will a 6' chipper work for starting up?

[derwoodii]

Bandit 65 will keep the profits your side.

 

[squad143]

Get a Bandit 65xp and you'll be glad you did.

Rent a couple of different machines, make sure they all have sharp knives for an equal comparison.

Nice thing about the Bandit 65 is it's weight (2,000 lbs). A bigger machine 4-6000 lbs.

Even if I do get a larger chipper, I'll keep my 65. Great machine.

 

[flushcut]

Get a bigger machine a 6" is a waste of money IMO. The 6" Vermeer can be a real pain in the ass when a "Y" gets stuck and they WILL get stuck in the slot that the feed roller rides in. If I were you rent or lease until you have the $ for something bigger.

 

[FanOFatherNash]

I had a BC600XL for two years. Got tired of cutting every fork so I got rid of it and wouldn't go back with anything less than 12". Not to chip that size just to take the forks.

did you miss the part about him not being able to afford the 12 inch right now?

 

[beastmaster]

When I was self employed I used trailers. Pretty fast on small jobs but when you have to start cutting the load down and stomping, your wasting so much time and energy=loseing money. I use to often rent a little 6in Vemeer. A whole 16ft trailer load would only be a little pile. You have to still buck every thing up to fit and send one branch at a time throu, the good thing is you can use a min. wage guy to feed branches all day and not worry about him getting eaten by the chipper.
Iv'e been thinking about getting one my self and find this thread interesting.
We had a guy flip one coming down a twisty road one time to fast. I am thinking of putting one on a small flat bed truck and pull a trailer, then off load it at the job and chip into a trailer.
I only do small side jobs so it would be perfect. That being said, today we did 3 sycamore and an olive tree trim, and had a 40 ft x6ftx4ft stack of brush. Took less the 10 min. to chip with a vemeer bc1800. It would of took all day with a 6in.

 

[treeoperations]

When I was self employed I used trailers. Pretty fast on small jobs but when you have to start cutting the load down and stomping, your wasting so much time and energy=loseing money. I use to often rent a little 6in Vemeer. A whole 16ft trailer load would only be a little pile. You have to still buck every thing up to fit and send one branch at a time throu, the good thing is you can use a min. wage guy to feed branches all day and not worry about him getting eaten by the chipper.
Iv'e been thinking about getting one my self and find this thread interesting.
We had a guy flip one coming down a twisty road one time to fast. I am thinking of putting one on a small flat bed truck and pull a trailer, then off load it at the job and chip into a trailer.
I only do small side jobs so it would be perfect. That being said, today we did 3 sycamore and an olive tree trim, and had a 40 ft x6ftx4ft stack of brush. Took less the 10 min. to chip with a vemeer bc1800. It would of took all day with a 6in.

if your using a 1800 how bigger truck would you need and all the extra costs vrs a small 6 inch chipper that you can tow with a pick up

 

[a_lopa]

Barely and your helpers will hate it!Seriously I would not bother.Wait till you can get a bigger one.

What he said^^^^^^^^^^

If i had my time again it would be an 18" winch chipper first up,my back and shoulders would be feeling younger.

 

[beastmaster]

if your using a 1800 how bigger truck would you need and all the extra costs vrs a small 6 inch chipper that you can tow with a pick up

I am with you, screw all that overhead and problems. I work for different company's, the guy I worked for today has all the best, newest, equipment money can buy. Today we had 3 climbers and two groundmen. I wouldn't want to pay for the diesel we burn today. I know he bidded that job 1800.00 Big truck, big chipper, big jobs. So long as there is work coming in, all that expensive stuff is nice. But if an'it making money........but if its making money, there is a pay off for sure.
Me a 1 ton dump truck and a small chipper, I can park that on the side of my house. That would handle anything I am interested in doing on my own. I have a kia rio with roof racks now. The back seats are oil soaked, I drive around with a wheelbarrow and small ladder on top, and a ton of gear in side. I don't haul nothing away. A truck of any kind would be a come up. A 6 in. chipper I could do really well.

