Comparing wood chippers. Same thing different store?

[INresponse]

I have been considering getting a wood chipper since our neighborhood is no longer offered free wood chips from our garbage collection company. I am considering the Harbor Freight version for about $599 and have looked at it for over a year now. My GF just sent me a picture of a wood chipper at CAL Ranch for $749. It resembled the HF version so I went online and compared pictures. Both have a 212cc engine, the hopper box on top is the same with just minor difference in placement of the handle, the gear box is the same, the engine is the same, and the front stand is the same. Am I just goofy or are you seeing the same similarities? I know the branch input, wheels and outward engine parts are different but that is just cosmetic.
Thoughts? For the past few years I have been convinced many items in HF are just cosmetic variants of higher priced items from name brand stores.
https://www.harborfreight.com/65-hp-212cc-chipper-shredder-62323.htmlhttps://www.calranch.com/k32-chipper-shredder-with-212cc-viper-engine.html

 

[Neb]

I have been considering getting a wood chipper since our neighborhood is no longer offered free wood chips from our garbage collection company. I am considering the Harbor Freight version for about $599 and have looked at it for over a year now. My GF just sent me a picture of a wood chipper at CAL Ranch for $749. It resembled the HF version so I went online and compared pictures. Both have a 212cc engine, the hopper box on top is the same with just minor difference in placement of the handle, the gear box is the same, the engine is the same, and the front stand is the same. Am I just goofy or are you seeing the same similarities? I know the branch input, wheels and outward engine parts are different but that is just cosmetic.
Thoughts? For the past few years I have been convinced many items in HF are just cosmetic variants of higher priced items from name brand stores.
https://www.harborfreight.com/65-hp-212cc-chipper-shredder-62323.htmlhttps://www.calranch.com/k32-chipper-shredder-with-212cc-viper-engine.html

Old story repeated....

I received a flyer for an event at a local hotel selling tools at great prices. I showed up and on the way in I met my father and sister on their way out.

It was the early days of Harbor Freight when they displayed tools, we rook number, pair, then went out in the parking lot to collect the goods from trailers.

Harbor Freight is and always been...

Cheap tools cheap.

Between my brother and myself, we own 87.85% of everything Harbor Freight sells.

For tools I use infrequently HF is great.

So they question is...

How frequently will it be used and to what extent ?

Ben

 

[Biggkidd]

I made the mistake of buying one 2nd hand and so have people I know and not cheap ones either. Put new blade on it got it running great and it was USELESS for any real cleanup work. You spend hours for it to chew up to 1 - 1.5 inch limbs even though the machine would say it could handle 3 or 4 inch. SLOW doesn't even come close to covering it and used a lot of gas for the work it did. A good chipper that can take real limbs are well worth the money they cost but you can't get one at a box store!

BTW We have mostly hardwoods that people chip softwoods may be different.

 

[Tirediron]

who has the best return policy, our version of HF , PrincessAuto, will take anything that you are not happy with back.

 

[INresponse]

Old story repeated....

I received a flyer for an event at a local hotel selling tools at great prices. I showed up and on the way in I met my father and sister on their way out.

It was the early days of Harbor Freight when they displayed tools, we rook number, pair, then went out in the parking lot to collect the goods from trailers.

Harbor Freight is and always been...

Cheap tools cheap.

Between my brother and myself, we own 87.85% of everything Harbor Freight sells.

For tools I use infrequently HF is great.

So they question is...

How frequently will it be used and to what extent ?

Ben

I have several HF tools that are identical to more expensive store brands. Casting marks, machine marks, color, except the HF tools have their logo on the handle and the store brand is either blank or has their name. Many of the tools are made in the same factory, that is the only way they can have the same casting and machine marks, they just change the name plate in the mold. When selecting tools at HF or anywhere we do need to inspect and feel and it is easy to identify the 50 cent item from the good quality item, it should be that way when shopping at any store if we care about what we are buying. I was never a fan of HF many years ago, they were the place for the cheap stuff like magnetic parts dishes and bungy cords. It is obvious they have made a solid effort to improve their so called Good Quality items. Their floor jacks and tool boxes and some of their power tools and hand tools are as good as most store brand items, maybe even better.

