New Business Hauling Setup/ Chip v. Chipless

canopyking

canopyking

New member
Location
Indianapolis
I am in the beginning stages of launching my tree business, and am ready to purchase either a chipper or a dump trailer.

The current hauling vehicle is an F550 with a chip box and large locker. The box isn't very big and punches way under what the truck is capable of hauling. Because of that, and a guy I contract with who is strictly chipless (with a 70 yard bin and grapple), I quickly settled on taking the bed off and getting a 20', 4' wall, gooseneck dump trailer. Both my co-workers were leaning towards a chipper, with reduction being the primary advantage.

A second reason I like the dump setup, it wouldn't require a second truck with a smaller dump trailer (both my co-workers have 16' dumps, small sides), and a third truck with an equipment trailer. So three trucks would be required for larger removals. Two with the dump setup (dump trailer and equipment trailer)

My primary goal with this purchase, is to make sure we have capacity for a days work. Dumping daily would not bother me one bit at this stage, which I think the big dump trailer would offer.

A primary concern is loading the dump trailer with 4' walls. Most wheel loaders, on paper, would be able to reach over the walls, would love to hear how well that works for those using the dump setup.

Thanks for any input!
 

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Chipper seems obvious, but there are a few companies on the east coast who went with grapple bin trucks and they're doing great.

The deciding factor seems to come down to disposal. Chips are easy to unload. I do a lot of rural work and it's usually easy to convince customers to let you chip into the woods or dump them somewhere on the property. Even in town many people will keep chips for gardens or landscaping. Saves a lot of dump time that wouldn't be possible with a chipless setup.

Also, there is only one disposal site in my area that will take brush. There are a number that will take chips.
 
I’ll second the chipper. Hauling brush, especially in a dump trailer where you don’t have the grapple to crush everything in the bed, will likely become a big nuisance in a hurry.

A dump trailer will also haul equipment, it just requires a return trip after dumping to pick up the loader again. We do that all the time, it’s not usually that bad.

For us, getting rid of chips is not too hard, brush is, and it’s very expensive - your 16’ trailer would cost about $80/load for every load you drop, three trailers a day, five days a week at that point will buy you a brand new chipper in a year.
 
Every mulch that I have been to in my region takes brush. The one closest to me takes brush for free (up to 24" diameter, under 6 feet long).

@Reach definitely had the crunching capabilities in mind with he grapple. Or not having it. Was thinking logs might help with that, when doing removals. Also, the big dump trailer doesn't take equipment well since it is a deckover. Also, I aint about the going-back-to-pick-up-equipment life. Trying desperately do avoid that.

Another thought that I've had with the crew. I kind of put it this way. This is going to be our first setup. It isn't going to be perfect, it will have shortcomings, but it will be able to haul stuff. We can worry about perfecting our disposal methods once we have a more established customer base and some more revenue.

I appreciate the thoughts!
 
Boomslang said:
Chipper seems obvious, but there are a few companies on the east coast who went with grapple bin trucks and they're doing great.

The deciding factor seems to come down to disposal. Chips are easy to unload. I do a lot of rural work and it's usually easy to convince customers to let you chip into the woods or dump them somewhere on the property. Even in town many people will keep chips for gardens or landscaping. Saves a lot of dump time that wouldn't be possible with a chipless setup.

Also, there is only one disposal site in my area that will take brush. There are a number that will take chips.
Click to expand...
Same , we pay to dump brush, I've home owners and farmers tipping us for chip drops
 
We have a bandit 990xp and a single axle grapple truck. They each can have their place in an operation. We primarily use the chipper. We get rid of a lot of chips with chip drop and other sites to accept chips. No one here takes brush other than the dump. It takes quite a while to go through the line at the dump. We are looking at other ways to haul wood as our grapple truck is to easy to overload. We haul a lot in our f550 dump.

Another thing to consider with that f550 is pulling a dump trailer like you are talking about is going to require a class A cdl. Kinda takes away the great thing of being under cdl a 550 has. Pulling a chipper less than 10k gvwr with one just needs a health card most places. Even if you have a cdl it may be hard to find an employee with one.
 
Chipper for sure imo, I have only paid to dump chips once because it was a tree that is invasive here and I didn't want to unload it at someone's house. No one will take brush for free a post up on one of the local Facebook groups that I'll be giving away chips almost always has 3+ takers in a few hours.
 
I vote chipper as well. Probably because that's all I've ever known really. Worked here and there very briefly with people with a dump trailer and it always just seemed second rate to me. However, good luck finding a decent used chipper that won't break the bank in this market. Dump trailer is probably the cheaper route.
 
Grapple truck for me. I bought a 50yd truck with a rear mount prentice loader last year. I haven't chipped a piece of brush since then. This works well for me working solo or with one other as it saves a lot of labor.



Additionally I can sub out hauling debris for other companies with my setup, giving myself a little extra income and easy winter work while others are out in the cold all day completing the removals. It only takes me 45-60 mins on site including raking.


