Small Chip Truck

[Montana_Sam]

I recently was scouring the internet for small chip truck configurations, and found this ArbTalk thread:

https://arbtalk.co.uk/forums/topic/89935-the-diy-arb-truck-chip-body-thread/#comments
It seems the Brits are pretty good at dialing in the small set-ups. Small Jensen chippers and a HiLux chip truck, or something similar. Anyone use something small like that? I ask because I'm considering converting/building out my 1/2 ton Sierra to hold chips. I know shoveling it out will suck, beleive me. But has anyone used or seen small 1/2 ton or 3/4 ton chipper trucks, or better yet, a 1/2 ton with a dump bed for chips?? Any ideas??

 

[Dodik]

Im not that familiar with all this stuff, but a camper that's tall enough and one of those easy unloaders for the bed would be pretty simple, now how heavy a full bed of chips would be I dont know but you probably be pushing it close to max weight capacity.

something like this
https://www.northerntool.com/shop/t...buR_Txk75rgPs3vYbegaAghBEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

[Montana_Sam]

Anyone seen something like this? I can't beleive there's not something comparable in the US.

https://cpl-ltd.com/portfolio-items/toyota-cpl-chipper-tipper-2/

 

[Dodik]

are you trying to go commercial with this or strictly personal use? That highlux tipper specs for 3.5t suspension my guess this is the 3.5ton payload that it can take. Your 1/2 ton with chipper on the back might not be able to hold much chips, even small chipper still has to be taken into the account. Even though suspension might hold your brakes won't be adequate to stop it on public roads.
At this point if you are looking to go commercial and compact then you'll need legit vehicle that can be properly insured as well, not to many of them but you have old school busses and ambulances conversions that if body is removed and swapped for dump bed would be sufficient

If you are looking for a farm maintenance/personal type thing there plenty of old dump trucks that are pretty cheap on craiglist they will require work obviously but for off-road use would be totally fine. Probably cheaper then destroying your good truck

anything is possible its just how much you want to spend and what it is you are trying to achieve?

 

[Montana_Sam]

Thanks for the ideas. This is a strictly commercial operation…residential tree service. I’m just trying to feel out options that don’t involve buying/financing a different truck, thinking I can limp along this year using my rig and a rented Vermeer BC700xl, which is light. Currently building a little chip box for my truck for a few upcoming jobs…it’s not an ideal scenario but its what I’ve got to work with right now.

 

[amscontr]

Ours hauls chip, logs, brush anything we stuff in it

 

[Montana_Sam]

Ours hauls chip, logs, brush anything we stuff in itView attachment 1001331

Looks nice! That’s an F350 dually? Exactly what I’m shopping for.

 

[Bango Skank]

I used to climb for a pretty small tree service in the early 2000s, the owner ran 2 trucks, both old body style Chevy 1500 W/T, 4x4, single cabs, 8 foot beds with 4.3L V-6, and he put 1 ton leaf springs on them. The one he put some 2x12 side boards on the bed, and was mostly used to haul wood, the other was his chip truck, it had an EZ Dumper insert with a plywood chip box and pulled a 9” Morbark disc chipper.
His shop was in the city of Niagara Falls, NY and he only worked in the city and some of it’s suburbs, so usually 30mph and almost never over 45mph. I’d worry a little about having to brake quickly, and with a load of chips it took a while to get moving. I doubt it would’ve done well climbing a hill, but that wasn’t an issue in this area. Overall it wasn’t a bad little setup, it held up better than I would’ve thought a 1/2 ton truck would, and the little single axle pickups are nice in the old neighborhoods with mostly street parking, narrow horse and buggy driveways and little post stamp front and backyards.

 

[Montana_Sam]

That sounds a lot like what I’ve got going on. Chipping into a 1/2 ton… today was my first job with this setup. It worked surprisingly well, although I definitely was pushing the limit on weight with the bed full of chips. Dump bed would be ideal, but two guys with shovels had it emptied in about 5 minutes. Rental chipper was a joke at best, but got the job done.

 

[9050LX]

That sounds a lot like what I’ve got going on. Chipping into a 1/2 ton… today was my first job with this setup. It worked surprisingly well, although I definitely was pushing the limit on weight with the bed full of chips. Dump bed would be ideal, but two guys with shovels had it emptied in about 5 minutes. Rental chipper was a joke at best, but got the job done.


View attachment 1001613

How many yards you estimate fits in there?