My thought with this thread is the ranch store has a "similar" item for 25% more, but the engine and basic components are identical. Would I be OK buying the item from the ranch store for a lot more money? There are no reviews on the ranch store version but HF has 1600 reviews mostly favorable. I am not trying to put HF on a pedestal, but if I just walked into the ranch store and bought their version of the same machine there would not be the HF cheap tool history conundrum.

I would only be chipping pine or Juniper and anything larger than 2" is usually cut into 18" lengths and stacked for firewood. Basically I would be chipping the small slash left over after I cut my firewood, which I would stack on top of the trailer of wood to bring home specifically for chipping into the yard, and for branch trimmings in the yard. After the first year I learned that cutting trees with a trunk larger than 6 or 7 inches is a waste of time. Get the small ones, cut to length, go to the next tree. No splitting of wood is needed with the smaller trees and the logs are easier to carry and stack. Dead trees in a burn area are a bonus when I can get to them.

Home Depot has a similar sized chipper that is more expensive than both I mentioned and only about 100 reviews.. Lowes doesn't have anything with enough good reviews to win my confidence. I wont pay $1000 for a chipper, if I was that desperate I would hack up a redneck version using an old 5hp lawnmower with a hole cut through the deck and a 2.5" pipe welded on as a feed tube.

I appreciate your comments, I am just surprised the ranch store had basically the same engine and mechanicals as HF but at a much higher price. Ranch store good, Harbor Freight bad? It's the same item.

 

[The Lazy L]

I was installing flush mounted LED celling lights. Priced the LED fixtures at the big box stores, ouch. While watching YouTubes on how to fish wire through ceilings one YouTuber mentioned that ALL LED fixtures are made by the same Company in China. Fixtures are then rebranded by the U.S. Box stores. A Al Bore's Internet search found the same LED ceiling fixture for half the cost of the Box Stores. I placed an online order.

I'd suspect that Harbor Freight and Cal Ranch are being supplied the wood chipper from the same China factory too.

 

[Cabin Fever]

Save the brush in a big pile and then once or twice a year rent a REAL wood chipper from a rental store.

 

[zoomzoom]

In my experience, this size wood chippers are like boats. Your happiest days will be the day you bought it and the day you sell it. Way too much effort for the results. I've gone back to just burning the branches in an outdoor fire.

Around here, you can get wood chips for around $15-20 per truck load or $30-40 for a decent sized trailer full.

 

[TeeJ]

I have several HF tools that are identical to more expensive store brands. Casting marks, machine marks, color, except the HF tools have their logo on the handle and the store brand is either blank or has their name. Many of the tools are made in the same factory, that is the only way they can have the same casting and machine marks, they just change the name plate in the mold. When selecting tools at HF or anywhere we do need to inspect and feel and it is easy to identify the 50 cent item from the good quality item, it should be that way when shopping at any store if we care about what we are buying. I was never a fan of HF many years ago, they were the place for the cheap stuff like magnetic parts dishes and bungy cords. It is obvious they have made a solid effort to improve their so called Good Quality items. Their floor jacks and tool boxes and some of their power tools and hand tools are as good as most store brand items, maybe even better.

My thought with this thread is the ranch store has a "similar" item for 25% more, but the engine and basic components are identical. Would I be OK buying the item from the ranch store for a lot more money? There are no reviews on the ranch store version but HF has 1600 reviews mostly favorable. I am not trying to put HF on a pedestal, but if I just walked into the ranch store and bought their version of the same machine there would not be the HF cheap tool history conundrum.

