Sandy, my young lad 😆, getting rid of slab wood is not a chore, it's a privilege. Also, so are all the big and small hiccups. You pressed on as far as you could, and you knew when to walk away. 🙌 Cheers.
I have a smaller version of the Woodland Mills chipper, which works perfectly for how I use it. But, like you, I don't have a spare shear bolt. Now, after watching, I am going to get some spares!
I have this same 68 Chipper from Woodland Mills and love it. I have a John Deere with just under 30 PTO Hp and it works fine. I do not feed it too fast because I am retired and have plenty of time! There is an adjustment on the back of the Directional Control Valve that can adjust the trip point for the feed kick out. It shows in the Manual and how to adjust it. I did have to adjust mine because of nuance trip outs. The reverse feature helps a lot. Love your videos, Sandy! I hope I can get a sawmill soon. I have a forest that a number of trees (mostly Oak) fall from high winds because of shallow soil and would rather saw them up for lumber than watch the rot in the woods. You are an inspiration to get into the sawmilling business! Good luck and keep those videos coming!
Hi Sandy all the way from a cold Aberdeen Scotland like your previous comment you seem to be giving yourself a lot of work to make sawdust and not using your backs for firewood.I like you are left with a lot of back waste off my sawmill .I cut them up into small pieces to burn in my second woodburner which is a room heater unlike my main stove which is a boiler one. Also all that equipment for making sawdust needs maintenance which is money . I do find a 13hp driven circular saw with a moving rest on it, cut pieces drop into a big wheel barrow ,not a lot of effort, have followed you for years and still enjoy your videos .great stuff all the best.
Hello, I used to leave a 20' trailer by the sawmill. I'd throw the slabs on the trailer as they came off the mill. Before putting slabs on the trailer I'd put 4x4s or a little bigger crossway on the trailer. When the trailer was full I'd pull it to the wood pile by the boiler and cut it into fire wood on the trailer. It was the easiest firewood picken ever. It was so easy I almost wished I had more.
Enjoyable video as always. I like reading the comments and so many like to tell you that your doing it wrong and you should do this and that, one day people are going to learn to say in their own lane.
Well, looks like you didn't get a good start and had a bad finish but I guess they can't all be winners, but so goes life, but that wood chipper is a fine piece of machinery that does a really nice job. Great video Sandy.
Hey Sandy, I have th wc88 and do the same thing with my ( pine) slabs. I try to sort them as I go. Obvious ones go through, big ones are for camp fires. And wide ones I split and feed through the chipper. Its surprisingly easy to lay them on the ground and pop them in half lengthwise (especially frozen) to make them fit.
Sandy your doing great. Don’t worry about them free btu seekers. Everybody can tell you what they would do that’s the easy part… talking about it. I saw oak ash walnut cherry and other hardwoods I chip some of it but most of it I scoop up with the tractor put it on the burn pile and burn it. If these people actually had a sawmill and had to deal with all the slab wood maybe they would understand. You have some cool equipment I’m glad to see you make videos about it. I haven’t broke sheer bolt on my 88 yet either but now I going to go get a few extras. Your video helped me.
Hi Josh, I'm a bit jealous of your WC88. I bet that thing just spews the wood chips. With the faster RPM's it sure looks like a great machine. Hope all is well with you and thanks again for coming along for the video
It doesn’t do to bad. I bought for autumn olive bushes that are taking over down here. I ran a 6 inch oak tree through it didn’t even slow it down. 60 hp tractor. Need to take your mini and scratch you a hole somewhere and make a burn pit. Probably scary all them pine needles around.
Nice machine Sandy, she makes short work of the off cuts. Get yourself a burn barrel near to your sawmill and burn the scrap, keep you warm and a bit of respite from the cold. Great setup anyway. All the best.
Old farmer taught us this trick. Use it for drain tile. Trench like normal, dump slabs in the trench, 3-4 layers, criss-cross, no pattern necessary. Water goes down and cuts a channel under the slabs. We've drained many acres this way.
MM77 Approved 👍🏼👍🏼………………………………………………………………Sorry for your Sludge cup, it sucks to loose a perfectly good cup of coffee!! Maybe a cup holder on the fender, a piece of pvc pipe the right length and diameter………………………..🤔………………sounds like a good project! LOL
Glad it was just a sheer bolt. I would get my lid for my favorite cup. Driving truck I forgot my cup on the back of the truck in the morning before, not sure where it fell off, I must drive smoother than I thought because the yard is a at least 600 feet off the road and I couldn't find that thing anywhere. So I started buying cheap cups and haven't lost one since, what do you know. Hope Woodland Mills gets the wink about the bigger chipper, at least you know the build nice stuff.
haha you're just like me Brad. I'll finally get another shear bolt or sludge cup and I"ll never have a problem again. I sure wouldn't mind a bigger chipper to take the wider slab wood for sure!
Heya Sandy! I owned a WC68 for a few months and it did ok-ish. Your comment about width is spot on. Also the fact that one side of slab wood is flat sort of makes it a bit harder to feed for chippers. when feeding flat down, it has more suction or surface drag so harder to pull. When you slabs flat side up, the roller teeth have nothing to grab on. It was quite the workout but its good for the money. Looking at you work reassures me that I wasn't doing anything wrong! Your tractor is larger than mine too so more PTO power helps. The rod under the feeding hopper is too thin too so somewhat fragile for intensive use like you noticed. I also owned/worked with a Wallenstein BXTR5224 and wasn't much more impressed by it considering its much higher price. I'll probably end up with a larger independant unit from Vermeer/Bandit/MoreBark. thanks for sharing!
