We purchased a used DR 3 point hitch chipper, its not the current model but one version back. Takes a 4" chuck of wood.
We fired it up after reading the manual mainly the safety and install parts and wasnt very impressed. Didnt easily pull in tree tops or branches with alot of side branches, vibrated..... seamed like more work than just dragging the brush and burning it.
Then I did the maintenance, installed a new knife ( the guy said he only used it about 10 hours) the knife was dull and had some bad blunt spots on it. Also there is an adjustment for the wear bar which the bolts appeared as though they had never been loosed by the factory paint on them. THe gap between the wear bar and knife is soposed to be 1/16 of an inch, it was closer to 1/4 of an inch.
After the knife change and wear bar adjustment it works completely different. Self feeds most all tree tops and branches. Only large oak or maple sticks with large side branches need assistance getting into its throat. I have a 15hp tractor and it can take a 3" log about 8 ft long before it starts to choke, larger im afraid will stall my tractor but thats cause of the size of my tractor.
We've done about 2 cords worth of chips and we used them to level out our wood trail/roads. Our trailer holds 1/4 cord so easy to figure amounts.
Id recommend one of their chippers.
Im now trying to figure out the best way to sharpen the knifes. Local machine shops want almost as much as the cost to buy a new knife to sharpen a dull one. I was looking at this sharpener/grinder
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=33867
Anyone got a setup for sharpening chipper knifes??
~ Phil
We fired it up after reading the manual mainly the safety and install parts and wasnt very impressed. Didnt easily pull in tree tops or branches with alot of side branches, vibrated..... seamed like more work than just dragging the brush and burning it.
Then I did the maintenance, installed a new knife ( the guy said he only used it about 10 hours) the knife was dull and had some bad blunt spots on it. Also there is an adjustment for the wear bar which the bolts appeared as though they had never been loosed by the factory paint on them. THe gap between the wear bar and knife is soposed to be 1/16 of an inch, it was closer to 1/4 of an inch.
After the knife change and wear bar adjustment it works completely different. Self feeds most all tree tops and branches. Only large oak or maple sticks with large side branches need assistance getting into its throat. I have a 15hp tractor and it can take a 3" log about 8 ft long before it starts to choke, larger im afraid will stall my tractor but thats cause of the size of my tractor.
We've done about 2 cords worth of chips and we used them to level out our wood trail/roads. Our trailer holds 1/4 cord so easy to figure amounts.
Id recommend one of their chippers.
Im now trying to figure out the best way to sharpen the knifes. Local machine shops want almost as much as the cost to buy a new knife to sharpen a dull one. I was looking at this sharpener/grinder
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=33867
Anyone got a setup for sharpening chipper knifes??
~ Phil
