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  • Petrol wood chippers
  • WillH
    Full Member

    The Chief of the Fun Police has finally given in to my requests for a decent wood chipper, so now I’ve got some decisions to make. If anyone’s got any experience of these I’d appreciate some insights to the pros and cons of various features. The sort of thing that’s in my budget are these:

    Has a 7Hp Briggs & Stratton XR950 208cc engine, can do up to 70mm branches.


    Has a 6.5HP 196cc Lifan Engine, 80mm branch capacity


    389cc Lifan 13HP engone, 89mm capacity.

    It seems to me that bigger is generally better here, in terms of horsepower and capacity. I’m a little skeptical about the last one’s branch capacity, I suspect that the 89mm may refer to the size of the ‘throat’ of the input chute, and that the practical max wood size would be less. I’m going to make enquiries.

    Other features – the first two have the ability to ‘throw’ the chips, either into a wheelbarrow/trailer or just off into the bushes. The last one dumps them on the floor under the machine and would have to be cleared regularly by hand. I think that this would get tedious.

    Also, the first two just have a single feed chute for everything, the bigger one has a chute for smaller stuff up to about 10mm (with separates flails/blades) and then a side chute for bigger stuff to be fed in one by one. Could be a PITA?

    Finally, how do the chinese engines stack up? I’ve read mostly good stuff about them (they’re typically clones of tried and tested Hondas) but still, Briggs & Stratton has a solid reputation.

    Any advice from someone who’s used these or similar would be appreciated.

    jimjam
    Free Member

    I guess it depends what you want it for. For occasional use you could probably get away with a gravity fed chipper but to be honest they are a massive pain in the hole. Now saying that I used a gravity fed chipper (similar to the reinholt you’ve posted ) two days a week for a couple of years.

    The benefits are that you can get it up alleyways and into gardens etc that are too small to access with a tracked chipper or towed chipper.

    But honestly it’s such a ball ache to use you’ll regret it unless it’s purely for chipping light branches. For reference it’s a Timberowlf TW-13.

    If you can get one used, or figure out a way then one with a hydraulic feed makes a huge difference and I’d venture to say you could do 10x the work as a gravity chipper.

    I know a crew who are using a German brand with a Chinese engine and they are loving it, it works brilliantly and punches well above its weight. Can’t remember the brand but I can find out for you.

    sharkbait
    Free Member

    We’ve got a Garden Master which we bought off ebay in excellent condition two years ago…. cost £450.
    It has two inputs:
    a large feeder which is for smaller stuff – this goes through a hammer mill thing
    Smaller feeder on the side which is for branches up to 75mm.

    If it’s only got one input then everything will go through the chipper which will become blunt quicker.

    Everything gets dumped out of the back which isn’t too bad as you can just move the machine forwards a bit rather than moving all the chipped stuff.
    I’m not sure how well a machine that threw stuff out of the side would do as it may need more power to work well.

    Good to have and great for producing your own mulch but chances are it will sit unused quite a bit!

    WillH
    Full Member

    Cheers guys. Good point about gravity feed, I guess that means you’ve got to push stuff through rather than just chucking it in and having the machine pull it through?

    No need to worry about size/access, it’s just for use on my own property and there are no narrow bits.

    We’ve got about 2.5 acres, of which 1 acre is normal garden – so a reasonable amount of smaller stuff – and the rest is densely wooded. So there’ll be a steady stream of stuff to chip. Anything maybe 60mm+ will be used for kindling/firewood generally, so it’s not going to have to handle big stuff. I reckon I’ll generally use it for maybe 6 – 10 days a year, doing half to a full day of either general clearance or getting rid of brash when I’ve felled a tree. So probably not huge amounts of time to get cheesed off with the thing if it’s got ‘quirks’.

    sharkbait
    Free Member

    Bits of branch that are not quite straight enough to fit through the feeder are my biggest gripe. You generally don’t need to push everything through, I’ve found an initial push and then the friction of the chipper does most of the pulling through – just not as well as a fully fed machine.

    Oh and get one you can pull behind the mower.

    poolman
    Free Member

    I d love one of those, as it is i chip all the waste up with a strimmer so q big chips. I just leave them on the ground for nature to take its course.

    WillH
    Full Member

    Good point on the tow hitch. I was idly wondering about bodging a hitch for models that don’t have one as standard.

    jimjam
    Free Member

    WillH – Member

    Cheers guys. Good point about gravity feed, I guess that means you’ve got to push stuff through rather than just chucking it in and having the machine pull it through?

    Not so much push through, in theory they should just rip through stuff but it’s a rotating disc with a blade and a hole. Some bigger stuff will need persuasion and they are so easily blocked that disassembly and cleaning is a daily occurrence. As the blade dulls the feed gets less effective.

    The noise is also insane. They are diesel locomotive loud.

    The chinese chipper I was talking about is a Jansen – I think it’s the GTS – 2000. Seems to be going very well for the guys using it, but based on the (relatively) small amount of woodland you are dealing with I’m not sure you’d need much more than the mulcher sharkbait posted.

    jimjam
    Free Member

    Just to add, with gravity chippers, often something big / heavy enough to self feed is just about perfect to block the chipper. So while they are “gravity” chippers they need the wood to basically be fed all the way in.

    Sui
    Free Member

    Those big spinny disc ones are rubbish for anything slightly bendy, much to shredded arms trying to horthorn through it. And yep my God they are loud.. BURN, FIRE LIKE PROPER MAN. 🙂

    kneebiscuit
    Free Member

    Get the biggest, most powerful one. Hope that helps.
    Ps. Briggs and Stratton engines have a fairly horrific rep, “Briggs and scrap ’em) is the phrase that springs to mind

    funkynick
    Full Member

    I bought an Echo Bearcat chipper/shredder off eBay a couple of years ago, just the baby one mind, which is gravity fed. But pretty much everything you put into the chipper chute gets grabbed and pulled through the machine… only really have to push though anything with lots of side branch that drag too much on the chute sides.

    I think one with a powered feed would obviously be better, but for only a few hundred quid I’d be surprised to get one like that anywhere!

    WillH
    Full Member

    Food for thought there… Also I’m in NZ, the range of options is quite small within my budget.

    Not bothered about loud, I have a Husky ride-on which I’m pretty sure batters grass into pieces with sound waves rather than cutting it. Luckily the neighbours are far enough away for it not to be a problem.

    MaryHinge
    Free Member

    Where are you?

    I’ve got one sitting round gathering dust. If you are anywhere near mid Wales you can have it for £100.

    Can’t remember the make and it’s dark outside.

    Email in,profile and I can send you more details.

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