I agree with ya there about flat side. Small details like that sure do make a difference. If I could add one thing to this wood chipper it would be rollers on both the top and bottom
"And then I'll never break another shear bolt again" lol....so true! Don't feel bad, I got a bunch of logs staged to mill yesterday, then broke the throttle cable on my mill....one of those days for me too!
Forgot to mention I did my washer fluid test.....mixed Crappy Tire Reflex -45° half and half with water....went down to -10 and it didn't freeze! I don't saw much colder than that.
Hey Sandy, another great video. Toss a few spare shear bolts into the "instructions" cylinder... always nice to have them on hand. Keep up the good work!
It just wasn't your lucky day today Sandy. Funny thing though, today wasn't exactly my lucky day either. First off, my tractor wouldn't start due to a dead battery since I forgot to put the trickle charger on it with these 10 degree F temps here in northern Vermont. When I finally got it jumped off and started, I was blowing about 14 inches of hard packed snow and ice from the storms we had Sunday through Tuesday and broke three shear pins on my snowblower. Since it's a three stage snow blower mounted on the front of my tractor, of course it was back auger feed blade that sheared the pin along with two other augers. It took me over an hour to replace them ( I make sure I have a lot of shear pins handy for just a scenario). Then, my garage door came off the track and the rollers fell out and the door almost fell on me. The yikes factor was at a full 10 out of 10, haha. I was able to repair the door and rollers and got it working again. It just goes to show that some days we should just stay inside and take it easy, but we just never know. I hope you got the chipper repaired and make sure you have extra shear pins for future endeavors. Thanks for sharing and you're not alone with having bad karma days. Cheers!
Howdy Sandy- days like will come around and you just deal with it. You handled it well but losing the sludge cup would have thrown me into a panic lol. Enjoyed the video. Take care and God bless
I built a rack for my face cuts/slab cuts so all i gotta do is slide my forks under them and pick em up in one shot. Kinda similar to your firewood log table. Before that i actually just stacked them nicely on a pallet so i could do something similar. Also your my favorite logging/milling channel cuz i have such a similar operation as you lol. defintely wanna see more of you logging & constructing things!!!
Now that you have your firewood bucking log deck, you could also move the slab wood with the log trailer and make some firewood for maple syrup season.
I cut some and stack it on pallets to sell and burn in my furnace, the rest I give away, it’s a constant battle, you have to figure out what works for you but I’ll tell ya having it gone on a regular basis for me is the best way other than that it piles up and then it’s no fun getting rid of it. Great work
Hi Russell! Absolutely. Finding a way to process it and get it out of the way is always a battle. Some days I just want it to disappear and other days it fights me haha
Coffee AND gloves, I'd have hightailed it outta there! I'm surprized you don't have a half dozen holey pairs laying around everywhere you can mix n match. I've been buying leather three packs from costco, they're cheap and wear quickly and laying all around my place in case of emergency, lol. These bandsaw mills create wicked slivers. I'd suggest the bigger chipper even if your tractor can't handle the max, take your time on the max size stuff. If your Kioti has a mechanical fuel pump you may be able to crank it up 5 horse or so. Or... how about a used self powered towable one the arborists use, they are beasts! My Dad calls it one foot-itis... the remorse you feel after buying a TV you soon realize is too small, a boat, a tool, etc etc. Cheers from Vancouver Island
You were correct, Sandy. When you lost the Sludge, that was your "Two-minute Warning" that today's a day for sitting on your butt and planning tomorrows activities. The shear pin was just the frosting on the cake. AND, you are correct... buy TWO shear pins and you'll never break the one you install....
Your videos got me looking for a tractor chipper over the last year or so. Never found one at a reasonable price, but found an old '70s Asplundh self powered drum chipper, got it for $400. Runs great now, but needs some adjustment to the blades. Love seeing chipper videos, there's something satisfying about seeing a giant pile of trash wood reduced into a fraction of the size!
Man, I could watch that chipper, chip all day! You could do your work and not have to worry about the clean up, haha. That's a nice chipper, but yeah... it looks like you need a bigger one. We must have a moment of silence for that fallen brew.
Built esay simple cradles (U-shape) into which you lay your slabs as you saw, get some cord and wrap them once the cradle is full and take them out with the tractor. This is what I did for years, it's a simple cheap but very efficient method, it keeps your area clean, machines do the "heavy work and you can even sell the bundles for firewood ... the size of the cradle is given by the liftcapacity of your equipment
I'm 70 years old, back when I was a young teen we caught slab wood at the saw mill & cut it up with a buzz saw on the front of our old John Deere to use for heating wood for the winter.
Why chip your slabs instead of using them for free fuel in your woodstove? We burned wood all winter 5-6 cords of hardwood and 3-4 giant bundles of pine slabs from the sawmill of a family friend a mile down the road that were free. Yes the softwood does not have the btu's of hardwood and it is a bit more dirty, but free is free.
Good question Chris. In this case with winter coming quick I just needed the space cleared up. I do often cut them into firewood size pieces when I have the time and use them for camping. Iv'e got a big pile just down from the sawmill with a few years worth of slab wood cut up
Hey buddy! Looks like things just didn’t quite line up as well that day, nevertheless you pushed through the best you could 🔥💯👍. Nice work on getting through what you could there! I always enjoy the chipper videos and tagging along on all your adventures! Till next time! Take care! Andrew from NB :)
Hey Sandy love your show. Hey this You tube guy is talking about you on his show called Sam's doing stuff . All Good ! Just wondering if you saw his last video. I love your show and keep up the BRILLIANT WORK.
