gravity fed chipper on "coppicing" jobs?

[polish pete]

Hi guys,

does anybody use gravity fed chippers to get rid of some of the brash on small scale coppicing/conservation jobs? I do quite a lot of butterfly habitat creation, hazel cutting, thinning jobs on SSSI and other sensitive sites where fires are not allowed and towed/tracked chippers can't get to. We mainly put all the brash on so called habitat piles but lately land owners are not so keen on all this brash being left behind. Is a small gravity fed chipper any good to be used on sites, where it would have to be pushed/pulled/dragged to get to all that hazel and hawthorn? How efficient and heavy are these things?

[Brushcutter]

If you cant get a tracked chipper to it i would fancy dragging a gravity fed one to it. I think a CS100 is around 100kg or 150kg. Not used one but with any small chipper cutting the material in such a way to make it go through well. Personally a TW125 on towed by a quad would be my choice.

[pycoed]

I use a Titan 13hp chipper (bought mint for a price less than half new!) around my smallholding.

Being tight (& retired), when hedging I set aside everything bigger than 2" as firewood. The rest either gets burned if in the really boggy areas, or chipped.

The chipper will tow behind a Wheelhorse tractor fine, but I wouldn't risk it with a quad as it is seriously top heavy (sideslopes are a no no). It weighs a couple of hundredweight, so I wouldn't like to push it far, but it can be manoeuvred around fairly easily on pneumatic tyres.

It chips really well - it's nominally a 3" chipper so the stuff I put in it is fine, however the bloke on the chainsaw(me!) needs to think ahead when cutting to suit the chipper to minimise awkward angles & forks etc. & I hang a billhook on the chipper when feeding, just to make any necessary cuts of awkward stuff.

Feeding can be quite tough work over a day (at my age anyway) & the delivery chute is rubbish - it has to be kept clear manually - I keep one of those plastic stable shovels on the chipper too.

Blade is easy to sharpen on a belt sander but does need to be kept sharp, chips well, starts easily & is fairly economical -I've had it 4 years & would give it 6/10 - as I say its let down by the ludicrous outlets (I removed most of it) & a better mouth to the input funnel would be an advantage - again I removed the funnel mouth plate on mine.

To sum up, they will do the job Ok for say a couple of weeks three times a year, whether suitable for full time commercial work, I would have my doubts...

[nepia]

I think someone on here put a TW125-type chipper on a tracked barrow bottom half: could that suit your needs?

Re weights of the small chippers I think the CS100 is ~195kg; my Jo Beau M300 is 145kg and not easy to push on rough ground or through long grass.

[GlobalNewark]

 

Sounds like this would suit well, a self propelled gravity fed chipper which is under 29" width & 5" capacity.

[woody paul]

Hawthorn will be a problem chipping with a gravity fed chipper if it bushy will slow work rate up.

Have the chips got to be removed as its SSSI ?

[Mountain man]

If you can pull a gravity fed chipper to it you can track or pull a wheeled chipper with a quad/compact tractor.

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

Hawthorn will be a problem chipping with a gravity fed chipper if it bushy will slow work rate up.

Have the chips got to be removed as its SSSI ?

 

 

Hawthorn + gravity chipper = hours of frustration!

 

Hazel, no worries!

[polish pete]

Hawthorn will be a problem chipping with a gravity fed chipper if it bushy will slow work rate up.

Have the chips got to be removed as its SSSI ?

 

Most of the time I try to leave thorns as good source of food for birds:001_smile:

Chip can stay as long as it is under remaining standards or on paths/tracks. Not all of brash would have to be chipped, it's just the visual impact of lots of piles all over the place seems to be the problem

[john p]

Hawthorn + gravity chipper = hours of frustration!

 

Hazel, no worries!

 

 

Yes, I'd rather hang myself than put hawthorn in my cs 100