Chipper for Dead Wood

Nish

Nish

Branched out member
Location
North Carolina
I'm looking for a back up chipper for my 12" capacity Woodsman 730x. The only thing I don't love about the 730x is the tendency for its chute to clog up, especially if we're feeding it dead wood. I'm wondering if this is a problem particular to these machines or if I have to search long and hard for a similarly-sized chipper that will handle dead wood. I appreciate any advice, and any ideas on chippers that would make a good complement / back up.
 
Ditch the Woodsman. Grab a Bandit or Morbark of your capacity. Nish, if I remember your just started growing your business last summer? You need a chipper that you can depend on daily. Not one that you want a back up for. Oh yea and Rayco is a good choice too.
 
96coal449 said:
Ditch the Woodsman. Grab a Bandit or Morbark of your capacity. Nish, if I remember your just started growing your business last summer? You need a chipper that you can depend on daily. Not one that you want a back up for. Oh yea and Rayco is a good choice too.
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Ha! Are you the seasoned and well-traveled climber named with whom I had a nice evening phone conversation and subsequently lost contact with (having lost my phone)?! Thank you for the advice. The Woodsman was a huge step up from our little Bandit 65xp; I can't imagine ever having to back to that little chipper. Will I be thinking the same about the Woodsman in due time?
 
No no phone conversation ... just here on the buzz. Almost a year ago I was looking at moving to NC. One place in Littleton. North of you, south of Gaston lake.
Others here had bad experiences with woodsman after they were bought out by Terex. Made a mental note to myself to avoid them.
 
Nish said:
I'm looking for a back up chipper for my 12" capacity Woodsman 730x. The only thing I don't love about the 730x is the tendency for its chute to clog up, especially if we're feeding it dead wood. I'm wondering if this is a problem particular to these machines or if I have to search long and hard for a similarly-sized chipper that will handle dead wood. I appreciate any advice, and any ideas on chippers that would make a good complement / back up.
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My tac 730 has only clogged once, ran a 20' dead ( super dead ) 12" log through, it was wet and very moist, doesn't do it on the dead dry stuff. If it's anything bigger it goes through my Morbark, the Terex has been an awesome chipper, mainly our backup and for brush only though. Have had it since new and blows away any Vermeer and other 12" chipper hands down in that HP range
 
96coal449 said:
Ditch the Woodsman. Grab a Bandit or Morbark of your capacity. Nish, if I remember your just started growing your business last summer? You need a chipper that you can depend on daily. Not one that you want a back up for. Oh yea and Rayco is a good choice too.
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Nothing wrong with a Woodsman/Terex in my opinion.
 
southsoundtree said:
Are you replacing and adjusting your anvil properly?
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I had all the knives machine sharpened and put on a brand new anvil with a brand new edge, minimizing the clearance. We've stopped feeding it dead wood, but it still clogs up every other day and I'm not entirely sure why. It seems to clog after we've brought it down to a low idle and have then turned it up again to start feeding it again (as if it wasn't entirely cleared out first). The feed wheels are set to turn only at near maximum engine RPM. This weekend I'll check the anvil clearance again.
 
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If you can't figure out and fix the root cause of this you could do what a buddy of mine ended up resorting to on a new 12 chipper that would plug the chute frequently. He welded a 3 inch nipple on the side of the chute and a angle iron box on the fender and mounted a backpack blower there to run while chipping.

(That worked well unless blower ran out of gas unnoticed. Later he wanted to get 12 volt fan motor doing the same job but never got around to it before selling chipper.)
 
I run a smaller chipper than that, but it's a vertical feed disc chipper. The owner before me had issues with clogs and they added steel to the braces on the back side of the disc to increase air movement. Just enough to close the airspace between the disc and the housing about a quarter inch all the way around. Personally I would not recommend the steel unless your a very good welder, to long of an extension or if a weld breaks loose and you'll be hitting the housing. More weld build up on one than the others and your disc will be unbalanced.
Adding a stiff rubber would be a good option as it could trim itself if it was a little long, and easily replaceable if worn out. Here's a video of a guy who did this on his PTO chipper.

I rarely clog my chute and if it does its only on thick evergreens, most of my work here is maples and oaks which never seem to cause a problem.
 
Nish said:
I had all the knives machine sharpened and put on a brand new anvil with a brand new edge, minimizing the clearance. We've stopped feeding it dead wood, but it still clogs up every other day and I'm not entirely sure why. It seems to clog after we've brought it down to a low idle and have then turned it up again to start feeding it again (as if it wasn't entirely cleared out first). The feed wheels are set to turn only at near maximum engine RPM. This weekend I'll check the anvil clearance again.
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That's weird what years yours ? Engine ? Mines got the 74 hp kubota. We were doing very dead elm and ash yesterday ran 11" pieces through no problems, knives are ready to be changed soon but still chipping awesome no clogging.
 
Nish said:
I had all the knives machine sharpened and put on a brand new anvil with a brand new edge, minimizing the clearance. We've stopped feeding it dead wood, but it still clogs up every other day and I'm not entirely sure why. It seems to clog after we've brought it down to a low idle and have then turned it up again to start feeding it again (as if it wasn't entirely cleared out first). The feed wheels are set to turn only at near maximum engine RPM. This weekend I'll check the anvil clearance again.
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You said minimizing the clearance? Are they set to the recommended spec? If the chips are small and fine from the clearance being to small that could be your problem.
 
tc262 said:
You said minimizing the clearance? Are they set to the recommended spec? If the chips are small and fine from the clearance being to small that could be your problem.
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The spec for clearance between anvil and knives is 0.030 inches (0.76 mm). I only hope to get it that tight! My understanding is that this clearance doesn't determine chip size any more than clipping size is determined by the clearance between the blade and the anvil on your bypass pruners (you know, or you can imagine, what happens when there's too much space there). I agree though, chips too small would be a problem. I appreciate the feedback.
 
deevo said:
That's weird what years yours ? Engine ? Mines got the 74 hp kubota. We were doing very dead elm and ash yesterday ran 11" pieces through no problems, knives are ready to be changed soon but still chipping awesome no clogging.
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Mine is an 85 hp John Deere. Thanks for the feedback--now I really want to get to the bottom of this!
 
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Nish said:
The spec for clearance between anvil and knives is 0.030 inches (0.76 mm). I only hope to get it that tight! My understanding is that this clearance doesn't determine chip size any more than clipping size is determined by the clearance between the blade and the anvil on your bypass pruners (you know, or you can imagine, what happens when there's too much space there). I agree though, chips too small would be a problem. I appreciate the feedback.
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I know in theory, but the blade clearance makes a difference on my ol' chuck and duck on chip size. Probably just the difference on how it feeds tho.
 
Deevo was asking what year your machine is. Sparks something in my memory of newer models having issue expelling chips. Something about the discharge fan design. I read about this somewhere ..... not sure where. Anyone have anything else on this?
 
That settles that. I now doubt it to be an age thing of different models.
Nish what about dealer support? Even though yours is 10yrs old someone may have some technical support. If not them, maybe corporate?
I recently emailed Morbark about their support structure and establishing better customer service.
Right after doing so, like the next day, I get a brochure on there beaver series models. Funny thing is the address on the envelope was my former address from a year ago. The PO had put the yellow change of address label on it. I had totally forgotten about the request and it appears a year later. Still no return email. How's that for customer report? :nocausagracia:
 
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