I have thought the same thing before but with most of my clean-ups only 1/4 to 1/2 of my debris are branches. Most of what I have to deal with are twigs and vines or leaves.

Michael

 

I have thought the same thing before but with most of my clean-ups only 1/4 to 1/2 of my debris are branches. Most of what I have to deal with are twigs and vines or leaves.

Michael

My ratio is about the same as yours. I don't do tree work, only smaller trees and shrubs/twigs/sticks/etc. I'd use the chipper for smaller material so I can fit more into barrels/bags before hauling to the dump.

I think I may rent one a few times and see how I like it. Last year I ran into problems running out of room in the bed of the truck because it was filled with light bulky stuff that would have been chopped down.

 

Your current amount of material generated would not justify the investment. If you work your way up to 15 or 20 yards of material per job than you may want to consider the investment.
easy-lift guy

 

Iv thought of it, but you need a pretty big machine to have any productivity.

 

I bought this used 5 years ago when I started after having helped someone do a cleanup who owned one. It was great - we just pulled it into the woods and started feeding the brush pile into it. Unless you can just leave the chips where you chip them, you have to put a tarp down and collect them then drag them to the trailer. (unless of course you plan on dragging the debris to the street to chip)



I used mine once - on my own property. I found it just as easy to load the trailer with debris and haul it all away that way.
It works great, I just don't find myself needing it the way I thought I would.
I plan on selling it dirt cheap this spring just to get it out of here since it just sits around doing nothing.

 

Without getting into all the details, and I own a chipper, if we will have more than 1 trailer load of branches, we will bring the chipper to minimize hauling and disposal costs.

 

Your current amount of material generated would not justify the investment. If you work your way up to 15 or 20 yards of material per job than you may want to consider the investment.
easy-lift guy

I was thinking more along the lines of a smaller machine, maybe to handle branches 4" in diameter. Cost wise anywhere from $700 to $1,000.

Iv thought of it, but you need a pretty big machine to have any productivity.

I think this is why I may rent one. Removing someones evergreen is bulky and pretty light. Cutting it down takes minutes...but feeding it into a small chipper could take a while. I'd be curious to see how long it actually takes. Oaknut brought up a very good point on bagging/tarping it vs. chipping it by the curb.

Without getting into all the details, and I own a chipper, if we will have more than 1 trailer load of branches, we will bring the chipper to minimize hauling and disposal costs.

I think you and I are thinking along the same page. It would mostly be used to minimize disposal costs considering I have to pay a 1 ton minimum and brush/yard waste is light material.

I really appreciate everyones input! I'll save my pennies and rent one to see if it's justified to buy.

 

We always rented prior to our purchase. If you scout out the rental yards, we found they had 3 "classes" of chippers. The "dinky" homeowner ones which really are slow and don't eat much, ie faster to just haul off and pay for disposal vs time spent chipping, then there is the smaller tracked chippers, which are versatile for "off road" type use and really do eat most everything except log wood over 5" inches, but the best machine we have found to rent was the Vermeer 600 size machine, it eats 90% of any branching, and if you feed your small sticks into it with larger stuff, it just eats it right up. We ended up purchasing a used Vermeer and use it as needed.

We also "sell" this service to the clients as, "Well, we can haul all this off for X, or we can rent the chipper for Y, and save you......" Usually sells itself at that point.

Again, you have to have enough material to chip for this to make sense.

Good Luck.

 

We always rented prior to our purchase. If you scout out the rental yards, we found they had 3 "classes" of chippers. The "dinky" homeowner ones which really are slow and don't eat much, ie faster to just haul off and pay for disposal vs time spent chipping, then there is the smaller tracked chippers, which are versatile for "off road" type use and really do eat most everything except log wood over 5" inches, but the best machine we have found to rent was the Vermeer 600 size machine, it eats 90% of any branching, and if you feed your small sticks into it with larger stuff, it just eats it right up. We ended up purchasing a used Vermeer and use it as needed.

We also "sell" this service to the clients as, "Well, we can haul all this off for X, or we can rent the chipper for Y, and save you......" Usually sells itself at that point.

Again, you have to have enough material to chip for this to make sense.

Good Luck.

Wow thats a big machine! Thanks for the tip on the "classes". Theres a rental place near me that I'll have to check out.

 

Depending on the amount of future growth you envision for your company, renting a chipper may be your only viable alternative for flexible growth going forward. If you make the investment into anything else at this time I believe you will be throwing good capital towards bad results.
easy-lift guy

 

Depending on the amount of future growth you envision for your company, renting a chipper may be your only viable alternative for flexible growth going forward. If you make the investment into anything else at this time I believe you will be throwing good capital towards bad results.
easy-lift guy

I think your right. I appreciate your honesty! You always have good advice!

 

I would buy the Echo bearcat CS5540 if they made it in an engine version, it is a PTO model. That is the only model you can add a debris vacuum hose to. So it can be your chipper/shredder as well as your debris loader.

Michael

 

We run a br1800 and man you wanna talk about a hungry monster!

We can chip an 18" telephone pole if we wanted pretty quickly, Its nothing to drop a 40-60' pine and back into it grinding it all in one motion.

Renting a machine for larger jobs is best option for now until you can justify at least a 8" self feeding chipper. We run anything up to 18" diameter, bush trimming clippings, small brush and more.

 

Most landscaper's have no reason to purchase a machine larger than 5" capacity. If it works for you great but I would just be trying to consolidate four trailer loads down to one. If it is good quality chips I can dump it at a couple customer's homes and replenish their swing set areas. I'm not out there to take down trees and the few that I take down I split up for firewood, Pine goes to the firepit everything else for inside.

Michael

 

Most landscaper's have no reason to purchase a machine larger than 5" capacity. If it works for you great but I would just be trying to consolidate four trailer loads down to one. If it is good quality chips I can dump it at a couple customer's homes and replenish their swing set areas. I'm not out there to take down trees and the few that I take down I split up for firewood, Pine goes to the firepit everything else for inside.

Michael

You don't wanna use these chips around a play set, Its different than the safety chips at school and playgrounds. The chips from most chippers will end up poking a kid that falls and mold pretty quickly and get nasty.

 

Echo Bearcats have several different screens but you could still be right. It would only be an extra two-three trailer loads that I would have to pay to dump.

Michael

 

We dropped 55 pines about 8-12" around 30-50' tall in a 2 day period grinding them into the rear of a chip truck, We only filled it twice and would have filled a trailer over and over again.

A trick we use when trailer brush to the dump is to lay a good rope across the trailer not with it, leaving enough to tie around with a good slip not. then we would use remaining rope to tie down brush, when you get to dump you can untie it from the trailer leaving around the brush. Then tie it off and pull truck/trailer forward. Unloads trailer in less then 5 min rather than 3 guys at 20-30 min.