I have the same chipper here in Australia and have found that when chipping our hardwoods, I have to run the input speed at a crawl. I have tried a six inch blue gum limb and as soon as the blade hit the wood, the sheer bolt snapped. Here they supply a couple of spare bolts in the toolbox. On the forward/reverse lever, the tendency to flop into neutral was driving me mad, so I read the manual and there is an adjustment at the back of the valve that rod leads to which can be turned with an Allen key. It is not perfect, but helps a bit. I have run this chipper with a 29hp tractor with no problem. I have since moved up to a 38hp unit.
Thank you for that suggestion about the rod/Allen key adjustment. I"m going to look into that. Drives me a bit nuts too sometimes. I can imagine you've got some serious dense hardwoods down under
Hi sandy phil here. Have you tried to flip the valve spool over so the detent runs in a new spot it may stop the handle kick out. You may be able to rotate the end cap as well to give the detent plunger a new spot to ride over. Once again thanks for all of the great vids. Phil M
Thanks Everett. I actually put out a video on thay a few years ago but I thought that adjustment actually was for the amount of force the infeed roller applies
Isn't that the way some days go? You weren't looking forward to doing this anyways and the universe has to go and throw a wrench in the works. Looks like your area got quite a bit of snow, so I imagine this project will have to wait until spring. You tried. Have a fantastic week Sandy! 👍👋
Those slabs are almost a perfect feed stock to make biochar, using a flame cap kiln, which could be a simple as a pit in the ground with tapered sides that you can flood when you are done to quench the coals.
Hi Sandy. Drat, the sludge cup. It's good to see you in the slab wood. I too have noticed the pile growing, and held my tongue - figuring you would deal with it soon enough without someone else commenting. "Let the wood chips fall where they may."😂
Yes Sandy I guess it was just one of those day if something can go wrong it will find a way lol , but you kept your cool and tried to do some and you did do a dent in it but you will finish that pile of slab soon . Some people mention to do fire wood with your ew set up you could do some of that but I will mention this if you got neibors that got farm animals we used to go to the local saw mill and get some of the slab for closed inclosure ( fences ) for pigs and veals and we got those mainly for free or you can let them know either for free or a small fee stack next to the road for people to come and get it and haul it away just a suggestion well have a great day
Great video as usual. How about painting a sizing gauge on the infeed hopper? That way it removes the guess work on what width will successfully enter the chipper. The issue at hand is how to turn the slab wood into heating wood without all the added labor. Best of luck.
I like that idea about the size! I do guess wrong sometimes and does create a bit of a headache. The worst is when I start feeding a slab in and the far end is taper wider and it gets wedged in tight
I think your right. The sludge cup goes down its time to start over and go put your feet up for a while. But your right its a machine and it will eventually break down and tomorrow will come and than it will be a new day to start over. Hopefully your wife got you a spare sludge cup. My wife just bought me a spare the other day. take care
Guys in western Pa. cut their slab wood into 18" pieces and sell it for 60.00 to 75.00 for pick up bed load. People who have all these Breo and Solo smokeless firepits love the slab wood .
I've been at this type of thing for a quite a while now... When it comes to sizing the equipment that I am buying or building, I aim for 85%. If it will handle 85% of the material by volume, I want to throw at it, I'm satisfied. That way, I am not overspending on the piece. In the case of the chipper for example, those large slab that were being tossed aside will burn. Invariably there will be someone that would be happy to do so if you can't or don't want to burn them for yourself. Giving that softwood to a neighbour for their firepit, tends to build some goodwill with them, reducing the chances that they'll squeak. When it comes to the hardwood, anything over 3 to 4" that won't make lumber, ought to be going into firewood anyway. At $300 to $400 per cord in our part of Ontario, even a couple cords a year is going to make a difference. The next trees that you might want to drop are the ones that are in the road of getting your chipper in line with the slab pile. Then you wouldn't need to turn them to get them into the chipper. Hack those logs up into material for a bin that will allow you to contain some of the chip. An ad on kijiji or, word of mouth should yield you $40 to $50 a yard for mulch chip.
I hear ya there. Trouble in this location is access as you can't get drive a truck/trailer to this location so it ends up requiring me to transport with my tractor a good distance. If I had more hardwood in this pile I'd give it a go for firewood more often for sure. I've got a big pile of slabs cut up just out of view of the video I use for camping
Be sure to set the in-feed roller to reverse when you start backup. That piece of wood may be jammed and it would sheer the sheer bolt again. Good luck.
Good morning, Sandy! I really enjoyed your chipper video and your discussion about the chipper. I just purchased, and it arrived yesterday, the TF810. I am planning on using my John Deere 4620 to run the chipper. My concern though is that the 4620 PTO speed is 1,000 rpm, so I may need to figure out a way to reduce the speed to 540 rpm. Your video was helpful to me, so thank you. Take care
Yeah. Any equipment with shear bolts, I get the bolt size and buy a bunch before ever starting the thing up. I repeatedly enjoyed the lessons learned on that. I wonder if there is a clutch you could put on there.
Composting them is great, using chips on paths is wonderful, i would use the wider offcuts as cordary road material in wet spots or eroded spots and put chips on top to smooth out the road. Loved seeing this. You could fabricate a splitter with the snow plow blade ( replaceable part that hitsxthe road) and put it on the rack so you can slam/ slide the piece down and set it say 5 " away from the side. That material should split easily. It would be set up there permanently, and would probably cost you nothing.
