Big enough chip truck???

matdand

matdand

Participating member
Location
Montreal, Qc
I bought a 2000 Chevy 3500 HD this year with a decently big chip box. I might have a job this fall that would alllow me to upgrade my chipper to a 12 inch. Will my truck be strong enough to pull a larger chipper on a daily basis? I've already had some transmission problems but they are know settled. What do you think?
 
There are lots of guys that pull 12 inch chippers with 1 ton trucks. You have to figure out what the curb weight of your truck is, the GVW of your truck (i'm guessing 12.5k) and then add the tongue weight of the chipper plus your max load (based on cubic yards of your box) to see if you are within the limits legally. I'm sure your truck will handle, what engine/transmission do you have?

jp
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I have a 99 chevy 3500 with a chip box I built and it works fine. On big removals it can fill up fast. When its full its around 3500-4000lbs of chips. Mine has the 350 with auto and seems do do fine.
 
I would hope your truck would have a diesel or at least a big block. I would think a 1 ton truck with a full chip box and a 12" chipper would be kinda underpowered with anything less.
A local guy has a 3500 with a 6.5 diesel and sometimes pulls a bandit 15" chipper, he's gotta hate steep or long hills.
Sometimes I think our F650 with a cat c-7 is underpowered with a full load of oak chips and our 250xp in tow, even worse with our 1990xp in tow. We have some pretty steep hills around here.
The upgrade to a 12" would probably make it worth it though. A bandit 250 is a nice chipper but we hate using it compared to the 1990 which would probably be comparable to what you have now and a new 12"
 
For the last couple of years I was running a 3500 and towed a 12" chipper that weighs about 7,000 lbs. If there's a full load of chips on the truck it can't pull the chipper unless it's nearby and flat. To go any distance the truck needs to be under 1/2 load of chips with the chipper on.
 
HL Tree- how does that 5500 you have tow with a full load. I was thinking of trading in my one ton for one of those.
 
The only bad thing about it as far as towing goes is that around 30 it's between gears and doesn't know what to do. Other than that,it's great. Full load of chips plus the chipper and it does just fine. I pull a friend's Kubota backhoe around with it sometimes, which I think weighs around 11K with the trailer, and the truck doesn't even know it's there. I'm supposed to move a 12K excavator for a guy in about 2 weeks, so I think I'll be up around 16K going down the road... so I'll report back after that because I have to drag it up some pretty big hills.
 
one ton truck will be fine i have a one ton power stroke and i have a duel tandem trailer ill load to 20k and it does fine its not going to win any races but it pulls good 354k miles and still strong
 
Yes the power isn't the problem, truck should be able to pull close to what the bigger trucks do, the issue is being able to stop/slow down safely and not overloading your suspension and frame to the point of failure.

jp
grin.gif
 
Just to keep this going and make sure this all makes sense...

My truck has a 15k GVW (because it a HD) with a 6.5 turbo diesel. Not sure what the tranny is but, as stated earlier, it was redone this spring and the guy added an extra cooler, so should be good.

My box is 12'X8'X4' so = 14 cubic yards rough.

Truck itself weighs just under 7k.

So 15 000 - 7 000 - (14 X 600) = busted.

I was looking at a woodsman 12x, but that weighs something like 6000lbs, so somewhere around the 800-900 lbs tongue weight range, at the worst. Id have to be real careful with how full Id load it.

Maybe something smaller would suit the truck better, like a 9-10 inch with a smaller engine, especially if I have a longer commute.

Food for thought...
 
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