Looking at getting a small wood chipper.  Mostly for trail maintenance/tree thinning on my ~40 acre wood lot.  PTO isn't a viable option until I get my trails sorted out enough to bring my tractor around.  Getting really sick of burning brushpiles and the chips would come in handy.

I heat with wood, so only looking at chipping small stuff.

Any thoughts on this:  https://www.homedepot.com/p/DK2-6-in-14-HP-Gas-Powered-Kohler-Engine-Certified-Commercial-Chipper-Shredder-with-Extended-Axles-and-Trailer-Tow-Hitch-OPC506/309364425

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Maybe something else?

that looks nice!   i paid $500 for a little tractor supply wood chipper that i pull behind the sxs.  it worked great for a couple years of heavy use.

Everything is crazy expensive now.

https://www.harborfreight.com/65-hp-212cc-chipper-shredder-62323.html?campaignid=12129614380&adsetid=120520874121&product=62323&store=3341&gad_source=1

depends on how much chipping you have to do, and what you want to do with the chips.  if you want 2x the HP and to have the chips blown neatly into the bed of the sxs, it's about 4x the $.   i guess there's a dozen other ways the $2k model is better than the .5k model, including wider wheels and nicer hitch and bigger feeder.  but none of that stuff mattered to me, as i wasn't collecting chips, just leaving them in the woods, etc

i didn't really take care of mine.  left it out in the weather for 3 years and didn't need it anymore so i gave it away about 2 months ago.  dude cleaned a little rain and dirt out of it and it started right up.    for $2k, i'd prob  want space in a garage to keep that thing

Yeah, I plan on hauling it into the woods and abusing the heck out of it for a couple of years.  Just blowing chips onto the trails.

Got a lot of work to do and definitely trying to find a good blend of affordable and capable.

Now that the snowblower is put away, she would live in the garage.

Looks better than one of the really small chipper/shredders I got, right around $800.  Claimed 3 inch wood, and no claimed HP, just cc.

Those things are useless on most things.

I've been really happy with a PTO powered chipper with hydraulic infeed, easy to feather the feed speed. But it was way more then $2.5 k, and if you don't want to take a tractor where the wood is, that would be a decent option.

Just know that none of them truly do what they say in my experience.

Yeah, I highly doubt any claims of 6" and figure the actual really effective range may be about 2" but that meets my use case.

The sale for this one is over on the 28th, so I have some time to think.

Of course, I was just clearing a bunch of fallen trees off my trails yesterday and piling brush on the side thinking, damn I could use these chips on the muddy trails.

I have that exact one that i occasionally use on my property.  Let me know if you have specific questions.

Any major issues that would prevent me from chipping a boat load of 2 to 3 inch hard and softwood brush?

I guess that would depend on the boat now wouldn't it?

Mine has been pretty good. I have a lot of oak and other hardwoods on my property so probably five inches or so would be the upper limit. I need to take the knives out in sharpen them again. It's got the Kohler engine which has been very reliable. The only thing is if the engine doesn't start, check the oil because it has a low oil switch. The only other thing that I cant think of That might affect use is how scraggly your branches are. The chute going in is not very wide so if your branches are really tough and scraggly, sometimes they can get held up before they get to the knife. That can be fixed by trimming the branches before they go in or pushing them in with a stick, but it's something to think about if you're used to a bigger chute or power feeders. I think I bought mine in 2020 for about a hundred bucks less, But I'd recommend it and I do it again. Tractor Supply I think It comes fairly unassembled so you may need to spend it afternoon with a six pack putting it together.

Thanks!

When I needed one I rented a serious commercial unit.  Had about a 15" throat.  Still had to trim limbs off of the trunk to go in.  It would eat 8 inch small trees nicely.

I've not needed one since.

That's the way to go for one time use for sure.  Anything approaching regular use it's really nice to be able to just go and chip for a few minutes. The biggest problem I have with the commercial units is they are too fast.  It's just me, and there's no way I can keep those fed constantly.

Anything I have over 6 inches get put aside for firewood, and a lot of the chips are nice to use for bedding, so I'm incentivized to do moderate amounts at a time.

I've been considering the same thing, but with an electric start.  Those flywheels are heavy to be pulling on a cord.

I have a a DirtyHandTools chipper that has a tow bar, but it's 6.5HP and is more hassle to use than it's worth.  