 

[Montana_Sam]

It’s a 6’ bed…my guess is we had 3+ yards in there before i started worrying about the leaf springs.

 

[mikewhite85]

A long long time ago I had this old 2500 chevy. We would rent a small vermeer chipper and I recall it being a pain to shovel out chips but I was single in my early 20's and full of energy and zeal! It did have a nice little lift on the back for raising big rounds into the bed... Get a 1 ton dump truck as soon as you can!



This was my first dump. 87 f350 diesel. I think I only paid 1800. The steel chipper top was added later

 

[Montana_Sam]

Yep, everyone keeps saying "get a 1 ton dump truck".....it's on the list!

 

[Montana_Sam]

A long long time ago I had this old 2500 chevy. We would rent a small vermeer chipper and I recall it being a pain to shovel out chips but I was single in my early 20's and full of energy and zeal! It did have a nice little lift on the back for raising big rounds into the bed... Get a 1 ton dump truck as soon as you can!
View attachment 1002696


This was my first dump. 87 f350 diesel. I think I only paid 1800. The steel chipper top was added later

View attachment 1002697

By the way Mike, you have a great looking website! Well done

 

[woodyphyseter]

Hey everybody, I hope this thread isn't dead. But here's my train of thought. First of all I've been working in residential for about 6 years now and started out by doing jobs way up north where nobody would go and my clients didn't mind me and my guys shoving the branches in the forest out of sight and cut the trunks into firewood. This was very money limiting as I couldn't do any nice urban contracts that demand a quick/complete clean-up. Anyway, it was mostly a side-job at first. Next I got a 'Vermeer bc700xl chipper' and was able to chip the branches into the woods instead, much less work for justifiably better price. Filling my box with chip on a 1500 was unreasonable because basically needed to empty it every 2-3 maple trees. Anway, all this time I'd been shopping for the truck I wanted, without getting into the heavywheights and last year I finally found my '4x4 LBZ duramax 3500 crew cab Long box' (kinda wish it were single cab). Now the truck is equiped with a decorated plywood/2x4 box that goes about 4 ft above the top of the box edges, goes to say it's a pretty tall box. Now the Silverado's manual says the 3500 can hold 8000lbs in the box, and one eastern white pine tree (fully loaded box) has all my leafs leaning on the load stoppers. I don't have duallies but that's easily arranged.

I'd love to have a big fancy metal box with the dumper mechanism underneath, but I've been shopping for those boxes and with the extracost of the mechanism, it's unreasonable cost considering the extra weight of the whole thing and and my capacity. (balloons, but don't want to rely on them)

So I've been thinking of those dumper inserts, they apparently are rated for 6000lbs...
The Plus side is if I discard my current box and mount it on something to the frame, I get some space on the side of the frame for 2-3 tool boxes without having them in the tilt weight, and more space for my backseat.
The down side to the dumper insert is it's not at all as quantity effective and even if I bring the walls 2ft above the top of the cab, I'm afraid it won't lift that much chip.
My logic: 1. A nice percentage of my jobs are still in the north and my clients generally don't mind I chip any excess in the woods. 2. My urban jobs are rarely above 2 trees per job; as long as it's not a giant white spruce, we're good.... but it's always a pine tree.. 3. If it's too heavy to lift, I could empty a bit with the shovels. The beginning isn't the hard part. 4. considering i just found a nice guy willing to sell me a dumper 2015 dumperdogg with mechanism and everything for 3'500 CAD, get some extra metals self fabricated tool-boxes bolted to frame I think i could make my truck more effective betterlooking for 5000$ (If my time/beer isn't counted, don't tell my wife)
there's my Box int the image, not my excavator. I wish.


Another angle.

I don't think that I really have a question to ask. I just have ADHD and am about to spend a cheekload of money on something used...
I guess: do any of you know how much chip weighs per cubic foot? oak and pine. leafs no leafs. has anybody wasted their time registering multiple weighings (?).

thanks.

 

[mikewhite85]

I think chips weigh somewhere between 400-600 lbs per cubic yard.

Where do you live? I'm also in a rural setting. We often spit chips into the woods.

We have two chip trucks. A 4x4 f350 with wooden chip box for driving in yards and a 14' f650 2wd f650 for when we need capacity.

Honestly it seems like you're doing more with that truck than you safely should.

I would consider getting a dually with a 10-12 ft dump box. 10 grand can get you one that isn't horrendous. A 12 inch chipper makes a night and day difference too.

