Chipper costs ?

brucet3, Mar 14, 7:49am
I have never owned a wood chipper or shredder and wonder how much they cost to buy,operate!
Are they viable for the home property with a bit of small tree and brush clearing from time to time!
samandben, Mar 14, 8:04am
Hi Bruce, we checked out our local hire centre for chippers and it was $90 for the day. We have just bought a 2nd hand one for $150. Its fantastic, chewing through all our tree prunings.
samanya, Mar 14, 9:59am
Hi Brucet, I paid around $800 for a petrol one as I have a small acreage & couldn'tbe reliant on power.
I can't say I'm all that impressed, it chips dry stuff well but any leafy branches seem to clog it up.
ebygum1, Mar 14, 4:00pm
I bought a Victa brand one on here for $60.00 It handles prunings etc up to 20mm as long as they are dry. That is as much as I need for general garden stuff.
russ18, Mar 14, 4:50pm
We've had both electric and petrol, now we have none, IMO they just aren't worth the time and effort, can prune all our trees then either spend all day mulching to get about one trailer load of mulch or an hour and a half to load branches on the trailer, take it to the recycling centre and bring back a cubic metre of their mulch.
samanya, Mar 14, 4:58pm
There's a lot to be said for that!
pickles7, Mar 15, 4:10pm
We were lucky and picked one up for $5.00 from the recycle depot. Goes well, it had the power cord cut for the new safety laws but on rewiring it there was nothing wronge at all. It dose not take dry branches or very large ones but for home use it is great. We use it heaps.
samanya, Mar 15, 4:54pm
Where's bruce gone!
brucet3, Mar 16, 3:08pm
Been clearing the dry stuff that used to be undergrowth. Very little going on in the garden at present.
Think I will just keep heaping my trimmings out of the way like always. Never much into tidy anyways.
samanya, Mar 16, 3:16pm
I like tidy.
Not much going on in many gardens, I'd imagine.
I haven't mown lawns for months, it's brown & crackles when you walk on it .piles of prunings waiting for the shredder & more waiting for the next fire season (if there is ever another one after this drought).
No weeds atm, cos of no rain but hell, when it does rain they'll be off like a rocket.
Keeping the vege garden going is top priority right now but I had to use precious water to water my rhodies .poor things had their leaves pointing to the ground & looking distinctly dehydrated & sad.
Been using the sprinkler in the paddocks to help keep my 4 sheep nibbling at something green.
kenw1, Apr 20, 10:54pm
When we need a chipper, I normally make sure I have enough work for the day and hire one that takes 8 inch stumps, has 40hp diesel on it, that does not mess about, anything you poke in the chute it grabs hold off and it comes out as chips.