 

[ROPECLIMBER]

Good thread, I have been thinking of getting rid of my vermeer 1600 C&D and going to a used bandit 65xp as i get so tired of the beating the old screamer puts me through plus it is around 4500 lbs so with a full load and the vermeer it makes for a heavy slow trip back to the yard, I am working sesonal for a larger company in colorado and they have vermeer 1800 w/winch, 4 x 1500 w/winch 2x 1400 1x bc1000xl and a woodsman 17 W/winch, 6 forestry buckets 1 rear mount elevator 22 ton tandum crain truck 2 14 ft high capacity tall box chip trucks a 252 and a carlton dsl 4400 SG, plus 8 company 3/4ton 4x4 formans trks, dump trailer equip ment trailers and mini ditch witch and a deer large rupper track loader, all 8 support trucks are loaded with 2x ms200 1x ms361 1x ms440 1x ms880 plus gcrs plus rigging plus plus plusdiesel was 4.10 a gallon in Colorado last fall so would hate to see thier fuel bill monthly, then they have little fuso flat bed dump 4x4 and a 4x4 mule spray rig, wood splitter, log dolleys, and 3 x LCF ford dsl spray trucks for PHC and lawn division, really nice to work for a well equiped company after I have been poorboying it for years, hard to want to go sell work when I am home now, was thinking of the bandit 65xp cause of the wider infeed the dual rollers plus could pull it with my little bucket van and could make a slide out chip box to go in it for small jobs I have to go back to yard and get chipper truck and race to finish by dark or stage brush at curb then come back next day to chip plus I have heard the disk makes better chips so could probably give them to HO's instead of hauling the 27 miles to GardenVille, plus could downsize to the dodge with a removable top chip box and park at the house, the fuso and the chipper is 100 a month to store can't park over 1 ton at resedential here, on trim jobs the chuk and duck or the 6 inch is all you need on removals it is a pain especially after working with the 18 in chippers where we would crane pick whole medium trees and set them in the chipper,
Paul

 

[Pelorus]

"it is a pain especially after working with the 18 in chippers where we would crane pick whole medium trees and set them in the chipper,"


For me, going from zero chipper, to a chuck & duck, to a 6" Bandit 65XP has taken me to as good as it is probably gonna get, and that is fine. Unless you have the equipment available to feed a larger chipper, just how big a limb are you & your team of human gorillas gonna be able to physically drag & lift up onto the infeed chute? As long as I can keep my overhead costs down to a reasonable level, and still make a decent living, I'm happy to stick one limb at a time through the 6". With a diesel engine powering the chipper, & sharp knives, the 6" system works efficiently & economically, imo.

Anything larger than 5 - 6" is either firewood, or calls for a different disposal method than chipping. I have several contacts with outdoor wood furnaces that appreciate wood donations of any species. And it's no real PITA to keep an extra saw handy by the chipper to nip stuff up to where it will feed with no problems.

 

[BCbound]

Hey Pelorus,

What size engine do you have in your Bandit? How do you like it. Do you have a dump truck to go with it. I'm on the hunt for a 6" diesel, but they a hard to find used.

 

[beastmaster]

just how big a limb are you & your team of human gorillas gonna be able to physically drag & lift up onto the infeed chute?
The nice thing about an 18inch chipper to me isn't that it'll eat a whole tree, but will digest as big a load of brush as you can lift in there. A 6 in. doesn't eat brush well throu that little hole(Brush:a bunch of smaller branches like an olive.)

 

[Pelorus]

Hey Pelorus,

What size engine do you have in your Bandit? How do you like it. Do you have a dump truck to go with it. I'm on the hunt for a 6" diesel, but they a hard to find used.

Mine has the 35HP Hatz. Other than a starter pinion getting eaten up, it has been problem free for close to 1300 hours.
A Bandit rep I talked to at Expo in Hartford last November said Bandit wasn't gonna be offering the Hatz engine option anymore.

I just chip into a dump trailer if the chips have to be hauled away. At least with a 6" chippr it takes a while to fill up the trailer, lol.

Lastly, I think referring back to the OP's original question, going from having NO CHIPPER to owning a decent 6" chipper is the real deal. A buddy in Bracebridge ON is now on his 2nd 6" Bandit (1st one was purchased used with a 30 or 35 HP gas Wisconsin). He also got the 65XP with a Hatz. We both have declined to buy larger chippers. Towing a 6000 lb chipper around poorly maintained seasonal roads and ito tight spots to chip up Mrs. Smith's 45' Spruce or Billy Bob's dead maple doesn't fit my particular business model.

 

[squad143]

I'm on the hunt for a 6" diesel, but they a hard to find used.

Sorry to say this, but Bidadoo Auctions (out of Seattle I think) had two go last month. Low hours. Would have picked one up (my 65 has a 25hp Kohler), but shipping cost would have made it so it wasn't a deal.

