How much wood would a wood chipper chip if a wood chipper could chip wood?
Well this is a surprisingly common question. At least how big a piece of wood can a wood chipper….. You get the idea.
Having run our three inch gravity fed chipper for a while now we are getting regular demand for something bigger. The three inch chipper is great for the smaller stuff but being gravity fed it is not producing tonnes per hour. It is well suited to prunings and branches but of course has its limitations.
Here at G A Plant, your local independent tool hire shop, we have the flexibility to make fleet purchasing decisions for ourselves without somebody in a big office somewhere telling us what we do and don’t need. In other words we can react to our customers’ needs.
So where to start when deciding on the specification of a wood chipper for our hire fleet? Of course the obvious thing to do is speak to our customers and establish their wood chipping needs. So this is what we did. Our conversations demonstrated that generally speaking a six inch wood chipper was going to cover most people’s requirements. Anything bigger can be logged for fire wood. Some of the full time tree surgeons will run eight inch chippers but the demand for this size machine does not warrant the extra investment.
Another consideration when choosing a wood chipper for our hire fleet is how we are going to transport or deliver the wood chipper. With the new trailer towing regulations we found that an increasing number of our customers are losing the right to tow anything bigger than 750kgs behind their vehicles. Fortunately the wood chipper manufacturers have also realised this and have started producing road tow wood chippers that fall below the 750kg threshold.
The next consideration in our changing world is environmental impact. We didn’t realise when we started this process, but soon learnt, that the wood chipper manufacturers are now offering petrol rather than diesel alternatives. The benefits of having a petrol powered wood chipper against a diesel powered wood chipper include reduced weight, lower noise levels, reduced cost and Tier IV emissions compliance. With some clever design work the chipper can now have a heavier flywheel and more horsepower without compromising on weight, giving a better performance option all round.
With all these considerations taken on board it was time to get some demo machines in to have a look at. We looked at machines from both Forst and Greenmech. We didn’t look at Jensen chippers or Timberwolf chippers in our comparisons. Having looked at both machines we needed to decide which way to go.
As a hire company we are used to occasionally coming up against customers who perhaps don’t care for our machinery in the same way an owner operator might. This is where the Greenmech machine was very attractive to us. The Greenmech Evo 165P is fitted with a clever disc blade system, which effectively has three edges which can be used before sharpening. On top of that we have then purchased the sharpening equipment meaning we can sharpen the blades in house so we will not be reliant on sending the chipper blades away for sharpening. This helps us keep our costs down but also helps ensure maximum machine up time.
The Greenmech Evo 165P wood chipper is a sub 750kg road tow set up with the Briggs and Stratton Vanguard 37hp twin cylinder petrol engine. Another feature we like with these chippers is the ‘no stress’ system. This system means the machine feeds the timber in at the right speed. No more customers trying to force pieces through too fast.
So with all the boxes ticked we are now able to offer our domestic and trade customers a true 6” wood chipper for short or long term hire.
