[jdmihalko]

So, I have been wanting to get a wood chipper for my 1025r. Think I have it narrowed down to the WoodMaxx TH-86H, but this question probably doesn’t matter which brand you have. My question is quantity of chips produced. I am looking at the chipper mainly to add chips around the trees in my orchard (just starting it this year with 14 trees), a handful of small flower beds as well as some muckier spots on a few trails in my woods. I have about 40 acres of woods so plenty of limbs, etc to pull from, but is it realistic to create enough wood chips for what I mentioned above just from old limbs? I would guess I’ll need around 20-30 yds of mulch this year then just enough to add to whatever needs it in the following years. Not looking for exact amounts but any rough amounts would be great or even advice for if it makes sense or if I should just buy wood chips (or see if I can get some for free) and use the $3k for some other implement, because there’s always another implement we need, right ?

 

[RalphVa]

That's about 3 times as many FELs full. Think the FEL is near 1/3 yard. That's A LOT of FELs full. One small pile of limbs will be about an FEL full. You'll need about 60 to 90 of those piles.

I've a WM WC46, about the same size chipper but with more horizontal in chute. Would take you about 1 1/2 hours to do maybe 3 piles AFTER you cut the limbs or small trees down.

 

[JimR]

I can tell you this, I cut down a 60' maple last fall while it was still fully leafed out. I cut up the trunk for firewood and ran all the limbs through the chipper and ended up with about 1/2 of a cubic yard of chips.

I'd imagine that if you picked up all the limbs laying on the ground on your 40 acres you could probably get 20+ yards of chips. But that's a lot of wandering through the woods picking up limbs and a few days of just shoving them through a chipper. And I don't know if you could get that every year.

 

[DBCSteve]

Around here (western Washington), local tree trimmers / arborists are glad to get rid of their chips. We get ours dumped free, probably have 5 large dump truck loads right now. Worst case here is you pay $20 for a load to help the owners offset fuel costs.

Edit: If you need a lot of chips and quickly, get them delivered (and specify per RadarDon's suggestion). But ... if you have a need to periodically chip stuff up and you have a fair amount of trees that provide "opportunities", by all means get a chipper. My Woodland Mills WC68 will be delivered tomorrow, perhaps around the same time an arborist buddy will bring me another load of free chips. You can have it both ways.

 

[RadarDon]

At the moment I have a 3" chipper from pre-tractor days. I like using big chips and little chips for different things. The big chips last longer and the little ones are great in compost and veggie gardens. Mine produces little chips. When the utility companies go around chipping I ask and they all promise to bring them by my house. None ever has in 12 years. A local tree service has given me 3 truck loads (3+ yards each I think) of chips when he was working nearby to save fuel taking them back to his place and coming back for more. He has a 12" chipper for the big chips. The local rental one is only 10" and not in great shape. I am not sure I would get the big chips I want with an 8" chipper. Though I want a big chipper I can't justify the cost. If I have to pay for a load of chips max is $50 delivered and I can specify the types I would like and the types I refuse (like black walnut) to take.

This reminds me, time to talk to him again as I want to redo the fruit trees. I think last time I used about 12 yards.

 

[jdmihalko]

Yeah, I think you guys might be talking me out of the chipper. I have plenty of room to ditch my old branches and limbs, so if the chipper isn’t going to really work to give me enough chips for what I want, I think the money might be better spent on another implement.

 

[letmgrow]

Unless you have a way to treat the chips you are going to have every species of ant there is taking up residence in the chips. Especially the "Carpenter Ant".

 

[Zebrafive]

I pile and burn most of my brush.
I do have a chipper to make chips for home when the wife wants them. I try to use cherry. If I had cedar, that would be my first choice. I prefer fresh/green rather than old dead limbs to chip.
I know people that get "free" chips dumped. They have told me they contain lots of trash too. Not through the chipper, but thrown on to the load, worn out chainsaw chains, gloves, lunch trash, etc.

 

[Gizmo2]

Around here (western Washington), local tree trimmers / arborists are glad to get rid of their chips. We get ours dumped free, probably have 5 large dump truck loads right now. Worst case here is you pay $20 for a load to help the owners offset fuel costs.

Got some a few years back the same way.

 

[jdmihalko]

Well, thanks again for all the input. I've decided against getting the chipper, at least for now. I can get 6 yds of hardwood mulch delivered for my trees for ~$190. I also signed up to get some free chips from local tree trimming places for use up in my woods on trails. When I stopped to think about it, even $200 worth of chips a year would take me 15 years to break even on the chipper, and that doesn't even take into consideration all the time it would take to make 6 yds of mulch with the chipper (which based on what you guys said would be quite a while). I figured getting the hardwood chips for the trees and beds plus free chips when I can get them for the woods will work pretty good. I was debating pretty hard with another implement anyway so this just made the decision easier, my Artillian Grapple should be here in a few weeks

 

[letmgrow]

When you get good enough with your Grapple to carry chips with it shoot us a couple pictures.