Worked at a sawmill for years and always burnt slabs. They sold banded bundles for 20 bucks to the public and made a lot of money doing it. They loaded them on your trailer with a big forklift. Also sold sawdust to farmers for bedding for cattle and horses.
Trouble for me is access. Cannot drive a truck to this location so I’d have to transport all the wood with my tractor and trailer . My area there’s no market for selling slabs as everyone gives them away for free so I chip or burn them myself for camping or my trails
Sell the slabs for fire wood. Band the bundles so the purchaser can chainsaw them to fit there stove/fireplace. Benefits to you: put slabs into a stack rack for easy banding and stacking of bundles = clean/safe work area, less cost - fuel, time, chip disposal etc., money from sale of banded bundles. Unless you have a need or use for the chips or you sell it for mulch.
Thanks Sandy, something to note, shear pins/bolts have the relief groove in line with the shear point on the mating pieces. I noticed the snow blower bolt had the relief groove just below the head of the bolt which didn't appear to be in line with the mating faces of the plates. Just some information to be sure to use the correct bolts for the applications to avoid damage to the equipment. Shame about the sludge cup, guess it was todays sacrifice🥲
This would be great to have to use to put the chipped wood under my fruit trees as a mulch. Increases organic matter under trees. Interested in this piece of equipment for that reason.
Hey Sandy. Wood, it be as slabs, chips or logs may be considered as sunshine in the solid state. You should utilize the energy..The experience is, that 50% of the harvest will be energy wood directly from the forest, and from the 50% of the growth having the dimension and quality for saw logs, the yield will ½ of volume in the logs. In total tending a forest will deliver you 3/4 of the total harvest as firewood. - So start burning.
Add a cup holder to the fender for when your outside n make sure it's high enough to survive the shake when running.i carry pins in a bag w a hammer n punch behind the seat just because of that.
When one of my uncles was still alive, he owned a very large piece of property in Wisconsin, I want to say it was 400 acres. When he would fire up his saw mill, he would post a notice in his local church's bulletin, advertising for free firewood on a specific date. We would cut down the slab wood into four foot lengths, load it up into the bucket on his tractor, and he would put it on the side of the road close to his driveway. There was never a shortage of people looking for "Crazy Joe's" free firewood.
That would be a great thing to do for sure. My trouble is there's no drivable access aside form 4wd tractor to the sawmill so it would require a fair bit of time/effort on my part to transport all the waste wood to somewhere someone could pick it up
A slip clutch would be nice on that chipper. That last piece you threw in was quite a chunk. The snow is coming real soon and I think it will be here too next week, just more work moving it all around. Oh well, them slabs will be there in the spring for ya along with some more I'm sure. How much snow are you forecast to get?
Well that sucked. Man those cups, the good ones anyway, are getting expensive. Better luck next time. It also sucked about the sheer bolt. Good vid. Thanks.
I see so much good wood there for 1x4 or x6 strapping or 1x1 for stickers in the waste you're chipping away. Any reason you don't get as much as you can from the slabs?
Love my WM68. I also have DK4210 SE Cab, so pretty much the same setup. I keep extra sheer bolts in the small tools box at the back of the tractor. I haven't needed one *YET* on my WM68, but need them (different) on my rotary cutter most frequently. You mentioned getting the next size up chipper, but does your current tractor have enough HP at the PTO? Thanks for sharing!
The mills in my area can't keep slabs. People use them for kindling in wood stoves. For years I sawed it into small pieces and sold it for Chimera wood
My thought is why are you chipping the slabs? do you have a use for the chips? you could process them into firewood or just bundle them and sell to someone. Love the channel BTW
I needed these out of the way and I use the chips for keeping dust/mud down on my trails. I"ve got a massive pile of already-cut slabs ready for camping season just out of view. Unfortunately where I live slabs are so plentiful that they are offered for free
Is it worth the time to cut any of those slabs to length for fire wood. Some of those slabs look pretty thick for burning. I only have a little harbor freight sawmill and i use my slabs to heat the shop. I don't have a wood burner in the house yet and in the shop I'm always right there to keep up the fire.
They make a 3pt circular saw that would be perfect for slicing that into “campwood” bundles and selling roadside. Easy money at 5$ a bundle or however much you want to charge. Hell you have enough trash slab you could sell it 10$ a wheelbarrow and still turn a profit for nothing. Just chain a cash box to a tree and leave a sign on the pile or crate of wood slab scrap. Passive income with no real loss. Chipping is great but you run out of room for chips faster than they decompose and future projects in those areas get “spongie” with all the chips used as fill. Almost flipped a tractor on a chip filled yard when the rear wheel sunk into a pit of spongie earth.
Sandy,
The owners manual storage tube on the side of the chipper is an excellent spot for a couple small tools, and spare shear bolts.
I put a slip clutch on my chipper, it's been great and no down time
👍👍👍💙💛❤Buna SANDY ! Instructiv video. 💙💛❤👍👍👍
Hey great to hear from you!
No sledge , no gloves, no shear bolt.....🤬 What's day, but you pulled thru Sandy, this video was a reality show. I liked it.
The ups and downs in the woods were on full display today haha
Sandy, my young lad 😆, getting rid of slab wood is not a chore, it's a privilege. Also, so are all the big and small hiccups. You pressed on as far as you could, and you knew when to walk away. 🙌 Cheers.
