How to Choose the Right Wood Chipper for Your Business

We’ve seen it more times than we’d like.

A tree surgeon picks up a chipper that looked good on paper, uses it for three months, and realises it’s either too small for the work they’re doing or too big for the sites they’re getting into.

Either way, they’re stuck with a machine that doesn’t fit their business or their jobs, and that’s an expensive mistake to make.

Choosing the right wood chipper isn’t about finding the best one in the market.

It’s about finding the right one for your workload, your sites, and the way you operate day to day.

Start with the work, not the wood chipper machine

Before you look at a single spec sheet, think about what you’re actually chipping.

That means asking yourself a few straight questions. What diameter timber are you dealing with on a typical job? How many days a week is the chipper running?

Are you working mainly on open sites with good vehicle access, or are you getting into tight residential gardens, woodland areas, parks, and awkward terrain? The answers shape everything that follows.

We understand that tree surgeons’ work is highly varied day-to-day. That’s why you should aim for a chipper that can handle 80 to 90% of the work you do.

If you go too small, you’ll spend half your time re-cutting material to fit the throat, which slows the whole crew down. Go too big? And you’re burning more fuel, towing more weight, and paying more than you need to for a machine that sits at half capacity most days.

Be honest about your workload.

It’s tempting to buy for the biggest job you’ve ever quoted, but if that kind of work comes around twice a year, you’re better off hiring a larger machine for those jobs and owning something that suits the bread-and-butter work.

6-inch or 8-inch chippers?

We get this question a lot. The answer depends entirely on what you’re cutting.

6-inch chippers

A 6-inch chipper handles the majority of residential tree surgery and garden clearance work. If you’re pruning, taking down smaller trees, and clearing brash, a 6-inch machine will get through most of it.

They’re lighter, easier to tow, and generally cheaper to run.

8-inch chippers

An 8-inch chipper is where you step up when you’re regularly dealing with thicker timber.

If your work involves larger removals, storm damage, or site clearance where you’re processing heavier material throughout the day, you’ll appreciate the bigger throat. They might cost more to run, but they save you the costs of time.

You’ll spend less time trimming branches down to size, and the machine won’t be operating at its limit with every feed.

Where Först comes into play

The Först range offers strong options in both categories.

Their ST6P is a solid 6-inch towable that plenty of crews across Scotland rely on daily. It is compact, capable, and well suited to the demands of domestic and day-to-day commercial work.

For heavier-duty applications, the Först ST8D gives you that extra capacity, along with the durability and performance needed for bigger workloads. When you are dealing with tougher material on a regular basis, that additional throughput can make a noticeable difference on site.

At ILH Groundcare Machinery, we stock a wide range of Först wood chippers for both sale and hire. If you are unsure which model is right for your work, our team will be happy to help you choose the best machine for the job.

Towable, tracked, or PTO?

Once you’ve settled on capacity, the next decision is how the chipper gets to where the work is. And this decision matters more than people think.

Towable chippers

Towable chippers are the most common choice for ARB contractors. You hitch them to your truck or van, drive to site, park up, and get to work. They’re straightforward, road-legal, and easy to move between jobs throughout the day.

If most of your work is on roads, driveways, or hard-standing areas with decent vehicle access, a towable machine makes the most sense.

Tracked chippers

Tracked chippers earn their keep when the ground gets difficult. Slopes, soft ground, woodland with no vehicle access, narrow paths behind houses where you can’t get a trailer anywhere near the tree.

Tracks let you drive the chipper right up to where the timber is, which saves your crew hauling material across a site by hand. If you’re doing a lot of woodland management, estate work, or jobs on rough terrain, a tracked machine will pay for itself in time saved.

Först’s TR8D and XR8D Traxion are popular with operators who split their time between road-accessible sites and more remote work. The Traxion in particular is built for serious off-road use while still giving you a full 8-inch chipping capacity.

PTO chippers

If you already run a tractor, a PTO chipper can be a cost-effective option. They’re powered by the tractor’s power take-off shaft, so there’s no separate engine to maintain or fuel.

This makes them well suited to farms, estates, and land management contractors who already have the tractor on site. The trade-off is flexibility, as you’re tied to wherever the tractor can go.

Petrol vs diesel woodchippers

Petrol chippers tend to be lighter and a bit cheaper upfront. They’re a good fit for smaller machines (particularly 6-inch models) where keeping the overall weight down is a priority. If you’re towing behind a van with a lower towing capacity, every kilogram counts.

Diesel engines give you more torque, which matters when you’re feeding thicker material all day. They’re also more fuel-efficient over long hours. For 8-inch machines and anything running hard five or six days a week, diesel is usually the better call.

The upfront cost is higher, but running costs tend to balance out over time, especially if you’re putting serious hours on the machine.

Don’t overlook the feed system

The feed system is one of those things that separates a machine you enjoy using from one that fights you all day. Hydraulic feed rollers pull the material in at a controlled rate, which means less effort for the operator and more consistent chipping.

Först’s AutoIntelligence system adjusts the feed speed automatically based on the load, so the machine optimises itself without the operator needing to completely babysit it.

It sounds like a small thing, but when your team is on a job feeding a chipper for six or seven hours straight, a good, reliable feed system makes a real difference to how much they get through and how tired they are at the end of it.

Should you buy or hire a woodchipper?

Not every business needs to own a chipper from day one.

If you’re a sole trader just starting out, or you only need a chipper for certain types of work, hiring lets you access a well-maintained machine without the capital outlay.

The same applies if most of your work is residential, but you occasionally get called out to an off-road woodland job.

In that situation, it rarely makes sense to invest in a specialist machine you may only use from time to time.

Hiring also gives you the change to try different sizes and models on real jobs before committing to a purchase. That’s a much better test than any demo day.

Buying makes sense when the chipper is going out every week and it’s a core part of your operation.

At that point, you’re paying hire fees that could be going toward owning an asset. We deal with plenty of customers who start by hiring from us, work out exactly what they need, and then buy with confidence because they’ve already used the machine on their own jobs.

That’s one of the advantages of dealing with a supplier who does both.

ILH Groundcare Machinery never push you toward a sale because we want the commission. If hiring makes more sense for where your business is right now, we’ll tell you that.

The bit most buying guides leave out

Spec sheets and model comparisons will only get you so far. What they don’t tell you is what happens after you buy.

A chipper is a working machine, and working machines need servicing, parts, and the occasional repair.

Where you buy matters as much as what you buy.

A generalist plant hire company might sell you a chipper, but will they know how to service it properly? Will they have parts on the shelf when something wears out? Will they pick up the phone when you’re stuck on a job and something’s gone wrong?

Woodchippers take heavy loads on the daily, so even the most reliable of machines need a little TLC at times.

Don’t wait weeks for a part while your machine sits idle.

As official Först and Arbmax dealer with a fully equipped workshop in Cumbernauld, we regularly service and repair chippers across all major brands. Not just the ones we sell! We carry official parts in stocks for quick turnarounds, letting you get back to full operation in no time.

When your chipper needs attention, you’re not waiting on a call centre or chasing a faceless supplier. You’re speaking to the same team who sold you the machine.

Getting it right first time with ILH Groundcare Machinery

The best way to choose a chipper is to talk to someone who’s used them, sold them, serviced them, and seen what works for different types of business. That’s what our trusted team do every day.

Whether you’re a one-man outfit looking for your first 6-inch towable or a landscaping company adding a second machine to the fleet, we’ll give you a straight answer on what fits your workload and your budget.

Give us a call today on 0141 775 9288. We’re happy to talk it through, show you the machines, and help you get it right first time.