Chipper Question

I have anywhere from 1/2 acre to a few acres (depends on how I go about it and how energetic I get) of young pulpwood jack pine that I want removed from my property. Anywhere from 1"-12" but the average I would say is 4". I see a couple different options. My ultimate inquiry here is related to #4 below and what's after it.

#1 - Pay a crew $1,000 to chip the cut trees.

#2 - Pay an excavator $1,000 to push them in a pile and burn them. I don't really want to do this as it is a gigantic amount of material, would be a huge fire, and it is in a confined space.

#3 - Rent a chipper and get 6 guys to help me bust hump for a few days. Don't really want to bother a bunch of buddies.

#4 - Buy a used $3,000 chipper (that will take 6"-8" logs) and work at it myself over time. I would then sell the chipper when I'm done, hopefully for what I paid for it. I wouldn't want to buy a new one because when I go to sell it I will get much less for it and I might as well had just paid somebody else to do it.

What do you guys think about the situation, and specifically #4? I'm really hesitant to do this because I foresee a lot of headaches with buying a used $3,000 chipper. Are chippers like this bulletproof or should I expect repairs on putting a couple thousand trees through it?

I am somewhat impatient as well which I wish I were not.

Relative bought one of those cheaper DR tripe chippers, and after using that for 3 hours one afternoon it has sat in a shed and we never
hooked it up again in 15 years. I put the forks on the loader and throw brush in the ravine and it disappears in 10 years, far far far less effort.

I hear the bigger chippers with power feed work better, but then keeping up has to be a lot of work!

I'm not helping you I realize......

Paul

(quoted from post at 08:27:00 04/08/17) Relative bought one of those cheaper DR tripe chippers, and after using that for 3 hours one afternoon it has sat in a shed and we never
hooked it up again in 15 years. I put the forks on the loader and throw brush in the ravine and it disappears in 10 years, far far far less effort.

I hear the bigger chippers with power feed work better, but then keeping up has to be a lot of work!

I'm not helping you I realize......

Paul

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I would think the DR Chipper you speak of is nothing like what I'm talking about. I would be talking more along the lines of a big chipper with the power feed. I see them for sale often around the $3,000 mark but they are always really old.

I don't have anywhere to go with what I cut that's why it needs chipped or burnt.

Number #1. Pay them and be done. That money is cheep for a job like
that. You can even have them truck the chips out. All of your other
options are headaches in progress.

Helped a guy clean out a city lot he had it
pushed out and together . He tried burning
with tires that didn't work tried chipper
that didn't work . So i told him to get five
gallons of gas and i would be there
tommorrow he had a big list of stuff that he
thought we would need i again told him five
gallons of gas. The next day i brought a
chainsaw and a sack of bale twine he asked
me where do you want the gas i told him in
the tractor .I started with a small fire
with bale twine and dead wood and used the
tractor to pull logs up and cut them into
pieces and as we built the fire we got to
throwing bigger chunks in and used the back
blade to keep it tight by night fall all was
left were the stumps. Those i told him dig a
hole and bury them.

(quoted from post at 08:37:16 04/08/17) Number #1. Pay them and be done. That money is cheep for a job like
that. You can even have them truck the chips out. All of your other
options are headaches in progress.

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This is pretty much what I was thinking. I will note that he said I can help so to be more detailed I would be helping do the work, having a coupe buddies (the ones that like to help) help, but I would be using him and his equipment.

If the crew will do that for $1000 get them out there
asap and get it done before they come to their
senses.
That sounds like a much better option to me... as
much as I love old broken or soon to be broken
down stuff.
Grant

If you don't want them to regrow or if you are going to seed it to grass I would get the man and the escavator and burn them as he takes them down. If you
don't want to burn now put them in a pile and wait till winter and have a party and a bon fire. I know you said it wouldd be a big pile but you could
make several small piles.

Bob

(quoted from post at 10:47:10 04/08/17) If you don't want them to regrow or if you are going to seed it to grass I would get the man and the escavator and burn them as he takes them down. If you
don't want to burn now put them in a pile and wait till winter and have a party and a bon fire. I know you said it wouldd be a big pile but you could
make several small piles.

