trucks with chippers built in?

[imagineero]

Anyone seen something like this?

I saw one up for auction in aus late last year, and I was interested in it but it disappeared before I could call or go look at it. Looked like it had been converted from a garbage truck with a compactor. Someone had taken all the compactor parts out of the rear section, and slotted a 9" chipper in there. Wasn't a huge truck, maybe about 12cubic yard bin. The beauty of it was that the whole compactor section was hinged, and hydraulic. So when you went to tip, you hit the lever to lift all the chipper section off, then tipped the bin. All without geting out of the cab.

Something like this would really be ideal for me. All my work is city work, and getting around with a truck and trailer is tough. You can pretty much never get parking, and often have to reverse around blind corners. A truck with built in chipper would save me a lot of time and let me get into tighter spaces.

I've half been thinking about building one myself, but I didnt see any of the details of the works - whether it was PTO driven off the truck engine or had its own engine, how fuel was stored, whether it was rigid mounted etc etc... A guy working with me was telling me that they are common in the UK but only with 6" chippers and a lo tof them are fed from the side rather than the back.

Has anyone seen/got a link to something like this?

Thanks,
Shaun

 

[imagineero]

I've seen them before, and not retrofit units but units designed that was from the start.


There must be a reason they are not very popular.

I'm guessing the main reason is because the chipper significantly reduces the trucks legal carry capacity, and the chipper is still too small for most tree companies. To stay under the legal yearly inspection limit in aus a truck needs to stay under 12T, but there aren't a lot of trucks close to that size.... most are 10T GVM. With a 10T GVM most are tare about 5T (with a bin) which leaves 5T carry. Add another 2T from the chipper bits and pieces and you're down to 3T carry which will cover you for maybe 8cubes of mulch legal carry. Not a lot... and a 9" chipper isn't going to get a lot done.

For me though, it's the ideal setup. I get contract chippers in on big jobs, with trucks up to 40 cubes and big chippers. It's a lot more economical for me to sub that out than to own such big gear. Getting someone in with a big trcuk and chipper costs me less than what wages + fuel for a day would be if I had to hire someone to drive the gear if I already owned it, nevermind the cost of purchasing and maintaining it!

But I do miss out on small trees and trim jobs a lot of the time because I can't win them if I have to pay to chip them. What I need is a small truck and chipper, but I don't have room to get one in most places. So the 10T truck with built in chipper suits my needs pretty well I'm thinking. Even if if only chips small stuff and only carrys 8 cubes of mulch, that's plenty enough for me in a single vehicle package.


I've looked at those little tipper trailers with a built in 6" chipper, but it's just too small.

Shaun

 

[ATH]

I kinda have assembly of such a truck in the back of my mind...so here are my thoughts:

1) I spoke with a couple of forestry truck dealers, and one guy said that there were some of these trucks on the US market years ago. They were not popular because if either the truck or chipper goes down, then both are down... That is an issue if you have a fleet of each where you can swap out as needed, but if you only have one truck and one chipper I am not sure that is such a big deal.

2) As has been mentioned, you are limited to a smaller chipper (6 & 9 inch are most common, but I have seen that Bandit has a 12"...others may as well?).

3) I think the best suggestion I have received so far is to go with a PTO chipper running off of the driveshaft. That will save a LOT of weight (9" capacity Bandit PTO chipper weighs 1 ton...), cost less, and should result in less maintenance on the chipper. (I say I think that is the best suggestion...but I have not seen it done, so I am sure there are downsides to it, but I don't know what those are).

Looking forward to hear what others think of the all-in-one set-up!

 

[mattfr12]

Size of the chipper would be the big downfall like other said a decent 12" is gonna weigh 6-8k, In a scenario like you have said and are working it could be perfect. But most companies aren't gonna roll with less than a 12 inch if there doing any kind of tree removal. We don't roll with anything under 18" anymore, Chips are a lot easier to get rid of than logs every time we do a pine we run every log we can through it the throat opens up a little over twenty and we max it out a lot,

 

[TimberMcPherson]

MOG baby MOG!