I'd like a bigger unit and have also been considering the WoodMaxx 3-point line to use on my tractor.

Going to purchase tomorrow so if anyone has further thoughts please add them.

IMO if you can go with a decent PTO unit go with that.

I can, but I won't be able to bring the chipper anywhere much of the year.  Hence my gas chipper look.

My snowblower is 414cc and relatively easy to pull start is why I'm looking at the rope versions.  

Have a woodmaxx with hydraulic infeed on a 25 horsepower tractor.  Love the thing, though it's on the very low end of recommended power.

Mx8800, Kubota l2501.  Can stall the tractor out if I'm dumb, but anything that big I generally keep for firewood.  Love the hydraulic infeed, and horizontal feed.  But I have mostly tall thin trees.

Got the spares for it so I wouldn't have to use any of them.  And their method of opening up to clear jams isn't bad, though I bet other companies do similar.  Think woodmaxx sells some cheaper versions that are harder to work on, but it's been a hot minute.

Any way I look at it, a chainsaw makes a lot of physical labor for me.  And the resulting chip pile is smaller than I expect.  But my place is arranged such that things like a grapple are less useful, so I do lots of dragging.

I love my pto stuff, but most anything I've had with a pull rope that's been hard to start has had something else wrong with it.

We have one of those and it rarely gets used.  They're OK if you're shredding broomsticks or bamboo, but any kind of branch with a crook or offshoot turns up the limitations of a small throat right quick. We were spending more time cutting and trimming than chipping.

At the time I turned to just pushing everything into big burn piles, and sold the chipper/shredder to a guy in a subdivision that really only wanted it for light yard stuff.

Powered infeed does help with a lot of the stuff you'd normally have to cut apart.

What's another bill.

Broke in the HD store card and ordered it.  0% financing for 12 months.

Should be at the store around the end of next week.

Let us know what you think, I kinda jumped right over that class of stuff.  I'd hate to know that's what I should have bought at the last house.

I got mine put together tonight.  I ended up with this one:

https://www.homedepot.com/p/Power-King-5-in-14-HP-Kohler-Engine-Gas-Powered-Commercial-Chipper-Shredder-Kit-Electric-Start-Hour-Meter-Wheel-Base-Extension-PK0915-EH1/316081027

Putting it together was a two person job, would have been almost impossible with only one person.   And since my help was the wife, I ended up using a vehicle jack to hold it up to get the extra-wide wheel base bar on it.  

I paid almost $1k less with the sale that was last week + .MIL discount.

If I don't like it, will have HD come pick it up and and order the WoodMaxx 8600MX.   I was very torn but the truth is I'd rather put hours on a small engine than on my diesel tractor.

Will try it out tomorrow.

How many pedo's can it shred before it craps out? 🤔

having hovered my finger over the buy button of that model several times.

i look forward to your review of it's performance.

Picked it up on Saturday, put it together and did some playing in the driveway with stuff laying around.  Maybe about 15 minutes of running.

It was easy enough to put together-I peeled open the crate and did it in my 6x12 trailer.

Then it started raining and raining.

Yesterday, I had some dirtmoving to do so I couldn't use it.

Today is more rain.

Initial thoughts is it shreds more than chips.  You're not getting a big chip like you would a bigger chipper, but you will get some.  If you're using it for mulch or trails, just know it will fade away into the dirt quicker.

I already knew that I would have to thin things down to fit in the throat, but that meets my use case.  When something gets to the knives it will get eaten.

Potential future problems:  There is a lip where the chute meets the shredder.  I didn't see any problems in the 15 minutes I ran it, but I'll bet I see a snag in the future.  This model is pretty simple for clearing snags.

Minor gripe:  It didn't come with oil  I had a couple quarts of 5W30 around, so no real issue.  One of these days I'll read the manual to see what oil goes in there, but 30W is almost always the spec.

Funny:  The rubber mats on the chute are not very heavy-that's a good thing for feeding.  I tossed the cut off end of my PT 4x4 mailbox post in there and it promptly tossed it back at me through the mats.  it ate it the second time though.

The engine was easy enough to pull over and started first pull.  Well, first pull after I released I hadn't turned the emergency cutoff key to on.

Hope to get some work in by the end of the weekend.  

I had the same with a short stick I was testing mine with.  I was quickly reminded why the docs state to stand to the side of the inlet chute.