for any help as I don't have much experience with these.

 

[ducaticorse]

I've been on the hunt for a small chipper and found an 04 bandit 65aw with the 27hp kohler. App 1000 hrs. Guy used it for weekend jobs, stored indoors, regular maintenance. Nice looking chipper with a height adjustable chute which I haven't seen on the smaller ones before. Only issues he's had is auto feed stopped working and he had to touch up a few cracked welds. Is this a common issue with the welds or is this an idicator of another issue. He did say the machine vibrates pretty good and that's what probably caused it. Thanks for any help as I don't have much experience with these.

Didn't I already say that you're barking up the wrong tree with a 65!? Chippers break welds, its common, especially on the glass jaw bandits. My 150 was entirely held together by aftermarket welds. A 65 with a bunch of welds is indicative of someone kicking the ####e out of it. You get that gas kholer one, and you'll be sorry you did.

 

[Steve-Maine]

I wouldn't buy anything less than a 12" disc chipper with at least 80 HP diesel engine. After you have one that size you'll wonder how you worked without one. I have seen good used ones go for $6,500 and up. Good Luck

I've been on the hunt for a small chipper and found an 04 bandit 65aw with the 27hp kohler. App 1000 hrs. Guy used it for weekend jobs, stored indoors, regular maintenance. Nice looking chipper with a height adjustable chute which I haven't seen on the smaller ones before. Only issues he's had is auto feed stopped working and he had to touch up a few cracked welds. Is this a common issue with the welds or is this an idicator of another issue. He did say the machine vibrates pretty good and that's what probably caused it. Thanks for any help as I don't have much experience with these.

 

[Goose IBEW]

I wouldn't buy anything less than a 12" disc chipper with at least 80 HP diesel engine. After you have one that size you'll wonder how you worked without one. I have seen good used ones go for $6,500 and up. Good Luck

Good advice. I wasn't able to swing the 80hp diesel but an very happy I got a 12" chipper, seeing what it can gobble up I couldn't imagine being with something less.

 

[pdqdl]

A 6" chipper is a pain to use. The small throat diameter limits what you can toss in, so everything must be pruned down to a straight branch. I can just stack brush on a trailer much faster than I can force wood down a 6" chipper.

If your only goal is to reduce trimmings down to chips, then a 6" works great; firewood anything too large to chip.

 

[deevo]

If your just starting out a bandit 6" is good, they have the best 6" chippers out there, I just bought one for an island jobs we are on, only has a 100 hrs on it, also I needed a back up chipper to my 12" and this thing more then impressed me today running it for the first time. Sure it has it's limits but branches, small stuff it's nice ! Mines got the 35briggs, strong running motor, yeah about those welds, not sure what to say on that! Mine doesn't shake hardly at all. Maybe they got that issue figured out. Motor mounts look good and strong on mine. Oh well, I am happy with it!

 

[Pelorus]

No broken welds on my 65XL, and it hasn't exactly had a pampered existence.
it does have a penchant for rusting, and the rust patina is very attractive in a morbid sorta way.

 

[joezilla11]

well I figured out that hes been hand filing the knives so I think that explains the poor performance/vibration that's shaking the welds apart. im hesitant about buying a roughly run kohler so this is going to be a pass. I did however find a 90 with a deutz diesel that's alittle more but I may atleast call on it. I know a lot of you guys are for getting a 12'' but I don't have the dedicated dump or enough work to justify it right now. im just trying to find something to get me going but its getting later in the year so if it doesn't happen soon ill just slow down and take my time and free up some of this focus that has been spent on finding a chipper. its easy to get impatient as ive been looking for a while now, lost a few auctions and missed out on others but we'll see what happens.

 

[Goose IBEW]

Good luck in which ever route you take, a 9 inch diesel powered chipper would be much better than a Kohler powered six incher. I held out for a 12 inch auto feed disk chipper, don't regret buying a 25 plus year old gas powered unit to get the 12 inch auto feed I wanted. I could have gotten a smaller chipper or a chuck and duck in better shape for the same money but the trade off for either style wouldn't have been worth it for me.

