Wanted! 6" chipper...

I am in the same boat as you Ken, every thing bigger than 3" is fire wood and I have been chastised (where upon I fired the client) for not making firewood out of under 3" :roll: So.... Since we burn most slash, the customer is not afraid of cutting firewood their-selves, etc... We use a 5 inch hand fed. Our next chipper will be a tad bigger at 6", auto feed with a wider throat... Have my eye on one that is rated for 6 but can take up too almost 8 because of the throat. So I am told. Might get a demo on it soon. Local tree guy is debating getting out of the business and is offering it to me. Small so I can still use the trucks I already heave and the mini so as to get into the tight places we are called to do. Our niche.
Totally get where you are coming from. These guys know their stuff. A 6-9" Bandit would probably serve you quite well.
Don't forget to check out what support you would have local for the chipper you buy. Our fire counsel and local rental places have the Vermeers... Different sizes, but up to 12" from 6". All said hateful.
The other brands suggested in this thread have a good loyalty. Even local here. That says something. Us hillbillys would put a hate on something we don't like and never look back. Just sayin.
 
I think smaller chippers are way underrated. It all depends on what kind of work you do.

Last week we spent 2 days removing a boxelder from a backyard. We filled our chip truck with chips and hauled out 3 full trailer loads of wood. Our 9" Vermeer never slowed us down once and having a larger chipper would not have saved us more than a half of load of wood hauling. Either way the debris needs to get hauled so what is the difference if you haul wood or chips?

Don't overlook chuck and ducks either. I personally fell those are great chippers for the money.

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I agree with a lot of the sentiments but disagree with some too. For Ken I think a smaller chipper will be fine.

For people running a day to day business, with employees and trucks etc...A larger chipper is a necessity. We run a 18" Bandit and we can fill a truck in 10 minutes with a crane or by backing up to a pile of logs. We have only spent more than 1 day on a tree 2 times in the last year and they were both monsters behind the house with a 40 ton crane. We rarely even spend a whole day on one tree. With a winch and 18" capacity we can do a tree that would take a 6" chipper a whole day in < 35 minutes.
 
When we were looking at replacing our 12" Vermeer cost was not the main factor. We wanted a chipper that would not slow our operation down. We are a 2 man crew who climbs everything. No bucket, no crane, no loader (for now). Bigger chippers are great for when you can feed them, but when feeding chippers manually, anything bigger than 12 inch is wasted and not worth the expense.

We are a full time, year round company and I believe a 9 inch chipper is perfect for us. You can can definitely debate brand loyalty all day long but for us, Vermeer wins hands down because of local service. We have an excellent relationship with the local service center and that adds lots of value to us.

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Ken said:
...So back to a starving student for a while :(...but, hopefully some tree work on the side will help me with tuition. All that to say, I'm not planning to purchasing any large bucket trucks, dump trucks, skid-steers or >15inch $30,000 dollar chippers. I'm just a little fish in the pond, and likely won't be getting much bigger... I don't believe that's setting my sights too low...just my plans, and what I think may be best for me...Ken
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Ken, really give some thought as to whether or not you even need a chipper. It sounds like your goals at this particular time are temporary field work on a rather small scale. The secret of making money is keeping it. It is very easy to add equipment that will zip through jobs quickly. But everything you add, whether it be trucks, chippers or employees, will add costs whether you are working or not. Most employees don't have a clue on the actual operating cost of a business. Trust me, you can have gross receipts that are off the charts and still be making barely enough to survive. People really need to do the math. I can make $125/hour with my saw and a rope. Most of this money goes in my pocket. With equipment you are sharing the gross from the job with all the other expenses to support that equipment. These are the hidden costs and they are difficult to truly understand. A 660 is a great saw, if you have a use of it. And worthless if all you do are small trim jobs.

As far as this Vermeer bashing goes, I have a slightly different point of view. We don't have the other major dealers in our area. And because I knew our local Vermeer dealer well, I took a look at the 625A in 2000. Took it on a job to demo. And decided it would absolutely not work for us as it chipped at a ridiculously slow rate. BUT, I recognized WHY it was chipping so slow. The auto-feed electronics were so protective of the engine and load that it would not allow the machine to work to its capacity. Took it back to the dealer, had them disconnect the auto-feed control and tried it again. Now, we're talking. A totally different machine. You still have the rate control lever so the intake feed speed can be adjusted and I found that's all you need.

Since 2000, we have used this machine almost daily (that's 13 years) and have done nothing more than sharpen blades and greased bearings. Nothing has broken on it. It produces very high quality small chips. It will run 4 hours on 5 gallons of gas. It is very light weight and easily towed with a pickup truck or even maneuvered by hand in tight quarters and backyards. This simple and small machine has already paid for itself many times over and I can find no fault in it.