Thank you!
I have a smaller version of the Woodland Mills chipper, which works perfectly for how I use it. But, like you, I don't have a spare shear bolt. Now, after watching, I am going to get some spares!
Sandy,you’re gonna get it done maybe not today but along the way 😮😊❤
I have this same 68 Chipper from Woodland Mills and love it. I have a John Deere with just under 30 PTO Hp and it works fine. I do not feed it too fast because I am retired and have plenty of time! There is an adjustment on the back of the Directional Control Valve that can adjust the trip point for the feed kick out. It shows in the Manual and how to adjust it. I did have to adjust mine because of nuance trip outs. The reverse feature helps a lot.
Love your videos, Sandy! I hope I can get a sawmill soon. I have a forest that a number of trees (mostly Oak) fall from high winds because of shallow soil and would rather saw them up for lumber than watch the rot in the woods. You are an inspiration to get into the sawmilling business! Good luck and keep those videos coming!
Hi Terry! Great to hear from you and thanks for that tip! Sounds like a nice forest you’ve got. I sure wish I had as many oak as you do
Hi Sandy all the way from a cold Aberdeen Scotland like your previous comment you seem to be giving yourself a lot of work to make sawdust and not using your backs for firewood.I like you are left with a lot of back waste off my sawmill .I cut them up into small pieces to burn in my second woodburner which is a room heater unlike my main stove which is a boiler one. Also all that equipment for making sawdust needs maintenance which is money . I do find a 13hp driven circular saw with a moving rest on it, cut pieces drop into a big wheel barrow ,not a lot of effort, have followed you for years and still enjoy your videos .great stuff all the best.
I really appreciate your support over the years! Thank you
Hello, I used to leave a 20' trailer by the sawmill. I'd throw the slabs on the trailer as they came off the mill. Before putting slabs on the trailer I'd put 4x4s or a little bigger crossway on the trailer. When the trailer was full I'd pull it to the wood pile by the boiler and cut it into fire wood on the trailer. It was the easiest firewood picken ever. It was so easy I almost wished I had more.
Sounds like a great setup
Thise darn shear pins! I buy them by the box for my brush hog 😉 And man I'd love one of those chippers! Woot!
I'll have to start buying longer ones instead of the shorter ones and then I can use them on more equipment I'm thinking.
@@sawingwithsandy Good idea 😉
Enjoyable video as always. I like reading the comments and so many like to tell you that your doing it wrong and you should do this and that, one day people are going to learn to say in their own lane.
I appreciate you coming along each video Mike. Lots of ideas out there for sure
I also found people were awful harsh on this topic. Takes great effort for folks to provide us videos so I just sit back and enjoy.
Losing the sludge cup alone deserves a like... LOL
Hahah thanks for that!
Well, looks like you didn't get a good start and had a bad finish but I guess they can't all be winners, but so goes life, but that wood chipper is a fine piece of machinery that does a really nice job. Great video Sandy.
Hey Jeff! Sure didn't go to plane today but another day, another sludge haha
Great Video Sandy, I feel your pain on the shear pins, I have had my fair share of broken ones, keep up the great work.
Hey Sandy, I have th wc88 and do the same thing with my ( pine) slabs. I try to sort them as I go. Obvious ones go through, big ones are for camp fires. And wide ones I split and feed through the chipper. Its surprisingly easy to lay them on the ground and pop them in half lengthwise (especially frozen) to make them fit.
Sorting would be handy as I go. That WC88 is a nice chipper you've got there Keith. I think if I were to upgrade I'd go that route
I used a bunch of those slab offcuts from a friend's mill to build the cross pieces of my garden trellises this year. Worked great.
nice chipper with adjustibility, I like your tractor, too!
Thanks Jim. I've been very happy with the tractor. Been working well for me in all conditions for years now
Sandy your doing great. Don’t worry about them free btu seekers. Everybody can tell you what they would do that’s the easy part… talking about it. I saw oak ash walnut cherry and other hardwoods I chip some of it but most of it I scoop up with the tractor put it on the burn pile and burn it. If these people actually had a sawmill and had to deal with all the slab wood maybe they would understand. You have some cool equipment I’m glad to see you make videos about it. I haven’t broke sheer bolt on my 88 yet either but now I going to go get a few extras. Your video helped me.
Hi Josh, I'm a bit jealous of your WC88. I bet that thing just spews the wood chips. With the faster RPM's it sure looks like a great machine. Hope all is well with you and thanks again for coming along for the video
It doesn’t do to bad. I bought for autumn olive bushes that are taking over down here. I ran a 6 inch oak tree through it didn’t even slow it down. 60 hp tractor. Need to take your mini and scratch you a hole somewhere and make a burn pit. Probably scary all them pine needles around.
That’s one heck of an idea Josh! Burn pit would be perfect and make for some safer burns
This will be my next piece of equipment thanks to your videos. This machine is pretty impressive. Thanks for showing it!
Hey there! Great to hear from ya and thanks for coming along for the video. Maybe I"ll run into you again next Paul Bunyan Show!
@@sawingwithsandy definitely. It's my state so I go most years.
Nice machine Sandy, she makes short work of the off cuts. Get yourself a burn barrel near to your sawmill and burn the scrap, keep you warm and a bit of respite from the cold. Great setup anyway. All the best.
That burn barrel is a great idea. I have to remember to do that one of these days! I've got one near the shop I could bring out
Old farmer taught us this trick. Use it for drain tile. Trench like normal, dump slabs in the trench, 3-4 layers, criss-cross, no pattern necessary. Water goes down and cuts a channel under the slabs. We've drained many acres this way.
