contract chipping and value of g30 woodchip

[John Shutler]

so the process of thinking about a larger chipper for my valmet to speed up our site clearance jobs has made me think about a sideline in contract chipping for people with biomass boilers and the possibility of selling chip to a company that sells dried chip to boiler owners

 

what rate would you look for, for chipping peoples timber into their chip store of trailer?, this will be done with a valmet with roofmount and either a heizohack 6-300 or 8-400

 

also if chipping my own timber into a trailer provided by the chip purchaser, what rate per tonne should I look for?. this will be g30 chip

would moisture content of the chip alter the price?

 

im assuming both rates will be per tonne?

thanks

john

[woodworm]

John

While the idea of contract chipping sounds good, there have been two contractors in East Anglia that have set up with Heizohack chippers and have since packed up due to lack of quality and mainly lack of output.

A major farming estate used one of the contractors, and then realised that he could get almost triple the output from a guy with a huge Jenz chipper for only 20% more cost per day, and the guy with the big Jenz now travels all over central and Eastern England chipping for boiler owners.

I wish you all the best, but just thought I would let you know the situation in my area.

Woodworm

[Jimbob87]

John

 

While the idea of contract chipping sounds good, there have been two contractors in East Anglia that have set up with Heizohack chippers and have since packed up due to lack of quality and mainly lack of output.

 

A major farming estate used one of the contractors, and then realised that he could get almost triple the output from a guy with a huge Jenz chipper for only 20% more cost per day, and the guy with the big Jenz now travels all over central and Eastern England chipping for boiler owners.

 

I wish you all the best, but just thought I would let you know the situation in my area.

 

Woodworm

 

 

Would the guy with the big jenz be vickarys from east yorkshire

[Gray git]

I've seen the quality of chip from two jenz chippers and wasn't impressed by either compared to the hiziohack.

The hiziohack do have a few more fines but a lot lot less oversized and slithers. So depends if the client wants quality or quantity.

Like firewood tonnage is a hard 1 to work out as species and moisture content will have a lot of variation, better of by m2 of final product if your going into trailers of skips or know what your set up can produce in an hr and sell yourself on a hrly rate with an estimated x m2 per hr.

Contract chipping like this is hard on a machine compared to brash site clearance stuff, possibly less blade damage as cleaner timber but definitely harder on everything ells as it's relentless on and off the stress control.

Your set up would be ideal for smaller customers who fill the chip hoppers direct from chipper say 40 -60m2 rather than those who have a separate 100+ store separate so smaller but more frequent visits that makes the big machines impractical.

[cornish wood burner]

Hi John We have some experience using contract chippers and the heizos you mention are a bit small. I am not sure what power you have but I would have thought a minimum of 300hp to be remotely competitive. You will be competing with outfits that can chip 25mc wood for £8 a ton.

As a guide we use machines driven by 360 to 780 hp.

Why only G30, that has to be the slowest and the most power hungry.

Moisture content has a big influence on price and desirability. I cannot say what you would get per tonne but possibly if you could air dry the wood then sell direct you might have a sideline market. The sun takes

some beating for cost of drying.

[Tom D]

You can't compete with the big boys on the big jobs John, but many of the 200kw size boilers just don't need huge volumes of chip and thats where the smaller chippers come in. The big jenz round here costs £200 per hour plus travel. Its just not worth getting to round to chip any less than 100 ton. I have a few clients who like the fact that I can turn up and chip smaller amounts at a sensible rate. Plus I can go off road and chip where the timber stacks are, most farms have grain / silage trailers, few have forwarders. So for the farm customer its easier to haul chip than timber. All food for thought.

[John Shutler]

thanks for the thoughts so far, im not looking to compete with the larger guys just provide a service for smaller setups locally. as much as anything its only to find another use for the machine other than our site clearance work. ive a meeting on Wednesday at a local estate who produce their own chip for their boiler but are also looking at expanding etc and may be interested in buying some chip

[woodworm]

Would the guy with the big jenz be vickarys from east yorkshire

 

Nope. Oliver Lord from Grantham area.

[LGP Eddie]

thanks for the thoughts so far, im not looking to compete with the larger guys just provide a service for smaller setups locally. as much as anything its only to find another use for the machine other than our site clearance work. ive a meeting on Wednesday at a local estate who produce their own chip for their boiler but are also looking at expanding etc and may be interested in buying some chip

 

Very interesting thread here, and I've got a friend who's just gone this way with a reasonable size Mus-Max to hopefully compete on higher chip quality plus the ability to sneak just under the big guys.

He's fitted a Kesla Crane to his chipper and runs her behind a 7810 John Deere that's otherwise utilised in his business.

 

I have always wondered how a Tracked Bandit 18svc would stack up in a site clearance/biomass crossover, bearing in mind it can be loaded by pretty much anything, plus access difficult sites.

 

 

Eddie.

[AHPP]

I've been designing fantasy site clearance machines in my head recently. 1000hp tracked chippers/grinders with 40 yard ROROs on the back. That sort of thing.