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  Simon May 24, 2014 at 10:20am

  I was in the same position at the beginning of the year, I looked at an Eliet but decided they were too slow and would only take small amounts of woody waste. They also at the time discharged all waste on to the ground, I understand they've addressed this now. Rather than going down the shredder route I opted for a Greenmech CS100 chipper. It's fantastic, makes light work of conifers and woody waste, obviously can't take "dirty waste" but I find it does the job well. There is a knack to it but I manage to load/unload out of a transit on my own, trailer would be ideal though due to size/weight. Not cheap but makes life easier, gone are the days of spending hours chopping branches up to get them in to tonne bags or running through them with a hedge cutter/chainsaw.

  Simon
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  Robert Keetley May 24, 2014 at 11:25am

  
  
  Simon said:

  I was in the same position at the beginning of the year, I looked at an Eliet but decided they were too slow and would only take small amounts of woody waste. They also at the time discharged all waste on to the ground, I understand they've addressed this now. Rather than going down the shredder route I opted for a Greenmech CS100 chipper. It's fantastic, makes light work of conifers and woody waste, obviously can't take "dirty waste" but I find it does the job well. There is a knack to it but I manage to load/unload out of a transit on my own, trailer would be ideal though due to size/weight. Not cheap but makes life easier, gone are the days of spending hours chopping branches up to get them in to tonne bags or running through them with a hedge cutter/chainsaw.

  Simon

  
  Hi Simon,
  
  So what is the greenmech like on small stuff such as hedgecuttings ?, this is the thing with the treebusta, it doesn't like small/thin stuff, the other day it clogged up several times while I was trying to chip up some conifer cuttings. I was looking at a better chipper at the start of the year, & was considering the cs100 & jo bo machines, but work has changed, so I put that on hold. If a chipper would cope with it all then that would be the best option for me, only needing one machine instead of 2.
  I also load/work mostly on my own, I used a hiace, but recently got a vivaro, but had no probs when using ramps, I have now got a trailer, a Paxton 7x5
  
  Rob
• PRO

  Stuart @ Eco Garden Maintenance May 24, 2014 at 11:26am

  I have an Eliet prof4 with hydro feed. Very good at what it does and this particular model would be the smallest in the range that i would go for. Anything lower in the range would just not cut it.

  The hydro feed is a major plus but mine is an older model which discharges to the ground. That is its main drawback although as has previously been said they have addressed this issue now. There are a lot of blades to replace as well.
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  Simon May 24, 2014 at 11:38am

  Hi Rob,

  With the CS100 being a chipper it really prefers branches and the woodier the better, I did manage to get through a height reduction of a lonicera hedge this week but was a bit of a faff. Nevertheless it reduced it down from something like four tonne bags to just over one. When it comes to hedge cuttings I really wouldn't bother, the time it would take to feed I'd just have sheets down and bag it up. I'd also be concerned about putting stones/soil etc through it. The other thing to consider is space, if it reduces hedge cuttings down from 6 to 4 tonne bags but you still have to make space for the chipper itself have you actually saved yourself any space? I'll upload a few pics of jobs I've down with it in a min.

  Simon
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  Simon May 24, 2014 at 11:57am

  Brash cleared, 50% reduction on conifer and large conifers down to ground.
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  Robert Keetley May 24, 2014 at 12:13pm

  Good photos Simon many thanks. Did you get it new or pick one up used ?.

  I don't get that many big jobs such as the one in you photos, I did when I first started but work has changed, now its more unruly gardens that need cutting back. I put as much as possible in the clients green bins as I can then quite often leave them with bags for the excess. The reason for this is that I don't currently have a site I can take it to get rid of it, that's why I was looking at shredders, so I can squeeze a bit more in their bin.

  Rob
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  Simon May 24, 2014 at 1:37pm

  Bought new, the cost of second hand was still high. Where possible I tend to always buy new kit over second hand.
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  Adam Pilgrim May 25, 2014 at 2:10pm

  Interesting discussion, I bought a large chipper shredder earlier this year after using a 'Globe Garden Master' previously - this worked and worked well but was slow, dumped waste onto the ground and had to be hand fed so to speak.

  I bought a secondhand Arbor Eater Bio 200 and trailer mounted it for fast tow between sites - HOWEVER this set up only works for me due to the tipper truck I use and the fact that I barely ever leave waste with customers.

  The Arbor eater will shred anything up to 1" and a 1/4, chip 3", the shredder part is hydro feed, which means it will shred as fast as you can dump stuff in the hopper. Has since been modified with a removable large piece of ducting that drops the shreddings directly into the back of the truck with a tarpaulin over the top of the truck as dust tended to 'blow back' if shredding conifer etc when it was windy.

  Anything over 3" is kept as firewood.

  Obviously won't fit through a gate and go into a back garden though....

  

  
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  Robert Keetley May 25, 2014 at 2:33pm

  Thanks Adam, looks like a good set up, but I would like it to be able to go into backyards. I also have a trailer & keep my treebusta in that, but I can take that out 7 through gateways.

  Rob
• PRO

  Seth Burgess May 25, 2014 at 2:33pm

  That's a nice setup Adam.