Drum or Disc chipper??

They still make drum chippers? Just kidding. I was conceived on a drum chipper bed. The first one in California. Boy am I getting along in years...

The disc chipper is a person eater so be very cautious when working around them..

My bro stills uses a drum chipper Asplunph 12 inch. I sure do hate chipping brush on his site.

I have a small dosko disc chipper and by buddy has a Bandit 90 XP and it works great. The other outfit that I work with has a Bandit Terminator and it is awesome.

It depends on the brush and/or wood that your planning on processing. If it small diameter stuff mostly straight then a drum will do the job. If you have crap and bigger wood then the disc is preferred.

Once you go disc you seldom go back to drum. The features on the disc chippers today make it the one I would choose.
 
Really, never knew that. I've grown up around drum chippers only. Never used a disc before, but the way you're describing that type of wood, it sounds like it would do great here. Not many trees give you straight branches anymore. Thanks
 
I like a good self feed drum, like a woodsman, the problem I had with my bandit disc was that the branch fed into the machine always wanted to travel to the outside of the disc which meant it caught the outside knife.So this meant that the outside knife was always duller than the inside knife.I changed knives about once a week on the bandit and about once every 3 months on the woodsman. the down side to the drum is that it plugs more often and it does'nt blow chips as far,when one of those to things happen you know its time to change knives
 
If you want the best of both worlds, Look into a Conehead from Dynamic MFG. I have been running a 570 for over a year now. It is one mean machine. I also still have a 515 Conehead for sale.
 
One of the groundguys I work with just lost a tip of his finger and broke several others to a 1983 Asplundh disc chipper.

Never have felt comfortable with disc chippers, seems much much less safe than a drum chipper.

Chuck n' duck!

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Keep in mind that there are hydraulic feed drum chippers out there as mentioned with the conehead. You can even get hydraulic feed Mitts & Merrills these days! Rangerdanger is your dads Morbark a disc or drum? As I recall he had a '92 Morbark but I don't remember which model you said it was. If it still chips well you could do a refurbish on it like Allmark did. The more hours you can put into it yourself the more money you can save. You could also contact Morbark about upgrade item such as a winch,lift cylinder etc.
 
Man, if we only had the cash that would be done in a heart beat. Working on saving up for it though. Right now, as it is, work is slow here. Also, its a Morbark Model 17, drum chipper. And with Dad's luck he bought it the year before they relased the hydrulic lift for the feed wheel. Now with ours, anytime you want to raise the feed wheel, you have to break out the jack and crank that sucker up! And man does that suck.

And we're not buying a bew chipper. I was just curious as to what everyone on here use. Of course, with as much free time as I have (not every day of course, but plenty of it in winter when I'm not doing school work) I've already got my first chipper picked out. The brand new Bandit 1090XP drum chipper along with an Isuzu or Mitsubishi chip truck. or the Model 90XP. Can't wait!!
 
I like disk chippers. You spend less time screaming in agony. Especially in the winter when the skin on your cheeks is more sensitive to be whipped by the tips of limbs. haha. However, i own a drum chipper at this point in time. Drum chippers are cheaper to buy and far easier and cheaper to maintain. They dont put out the production of a disk chipper though. When I refer to a drum chipper I am referring to the "chuck and duck" style. That big Bandit 1090XP you mentioned is pleasure to operate. A classy rig.
 
As I recall from the pictures you posted from that crane job a couple 3 weeks ago your dad has a decent chip truck and chipper.The first Morbark I had the paint went to crap in a hurry. I had to take the shoot of to get it to fit in the garage I had at the time(16' x 24' with about 8' ceiling) but I wire wheeled it with a grinder,primed the spots that needed it and shot it with rattle cans(I was able to match the color) and put new decals on it.A couple hundred bucks for the decals at todays prices and you can get some cheap equipment enamal at your local farm supply store such as Tractor Supply(for around $30./gallon) and on the Jeep forums guys have been saying they actually get colors computer matched and mixed at Home Depot and Lowes(mind you these are usually olive drab green or tan).These aren't going to be high quality paints but you can freshen it up for a few more years. What other equipment does your dad have? How are you set up for a shop?
 
Yeah, we've got paint from Morbark ro repaint it, just don't have the cash to sand blast all the old paint and rust off it. As far as other equipment, we own a Vermeer SC502 tow behind stump grinder, and TimberWolf log splitter, and the chipper truck, along with our other Chevy 3500 flatbed truck that belongs to Dad(his normal everyday car/work car) And we don't own a shop either. We have a buddy that lets us park on his farm, and all of our saws and climbing gear is stored either in our garage thats too small for our car, or our shed.
 
drum chipper! bandit 15 inch the"INTIMIDATOR" is a top machine.heaps of grunt,beutiful consistant mulch,lift and crush handle on both sides of in feed shute,whinch,changeing knives is a cinch and if the log will fit through the in feed rollers it will be chipped-no jaming between rollers and knives.12 inch bandit disc chipper is a great machine too
 
had a bandit 254xp (disc)and thought it was the cats meow until we got an 1890 drum. The guys didnt want anything to do with the disc after that. almost like going back to a whisper chipper. the disc chippers jam alot more. the beauty of the drum is that whatever goes through the feed wheels is going to get chipped, on my 1890 the opening is 20 by 24 inches. works awesome. I dont think I will own another disc chipper. I am expecting delivery of our 1590 next week. that is 2000 lbs lighter than the 1890 and still has a 18 by 20 inch opening.
 
Yeah, thats whats so nice about ours, even though its old. We've only had a few minor engine probelms and had to repalce the started a few times, but it takes anything you put in there. Only when you start to throw small stuff only does it get jammed, but when you add a few larger branches it takes it all no prob. Also can't wait till I'm out off college, taking over our business. I'm upgrading our chipper to a 1590 (Of course after the 1290, this is going to be another upgrade!). All I have heard is good things about this chipper and would love to own one some day!!
 
Last week I got quoted $45,000. on a new 1590. My 250XP is 10 years old and still running strong. It needs fresh paint and I'd like to do the winch upgrade on it(the winch fairlead on it is flush with the upper infeed frame).I bought my machine with the 125HP John Deere(largest engine option at the time) and it has performed AWESOME!!
 
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