Petrol Garden Chipper Shredder

[warrenr]

I am looking to buy a garden shredder. I bought what I thought was a sturdy electric machine but it was not very effective and will not now start. Moreover, material has to be barrowed from storage and back to disposal.

I have a large garden and produce a 6ft high pile of soft and hard cuttings every couple of months which need to be shredded before composting.

The shredder needs to deal with soft and hard material and be easy to clear. I am looking to chip timber upto 50mm diameter. The neighbours are sensitive to bonfires but some sensitive to noise. I would use 4-5 times per year.

I have failed to find any really helpful/independent reviews on the web although the 5.5hp Elite has at least one good review also various MTD models get good reports. Most models that I have looked at cost around 1,000 and half that on e-bay in apparently good condition.

I notice that a number of members are very knowledgeable about garden machinery and would appreciate suggestions.

Regards
Richard

 

[Jason Pettitt]

Not heard of Elite - do you mean Eliet? I have used a big Eliet ProfIV - they do what they're supposed to do.

50mm is pretty chunky material for a small petrol shredder. Given that you're looking at big bucks for anything that'll cope with that sort of size it might pay to hire or employ a contractor for a morning, seeing as you're only looking to use it very occasionally. The bigger shredders are quick and will munch through a six foot pile in a few hours.

They're insanely noisy - much more so than electric machines. Not only do you have the engine, but the shredding action is much more brutal.

Do your neighbours have big gardens? What do they do? Perhaps you could be neighbourly, avoid some of the potential conflicts with noise/smoke and make more economic and ecological sense by doing some sharing.

 

[big soft moose]

50mm is pretty chunky material for a small petrol shredder. Given that you're looking at big bucks for anything that'll cope with that sort of size it might pay to hire or employ a contractor for a morning, seeing as you're only looking to use it very occasionally. The bigger shredders are quick and will munch through a six foot pile in a few hours.
.

true - you can also hire a big chipper like a timberwolf or bear cat for about 50 -100 quid per day which might work out more economical if its only once every six months or so

if you do buy a chipper/mucher make sure it is rated for something larger than you want to chip ie - if you want to chip 50mm dia branches dont buy one thats a theoretical max 50mm as they are always optimistic - buy one rated for at least 75mm and so on

ive used one like this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-13-HP-PETROL- ... 4aa27338c3 before and its done the biz - note dont be tempted by the cheaper ones that have 5.5hp engines as they are just not man enough for the job (IME if you are chipping 50mm branches you need at least a 10hp engine , preferanbly more) that said if you are just shredding small waste the 5.5hp MTD does do a good job on that kind of thing

the one i usually use (and we hire it in rather than owning our own) is like this http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/timberwolf-woodch ... 2a082d60ba but that is both too expensive for you (usually they are about 5k on ebay, circa 10 new) and total overkill for your needs

 

[Steve Jones]

Hi Richard,

I've got one of these which I managed to pick up of 'the bay' for around £600 although they don't come available very often.

http://www.globeorganic.co.uk/products/shredder/gardenmaster9hp.html

Mines the earlier model so it's got a Kohler 9hp engine but it does have the optional extra of pneumatic wheels which I highly recommend. Everything I've put through it up to know it's dealt with no problems at all and you have the option of buying the optional shredding screens to vary the size of the chips

Steve

 

[virtu]

I've got Viking GB 370 shredder and no fault in that, keeps what promised.

 

[paulm]

I've used a 5.5hp petrol MTD for a few years and it's way better than any of the electric models I had previously, much more businesslike.

The engine doesn't really seem to struggle at all under load, however the feeding of materials is still a bit of a chore. Even with the wide mouthed chute, material still seems to get stuck and not self/gravity feed if at all twiggy or bushy, needs some encouragement with a long stick :shock: :lol:

Straighter material is fine and goes straight through with no problems though.

So a big step up from hobby/electric machines, but still nowhere like as good as the big pro machines where you can just chuck stuff in with no fuss.

Cheers, Paul

 

[Mcluma]

I bought the flymo shreder, and i also looked at the petrol ones,

Noise is and was the biggest decission to go for electric,


the Flymo is quite en if it fits through the hole (arround the 5cm) he will shred it, i was/am very impressed witht he flymo shredder

secondly, i didn't want to fork out the big money for something you only use 3 to 4 times a year

we used it now quite a lot, as it is so easy to use, and is so quite

 

[dickm]

Don't think they make them any more, but I've got a 2.2kW Alko electric chipper shredder which will comfortably handle 30mm provided it's not seasoned oak or similar . The difficulty, as others have hinted, is that it's one thing to feed in a straight piece of broom handle, but a different matter when trying to put in something smaller but with branches and bends. So to chip real 50mm branches, you'll need to go for a nominal capacity of twice that.
If you are set on a petrol model, then the Bearcat that I used to be able to borrow is a superb beast. Expensive, but while it's obviously noisier than the electric Alko, it works much faster so you only annoy neighbours for a shorter time :evil: