Skid steer wood chipper

Anyone here have a skid/CTL wood chipper attachment?

If so what do you think of the brand you have?

Hopefully you will get some responses cm. Interested in one also

I was involved in land clearing and stump grinding for 20 years. Never saw a skidsteer mounted chipper in use, on any size job. I believe they are too small, as the Bobcat machine can only handle up to 5" , in ideal conditions. It also looks like one of the bigger machines available for skid steers. About as useful on commercial work as a D&R chipper.
Jeff

Thanks for the reply MM.

I wouldn't be using it commercially as we rarely do any clearing and grubbing and when we do we use trackhoes and haul the debris off.

The reason I'm asking is the wife and I have a 2 acre wooded lot with not a lot of underbrush that I would like to thin out in prep for building our house. Have a T250 high-flow semi-retired backup machine I could put a chipper on and work when I could or wanted to. 5" size would be fine for what I want to do.

Thinking of buying one to use on the lot then sell it afterwards. Ultimately I would like a small Kubota tractor with front bucket and other attachments for my personal use. A PTO chipper would work well on a little tractor as well. Unfortunately the little orange tractor is a ways off with a new house build coming up.

High flow machine? Buy a drum mulcher instead.

My interest is not commercial heavy chipping. We clean drainage ditches and encounter quite a few small trees in the 1”-4” range. Right now we collect them into a pile and burn then bury what doesn’t burn. Chipping an occasional sprout every 200-500ft and leaving chips seems maybe more efficient. Have a Case tv380 as power.

CM1995: It would probably be fine for what your intended use is. I think they are pretty pricey though. Any chance you could find a place to rent one when you need it? Might be a more economical option.

ianjoub said:

High flow machine? Buy a drum mulcher instead.

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Those are available for rent easy enough but the lot doesn't lend itself to a drum mulcher. There is 25' of elevation difference across the middle and full of rock outcroppings.

mowingman said:

CM1995: It would probably be fine for what your intended use is. I think they are pretty pricey though. Any chance you could find a place to rent one when you need it? Might be a more economical option.

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MM I've looked around and no rental houses have any for rent. Kicked around the idea of buying a used tow behind but that's another engine to maintain it would be cumbersome pulling it around with the CTL.

They are pricey from what I've researched. Might get lucky and find one up for auction in decent shape.

I purchased one and it showed up Friday afternoon. I went with the Titan (off brand) due to pricing. $2,700 delivered to my door vs the next closest one $14,750 (Quick Attach).
There was not a bolt or nut tight on the unit when I received it. The female coupling was bad from the get go and would not seat right so I ended up stealing one off my snowplow.
I ran it for about 2hrs on Saturday. It takes a little getting use to in regards to feeding branches and limps in the correct way as there is no feeder. Anything over 2" and they just sit in the hopper and bounce.
Overall, this will work fine in my application.

High flow machine? Buy a drum mulcher instead.

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CM1995 said:

Those are available for rent easy enough but the lot doesn't lend itself to a drum mulcher. There is 25' of elevation difference across the middle and full of rock outcroppings.

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I used to pile up branches when doing tree trimming and mulch the pile. The drum mulcher was very effective.

You have it covered now though.

https://www.wallensteinequipment.com/us/en/model/bxh42

Wallenstein makes some nice stuff (pricey!).
I’ve had a Chinese 3pt 6” capacity chipper for 15+ years. Use with a 30horse New Holland.
Feed mechanism not the best...you spend a lot of time feeding/helping material in.
It has worked well for me and certainly reduces a mess of branches into small pile of chips.