If you wanted a steel box you would probably want to have a fabricator weld something

 

[woodyphyseter]

10grand? not horrendous? Maybe where you live.
But yeah. that's a good idea to have a smaller capacity truck and a larger capacity truck. It may be in my future plans but for now, I'm good with working harder.
I figure if I'm loading too much anyway into my 3500, and would need to empty it more often between jobs, having a cheap dumper would be a neat asset; not necessary, but neat.


*first snowfall right now, chipper is put away. But I still have about 10 logs to grab with a 200km trip... FML*

 

[Captain Bruce]

Hey everybody, I hope this thread isn't dead. But here's my train of thought. First of all I've been working in residential for about 6 years now and started out by doing jobs way up north where nobody would go and my clients didn't mind me and my guys shoving the branches in the forest out of sight and cut the trunks into firewood. This was very money limiting as I couldn't do any nice urban contracts that demand a quick/complete clean-up. Anyway, it was mostly a side-job at first. Next I got a 'Vermeer bc700xl chipper' and was able to chip the branches into the woods instead, much less work for justifiably better price. Filling my box with chip on a 1500 was unreasonable because basically needed to empty it every 2-3 maple trees. Anway, all this time I'd been shopping for the truck I wanted, without getting into the heavywheights and last year I finally found my '4x4 LBZ duramax 3500 crew cab Long box' (kinda wish it were single cab). Now the truck is equiped with a decorated plywood/2x4 box that goes about 4 ft above the top of the box edges, goes to say it's a pretty tall box. Now the Silverado's manual says the 3500 can hold 8000lbs in the box, and one eastern white pine tree (fully loaded box) has all my leafs leaning on the load stoppers. I don't have duallies but that's easily arranged.

I'd love to have a big fancy metal box with the dumper mechanism underneath, but I've been shopping for those boxes and with the extracost of the mechanism, it's unreasonable cost considering the extra weight of the whole thing and and my capacity. (balloons, but don't want to rely on them)

So I've been thinking of those dumper inserts, they apparently are rated for 6000lbs...
The Plus side is if I discard my current box and mount it on something to the frame, I get some space on the side of the frame for 2-3 tool boxes without having them in the tilt weight, and more space for my backseat.
The down side to the dumper insert is it's not at all as quantity effective and even if I bring the walls 2ft above the top of the cab, I'm afraid it won't lift that much chip.
My logic: 1. A nice percentage of my jobs are still in the north and my clients generally don't mind I chip any excess in the woods. 2. My urban jobs are rarely above 2 trees per job; as long as it's not a giant white spruce, we're good.... but it's always a pine tree.. 3. If it's too heavy to lift, I could empty a bit with the shovels. The beginning isn't the hard part. 4. considering i just found a nice guy willing to sell me a dumper 2015 dumperdogg with mechanism and everything for 3'500 CAD, get some extra metals self fabricated tool-boxes bolted to frame I think i could make my truck more effective betterlooking for 5000$ (If my time/beer isn't counted, don't tell my wife)View attachment 1032554
there's my Box int the image, not my excavator. I wish.
View attachment 1032555

Another angle.

I don't think that I really have a question to ask. I just have ADHD and am about to spend a cheekload of money on something used...
I guess: do any of you know how much chip weighs per cubic foot? oak and pine. leafs no leafs. has anybody wasted their time registering multiple weighings (?).

thanks.

Nothing here but a long-winded rant about nothing. I hope you aren't smoking, while your chipping. Chip weight, per cubic foot? This is a chainsaw repair forum. Have your wife cut/paste this and put it on facebook. At least your audience will give you a nod. Might even get a recipe for chipped beef on toast.....Props for the drone shot.

 

[Dr_Anon]

Might not be practical for you but check the prices on some of the big diesel chip trucks in California. A lot for sale for well below retail because they can no longer be registered in the state. Thank our daddy government for the deal.

 

[woodyphyseter]

Nothing here but a long-winded rant about nothing. I hope you aren't smoking, while your chipping. Chip weight, per cubic foot? This is a chainsaw repair forum. Have your wife cut/paste this and put it on facebook. At least your audience will give you a nod. Might even get a recipe for chipped beef on toast.....Props for the drone shot.

Screw you boomer. I don't have facebook and don't smoke or drink alcohol. I'm offended by your bigoted remarks. Is this really what is to expect from this forum?