I have no experience with anything like this unit, but I googled into a nice ebay old posting that had pics of the insides of your unit and it appears to be rugged. I have a big chipper and have used it on magnolia leaves. My major concern would be that the throat of this unit might not be big enough to allow a heap of leaves to fall in without jamming together before they hit the blades. I can't determine the actual size of the throat. Perhaps you could scoop up your leaves and see if they could fall smoothly into the owner's measured diameter.