Great tip John! Thank you
MM77 Approved 👍🏼👍🏼………………………………………………………………Sorry for your Sludge cup, it sucks to loose a perfectly good cup of coffee!! Maybe a cup holder on the fender, a piece of pvc pipe the right length and diameter………………………..🤔………………sounds like a good project! LOL
I'm pretty cheap so losing a cup of sludge hurts haha
Glad it was just a sheer bolt. I would get my lid for my favorite cup. Driving truck I forgot my cup on the back of the truck in the morning before, not sure where it fell off, I must drive smoother than I thought because the yard is a at least 600 feet off the road and I couldn't find that thing anywhere. So I started buying cheap cups and haven't lost one since, what do you know. Hope Woodland Mills gets the wink about the bigger chipper, at least you know the build nice stuff.
haha you're just like me Brad. I'll finally get another shear bolt or sludge cup and I"ll never have a problem again. I sure wouldn't mind a bigger chipper to take the wider slab wood for sure!
Great video Sandy. I mostly mill hardwood so I don't chip slab wood. But most of my slab wood is too big for my WC-88. But it loves to eat branches.
Heya Sandy! I owned a WC68 for a few months and it did ok-ish. Your comment about width is spot on. Also the fact that one side of slab wood is flat sort of makes it a bit harder to feed for chippers. when feeding flat down, it has more suction or surface drag so harder to pull. When you slabs flat side up, the roller teeth have nothing to grab on. It was quite the workout but its good for the money. Looking at you work reassures me that I wasn't doing anything wrong! Your tractor is larger than mine too so more PTO power helps. The rod under the feeding hopper is too thin too so somewhat fragile for intensive use like you noticed. I also owned/worked with a Wallenstein BXTR5224 and wasn't much more impressed by it considering its much higher price. I'll probably end up with a larger independant unit from Vermeer/Bandit/MoreBark. thanks for sharing!
I agree with ya there about flat side. Small details like that sure do make a difference. If I could add one thing to this wood chipper it would be rollers on both the top and bottom
I would love to have piles and piles of slabs!
If you were closer I"d be happy to give ya some!
"And then I'll never break another shear bolt again" lol....so true! Don't feel bad, I got a bunch of logs staged to mill yesterday, then broke the throttle cable on my mill....one of those days for me too!
We're only human I suppose! Glad to know I"m not alone. Hope all is well with you Earl
Forgot to mention I did my washer fluid test.....mixed Crappy Tire Reflex -45° half and half with water....went down to -10 and it didn't freeze! I don't saw much colder than that.
Hey Sandy, another great video. Toss a few spare shear bolts into the "instructions" cylinder... always nice to have them on hand. Keep up the good work!
Good idea there Jeff. I'll have to do that
It just wasn't your lucky day today Sandy. Funny thing though, today wasn't exactly my lucky day either. First off, my tractor wouldn't start due to a dead battery since I forgot to put the trickle charger on it with these 10 degree F temps here in northern Vermont. When I finally got it jumped off and started, I was blowing about 14 inches of hard packed snow and ice from the storms we had Sunday through Tuesday and broke three shear pins on my snowblower. Since it's a three stage snow blower mounted on the front of my tractor, of course it was back auger feed blade that sheared the pin along with two other augers. It took me over an hour to replace them ( I make sure I have a lot of shear pins handy for just a scenario). Then, my garage door came off the track and the rollers fell out and the door almost fell on me. The yikes factor was at a full 10 out of 10, haha. I was able to repair the door and rollers and got it working again. It just goes to show that some days we should just stay inside and take it easy, but we just never know. I hope you got the chipper repaired and make sure you have extra shear pins for future endeavors. Thanks for sharing and you're not alone with having bad karma days. Cheers!
Good thing is we can both sit back and laugh about it. Tomorrow's another day I suppose!
Like my old friend Rose Ann Rosannadana used to say, it's always something!
hahah isn't that the truth!
Howdy Sandy- days like will come around and you just deal with it. You handled it well but losing the sludge cup would have thrown me into a panic lol. Enjoyed the video. Take care and God bless
Thank you! Days sure do feel long sometimes but worth it being out the woods when looking back
I built a rack for my face cuts/slab cuts so all i gotta do is slide my forks under them and pick em up in one shot. Kinda similar to your firewood log table. Before that i actually just stacked them nicely on a pallet so i could do something similar. Also your my favorite logging/milling channel cuz i have such a similar operation as you lol. defintely wanna see more of you logging & constructing things!!!
I like that setup you mentioned . I’ve for sure got lots of projects coming right up
Now that you have your firewood bucking log deck, you could also move the slab wood with the log trailer and make some firewood for maple syrup season.
For sure I could! I've got a good stack going for camping with the slab wood. Burns real nice
I cut some and stack it on pallets to sell and burn in my furnace, the rest I give away, it’s a constant battle, you have to figure out what works for you but I’ll tell ya having it gone on a regular basis for me is the best way other than that it piles up and then it’s no fun getting rid of it.