I have used a grapple dump trailer as well. It's surprising how much brush debris you can get on it with that little grapple loader. Can be towed behind a 550, but that's getting into a class A CDL as well.

Sent from my SM-N986U1 using Tapatalk
 
I could get by easy here with a chipper without a chip truck. Many times we chip in the truck only to consolidate the chips and dump onsite.
If I ever get around to it I plan on modding my dump insert (pickup) to sit on the mini's trailer.. Wire in quick connects for the battery and use the mini to swap the insert back and forth as needed.

My next upgrade will be replacing my mini's truck with a low flatbed truck. Mini can ride on the flatbed and the truck can pull the chipper.
What I really want is a puzzle I haven't figured out yet. One truck, one chipper, and one dumping trailer. Seems perfect other than trying to load and unload a chipper out of a dump trailer.
 
evo said:
What I really want is a puzzle I haven't figured out yet. One truck, one chipper, and one dumping trailer. Seems perfect other than trying to load and unload a chipper out of a dump trailer.
Click to expand...
Buddy of mine has done this a few times when renting a chipper. He mounted a winch on the front of the dump trailer.
 
evo said:
I could get by easy here with a chipper without a chip truck. Many times we chip in the truck only to consolidate the chips and dump onsite.
If I ever get around to it I plan on modding my dump insert (pickup) to sit on the mini's trailer.. Wire in quick connects for the battery and use the mini to swap the insert back and forth as needed.

My next upgrade will be replacing my mini's truck with a low flatbed truck. Mini can ride on the flatbed and the truck can pull the chipper.
What I really want is a puzzle I haven't figured out yet. One truck, one chipper, and one dumping trailer. Seems perfect other than trying to load and unload a chipper out of a dump trailer.
Click to expand...
Roll back? Switch and go? Chipper and mini go on the truck. Dump trailer behind?
 
For a couple of years I was convinced I wanted to get away from chipping on site. I hauled a Nedlands Rolloff trailer with a gooseneck using an f450. I could nest 2 rolloff containers to bring for the largest jobs. Brush in one container and wood in the other. More options and lower to the ground than loading a dump trailer. I also made money subcontracting hauling wood for other companies.
For the OP, I would buy a chipper. My 2002 BC1400 was my best investment in 2005. I dump chips for free
 
evo said:
I could get by easy here with a chipper without a chip truck. Many times we chip in the truck only to consolidate the chips and dump onsite.
If I ever get around to it I plan on modding my dump insert (pickup) to sit on the mini's trailer.. Wire in quick connects for the battery and use the mini to swap the insert back and forth as needed.

My next upgrade will be replacing my mini's truck with a low flatbed truck. Mini can ride on the flatbed and the truck can pull the chipper.
What I really want is a puzzle I haven't figured out yet. One truck, one chipper, and one dumping trailer. Seems perfect other than trying to load and unload a chipper out of a dump trailer.
Click to expand...
- 26,000 GVWR Chassis with a tallish chip box and side load ramp system between the box and truck cab for the mini.
- 10,000 GVWR or less Chipper.

I want to mod my chipper into a track chipper allowing use in more areas. It could still sit on my 10,000 GVW tilt deck trailer and chip into the hooklift chip box being fed with my mini-ex.
 
evo said:
I'd like to keep it small, in the 1 ton pickup range..
Click to expand...
Going to be pretty hard to take a dump trailer, chipper, and mini skid with a 1 ton sized truck. Definitely going to have to go back to pickup equipment after dumping the trailer. F550 sized trucks dont take anything more to drive vs a 350 and are basically the same physical size depending on wheel base.

I bought an f350 earlier on. It had all the overhead of an f550 but without the hauling ability. We now have an f550. It was a much better plan.
 
oceans said:
- 26,000 GVWR Chassis with a tallish chip box and side load ramp system between the box and truck cab for the mini.
- 10,000 GVWR or less Chipper.

I want to mod my chipper into a track chipper allowing use in more areas. It could still sit on my 10,000 GVW tilt deck trailer and chip into the hooklift chip box being fed with my mini-ex.
Click to expand...
A tracked chipper might just be the ticket. I’d really like to stay with a smaller truck
 
Fivepoints said:
Going to be pretty hard to take a dump trailer, chipper, and mini skid with a 1 ton sized truck. Definitely going to have to go back to pickup equipment after dumping the trailer. F550 sized trucks dont take anything more to drive vs a 350 and are basically the same physical size depending on wheel base.

I bought an f350 earlier on. It had all the overhead of an f550 but without the hauling ability. We now have an f550. It was a much better plan.
Click to expand...
A 550 might work good, or their little brother a 450.
The point of the trailer is to consolidate the chips to dump on-site. This wouldn’t be a replacement for my chip truck just a second.
Many property’s we work are larger and the work area is distant from the dump site on the same property.
 
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