Is it worth running a 12inch + chipper for large domestic / Commercial

[Mick Dempsey]

27 minutes ago, John Shutler said:

 

i couldn’t go back to running smaller chippers, the ability to fell a 30cm roadside tree, winch it into the hopper and chip all of it is ideal for our estate and council works. Additionally we are in an area where there is a lot of monterey pine, trying to chip that sort of brush with a 6 inch chipper is a nightmare with the 4-6 cone bunches that are common of the species.

 

The other thing i like about larger machines (in particular Bandit) is that everything is more accessible so any maintenance or repairs are alot easier 

 

day to day we run 4x4 tippers ie hilux or isuzu which obviously don’t have great capacity sô ´ when required we take a 30sqm grain trailer to chip into  

And that’s great, because it suits the work you do.

Most people aren’t working on that scale.

 

[swinny]

56 minutes ago, John Shutler said:

 

i couldn’t go back to running smaller chippers, the ability to fell a 30cm roadside tree, winch it into the hopper and chip all of it is ideal for our estate and council works. Additionally we are in an area where there is a lot of monterey pine, trying to chip that sort of brush with a 6 inch chipper is a nightmare with the 4-6 cone bunches that are common of the species.

 

The other thing i like about larger machines (in particular Bandit) is that everything is more accessible so any maintenance or repairs are alot easier 

 

day to day we run 4x4 tippers ie hilux or isuzu which obviously don’t have great capacity so when required we take a 30sqm grain trailer to chip into 

Thought that blue bandit was a 90xp 9"

[John Shutler]

1 minute ago, Mick Dempsey said:

And that’s great, because it suits the work you do.

Most people aren’t working on that scale.

 

yeah to a certain extent but I'm a firm believer in buy the kit and the work will come. No one starts off getting larger type jobs straight off the bat. 

 

A brief synopsis of my machinery journey that has led me to the point im at now with my buisness.

In 2008 I started off with a 6 inch chipper doing domestic works. In 2011 I bought a boxer skid steer that allowed me to deal with timber from removals easier. I started getting more removals because I became more competitive as the timber was less of an issue for me. Over the next couple of years I had more and more timber to deal with so in 2013 I bought a tractor and trailer. In 2015 I then bought a bigger chipper for the tractor as I had an opportunity to price for a larger clearance type job. 2016 it became apparent that I needed a larger day to day chipper and more capacity so I bought a mog and 10 inch chipper. In 2017 I bought another tractor so I could move larger quantities of chip as I could see that moving chip was becoming a bit of a bottleneck for me. 2018 I bought a 6 tonne digger as it opened up some opportunities doing some heathland restoration type works. 2021 I bought a merlo and grapple saw as there wasn't anyone in the new forest running one. 2024 Im putting a grapple saw on a digger to run alongside the merlo.

That isn't even an exhaustive list of everything as throughout that time there's been changes and upgrades as finances allow.

 

Id always encourage people to push themselves or upgrade to a bigger machine if there's potential to improve a buisness and their earning opportunities. But equally there's nothing wrong with pottering on with domestic works and a simple setup if that's what you want to do 

 

 

 

[John Shutler]

7 minutes ago, swinny said:

Thought that blue bandit was a 90xp 9"

Its more like 10 but what's an inch between friends 🤣

ultimately my point remains the same wether we rip the bottom 6ft down and chip it or cut a 2.5m length off the bottom and swing round and pick up a trailer load of wood at the end of the job, having an increased ability to deal with arisings is never a negative thing imo. 

[Mark Bolam]

I’m a lot smaller than you John, so I run my little kit on fairly small jobs, but from a distance it looks like I’m running big kit on huge jobs.

[John Shutler]

2 minutes ago, Mark Bolam said:

I’m a lot smaller than you John, so I run my little kit on fairly small jobs, but from a distance it looks like I’m running big kit on huge jobs.

 

[swinny]

1 minute ago, John Shutler said:

Its more like 10 but what's an inch between friends 🤣

ultimately my point remains the same wether we rip the bottom 6ft down and chip it or cut a 2.5m length off the bottom and swing round and pick up a trailer load of wood at the end of the job, having an increased ability to deal with arisings is never a negative thing imo. 

Yes I must admit the 90 can take 10" easy enough 😆 

 

Same sort of thing as me though I'm still small.... on bigger jobs I use the 90xp and chip everything I can into a silage trailer ... if needs be and species and money right I'll remove in 2.5m length with the botex timber trailer. 

 

You end up with a yard full of gear but can handle a lot of eventualities 

[AHPP]

Viewed in isolation, Mark ‘Lofty’ Bolam has the biggest pedestrian skidsteer in the country. 

[Mike Hill]

I came to Norway from Alaska where a small chipper was 12". I had seen first hand how fast you could get through jobs with the right big kit. I bought a 7.5 tonner with a hiab and a mog straight off the bat.

 

Then I bought a 10" tow behind and ran that for 6 years alongside a tracked machine.Almost soley operating in the domestic market. I used to hire in a Heizo when required but didn't realise he was also my biggest competitor in the local market. I only got the jobs he had priced too high but he still got a slice of the pie when  I hired him in.

 

Following a conversation with Tom D regarding a Valtra/ chipper combo where I said " I could do 30% of my work 50% faster" he advised on that reason alone he would get one. He also said " you will get work for it" something I never understood at the time.

 

How that worked for me ,was looking at say a section fell and pricing in the tractor instead of a third day. I could get up it and smash it all down into an idiot pile,jump in the tractor ,chip it and load the wood out either into my trailer or into a skip which removed the need for expensive crane trucks.

 

Plus buying that tractor saves me at least £50k per annum in wages and unbelievably has increased in value 25% in the 7 years I have owned it. If I had to put a gross value on the jobs that tractor had gained me I would put it at around £40k per annum. Not bad since the tractor chipper and crane cost £43k and all that got written off in 5 years.