Great work
Hi Russell! Absolutely. Finding a way to process it and get it out of the way is always a battle. Some days I just want it to disappear and other days it fights me haha
Coffee AND gloves, I'd have hightailed it outta there! I'm surprized you don't have a half dozen holey pairs laying around everywhere you can mix n match. I've been buying leather three packs from costco, they're cheap and wear quickly and laying all around my place in case of emergency, lol. These bandsaw mills create wicked slivers. I'd suggest the bigger chipper even if your tractor can't handle the max, take your time on the max size stuff. If your Kioti has a mechanical fuel pump you may be able to crank it up 5 horse or so. Or... how about a used self powered towable one the arborists use, they are beasts! My Dad calls it one foot-itis... the remorse you feel after buying a TV you soon realize is too small, a boat, a tool, etc etc. Cheers from Vancouver Island
You were correct, Sandy. When you lost the Sludge, that was your "Two-minute Warning" that today's a day for sitting on your butt and planning tomorrows activities. The shear pin was just the frosting on the cake. AND, you are correct... buy TWO shear pins and you'll never break the one you install....
hahah should've just packed it in that's for sure. Ah well, still a good time in the woods.
Your videos got me looking for a tractor chipper over the last year or so. Never found one at a reasonable price, but found an old '70s Asplundh self powered drum chipper, got it for $400. Runs great now, but needs some adjustment to the blades. Love seeing chipper videos, there's something satisfying about seeing a giant pile of trash wood reduced into a fraction of the size!
That sounds like a nice piece of equipment! I'd go for that. for sure
Man, I could watch that chipper, chip all day! You could do your work and not have to worry about the clean up, haha. That's a nice chipper, but yeah... it looks like you need a bigger one.
We must have a moment of silence for that fallen brew.
The fallen brew hurt my heart (and my ambition haha)
@sawingwithsandy Can't say I blame you! I'm a minimum 3 cupper!
Built esay simple cradles (U-shape) into which you lay your slabs as you saw, get some cord and wrap them once the cradle is full and take them out with the tractor. This is what I did for years, it's a simple cheap but very efficient method, it keeps your area clean, machines do the "heavy work and you can even sell the bundles for firewood ... the size of the cradle is given by the liftcapacity of your equipment
I'm 70 years old, back when I was a young teen we caught slab wood at the saw mill & cut it up with a buzz saw on the front of our old John Deere to use for heating wood for the winter.
Why chip your slabs instead of using them for free fuel in your woodstove? We burned wood all winter 5-6 cords of hardwood and 3-4 giant bundles of pine slabs from the sawmill of a family friend a mile down the road that were free. Yes the softwood does not have the btu's of hardwood and it is a bit more dirty, but free is free.
A lot of extra labor for wood that probably doesn’t burn too well. Easier to chip it imo
Good question Chris. In this case with winter coming quick I just needed the space cleared up. I do often cut them into firewood size pieces when I have the time and use them for camping. Iv'e got a big pile just down from the sawmill with a few years worth of slab wood cut up
@@Jaeger04pine is fine all wood produces btu’s
Yeah ide never waist wood, I'd blow through that on 4 hrs
I would build something to stack the peices to be able to saw them to size and burn them instead of all that wear on a chipper.
Hey buddy! Looks like things just didn’t quite line up as well that day, nevertheless you pushed through the best you could 🔥💯👍. Nice work on getting through what you could there! I always enjoy the chipper videos and tagging along on all your adventures! Till next time! Take care! Andrew from NB :)
Hey Sandy love your show. Hey this You tube guy is talking about you on his show called Sam's doing stuff . All Good ! Just wondering if you saw his last video. I love your show and keep up the BRILLIANT WORK.
Thanks Daniel. I"ll check it out
I appreciate all your support on my channel as well!
I have the same chipper here in Australia and have found that when chipping our hardwoods, I have to run the input speed at a crawl. I have tried a six inch blue gum limb and as soon as the blade hit the wood, the sheer bolt snapped. Here they supply a couple of spare bolts in the toolbox.
On the forward/reverse lever, the tendency to flop into neutral was driving me mad, so I read the manual and there is an adjustment at the back of the valve that rod leads to which can be turned with an Allen key. It is not perfect, but helps a bit. I have run this chipper with a 29hp tractor with no problem. I have since moved up to a 38hp unit.
Thank you for that suggestion about the rod/Allen key adjustment. I"m going to look into that. Drives me a bit nuts too sometimes. I can imagine you've got some serious dense hardwoods down under
In Minnesota sawmill
will get 40-80 for a 1/4 cord of softwood for camp fires and looks like less work too
That's a pretty good setup I bet. Around here unfortunately the stuff is just given away if you can find someone who will actually pick it up
hi there looks like Murphy stopped by your place instead of mine today.best to all . john
hahah ins't that the truth!
Keeping spare sheer bolts and tools in the tractor is the only way you can be assured to never break another one.
Hi sandy phil here. Have you tried to flip the valve spool over so the detent runs in a new spot it may stop the handle kick out. You may be able to rotate the end cap as well to give the detent plunger a new spot to ride over. Once again thanks for all of the great vids. Phil M
Hi Phil! That's an interesting idea. I haven't thought about that before. Makes me wonder whether that would do the trick! Thanks for that!
Sandy. There is an adjustment for the force that it takes to move the directional lever. Check your owners manual and it tells you how to adjust it.
Hi Everett, that's for that. Does this adjustment help prevent the lever from kicking into neutral as the machine runs?
Yes. It is behind a cap in front of the valve body that the lever hooks too.