David
 
I have a 6" morbark, I love it. Perfect for pruning jobs. For large removals. I chip the brush and call a guy with a large truck and a loader. And all the rest of the tree is gone. I don't think about it, I don't touch it and I don't have to deal with the headaches of large equipment. Everything on the morbark is easily fixable. The blades need to be sharp and changed often. I do like being able to move the chipper around by hand. I think sometimes a larger chipper would be nice. However I remember the first company we worked for when I started had a small chipper. We started out on pleasurable pruning jobs. They bought an 18 inch chipper and from then on we basically did nasty removals and lot clearing jobs. I barely got into the trees anymore and basically spent all day operating that chipper. Pruning jobs became a rarity because we were no longer competitive on those jobs. If the chipper wasn't doing whAt it does best we were losing money. The chipper became the centerpiece of the company while our skill as arborist became a second thought. I like the fact now that I can do pruni g jobs better and cheaper than anyone. My removal prices are a bit more expensive than the compAnies with large chippers but we get them done in good time and I don't feel like we work to hard. I don't really see the need to chip the big stuff when its just as easy to throw it into a truck and then dump it. It's the brush that takes up space.
 
bonner1040 said:
For people running a day to day business, with employees and trucks etc...A larger chipper is a necessity.
Click to expand...

Nope. It all depends on the work you do. I do jobs all over LA. Tuesday we are taking out a $3,000 euc. With my 9" morbark. I would be screwed if I had a bigger chipper. In fact, we got this job because other companies couldn't back into the long driveway and so they had to charge for more labor to drag brush.

It just depends.






love
nick
 
kevin bingham said:
... I like the fact now that I can do pruning jobs better and cheaper than anyone. My removal prices are a bit more expensive than the companies with large chippers but we get them done in good time and I don't feel like we work to hard. I don't really see the need to chip the big stuff when its just as easy to throw it into a truck and then dump it. It's the brush that takes up space.
Click to expand...

You just described TreeCareLA perfectly!!




love
nick
 
bonner1040 said:
This is really the smallest chipper I could consider using.

View attachment 49077
Click to expand...

You'd drag yourself silly trying to get the brush to the chipper, here.

That thing wouldn't be able to get in anywhere. Our streets date back to when only the rich had oxen, they aren't planned around the need to be able to turn a 20 mule team, like yours:lol:
 
It's funny because I come from that camp, smaller (less overhead) and simpler is better. I only dreamed of a 1 ton and 6" chipper before I owned a company. My experience was quite different than some others posted here, I found spending more a month on equipment financing cost (and yes sometimes equipment repair) gained substantial increases in gross and more importantly net profit each month. FOr tight access we move the material with a mini to the chipper. My guys are spoiled and get cranky when they have to hand feed the chipper. I'd say we do 50/50 removals and pruning which is where I want to be.

As Kevin mentioned, if your equipment is limiting your operation (forcing you to do only large removals to pay for the cost of the machine) then it might not be worth it. Our 15" chipper seems to be a good balance between being able to tow easily with a smaller truck (550) and being fuel efficient, while also efficient at both removals and pruning jobs. I would love to have a 6" chipper as a secondary machine so I could tow it into tight areas with a forwarder (mini).

jp:D
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #40
DMc I see your points, I think I'm just on the edge of what you're describing...I find there's no comparison dealing with the shear volume of brush on some jobs...with a good quality 6" chipper I can decimate a pile of brush in 2 hours that would take me all day with an average trailer...Sean, I deal with a variety of species of tree, lots of hardwood though. Maple, ash, walnut etc.

Ken
 
After using my 9inch brush bandit, I personally wouldnt go smaller, and Im a 2 man team...live oak is rough trying to go in a small hopper, way less time trimming at the chipper to feed it...I would go crazy using a 6inch :whine:
 
If I ever go into business for myself I will only buy two things..

18.jpg


maxresdefault.jpg
 
Not to be a Debby Downer Nick, but good luck writing a business plan to get that kind of financing for a startup. Running a small business is much more complicated than one might think. But that's another topic for another day.

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Yes, if that kinda stuff worries you, you'd better not get those - or that loader, either. It takes a CDL to drive that bad boy.
 
Sorry the one picture had two things in it. I was referring to the Truck and Carl... that way he could address all that other pishposh for me.

We totally derailed Kens thread.

Does anyone know where he can find a nice 6" chipper? No junk!
 
Ken, knowing your species growth habit will tell you somewhat if you can get away with a simple chuck and duck. I have a 1975 Wayne Chuck and Duck. For my area, it fits right in. 9" x 16" throat. only 4400 pounds.

Mostly straight limbed species around here. Dead limbs suck, but feeding tip first works. Cedar are a pain sometimes, if they have complex branching habits, but if they're younger limbs, its fine. Mine has a round chute that both telescopes and twists/ swivels, with an end of chute deflector. Many/ most CnDs are not build this way, from what I've seen. I bought it for $2500 about 6 years ago, and it has been by and large dependable. One clutch, radiator rebuild, carb tuning, new muffler. A very simple machine with a Chrysler 318 that's bullet proof. Zero hydraulics, one engine, one PTO, one drum, one belt, one chute, plus a gas tank, basically.

In this area, with the predominantly straight-limbed species (conifers, alder, maple, willow, etc), my sharp chipper will outchip a 12" vermeer by a longshot if there are enough hands to feed it, from what I'm told by a former employee.

Know your market, know your trees, figure out dump options, etc. Figure out what will work for you.

You aren't married to a chipper. You can sell a good chipper and buy something else. Don't buy crap.
 
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