Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)My wife and I bought this wood chipper because we have two acres of mature landscaping and just could not even keep close to keeping up with trimming the lower branches on all the trees and dispose of the limbs and branches. Our trimming pile at the edge of the woods had grown to a monster and was threatening the back of the garage. Researched several websites and decided on the Patriot.
After the first day of chipping - about 8 hours and 15 trees and lilacs worth of lower limbs and branches, I am impressed. First, the 9HP B&S engine did start on the very first pull. Later in the day on restarts, it sometimes took a twiddle of the choke and at most 3 pulls, but starting was impressively easy, and almost always on the first pull. I limbed about 4 trees at a time, cutting off the biggest stuff for burning in the fireplace, about 2.5 inches or larger. The rest, my wife used large branch clippers to take out ALL Y shaped branch joints (necessary to be able to feed through the funnel tube), and I fed these branches and twigs through the chipper. Very nice!! Blows cleanly into the catcher bag, wich I'd dump into the lawn tractor utility trailer to take to the mulch pile at the edge of the woods. Three loads for the whole day of trimming! Would have been a pile the size of my garage otherwise. On the third bag of chips, we experienced a small jam. Was able to clear by (first unplugging the spark to make sure couldn't start) taking off the funnel feeder (three easily accessible nuts), use a 1" stick on the outlet to back the disk bit by bit and clear the input port of jammed up mulch. I think I must have let the bag overfill, or feed branches with lots of leaves in too fast. Never had a jam afterwards. By the way, those chipping knives are sharp. Be very careful (use only sticks, etc) to clear the openings.
So, we're finished the first day of chipping and am very pleased. This was a pretty spendy unit, but it came through as expected. Very easy to move around the property by hand, even with our hills. No need for the attachment to the lawn tractor, which had the dump bucket attached anyway. I do feel, however, that Patriot should make the tractor attachment a standard item instead of pricey extra!
Would I recommend - you bet. Remember I do not have experience with other chippers, however, but this unit is small and compact but stable, seems to be very powerfull, even on solid dry old branches that have very hard wood, and ate green vines easily if fed into the chipper along with small branches. Nicest part was chipping up some old cedar branches and making cedar wood chips to spread around a couple of trees as mulch. Smells great. Hope this helps your selection. Oh, and seems to be built really solidly, even though this is a small unit. Right as I assembled it (very fast and one spare part of every screw, washer, etc)you could tell that the machine is very solidly made. Happy so far.
Click Here to see more reviews about:
Patriot Products CSV-3090B 9 HP Briggs & Stratton Gas-Powered Wood Chipper/Leaf ShredderThe CSV-3090B Wood Chipper Leaf Shredder is the perfect machine for large property owners. This chipper features the Briggs & Stratton Vanguard Commercial Power engine. This quiet and smooth engine allows this unit to quickly make mulch out of thick 3 inch diameter branches. Leaves and vegetative material can be dropped in the hopper for shredding. There are no belts or pulleys to replace with Patriot's patented direct drive system. All the power goes directly into chipping and shredding. Your Patriot will consistently make coin size chips without the need to change messy screens and covers.
Click here for more information about Patriot Products CSV-3090B 9 HP Briggs & Stratton Gas-Powered Wood Chipper/Leaf Shredder
