Used chipper shopping

Brando CalPankian

Brando CalPankian

Carpal tunnel level member
Location
Pine City, MN
It seems like used chipper prices have gone gangbusters, and new ones even more so.

I'm on a fairly tight budget, but would like to get something I can hang on to for a while. Bigger than 12" would be perfect.

I'm out of the loop on the best places to look anymore. Facebook seems pretty slow right now, craigslist died, and I'm not sure I can tolerate the risk of auctions or online only purchases. I've looked at treetrader and it seems decent, but I wasn't sure if there's a better way to be looking.

I'm also nervous as it seems the average age of used chippers in my price range is creeping in on 25 years old, or abused newer ones. I'm wondering if just taking a small loan out so I can jump into a better price bracket (20-30k instead of 10-15k) would be safer.

Ideally, I'd like something like a bc1800. It would really reduce processing time and back ache and give a lot of room for growth. I've found a couple in my range, but I worry that they could be sauced and that's why they're not 30k.

Plus, there is not a doggone thing in Minnesota! I'm looking 7 hours away to find anything not rotted out. There's one decent one in Duluth, but I'm not familiar with Altec chippers and it's a gasser.

Any advice in this realm of things? Renting is not cheap and really hampers productivity.
 
Are you just hauling brush now? I assume you are doing removals?

Is there a middle ground? Start with a 10-12" chipper within your budget and then still haul larger logs, for example???

Is it reasonable to scale back on the biggest removals to help buy some more time?

I'm not a chipper expert..but isn't rebuild time somewhere between 5000-10000 hours depending on maintenance? A quick browse of BC1800, anything under $50000 is well over 5K hours...so is it safe to assume whoever is unloading it knows that is time and doesn't want to make the investment? (those are questions, not statements...)
 
I just saw a guy selling a chipper for $2500 old Eager Beaver( maybe) unit. It has been repainted many times over and at a guess vintage from the roundy body panels. Prolly a million hours.
 
ATH said:
Are you just hauling brush now? I assume you are doing removals?

Is there a middle ground? Start with a 10-12" chipper within your budget and then still haul larger logs, for example???

Is it reasonable to scale back on the biggest removals to help buy some more time?

I'm not a chipper expert..but isn't rebuild time somewhere between 5000-10000 hours depending on maintenance? A quick browse of BC1800, anything under $50000 is well over 5K hours...so is it safe to assume whoever is unloading it knows that is time and doesn't want to make the investment? (those are questions, not statements...)
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I'm renting chippers right now and hauling wood.

Yeah there's middle ground there. The 18" is kind of a want more than a need. That's why I was asking, I knew that maintenance is a big thing and a lot of the older chippers have replaced or non working hour meters. I need it to run a season before serious maintenance (I can do most things as I'm a diesel mechanic as well, but not economical to just rebuild a chipper off the bat like you said). Bigger chippers could have either taken more or less of a beating depending on how it was used.

On big removals I contract the wood removal, lots of guys are happy to make 500-1000 bucks to clean up wood.

I'm worried that your final statement is more true than not. It seems like the used market has gotten so strained that a lot of what's out there is junk, that's why they're selling.
 
flushcut said:
I just saw a guy selling a chipper for $2500 old Eager Beaver( maybe) unit. It has been repainted many times over and at a guess vintage from the roundy body panels. Prolly a million hours.
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Was it on marketplace? I'll have to check. I'm kind of stupid at using Facebook, still learning marketplace.

There was a decent 12" that I missed the boat on. Late 90s eager beaver for 4500, had maintenance records and everything. I was bummed.
 
Mike H said:
I bought my '02 BC 1400 with 897 hours in 2005. Now at about 2900 hours. I would stretch to buy the newest mid-size chipper they would sell me. Too old or overworked and you won't be trustful of it. Downtime gets expensive
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That's what I worry about. Like it or not a lot of improvements have been made in the technology of machines. Older ones, if meticulously maintained, can last a while. But the newer ones it's not uncommon to see triple the hours.
 
Treemuel said:
You may be aware, but there are some Facebook groups where people sell chippers. Might be easier to find something there than just searching the FB marketplace.
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I'm starting to figure out the groups thing. It's been eye opening to see how much this has all changed. I use my wife's Facebook so sometimes the groups don't take my invite.

Side note, my business page on FB I have unfettered access too. When I join groups on it posts don't always show up. Is this something in my settings? Haha
 
evo said:
How much are you spending on a rental per month? I’d venture to guess it’s more than a payment on a brand new machine.
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Yes it's between 150 and 400 per use, so like 1500-4000 a month. It's a lot.

The problem is we are still a new company. I have a house and stuff and overloading my personal credit isn't a great option. What's a new machine cost? Like 70-100?
 
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Brando CalPankian said:
Yes it's between 150 and 400 per use, so like 1500-4000 a month. It's a lot.

The problem is we are still a new company. I have a house and stuff and overloading my personal credit isn't a great option. What's a new machine cost? Like 70-100?
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Idk how you have your business set up but you shouldn’t be overloading your personal credit to purchase business equipment. The business is, or should be, a separate entity.
 
Barc Buster said:
Idk how you have your business set up but you shouldn’t be overloading your personal credit to purchase business equipment. The business is, or should be, a separate entity.
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I'm an LLC, but because I've not filed a business tax return yet I have no income history for the business. They will allow me to take a loan with the business but I have to cosign. It's not a big deal because my credit rocks but I don't want to do it that way if I can avoid it.
 
Brando CalPankian said:
I'm an LLC, but because I've not filed a business tax return yet I have no income history for the business. They will allow me to take a loan with the business but I have to cosign. It's not a big deal because my credit rocks but I don't want to do it that way if I can avoid it.
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I can’t quite recall but my 12xpc cost around 40k way back in 2021. I say fiancé a new machine..
 
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