Chipper/Shredder Recommendations

19 years ago

Hi Folks,

I live on 1 & 2/3 acres of fully landscaped waterfront property in the southern Puget Sound of Western Washington. It is a medium bank ( i.e. 35- to 45 ft. high bluff) with stairs leading down to a bulk-headed beach. For slope stability, the WA. Dept. of Ecology recommends having the slope planted in native vegetation, engineered drainage, and not throwing yard debris over the cliff, among other things. Well, we got two out of the three correct. Not having a "woodsy" area in which to just dump the garden debris and let it decay naturally, we got into a habit of loading it onto a tarp and doing the old 1Â2Â3Â. toss over the cliff.

This January, about 30 linear feet of our bluff slid onto the beach ( If it was an Olympic competition, IÂd give the fir tree a 9.5 in Ski Jumping for landing upright about 8 ft in front of the bulkhead).

Since we do not want a repeat of the slide, tossing yard debris over the cliff is no longer an option. I can designate an area of my land (out of our eyesight, but within the eyesight of two neighbors) for dumping my yard debris, or I can invest in a Chipper/Shredder and grind everything. Our yard debris mainly consists of tree pruning, perennial garden, and vegetable garden debris. And there are a lot of them every year. No grass or leaves. I have seen the MTDÂs at the Depot, but I am not too impressed with the MTD lawn edger I purchased many years ago.

Thanks in advance for your help and recommendations on a Chipper/Shredder.

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Comments (10)

castoff
19 years ago
Go to the bottom of the Main page that lists all of the threads. You will see a small box marked "Search". Type in the word "Chipper". Voila... 81 past threads will now be available for you to read. Instant service... no waiting for replies. LOL

Of course, most of them will have posts by MaineMan because he has considerable experience on chippers of the size needed for small property owners.
bbriggs
19 years ago
Castoff is right, there is plenty of info on chippers using the search function. MaineMan has directed many to the Mackissic products and he is giving good advice. Their merits are spelled out in his posts, which I encourage you to read. If I were to summarize by own experience: I use both the 12PT-10 and the larger relative SC183, they're both very nice units for both chipping and shredding. I used a Bearcat model before them and, while chipping was quite good, I found it quite troublesome for shredding garden/yard waste. The units at the local big box stores look worse still. If you have a lot of yard debris and a lot of landscaping to maintain, strikes me the 'waste' would be a quite useful thing to recycle. For my own uses, the product of the unit is as valuable as getting rid of the 'waste'. The biggest 'fault' with the Mackissic units appears to be difficulty removing the chipping knife screws when sharpening is required. I've not encountered that problem, but I remove the knives at least annually for sharpening. I suppose that keeps the threads nice and clean. Anyway, do some searching and post back if you don't find what you need to know.
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old_man
19 years ago
I used to have a troy bilt 8 hp tomahawk chipper/shredder. It took a long time to chip anything up. I ended up burning the brush rather than chipping it. With light brush I sometimes used my Gravely 8122 mower to chop it up. You can run through anything with that machine. Most recently I use an $800 brush chopper on the back of my JD4310 to get rid of brush and garden waste. I can't justify $2k+ for a 3 pt chipper.
jammer1
19 years ago
I love my Mckissic with the 8 hp engine;everything works so good;especially chipping and shredding,I am totally impressed!!!
blacknumber1
19 years ago
Almost all residential chippers are disappointingly underpowered. The only one I have seen that really looks good is the DR. I thik it has a 12 HP engine and electric start. How much debris do you get and how often do you need to chip it? If you only want to chip brush once or twice a year it may be easier to just rent a commercial chipper for a few hours.
dmullen
19 years ago
I have a Mackissic 12pt10 and it handles everything I put in it including branches up to 3 inches in diameter. Plenty of power.
den69rs96
19 years ago
Maineman convinced me to look at the 12pt10. The place I bought mine from also had a DR 10 chipper there for the same price as the 12pt10. Both seamed like quality machines with the same B&S 10hp intek, however the 12pt10 has the shredder option which is very handy. I love my Mackissic 12pt10. Only got to use it about 5-6 hours last year. Takes a little longer to chip really dry 3.5 branches, but it handles everything else with no problems. I have an endless supply of branches with the woods surrounding my property and I need a lot of mulch for my yard. The machine will pay for itself in a few years in savings from the mulch I won't have to purchase.
masiman
19 years ago
Not only do you not have to buy mulch, you don't have to drive somewhere to wait in line to pay and load it and drive it home (assuming you don't get it home delivered).
montesa_vr Morton
19 years ago
Every time I see one of these chipper/shredder discussions, somebody suggests renting. Have you actually tried to rent a chipper? I have a choice of a dozen area rental yards. I can rent skid steers, hydraulic booms, cutoff saws, chain saws, trenching machines, and all manner of other dangerous equipment, but not a single place will touch a chipper for liability reasons.

Do your rental emporiums have all kinds of chippers, or are you just assuming they do?
den69rs96
19 years ago
When I checked for a rental around me, it was 150 a day plus a delivery charge since I don't have a truck. It was one of those hydraulic feed ones. I couldn't find any place that rented the homeowner models. If you only need a chipper for one day, that is the way to go. If you don't have a truck, its somewhat of a pain to rent large equipment and buying may be a better option provided you'll use it more than just a couple of times.