In the market for our first chipper.

Better to have equipment that you can afford that is dependable and suited to your use now, and in the near future. You can sell it and upgrade later, without being in deep debt, if you find that it doesn't suit your needs. If you have a large client base now that is bringing in repeat business, and new clients as well that necessitate larger equipment, then consider the larger debt burden.

Airbags on trucks help to level the load, but don't help you to strengthen your axle, tranny, wheels, tires, or brakes.

A half ton truck is pretty small for a tree service (I know from experience. Now I have a 1990 F600 dump, too). You'll burn up the transmission possibly, most likely be legally overloaded (which can be EXPENSIVE), and always worried that that load/ tail will wag the dog. Unless that has trailer brakes, you will be hard pressed to stop that load reasonable.

How much do you need to haul off chips and how much can you shoot chips into a pile/ broadcast?

How far from your shop to most jobs, or jobs to your dumpsite? If you need to blow chips into a box on your truck, make a dump run, then come back an get your chipper, it can be a stepping stone to get a larger chipper. You might be better off with a 6" to start, with that truck. My 9", 4400 pound chipper gets the job done, but I have to avoid chips and chipper in the same run with a GMC Sierra 1500.

Are you trailer hauling brush now, or rental chipper? I'm sure that if you've been renting, you've experience the 6" can't do much rental chippers that have been treated like rental equipment. If you are heating with wood, you have the option to take the smaller, less sellable wood for yourself, or just mix into the split rounds. If you tend to cut firewood and leave it on-site, you will be able to cut more and leave it, allowing the lower capacity of a smaller chipper not to increase your material haul-off.

You need a larger chipper more with removals than pruning, so your market will dictate what you need. Your trees will also dictate if you need more crotch crushing power, or less.
 
I didn't mean to bust on small chippers, though I could.. I was really talking about that chip dump trailer combo unit... that is not going to work effeciently for a pro arborist...

AS far as small chippers, its really a matter of competitive advantage... I couldn't compete in my market with a 9" chipper... NFW... I do a lot of fairly big removals.. the competition around here,with all their monster hardware, has driven the price of big removals into the dirt... It would be hard for me to make good money here with even a 12" chipper...

We chip EVERY DAY!!!!!! The bigger the chipper, the faster the ground work goes... A big chipper will pay for itself over and over again in time and energy saved.. If you'vre never seen an 18" chipper with a 250 hp engine at work, see if you can demo one sometime... I didnt buy it becasue my truck wouldn't pull it, but I did demo one once.. it was starting to get dark and the neighbor came over asking about removing a maple in her front yard... Dropped it in one cut and pulled it through the chipper with the winch in two pieces.. with a few relief cuts... $4-500... took about 25 minutes with clean up.. With a smaller chipper I would have had to come back the next day...

That is the other thing... if you're going with a big chipper, then you need a big truck to pull it and have the room to chip all that. It might be a scary move for some, but definitely worth it if you are serious about this biz.

The dump charges $20 for a load of chips and $65 for chips if there is wood mixed in.. Since I got the 15" chipper, there have been no dumps made with wood mixed in.. What doesn't go through the chipper, is picked up by the log loader. Again, it pays for itself in reduced dump fees..
 
I have a 14 ft PJ dump trailer that I tow my 6" vermeer chipper behind . My 532 boxer rides in the trailer. I pull this with my Duramax 3500. Not the best system but works for me.
 
I think getting the truck big enough to hold what you chip should be first. you will no doubt over load your 1500 truck witch may mean repair costs and down time.
The nine inch chipper is easy to outgrow quickly.
We use a Bandit 250XP with a 5.9 turbo diesel. It eats everything.
When you don't need all that power for big limbs, the extra torque for the smaller wood makes it very efficient.
which means less time on job and more money faster.
Danielson is right, there are deals out there.
Good Hunting!
 
Chippers, like all gear are only as good as the application to the job. They are either something you can build your business on or something that will drag it down.

We run 2 crews with 2 trucks and 6 inch chippers, we work in a town where access is lousy, steep and even a 9 can be to big to get where we want to go let alone park. We do big, technical tree work at times, but a big chipper would cost me WAY more than it would make. Our chippers have been winched, dragged, craned and helicoptered into work sites. I have lost 2 jobs in the last 5 years due to not having a big enough chipper but got hundreds because we can get our gear in closer than most other crowds. We hump alot of logs and brush, once every couple months the access is good enough to use my powerbarrow. But otherwise we are not chipping more than one guy can carry up stairs and around tight turns.

Currently theres a cheap 20inch vermeer with grapple arm for sale, and I wouldnt even straight swap one of my 6inch chippers for it. But we all work in different places.

Go with the gear that best suits your work style, clients, budget and environment.
 
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