Used tow-able woodchipper

[padman]

Not sure I am in the right place for posting this but here goes

 

Been wanting to get a chipper for a while now, but unsure if I can get the work for it. At the mo I am mainly doing lawn cutting and general garden work and hedges. But picked up a couple of better jobs and having to keep filling builders bags and then doing a 24 mile round trip to the local tip is eating into my time.

 

So I am thinking of spending about a grand on a used chipper. Seen this one, its a Bearcat 73420 towable chipper.

 

Couple of questions, are these any good, also what would you recommend me to look out for.

 

All new to me.

 

Cheers Paul

[Stephen Blair]

If it's for hedge cutting, chipping it doesn't really break it down much and there a fair chance of getting stones in. Your budget is low for a chipper. Are you planning on removing the chip? Do you have a tipping pick up? Are you wanting a small chipper to take into gardens and leave a mulch?

[Robert_S]

I've only ever used one bear cat and it was terrible i would personally not entertain that chipper. save up more money for a better model.

[padman]

I should of said chipper/shredder. I do work on smaller trees pruning etc as well. Its for the future really as i get more of this type of work.

 

Doing a conifer reduction this week and the thought of bagging it all up and taking to the tip will be a pain.

 

Will be removing the chip off site.

[Robert_S]

put a couple of jobs in the same day and hire a chipper until you have enough for a better model. look at the greenmech cs100 threads or wee chipper threads these smaller chippers would suit your needs and they punch way above there weight.

[Old Mill Tree Care]

put a couple of jobs in the same day and hire a chipper until you have enough for a better model. look at the greenmech cs100 threads or wee chipper threads these smaller chippers would suit your needs and they punch way above there weight.

 

 

Good advice.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Arbtalk mobile app.

[WeFixIt]

Bearcat should of been called swearcat disappointing machine in my opinion!

The Greenmech 100 is good until blades go dull then it's a bit more of a manual feed than gravity feed

 

For a chipper for long term use/ownership look for one which has feed rollers which tend to be 4" chippers and upwards

 

 

 

Is it a chipper, is it a mower or another broken stump grinder who cares we'll fix it!

[padman]

Appreciate all the advice - what would you recommend with feed rollers then???

 

I have sent you a pm Wefixit

[bazbro]

You wouldn`t get a decent road towable wood chipper for your budget. When I started out many moons ago (steady Now!) I hired once a week until it grew until I could justify buying my first machine.

looking back, I would have looked at financing a decent machine and preserved my precious cashflow.

Use your "budget" to get a decent twin feed roller such as the TW125PH and in the words of a great friend and former colleague, David Orange...work will find you.

Baz

[njc110381]

A few years ago I was in a similar position to you. I spent about £1400 on a used Entec Trukloder, which is the older version of the Timberwolf TW100G. To be fair to it, it's a great little machine and has more than earned it's keep. It's frustrating when you feed it tangled thinnings like hawthorn, pyracantha etc but for most jobs it's ok. It doesn't like stones, so you have to change your hedge cutting tactics a little on driveways. I cut onto large sheets.

 

Hedge clippings don't seem to mulch down that well. The best you will do is making the pieces smaller so things like privet will compost faster.

 

How much space do you have at home and how much waste do you produce per week? I'm lucky that my garden is a decent size and I have room for a few large composting bays. I manage to chip and compost most of the waste I produce, which I can then sell back to the customer as mulch. This of course won't work if you have no space or produce waste in bulk on a very regular basis, but if you use a turner (stir it regularly) you can get most things to a salable state in about two months.