I've been watching this site for a couple of years now. Sometimes the things on it go for a decent price.
There is a Bobcat chipper in the attachment category.

https://www.bigiron.com/sale/skid-steer-attachments

I can speak to a chipper. The problem with any chipper is feeding. The chippers with the angled chute require one to lift the branches... (I'm old & weak) The small infeed then require a bunch of crotch trimming. (same as above)
My recommendation from my chipper experience... rent a chipper if needed now. Wait till you can get a PTO chipper with hydraulic feed. Select a unit with a feed chute almost horizontal if not horizontal. The hydraulic feed allow you to slow the infeed to match your PTO HP. Then the limitation is how heavy a chipper can the tractor lift. The larger infeed opening reduces trimming. Then your trimmings can be started and left while you get the next branch, while the chipper pulls it in. I used to pile branches for disposal. I find with a chipper there's a lot less work and effort (See above)
This is what I've got. https://www.bing.com/videos/search?...2FFC3BB4A708DF2BF7CA2FFC3BB4A708DF2&FORM=VIRE

Since you have hydraulic flow, maybe PTO hydraulic motor would allow a 3pt model to be used?
Agree w Hosspuller that the feed makes all the difference.
Mine has only a single driven feed drum and it doesn’t take much for a limb to hang up.

Been around a couple, sure wasn't impressed at all with any of them, sorry if this isn't what you want to hear. Before I'd even consider one of those smaller units, not sure how much you have to chip, but I'd go with a diesel powered disk chipper, smaller units used go on sales pretty cheaply compared to a new skid steer chipper. The huge benefit to a self contained unit is, then you can use the skid steer with a grapple to somewhat feed the chipper without having to do it by hand. Let me retype that again, use the skid steer with a grapple to do the bulk of the labor of handing the brush and limbs and I've fed a couple chippers exactly that way, the whole tossing the stuff in by hand is good for the first five minutes, but after that, its time to sit in a skid steer and use that or an excavator with a thumb to feed the chipper. Most diesel disk chippers have variable speed power feed linked to the engine speed, so once the engine lugs down, the feed rolls stop or slow way down so you don't kill off the engine. That feature alone is worth it, once you actually kill off the skid steer engine with one of those smaller attachments, life sort of sucks to say the least.

Now if they have improved the skid steer units over the years or those tiny tow behinds with the small gas engines, I don't know, but I do know from what I've seen or been around of them, I wasn't even remotely impressed.

I'd either buy a larger diesel unit or hire someone to chip my stuff for me. Just my two cents. Best of luck on whatever you decide to do, not sure if your in an area you can burn it, but if that's an option, bon fires are sure nice for the kids or grand kids later in the evening and are the cheapest method yet to get rid of any woody material.

My son worked for Asplundh for a few years before he got on at a local utillity company. He suggested to me to get a used pull behind gas or diesal chipper. I'm currently thining 7-8 acres of timber and brush using chain saws and a Bobcat s185 with a grapple. Dug a small pit 3x12x15 and burning after it rains.....which hasn't been happening for 2 1/2 months now, not enough to burn anyway. Thinking I should of bought a chipper. There are a couple on auction time.com, used units that need work.
Just my .02

John

Even a 6 inch chipper will way outproduce those. Use the bobcat for moving piles to the chipper.

Cm1995,

Arent you somewhere midstate in Al? Im in Huntsville. I see used chippers on a regular basis in our area. I own a tree service. Probably could buy a decent used machine, use it for a year or two then sell it for close to what you paid.

PTO chipper? Check Woodland Mills.

John Griffin said:

Even a 6 inch chipper will way outproduce those. Use the bobcat for moving piles to the chipper.

Cm1995,

Arent you somewhere midstate in Al? Im in Huntsville. I see used chippers on a regular basis in our area. I own a tree service. Probably could buy a decent used machine, use it for a year or two then sell it for close to what you paid.

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Hey John, I live in the Birmingham metro.

We are not in the tree business except for clearing and grubbing that's part of our site jobs.

What I am interested is more "hobby" or personal use. Wife and I own a 2 AC lot we plan on eventually building on and it's fairly wooded. A skid steer chipper would allow me to take our retired T250 to the lot and selectively clear under brush on my own time. Not really wanting another engine to take care of hence the attachment approach.

CM1995 said:

Not really wanting another engine to take care of hence the attachment approach.

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We had a thread on a motorcycle forum years ago dealing with that. "How many engines are you responsible for to keep running"?

I think I was at 24: cars/trucks, motorcycles both street and dirt, generators, lawn mowers, weed eaters, chainsaws, etc...