 

[BCbound]

Ya, I saw one on that auction and thought hard about it. It was a great deal. I've never made a purchase like that via an auction site or ebay. Has anyone bought a chipper or big piece of equipment off ebay before? Any recourse if you buy a lemon?

 

[squad143]

If I had waited to get a bigger chipper, I would most likely would still be saving. Buying the 6 inch allowed me to go after jobs that I normally would not have, if I was still stacking brush on the trailer.

That little machine paid for itself in the first half of the season that I had it and has allowed me to expand the equipment in my company to the point that I'm looking at big chippers (& trucks).

Will the big chippers get the job done faster..... definately yes.

But for a start up company, when funds are low, the smaller one will get you rolling sooner.

Just my 2 cents.

Some of the jobs my little Bandit has done:

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[squad143]

A few more....... not bad for a 6".

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[ROPECLIMBER]

Pelorus, do you like the bandit 65 better than the chunk n duck I was thinking of down sizing and getting a 65 so I could pull with the little Bucket van and make some kinda removable slide out box to chip into out of plywood, A lot of small jobs I work solo so will go out with bucket van trim, then go back to yard and get chipper and fuso then clean up.Plus I pay 100 per month to store the fuso & 1600, and with the smaller chipper I could sell the fuso and the 1600 and the little dump and just use the e350 I also have a 5x10 brush trailer that i haul the sg on so could haul logs on that wish one had curb side feed then I could mount the triler behind the chipper too for bigger jobs,
Paul

 

[Pelorus]

Pelorus, do you like the bandit 65 better than the chunk n duck I was thinking of down sizing and getting a 65 so I could pull with the little Bucket van and make some kinda removable slide out box to chip into out of plywood, A lot of small jobs I work solo so will go out with bucket van trim, then go back to yard and get chipper and fuso then clean up.Plus I pay 100 per month to store the fuso & 1600, and with the smaller chipper I could sell the fuso and the 1600 and the little dump and just use the e350 I also have a 5x10 brush trailer that i haul the sg on so could haul logs on that wish one had curb side feed then I could mount the triler behind the chipper too for bigger jobs,
Paul

The 65 is lot lighter to tow around and back up into tight spots, and you can run it all day on $25.00 worth of diesel. The chuck 'n duck didn't have electric brakes. You would really notice you were pulling something when towing it with a light p/u truck, whereas the 65 tows like a dream. A couple of years back TCI Magazine had an article comparing the economics of running different size chippers - it was pretty interesting.

My gas Woodchuck had a belt-driven mechanical governor too which is a $1000.00 fist sized headache, and the discharge chute couldn't swivel around either. Changing the knives on a 65 just doesn't compare either. The Woodchuck was ideal for chipping lotsa spruce or pine into a truck, but that is honestly the only good thing I can say about it. The relic is still sitting in my yard (have used it twice in the last two years just so the gas doesn't get too old, and also to not forget all the painful memories, lol. Will list it for sale cheap on Kijiji this Spring finally on order to put the past where it belongs.

Dropped a tree on the Woodchuck once, years ago. (not on purpose, alhough the thought had crossed my mind a few times). Cracked the drum housing. Dealer wanted $6000.00 to repair it. Local welder replaced the head bearings AND welded the crack for $1400.00. I had purchased the unit for $5000.00, so suffice to say, that dealer has never received any further business from me. He also had another identical unit for sale for 5 or 6 thousand which had an older Hercules engine, and looked a lot rougher than mine.

 

[ROPECLIMBER]

Pelorus, thanks for the great replies, though the 1600 is fast on small brush it is a screaming shirt and glove destroying dangerous machine, and it is hard to work slow and steady and safe with the thing screaming at me, feed me feed me, or i will grenede and take out a few pedestrians too, hard on the nerves, and been through the govener, bad gas, intake leak, radiator,and knife change and set, Vermeer quoted * hrs plusactual time on any broken bolts at 85 an hour to change and set the knives took me 7 the first time and have got it down to around 6 now so the disk will be a cake walk, and the fact that I have to leave it off till I am through trimming where with a safer smaller machine the groundy could have every thing raked and blown by the time I got my gear in the truck, will be looking for a good used 65 or 90 bandis in the neer future will trade cash plus my 1600 for the right dsl machine, thanks. with all the headachs the 1600 is still alot better than trailer hack stack and packing,
Paul