WoodMaxx 8" Hydraulic Auto-Feed Chipper

I bought one of these a few weeks ago and for the most part have been impressed with its performance.It is "Designed in USA, Made in China" with some sort of value added in western NY state. They shipped it with a cheap, Chinese, mismatched color, PTO shaft that was rusting right out of the box because they were out of stock of the recommended "Made in USA" shaft that I ordered. The rusty PTO generic shaft rubbed me the wrong way but the machine was otherwise nice and shiny. During assembly, about 1/3 of the hydraulic fittings were loose and needed to be tightened. Because of the way the guards are assembled and then tightened, scratching the new yellow paint seemed inevitable.We attached it to my New Holland Workmaster 35 'Compact' tractor (33HP). We mounted it with the hitch arms extended all the way, but the PTO shaft still had to be shortened by about 1.5". (We cut it down with a sawz-all in about 10 minutes)Our first day of using it, we broke the shear pins 3 times, likely from engaging my PTO before I had lowered it down to the ground completely. Initial bumps out of the way, we were generally impressed by the machine. An advantage of this hydraulic feed system is that at no point were we 'pulled' towards the chipper, so it felt like a very safe machine to operate.While the feeder is a 6-8" rectangular box that is accommodating for large, straight logs, The input feeding housing is too long and narrow for more curvy wood (Autumn Olive) and got jammed frequently. If it had another 15-30 degrees it would be nicer. Similarly, it would be nice if it was tilted down a little more so that the armfuls of brush would 'fall' into the feeder/grinder easier. The adjustable chute mechanism is a little cheap feeling, especially tilting the spring loaded 'bolt' to move it around.The Hydraulic feed motors were pretty slow though, even when cranked up to full speed. We were mostly feeding it multiple 1-3" sticks at a time, always adding more while it was sucking away and chipping, but always felt like we were waiting for the chipper. We also were throwing in armfuls of other smaller/shorter sticks that would get pulled in for the ride and chipped, but again, the flat input box didn't help this at all. We put a few 20ft x 4-5" invasive Tree-of-Heaven through it, roots and all (obviously inspecting for dirt/rocks) and it just asked for more (ToH is pretty soft). We did test its power by putting a few 6" diameter logs through it and while my tractor bogged down slightly during this, it really didn't seem to care. 2 of use were alternating feeding the chipper, and one was running the saw and dragging us limbs from brush piles..My tractor runs at 2510RPM for 540PTO; But for the remainder of our first afternoon with this machine, I backed the tractor down 20% to ~2000 RPM and the chipper didn't seem to notice. The hydraulic feed seemed to operate at the same sped, and 20% less speed to the blades didn't seem to bother the machine.We are in the middle of culling invasive trees from a 36 acre forest. If this machine makes it though the season and chews up the ~200 tree of heaven and ~200 autumn olive bushes, it will have paid for itself compared to a rental, even if it only chips at a fraction of the speed of a utility company chipper. It has the advantage of being one less internal combustion engine to maintain.

The chipper took about 4 hours to assemble and setup, which was ok- and worked well for the first year. We flipped the knives the second year- which took about 3 hours of work and a mechanic to help. But then the flywheel absolutely froze- so it appears that the bearings may be bad- even though they were maintained. I have submitted a service ticket- but I may have bought a $3000 paper weight. I will update the review as I work through this so others can learn from my experience.

The machine works great ! Better than I anticipated even. The only thing I was disappointed about is that Amazon's price was over $ 500 dollars more than what WoodMax sells it for direct online. I found that out too late.

It works well so far. We mount it on the three point hitch of our Toyota tractor

I am a 70yo rancher in the Texas hill country with a cedar problem. For the past 12 years I have been renting the Vermeer BC1000 to chip old growth cedar limbs. With rental fees and hiring 3 additional men it would cost me about $1000 for a 12 hour weekend chipping marathon twice a year. We could get a lot of chipping done but it would wear me out. After a lot of research I decided to buy the 8" Woodmax with hydraulic feed so I could work alone at a slower pace.Assembly was easy but lifting it high enough off the ground to attatch the legs with my John Deer 3038E was a little challenging . I have been chipping very old, hard, dead cedar, mostly hardwood now for 2 months and couldn't be happier. Of course it's a lot slower than the Vermeer but the chips are finer and I can work at my own pace. I did have an issue with the hydraulic feed but a call to Woodmax had me troubleshooting with Joel in service in less than 2 minutes! The only problem was a loose belt, corrected by tightening the tension pulley. Keep an eye on the set screws on the feed rollers, I had 2 fall out which Joel said can happen due to vibration. He quickly sent me replacements and a little locktite has kept them in.All in all I am very pleased both with the chipper and the service department!Bill, Boerne Texas

If you need a chipper that will not let you down this is it. In July of 2013 I ordered a WM-8H chipper after much research, and a few calls to the WoodMaxx office. I am pleased to say that after just over 40hr of use, and right at 193 yards of chips through the chipper, I still have not had one problem with the unit. I run the unit on my L3000 Kubota 30hp tractor and have more than enough power to chip the things that I don’t use for fire wood.Living in north central Arkansas we have some very hard woods Oaks of all kinds, Hickory, Black Jack, Locust and the list goes on and on. The WM-8H handles them all great. The hardest thing to do with this chipper is to keep it fed we chip about 7 to 8 yards an hour and the chipper is always hungry for more.In this day and time it is so refreshing to see a company that under promises and over delivers. The chipper is a great piece of equipment and the customer service is second to none.

I live on 35 heavily wooded acres and needed a way to keep it clear. After much research and asking local tree professionals I went with the Woodmaxx. 5 stars says it all. This power head is a beast. If you can fit it into the feeder, it will chip it. Keep in mind you can not feed a 8" piece of dry oak the same way you can a 2" stick of wet pine. Luckily there are feeder speed adjustments and an assitive feeder bar to make the job easier. I have run this unit with a 55 horse Mahindra and a MF 471 with 68 horse, both tractors were more than enough power to get the job done. I have probably run the unit for 150 hours with no problem. Follow the maintenance instruction and keep hydro fluid at the correct level and you will get years of service out of this product.