Small chippers

[kram]

1 hour ago, woody paul said:

Timberwolf 13/75 if you want a machine easy to maintain. 

 

At nearly 5k you would hope so too!

[Mick Dempsey]

9 hours ago, rapalaman said:

Agreed - wee chippers are great as back up machines and for tight access back gardens. Being able to take mine through houses has won me loads of jobs. Do I remember right that you started using a cs100 as your main chipper many years ago in France?

Apologies if my aging memory deceives me? 👍

You’re right, your memory is deceiving you.

It was @Ty Korrigan

 

[rapalaman]

Aah right - I knew there was a French connection there somewhere 👍

[woody paul]

8 hours ago, kram said:

At nearly 5k you would hope so too!

Good second hand machine, quite a few about which shows they last. 

[maybelateron]

I rate my Jo-Beau M300 highly. Not my main chipper, but as said by many great fro rear garden access problems. The feed aperture is wide and is easy to get awkward curved stuff through. Takes a little while to learn what it will take, and how to hold it back when the blades are newly sharp and "greedy". Build quality is excellent, and Honda engine. Worth paying the extra for rotating discharge spout.

[Dan Maynard]

On 13/02/2026 at 13:00, kram said:

Anyone used both sorts drum and disc, whats better?

I hired a 13/75, to be fair it was blunt but straight poplar not too bad to chip, Scots pine absolute pain. Getting everything down the square chute a real pain. My current chipper is M500, which has 20" blade width so you can get quite big Y pieces in especially with a bit of bend.

 

I'd go drum for sure.

[kram]

Disc has the obvious advantage that the top cover pops up for easy blade adjustment while drum looks to be a real pain to sort out.

RegC suggests that drums need extra sharp blades with the correct angle to pull the material in while disc are less fussy.

 

I dont yet have a trailer or towbar so initially transport will be by a friends van, I will need to lift it myself, so weight could be important. I'm expecting to remove hopper, chute then possibly seperate engine from drum  if needed for easy lifting.

 Comparing Rotatech's but I think its quite similar for the other import brands

 

From 7 to 15hp the weight doubles, but the throughput hardly changes - I find that a bit odd!

 

[green heart]

It appears like the above 15hp version would be easily able to fill wheelie bins, unlike the the smaller 7hp unit. 

That's worth a few hundred pounds, right there, to anyone (like us) who use bins to ferry large quantities of chip out of awkward sites and gardens...

 

I'm also a big fan of small chippers with rotating output chutes; they are much more practical. 

 

Check out the cost of replacement blades too, because I suspect they are more fragile -and less able to be commercially resharpened, when damaged ?

 

[Dan Maynard]

Don't buy 7hp whatever you do, you have to hold material back or put tiny bits in all the time.

 

I was working with a mate on Friday who has a 13hp Jansen, had to ask him to stop cutting everything up so small, just stick it in the chipper. Mines 24hp, makes a hell of a difference to what it'll just chonk through without slowing down.