 

[RadarDon]

To my thinking, if i have a lot of branches to chip, the chipper could be worthwhile. The bonus would be using the chips.
If I just want the chips, I should be able to get some here and there unless I want specific ones.
If I get tired of doing chips in my gardens every couple of years, I should get stones or close the gardens. Lots of stones around here, just not fancy/pretty ones and they are all sizes.
Shame I don't have somewhere to use firewood besides my BBQ pit.

 

[12dbsinad]

I don't know what I'd do without my chipper, you certainly don't know what you're missing out on! I'd say on average I chip about 10 yards of chips per weekend during firewood harvest season. If you want chips, just cut down a few tree's on your 40 acres and run the material thru especially the bigger stuff. It accumulates fast.

 

[jdmihalko]

I don't know what I'd do without my chipper, you certainly don't know what you're missing out on! I'd say on average I chip about 10 yards of chips per weekend during firewood harvest season. If you want chips, just cut down a few tree's on your 40 acres and run the material thru especially the bigger stuff. It accumulates fast.

Hmmm, that is interesting, seems the opposite of what everyone else was saying. How big of a log can your chipper take? And how big on average is what you are putting thru it to chip 10 yds in a weekend? I wonder if everyone else is running thru smaller limbs which take up a lot of room but don’t really have a lot of mass, so not a lot of chips?

 

[12dbsinad]

Hmmm, that is interesting, seems the opposite of what everyone else was saying. How big of a log can your chipper take? And how big on average is what you are putting thru it to chip 10 yds in a weekend? I wonder if everyone else is running thru smaller limbs which take up a lot of room but don’t really have a lot of mass, so not a lot of chips?

4" capacity. I run everything thru 2" and smaller as the rest gets processed as firewood. Sometimes my wife wants pine wood chips for garden projects. In that case, I strip off the needle branches and run the wood thru up to the capacity of the chipper, that makes nice clean wood chips VERY fast.

If your plan is to just walk around and pick up little twigs, then yeah, probably not worth it. If you start chipping sizeable material then you're talking a whole different ball of wax.

You can find some decent chippers on the used market if you look around, or there is always the Chinese clones of the bx series chipper that are fairly cheap but work well.
if you really want to get fancy, get one with hyd in-feed, those are the best of the best.

 

[DBCSteve]

Ran the new chipper 1/2 hour for the first time, got about a cubic yard (2 separate piles). I can say the small stuff doesn’t add much, but the chips really pile up fast on the larger stuff. My wife says this is women’s work.

 

[jdmihalko]

Ran the new chipper 1/2 hour for the first time, got about a cubic yard (2 separate piles). I can say the small stuff doesn’t add much, but the chips really pile up fast on the larger stuff. My wife says this is women’s work. View attachment 781103

Looks like a pretty good pile. It makes sense that I could get bigger quantities, faster, from larger limbs/logs. But I need hardwood chips for around my trees and if I have 3” or 4” hardwood limbs/logs I’ll probably keep them for firewood. I still think I might get one in the future because it would be nice to clean up some areas of my woods without having to wait years for them to decompose on their own.

 

[12dbsinad]

I can completely fill my dump trailer with chips in a few hours and that holds 7 yards.

 

[klunker]

As mentioned twigs and leaves or tops of trees don't add up to much mulch. The good stuff is limbs and larger branches. But there in lies the problem with smaller chippers. Hard to find a chipper that will chip 4-6" hardwood like Hickory. I can chip 6" popple or Aspen all day long but toss in some Hickory and the blades are shot in an hour or so.

I have chipped alot of brush piles, tops and limb wood and maybe made 20-30 yards of mulch.
I have lots of trails to mulch this year. I can buy wood chips for $10/yard. I'm going to buy at least on dump truck load this year and see how that goes. I'll still chip stuff but mostly for clean up before seeding and secondarily for the chips.

I'd suggest looking into buying chips or getting them free from a Arborist or tree removal Company. You might find they are reasonable and much cheaper to buy than a chipper not to mention the time it'll take to chip them.

I'm at the point that I have so much wood that I have more frewood than I can process and store that it'll rot in the woods before I can burn it. Right now I have approx 3 years of firewood all split and stored under cover. I'll chip areas that need clean up before planting and tops and smaller limbs from thining operations. I"m leaving anything smaller than 8" of undesirabe firewood like Red Maple to rot in the woods and anything larger I'll saw up into lumber.