I would only be chipping pine or Juniper and anything larger than 2" is usually cut into 18" lengths and stacked for firewood. Basically I would be chipping the small slash left over after I cut my firewood, which I would stack on top of the trailer of wood to bring home specifically for chipping into the yard, and for branch trimmings in the yard. After the first year I learned that cutting trees with a trunk larger than 6 or 7 inches is a waste of time. Get the small ones, cut to length, go to the next tree. No splitting of wood is needed with the smaller trees and the logs are easier to carry and stack. Dead trees in a burn area are a bonus when I can get to them.

Home Depot has a similar sized chipper that is more expensive than both I mentioned and only about 100 reviews.. Lowes doesn't have anything with enough good reviews to win my confidence. I wont pay $1000 for a chipper, if I was that desperate I would hack up a redneck version using an old 5hp lawnmower with a hole cut through the deck and a 2.5" pipe welded on as a feed tube.

I appreciate your comments, I am just surprised the ranch store had basically the same engine and mechanicals as HF but at a much higher price. Ranch store good, Harbor Freight bad? It's the same item.

I've got a family friend who did a lot of business with China. He said that the reason that there's lots of look alike products are twofold:
1) Intellectual Property rights mean nothing there - a contractor or employee will make copies of your plans for a product and sell them with no thought of it being wrong at all.
2) Extras are often made using the same tooling/molds as the original - but sometimes with inferior materials. He said they were puzzled why molds for parts in Chinese plants were wearing out 3x faster than expected - digging into it it turned out that the foremen were running 2nd & 3rd shifts making knock-off products. I guess it's not uncommon for tooling or molds to be sold off after they are deemed worn out by the original mfr, to be set up in another plant making knock-offs.

That being said @The Lazy L 's post about single manufacturer who's products get rebranded is a common scenario as well.

Finally, it's easy to forget that the cost of the products sold is just one factor in a store's costs - store location, employee wages, etc. can really vary from store to store allowing one to sell on a lower margin than the other. I know when we were doing the convention circuit we would adjust our product cost according to the booth rent - the more we paid to be at the show the more our products cost. Also most suppliers will greatly reduce the cost of items if they are bought in bulk - so HF may be buying them by the shipping container while the farm store could be buying them a dozen at a time for a significantly higher cost that they pass onto you.

 

[INresponse]

Save the brush in a big pile and then once or twice a year rent a REAL wood chipper from a rental store.

I don't have enough room for more piles of stuff not being used.

In my experience, this size wood chippers are like boats. Your happiest days will be the day you bought it and the day you sell it. Way too much effort for the results. I've gone back to just burning the branches in an outdoor fire.

Around here, you can get wood chips for around $15-20 per truck load or $30-40 for a decent sized trailer full.

I used to be able to get wood chips for free from the corner. The company that runs the dump across the highway used to chip the branches and the chips were piled behind the fire station. But they decided that was not in their best interest so now they haul the branches 57 miles to their facility where they chip them up and turn them into compost. If I wanted to drive 114 miles round trip and pay $30.00 for one load I could do that but I usually would get 20 or 30 loads a year to scatter around the property to keep down dust, limit mud, and stop weeds. Plus, compost is not wood chips. It may be more helpful for a garden but not for keeping dust, mud and weeds at bay. There is no affordable way for that to work for me or anyone in our community now.

Also most suppliers will greatly reduce the cost of items if they are bought in bulk - so HF may be buying them by the shipping container while the farm store could be buying them a dozen at a time for a significantly higher cost that they pass onto you.

CAL Ranch is a pretty big company across 4 states. They probably don't have the volume of Harbor Freight but they do plenty of business. It's not a local owned mom & pop store. If it was just the price I wouldn't hesitate to buy a better product, but the mechanicals look the same.

I don't know if I will buy one. Time will tell. I am just noticing more and more that items in HF are very similar to products in other stores. In my mind it is the same factory just different looking accessories.

 

[TeeJ]

I don't have enough room for more piles of stuff not being used.



