Advice For Buying Chipper in MA

climbingmonkey24

climbingmonkey24

Carpal tunnel level member
Location
United States
I’m in MA and am considering buying a friends chipper who is also in MA. It’s an older chipper, originally bought from someone in NY and doesn’t have a title but does have a bill of sale.

It has Maine Equipment plates.

It’s around or just under 2k pounds. 6 inch chipper.

I’ve read that you don’t need a title because it’s considered farm equipment. Does anyone know if that’s true for MA?

I’ve also read some conflicting stuff that some areas don’t require plates? Does anyone know about this?

Would I have to do anything special to be able to buy it?

Thanks
 
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southsoundtree said:
Call your state licensing agency. They know.


I'd try to avoid a 6" unless it's a bandit with a 6x12" throat.

What kind of chipper? Why doesn't your friend want it anymore?
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I contacted my insurance agency and they gave me the info I needed.

The 6 in works great! Especially as a lot of my focus is on pruning. If I do bigger jobs whatever wood is too big to chip I just haul whole.

I’ve been renting it from him for jobs. Been using it since last June. Older Vermeer 620.

He wasn’t necessarily planning on selling it I asked him about buying it, and because he has a bigger chipper that he also owns he said he’s interested.

He had bought it used from another company.

I have thought about buying a newer chipper and I am interested in the Bandit models.

Not necessarily looking to buy now maybe down the road. In the planning stages now really. I have other equipment I’m looking at, so it’s more so contemplating do I want to use this for a while and then maybe upgrade or spend the money and buy a newer one right off the bat, etc.


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southsoundtree said:
A 20 hp, 6" is very slow.

What chippers have you run?


Put money down and finance something more productive, IMO.
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I have run a bigger chipper (not sure on model) when I was working for a company a couple years ago briefly, but this was a big chipper that a service doing regular crane work, large removals had, etc.

I haven’t run any other smaller chippers to compare the speed to for this size chipper. I’ve never thought it to be slow, but that’s just my opinion.
 
I've only rented a 625 (25 hp) a few times.


Could be a good buy, depending on the price, if it works for Your work.

Keeping the blades sharp and anvil adjusted will be important.

620s are old... it's the miles, and the years, and the maintenance.




More HP means less time chipping, more time producing.

IiRC, some bandit 6" are 35-37hp...
75%+ more HP.

If you're good in the pruning market, you don't need much.



You can winch a small chipper to the work, and produce mulch to be used onsite, if it's effort-effective.

A quick-attach swivel caster on the tongue is about $50 or less.
 
I’ve thought about seeing if I can give chips / wood to homeowners this year instead of just dumping it.

Last year I didn’t even use the chipper every job, if it was a small job where it wasn’t really needed I would just throw the brush in whole in my dump trailer which has hydraulics versus bringing all the equipment out.

I’m just not sure if people are gonna have a problem with leaves in the chips during summer. I know we’ve already had a convo about this in another thread. Chipping mostly brush especially with green leaves the chips sometimes have a lot of them in it. I know it’s organic material but idk if homeowners will always like that.

There’s some wood I put in the chipper and it has those nice woody chips but the majority of it is leafy brush from pruning.
 
Merle Nelson said:
Rent a Bandit 6 inch chipper with sharp knives. If you would consider buying new rent a model with a newer engine.
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I know what you’re saying and compare the two right with the engine power and performance right?

I will say this chipper has sharp knives. My friend has two sets of knives and he’ll sharpen them for me when needed to keep it going.
 
The biggest attraction is that 3K price tag. Wouldn’t take long for it to pay for itself a few times over and can always sell later on. If you’re familiar with the previous owner and know he keeps up on maintenance that’s all the better.

Methinks it’s a fine starter chipper and unless it catches fire or explodes I don’t anticipate any reason you’d take a loss on it.

I loves my 32.5HP Bandit 65XP and will recommend it all day, but it was also around 3X the cost.
 
climbingmonkey24 said:
He sharpens them I think.
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Lots of hardware stores are drop-off/ pickup points for professional sharpening services. They get a like-new edge, and all exactly the same size, providing high speed balance, avoiding out of balance vibration.
Maybe $1/ inch (4x16"= $64 for my set).

I've paid less. You may have to ask about planer blade sharpening, not chipper blade sharpening, at the local hardware store.
One week turn around time. Ezpz.

The anvil needs to be adjusted, like depth gauges/ rakers on saw-chain.
The anvil needs to be flipped, then re-worked or replaced, when no new edges remain.




I didn't see the $3k mentioned. If it's functional, it's a probably 'win'.
Having a backup chipper, later, will be a help.
I doubt I'll sell mine, when I get a different chipper. Tabs are cheap. Takes up little space.

Bc625s start around $6-8k here... different machine, different part of the country.

How much life does the motor have?

How's the maintenance been?
 
$3k is what we’ve discussed briefly.

He does mechanical work for a living on equipment and trucks so he’s taken care of it as long as he’s owned it I believe. One of the reasons I’ve considered buying it in the first place is because of the fact that I know him, and also if I have any issues or need any maintenance done that maybe I can’t do, he might be able to assist with it rather than bringing it somewhere else.

Idk the exact life on the engine off the top of my head would have to look into that.
 
For a reasonably well-maintained
chipper that you're happy with, $3000 is maybe a favor from him.

I would imagine it would sell easily at that price.

Dr. Linda Chalker-scott has mulch education... you'll find it with a quick Googling.
 
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