Mog chipper image by barney2006 on Photobucket

http://www.earborist.com/Images/Preview/201001091122160.PC110702.JPG

 

[imagineero]

I've seen that type of setup before, mostly in the UK. Sometimes they have a 'floating' chipper that mounts somewhere just behind the cab on a big rotating arm and can be swung around to feed from either side of the truck, or from in front.

While it's a great idea for certain types of work, it's really nothing like what I'm talking about. The chippers they have on those are usualyl no bigger than 6", and the mogs, while great for access really aren't practical highway trucks and only have a small chip bin capacity. Plus, the few mogs we have in aus are pricey enough to come in not far short of buying a helicopter and just doing 'heli urban logging' ;-)

Shaun

 

[BCbound]

Check this out.

2000 FORD F550 for sale in Candler, North Carolina - Commercial Truck Trader


As well there is always the dump trailer chipper combo. If the bulk of your work is pruning I think it would be a good option.

 

[ATH]

....As well there is always the dump trailer chipper combo. If the bulk of your work is pruning I think it would be a good option.

But that doesn't really save any room/take less space to park than a chip truck and a chipper right?

 

[BCbound]

Very true ATH.

 

[imagineero]

I guess our trucks are a little different from the ones you guys have in the states. We don't really have any of the large pickup style trucks as tree trucks. Most of the trucks we get here are japanese, and they're ummm... trucks. We don't really call pickups 'trucks'.

This is my truck which is a pretty common size for guys working in the city. It's 15,000lbs GVM, and the bin is about 8 cubic yards. It's about as big of a truck you can get that can still be parked on a normal size parking space. Most guys are coupling this up to a 9" or 12" chipper since thats about as big of a chipper as you can tow with a truck this size. It's good for small to medium trees and trim jobs which is the bread and butter of city tree work. It's still tough to get a small truck and chipper into a lot of places, or find a park since you're going to need at least 2.5 car spaces in a row to park one. Finding a single car space in the city is tough enough already.

Guys who work in the suburbs usually get something a little bigger, closer to 30,000lbs GVM with an 18" chipper behind and a 20cubic yard bin. Similar to this one below but with a bigger chipper. Trucks this size are good for medium to large removals, but to get into something like this new in aus you're looking around $400,000 with the truck and chipper which is some $. On top of that the insurance, rego and fuel cost is pretty large and you can't legally park it on the road overnight except in industrial areas.... so unless you own property big enough to park it you're going to have a hard time storing it. Almost impossible to get a truck this size up narrow city streets and tight corners, or onto a residential driveway. You're going to need about 4 consecutive car spaces with an 18" on the back. I sub out my medium-large chip jobs to a guy with a 20 cube bin and bandit 18. It's cheap and quick.

This is the type of compactor truck I'm talking about which is used for garbage collection in aus. What would be idea for me would be one around 25,000lbs GVM with a 10 cube bin. With a 9" chippier built into the back it wouldn't really be much bigger than my current truck, would save me rego and insurance on the chipper, would get into much smaller spaces than my current truck with a chipper and would make dumping really easy. I could also still get away with parking it in front of my apartment.

Here's another one showing the back open... this is a much larger compactor, but you get the idea. The compactor unit is contained in that 'flip up' rear section which is lifted hydraulically. Once the compactor is up, the bin tips just like a normal tipper. The truck I saw last year, somebody had gutted all the compactor out and fitted a chipper in there.

 

[superjunior]

Back in 89 when I got into this buis I worked for a tree service in seattle that had an old gmc chip truck with a chipper built in. Pretty sure the truck was designed that way. The chipper was mounted between the cab and bed and fed on the passenger side. Ran off the trucks engine. Was like any old chuck n duck, can't remember if it was 6 or 9 inch.

 

[ROPECLIMBER]

View attachment 246261Brush Chipper and Chip Truck

Like this, I use a fuso converted to a dump a little sluggish but gets the job done and can turn it around in tight residential streets too