Wood Chippers: Rent or buy?
There are a couple of factors to consider when you trying to decide whether to buy your own chipper or rather to rent one. Here are a few aspects to help you determine whether it makes sense to purchase your own wood chipper or to rather opt for wood chipper hire:
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Application
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Size and quantity of the material
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Frequency of use
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Capital Outlay
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Maintenance
Wood Chipper Hire
Would you like to rent a wood chipper? Find out where wood chippers are for hire in your area:
1. Application
The first main advantage of a wood chipper is that it is a waste reduction unit. So the volume of green waste can be reduced by up to 80% (depending on the type of material). This means that a wood chipper can turn multiple truckloads of green waste into just one. The wood chipper also discharges the material into a specific direction and can be used to discharge directly onto the bank of the fruit orchard, into a container or onto the back of a truck, which eliminates double handling – saving money! The second advantage of course is that the wood chipper produces wood chips. The wood chips can be sold to be used as mulch or turned into compost.
RENT: If you are a household who wants to chip woody waste that accumulated after you recently pruned the trees on your property or your empty plot at the sea is overgrown and you want to get rid of the alien vegetation once a year, then going for a rental chipper would be the best option. When the chipper can come in and work for a couple of consecutive days it will save you money on transport and possible establishment fees.
BUY: Owning your own wood chipper would thus be very advantageous if you are a serious tree feller, large landscaping company, planning to do major bush clearing on your farm, a large fruit farmer, a large housing estate or a garden service who drives away 5 truck loads of branches to the dump every day. A wood chipper will definitely save you money on transport and labour, which will in effect save you time and in turn create more capacity for you to do more work in less time!
When you have your own farm/plot that is on a remote location far from the closest town or you want to remove/chip invasive species on (non-consecutive) days when your workforce are not busy with other work– then it makes sense to buy your own unit.
2. Size and quantity of the material
RENT: When the quantity is small, but the branches are thick, for example 250mm in diameter, then it makes to consider wood chipper hire as the capital outlay of a chipper this size exceeds R500 000.00*.
BUY: When the material is less than 100mm in diameter and the amount of green waste exceeds for example 30 cubic meters per month then it make financial sense to purchase a wood chipper of around R60 000*.
3. Frequency of use
Here you need to ask yourself: Is this a once-off project or will I require the use of a wood chipper on a more regular basis?
RENT: When it is a once-off project then it makes absolute sense to hire a wood chipper for a day or two or even a week especially if the diameter of the wood is large and it requires a large/expensive machine to process the material.
BUY: If you are planning on using the machine every month for a week in the month, every week in the housing estate, during pruning season on the farm for 30 working days or every day to increase the output of your garden service – the cost of rental will be astronomical and it might be worthwhile buying your own wood chipper – speak to one of our sales representatives to get a tailor-made option for you.
4. Capital Outlay
RENT: When you rent a wood chipper you pay a fixed hourly rate of R500* or a daily rate of R3000 to R6000* depending on the size of the chipper and maybe for the transport.
BUY: When you are looking at a proper chipper for domestic use, small holding, small farm or housing estate the range is typically between R60 000 and R250 000*. When you want to purchase a full-on industrial unit for rental work or everyday work as part of your tree-felling service you are probably in for R500 000 to R1 000 000* depending.
5. Maintenance
Daily maintenance is extremely important on wood chipper. When a wood chipper is well looked-after the maintenance on the wood chipper requires labour and not necessarily parts. However, there are wear parts that will need replacement on certain intervals that will cost money.
When you rent a wood chipper you pay a fixed hourly or daily rate, the machine comes fully serviced and with an operator. The maintenance cost is the responsibility of the owner. When you are the owner of the equipment you are responsible for the daily maintenance of the wood chipper. Here is a list of the typical maintenance elements* you will have to look at on a standard service for a hydraulic diesel driven chipper:
- Engine service (oil replacement, oil filter, fuel filter, air filters)
- Drive-belt tensioning or replacement
- Chipper blade/knives sharpening or replacement
- Anvil setting or replacement
- Wheel balancing or tyre replacement
- Hydraulic oil and hydraulic filter replacement
- Clutch setting, clutch linings replacement or complete clutch replacement
- Wear strips replacement on slide-box
Just keep in mind that the better you do your daily maintenance checks, the lower your running costs and repair costs on the chipper will be.
RENT: So if you are allergic to doing maintenance and repairs on equipment then hiring a wood chipper is the best solution for you.
BUY: When you’ve got your own mechanics, workshop or are very mechanical minded/practical then you will have no issue taking care of your wood chipper.
* Figures are used as indication or as a guide only. Please ask one of our sales representatives for a formal quote.