Bob

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Excavator is the way I would go, pluck them out roots and all, no stumps left. Small piles or truck it away maybe.

I retired from Morbark, we designed/patented and built everything from a 30hp chipper to 1200 hp whole tree chippers/grinders. Answer to your # 4 is you will pay at least $ 10,000 for a chipper worth having at all. I assume you don't plan on "working on it" or spending a lot in repairs ?? Anything under $ 10,000 will either need both,repairs/$$$$$ or it will be too small for your intent. Just because the feed wheel will take 6" log, doesn't mean it's designed to chip 4-6" logs all day. They call them "brush chippers" as apposed to whole tree chippers for a reason. You don't want anything less than 100 hp for what you want...two hundred even better. Auto feed is a must also. $ 3000 will get you scrap.

(quoted from post at 10:52:54 04/08/17) I retired from Morbark, we designed/patented and built everything from a 30hp chipper to 1200 hp whole tree chippers/grinders. Answer to your # 4 is you will pay at least $ 10,000 for a chipper worth having at all. I assume you don't plan on "working on it" or spending a lot in repairs ?? Anything under $ 10,000 will either need both,repairs/$$$$$ or it will be too small for your intent. Just because the feed wheel will take 6" log, doesn't mean it's designed to chip 4-6" logs all day. They call them "brush chippers" as apposed to whole tree chippers for a reason. You don't want anything less than 100 hp for what you want...two hundred even better. Auto feed is a must also. $ 3000 will get you scrap.

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That's what I figured. Thank you for the very detailed knowledge.

The debate between my options goes through my head at least every other day. At least this response gets rid of #4.

Maybe if I could get some burning going while the excavator is there and burn as he goes that would make me feel a bit better about it. At least there would be a large piece of equipment there to assist the burn pile. I would just hope the pile gets going real good with it being green and having dirt mixed in with it.

If you want stumps gone as well, then definitely an excavator, OR a tractor with a loader attachment designed for similar work. There are tree removal devices for both loader mount and 3-pt. mount that will just pull the trees up roots and all.

If you don't mind the stumps staying behind, then could look for a tractor with brush mower to come in and clean it up. That would be the quickest way, but you'd still have the stumps to contend with.

Go to your favorite search engine and do an image search for "[i:98728f6d26]tree removal attachments[/i:98728f6d26]". That will show you a variety of choices out there.

There has also been a rise in popularity in this last idea, which is the route I would go -- a brush mulcher. Here's a recent thread that Rusty6 posted recently:
http://forums.yesterdaystractors.com/viewtopic.php?t=1308597
These types of machines could go through your area and make short work of things. They can take their cutterheads and mulch down a few inches into the ground. Now, if you live in an area with lots of rocks (especially larger ones), then this wouldn't be the best way to go. But if rocks are not a problem, then mulching will put the tree material back into the soil. No hauling, no burning, no getting out and hooking up manually -- just [b:98728f6d26]"Git 'er done!"[/b:98728f6d26] *lol*

I called a company last year with one of those mulchers. I may have contacted a "high end" company for all I know, but they wanted $30,000 to do 5 acres. :shock:

Normally they charge by the hour.

When i burn green cut into small pieces and
let the sap burn out and dry it will burn
and the hotter the fire the bigger pieces
you can throw on.

Cut the trees then let somebody who burns wood come and cut the wood out low labor and the wood is gone then just burn the brush.

My company has a decent size chipper I use when I limb my maple trees every 5-7 years. Just chipping those three trees is fun, but doing a small size forest would be a ton of physical labor.

If you find a good priced one, I am sure you can sell it again. Look around you may find low priced fixuerupper. Some one gave this to me. It needed a valve job. It is a chuck and duck model. It will make a 4 inch 12 ft limb disappear in an instant. It is kind of scarry. Wish you were closer I don't need it any more. These aren't made any more. Not very safe. The newer ones are a lot safer. It does have a belt guard. Stan