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[KenJax Tree]

Our small chippers are Bandit 90xp (9") with 84 HP CAT motors and i believe 1 has a Kubota motor

 

[joezilla11]

im sure that 84hp is quite a step up, I think the deutz diesel on this one is 44hp. theres a 150xp for sale here locally with a new Holland diesel same price and it sure is tempting but I think id loose the manueverablilty ive been looking for in being able to tow around with a 3/4 ton. ive never heard of a new Holland diesel on a chipper tho and cant find any info on it either.

 

[ducaticorse]

im sure that 84hp is quite a step up, I think the deutz diesel on this one is 44hp. theres a 150xp for sale here locally with a new Holland diesel same price and it sure is tempting but I think id loose the manueverablilty ive been looking for in being able to tow around with a 3/4 ton. ive never heard of a new Holland diesel on a chipper tho and cant find any info on it either.

A small feed 150 is virtually the same size as a 65. Ive had one. Don't waste your time and money on a 65. You will outgrow it in a month, and wish you never bought it. Trying to sell them is like going on match.com to find a date and listing aids and leprosy as diseases you currently are infected with.

 

[Pelorus]

A small feed 150 is virtually the same size as a 65.

What does a small feed 150 weigh in at? I looked at Bandit's website, and a 150XP is over 5000 lb, roughly 2X the weight of a diesel equipped 65.

 

[ducaticorse]

What does a small feed 150 weigh in at? I looked at Bandit's website, and a 150XP is over 5000 lb, roughly 2X the weight of a diesel equipped 65.

I'd have to weigh my particular 150. Its a small feed, gas motor 1997. Weight may be considerably more ( although I would take an educational guess that it isn't twice the weight), but maneuverability/physical size is virtually the same as I have used both machines. If you have a chip truck that cant pull 5K, get a new chip truck.

All I'm saying, is that I may have ten jobs a year where I could tolerate a 65. Even when I just started out, a 150 was too small, let alone a 65. I do mainly removals though. If I did ornamental pruning's for a living, a 65 would probably work out just fine.

 

[Goose IBEW]

I would pull my 12" chipper behind an F250 and build an enclosure on top of an easy dumper if it was what I had to do. Here is a diesel version of mine for sale on craigslist.

Southjersey.craigslist.org/grd/4097570419.html

If this was the case, I don't see the problem in having a 5,000 lb chipper behind an F250 and 3,000lbs of chips and EZ Dumper in the bed. Its stretching the limits but the extra weight of a slightly larger chipper wouldn't be the deal breaker for me. Similar to what was said, I'd run with it till I could get a larger truck.

On the other hand, if you plan on specializing in pruning, getting by with a smaller chipper may be feasible. Everybody's scope of work is slightly different but the consensus seems to be that it's worth the weight to have a 12" chipper.

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[Pelorus]

And then you could go dump the easy dumper in the F250 every half hour or so!

 

[joezilla11]

that easy dumper would be a cool thing to have but Id think it probabaly would get filled up pretty quick. id probably just pull with my truck on the backyard jobs but I still have access to a dump for the bigger ones. I looked at it yesterday and it looked quite a bit bigger than a 65, maybe close to a 90 tho. I called bandit twice on it about the new Holland diesel: the first guy told me its probably a john deere diesel made by new Holland; the second guy told me according to the serial number it was made with a ford diesel. I asked him about new Holland and he said he never heard of that being in a chipper and said if it was jd it would say it. some searching on google and I cant really find anything except I did find some references to "new Holland/ford diesels" on some tractor sites so now im even more confused. sounds like new Holland made some different motors and when I looked at the machine it sys new Holland on it. the guy is the second owner but insists its factory and never been replaced.

 

[Goose IBEW]

Ford became New Holland in the agricultural world so your engine may be accurate. Its kind of like discussing Chevy vs. GMC.

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[AutoFeedPlus.com]

Faulty off brand auto feed's can be replaced with the Original Auto Feed Plus®. Visit autofeedplus.com, call 989-330-5086 for ordering information, or visit the eBay store at

http://stores.ebay.com/chipperandgrinderparts

 

[Sawyer Rob]

"If" it's a NH diesel, it's probably an Iveco diesel, good motors...

SR