I used to be able to get wood chips for free from the corner. The company that runs the dump across the highway used to chip the branches and the chips were piled behind the fire station. But they decided that was not in their best interest so now they haul the branches 57 miles to their facility where they chip them up and turn them into compost. If I wanted to drive 114 miles round trip and pay $30.00 for one load I could do that but I usually would get 20 or 30 loads a year to scatter around the property to keep down dust, limit mud, and stop weeds. Plus, compost is not wood chips. It may be more helpful for a garden but not for keeping dust, mud and weeds at bay. There is no affordable way for that to work for me or anyone in our community now.



CAL Ranch is a pretty big company across 4 states. They probably don't have the volume of Harbor Freight but they do plenty of business. It's not a local owned mom & pop store. If it was just the price I wouldn't hesitate to buy a better product, but the mechanicals look the same.

I don't know if I will buy one. Time will tell. I am just noticing more and more that items in HF are very similar to products in other stores. In my mind it is the same factory just different looking accessories.

I'd agree with you, probably same factory with different accessories or even just paint color

 

[Peanut]

I borrowed a cousin's small wood chipper years ago, it was a joke. I would have have been there for days. So I piled up the tree limbs and pulled a bush hog over it. No more limbs...

The only wood chippers I've used that functioned as advertised were pto driven/3-point hitch for a tractor. They work pretty good but start around $2K.

 

[INresponse]

@Peanut I can understand that. It is obvious to me they are for small limbs that are fairly flexible and straight. Larger, over 2" and dry or so strong they don't flex as they feed into the shoot will be a problem. Even small limbs with several offshoots will not feed. Fortunately around here the Juniper should feed if I just trim all the small branches and feed individual pieces. The videos I saw of people trying to feed leaves and small twigs into the top showed that to be more effort than it is worth. I would just use it for the small limbs.

Still not sure if I will buy one but I desperately need a source for wood chips and unless I get very lucky and find a used large chipper for cheap I doubt i will get anything bigger.

 

[Peanut]

Any wood product companies in your area? They probably pay someone to get rid of debris. Might be a source for wood chips? Never know until you stop and ask. When I first started making charcoal I needed a lot of scrap wood to cook my quality wood into charcoal. A royal pain to gather and split scrap to fit in my cooker. Until I found a company making wood banisters and railings for outdoor decks. I got all the scrap wood I could haul away for free!

 

[Cascadian]

I agree the small ones are a waste. I bought a nice ten year old chipper. It was immaculate and I know why. I used it once too.

 

[INresponse]

Any wood product companies in your area? They probably pay someone to get rid of debris. Might be a source for wood chips? Never know until you stop and ask. When I first started making charcoal I needed a lot of scrap wood to cook my quality wood into charcoal. A royal pain to gather and split scrap to fit in my cooker. Until I found a company making wood banisters and railings for outdoor decks. I got all the scrap wood I could haul away for free!

Very little wood working companies within 75 miles.
I have asked several different tree trimming companies and only one ever wanted to drop their chips here but never came back. They were trimming trees around power lines for the electric company and probably were happy to have a local place to dump instead of driving across the county for their regular dump location. The dump (local collection facility for our community to take trash and branches) used to have a variety of companies chipping the branches (probably lowest bidder whenever they called for chipping) but the dump required them to pile them for the community behind the fire station where we had to get them ourselves. I gave all of them my name, number and address for when they were full from their normal tree trimming work and none of them ever contacted me. I am guessing due to the sandy desert environment there are probably farmers who want the chips to plow into the soil for the same reason the rest of us want wood chips. To add organic matter and help retain the water in the soil.

At this point my only option to get wood chips will be to cut trees for firewood and also bring home the small branches that are usually left behind. For me that is anything smaller than 2". If I am cutting a tree for firewood I am taking the small stuff too because they work better for starting a cold stove. My GF doesn't like the smell of diesel for starting the fire.

 

[zoomzoom]

My GF doesn't like the smell of diesel for starting the fire.

I use hand sanitizer or alcohol for starting a fire in the wood stove.

 

[INresponse]

I use hand sanitizer or alcohol for starting a fire in the wood stove.

That is a great idea, thank you.