Picked this up for $225 locally. Has a new carburetor and low hours on the engine. Has a Briggs engine...not quite a Honda, but for the price, I'm happy. Should help me clean up brush piles and make leaf cleanup a bit easier. If the branches won't fit in this, they should be used for kindling anyway.
Lady that bought this originally put gas in it and never used it. Bad gas destroyed the carburetor after 2 years. Makes me want to run everything out of gas that I own.
Good thing to do for long term storage. I drain tanks & run everything I can dry . Even more important if you have ethanol in the fuel. Stabil / a fuel stabilizer for equipment you don't want to drain. Nice score BTW. Been wanting to get one to help make compost.
These are out there. I have seen several of the units with the built in vacuum in the $300 range. This one should do better on sticks than those. They are based on a lawnmower chassis, but I only deal with leaves a few times a year and couldn't pass on the lower price of this one.
Startron seems to work better than stabil even if you don't drain all the gas out. You can find bigger bottles of it at marine supply stores.
I've never used any fuel treatment and have had no real problems unless it was stored for MANY years.
OP hope that unit works for you, I had a model a step or two up (metal vertical hopper... Around 10hp engine.) I sold it after a few uses. Was much too slow to be even remotely productive. Had to prune each branch so it could fit. The hopper couldn't handle much. Leaves and tiny twigs was about all. I had bought it to shred the junk that comes off wood when split. Bark, pieces of wood, etc. A wheelbarrow load took 15+ mins to chip all the
Looks similar to the Craftsman one I bought in early '90's for here in town.Used it a lot the first several years,then very sporadically after that.It needs some work on carb now after setting for a while unused.Very good compression still but hard to start.Most brush I have here gets cut into pieces a foot or less with heavy duty loppers now,anything over 3/4" is eventual kindling.Leaves/tiny twigs are tossed in trash bin,bigger sticks are burned.Sister gets a bunch for her firepit. I get more mulch already than I can use from the shavings/noodles from roughing out slabs/blocks for future woodcraft projects & storing them for sale.
I gave up on mine... 8hp Craftsman. Burn pile or straight to compost for me. I actually tried firing it up today but couldn't even pull it over. Add it to the list but it will probably get sold if I fix it. Just feed it slow and it will work, just a really slow process.
I have a similar one. Note realistic as a chipper. Easily clogs up. But on mine, the leaf tray drops dorn to the ground. I can sweep leaves up to it where they get sucked in and come out ground up. Still easier to just rack up the leaves and put in the compost pile. Sticks with limbs just won't go easily. Hope you have better luck with yours.
Do not put that shoot down in the back and rake leaves into it, one little rock will muck it up good don't ask me how I know
Don't try to chip any dead/dried out limbs - it with rattle your knuckles off. Mine is similar Troy Built w/B&S, they are good for softwoods, they don't care too much for oak limbs. Bought mine during a drought 6-7yrs ago to chip up some Leyland Cypress, it got another good workout on the 3 Sweetgums that were dropped in the yard last winter - all the limbs from the big White oak out front are going on the burn pile
They are ok if just doing regular cleanup and all. I have a slightly bigger one that I use around here. Let the neighbor borrow it a he chipped a pretty good size pile. Hes retired though so I think he was just bored. Good little machines for what they are though.
I have a similar one too. Very hard to pull start-heavy. Have to use ether each time. Very slow. Jams easy. Small capacity. I use the shredder more at its upper capacity limit because the branch chewer is so repugnant. I dread using it, but I have a bunch of splitter trash now and I guess I'll have to.
I either use my splitter trash for kindling or compost it in a big slow pile. I also use it at times for hugulkultur type gardening. I still plant in rows so i just dig a big area throw in splitter trash and other organic material and cover back over. Would also work good in raised beds under some soil.