Thanks Everett. I actually put out a video on thay a few years ago but I thought that adjustment actually was for the amount of force the infeed roller applies
Isn't that the way some days go? You weren't looking forward to doing this anyways and the universe has to go and throw a wrench in the works. Looks like your area got quite a bit of snow, so I imagine this project will have to wait until spring. You tried. Have a fantastic week Sandy! 👍👋
Thanks Jill! I sure do have the ups and downs like everyone else out in the woods. Ah well...still fun at the end of the day
Those slabs are almost a perfect feed stock to make biochar, using a flame cap kiln, which could be a simple as a pit in the ground with tapered sides that you can flood when you are done to quench the coals.
Sandy, what do you do with your wood chips? Thanks for the videos. I very much enjoy them.
Hi Jim. I usually spread them along my forest trails
Hi Sandy. Drat, the sludge cup. It's good to see you in the slab wood. I too have noticed the pile growing, and held my tongue - figuring you would deal with it soon enough without someone else commenting. "Let the wood chips fall where they may."😂
hahah that pesky pile sure gets the best of me. Just never wants to go away
Yes Sandy I guess it was just one of those day if something can go wrong it will find a way lol , but you kept your cool and tried to do some and you did do a dent in it but you will finish that pile of slab soon .
Some people mention to do fire wood with your ew set up you could do some of that but I will mention this if you got neibors that got farm animals we used to go to the local saw mill and get some of the slab for closed inclosure ( fences ) for pigs and veals and we got those mainly for free or you can let them know either for free or a small fee stack next to the road for people to come and get it and haul it away just a suggestion well have a great day
I like the idea about siding and that for outbuildings. Worth stock piling it I'm thinking.
Great video as usual. How about painting a sizing gauge on the infeed hopper? That way it removes the guess work on what width will successfully enter the chipper. The issue at hand is how to turn the slab wood into heating wood without all the added labor. Best of luck.
I like that idea about the size! I do guess wrong sometimes and does create a bit of a headache. The worst is when I start feeding a slab in and the far end is taper wider and it gets wedged in tight
I think your right. The sludge cup goes down its time to start over and go put your feet up for a while. But your right its a machine and it will eventually break down and tomorrow will come and than it will be a new day to start over. Hopefully your wife got you a spare sludge cup. My wife just bought me a spare the other day. take care
I should've packed it in for the day haha
Guys in western Pa. cut their slab wood into 18" pieces and sell it for 60.00 to 75.00 for pick up bed load. People who have all these Breo and Solo smokeless firepits love the slab wood .
I've been at this type of thing for a quite a while now... When it comes to sizing the equipment that I am buying or building, I aim for 85%. If it will handle 85% of the material by volume, I want to throw at it, I'm satisfied. That way, I am not overspending on the piece. In the case of the chipper for example, those large slab that were being tossed aside will burn. Invariably there will be someone that would be happy to do so if you can't or don't want to burn them for yourself. Giving that softwood to a neighbour for their firepit, tends to build some goodwill with them, reducing the chances that they'll squeak. When it comes to the hardwood, anything over 3 to 4" that won't make lumber, ought to be going into firewood anyway. At $300 to $400 per cord in our part of Ontario, even a couple cords a year is going to make a difference.
The next trees that you might want to drop are the ones that are in the road of getting your chipper in line with the slab pile. Then you wouldn't need to turn them to get them into the chipper. Hack those logs up into material for a bin that will allow you to contain some of the chip. An ad on kijiji or, word of mouth should yield you $40 to $50 a yard for mulch chip.
I hear ya there. Trouble in this location is access as you can't get drive a truck/trailer to this location so it ends up requiring me to transport with my tractor a good distance. If I had more hardwood in this pile I'd give it a go for firewood more often for sure. I've got a big pile of slabs cut up just out of view of the video I use for camping
Be sure to set the in-feed roller to reverse when you start backup. That piece of wood may be jammed and it would sheer the sheer bolt again. Good luck.
Good point Geoffrey! Thank you
Good morning, Sandy! I really enjoyed your chipper video and your discussion about the chipper. I just purchased, and it arrived yesterday, the TF810. I am planning on using my John Deere 4620 to run the chipper. My concern though is that the 4620 PTO speed is 1,000 rpm, so I may need to figure out a way to reduce the speed to 540 rpm. Your video was helpful to me, so thank you. Take care
I'm interested to hear how you like the TF810. I was looking at it and it looks like a nice piece of equipment!
Yeah. Any equipment with shear bolts, I get the bolt size and buy a bunch before ever starting the thing up. I repeatedly enjoyed the lessons learned on that. I wonder if there is a clutch you could put on there.
Yeah can imagine that would help out.
I love pine slabs for firewood
Composting them is great, using chips on paths is wonderful, i would use the wider offcuts as cordary road material in wet spots or eroded spots and put chips on top to smooth out the road. Loved seeing this. You could fabricate a splitter with the snow plow blade ( replaceable part that hitsxthe road) and put it on the rack so you can slam/ slide the piece down and set it say 5 " away from the side. That material should split easily. It would be set up there permanently, and would probably cost you nothing.
That's a great idea Brian. Iv'e got some wet spots that those big ones would go well in.
Worked at a sawmill for years and always burnt slabs. They sold banded bundles for 20 bucks to the public and made a lot of money doing it. They loaded them on your trailer with a big forklift. Also sold sawdust to farmers for bedding for cattle and horses.
Trouble for me is access. Cannot drive a truck to this location so I’d have to transport all the wood with my tractor and trailer . My area there’s no market for selling slabs as everyone gives them away for free so I chip or burn them myself for camping or my trails
Sell the slabs for fire wood. Band the bundles so the purchaser can chainsaw them to fit there stove/fireplace. Benefits to you: put slabs into a stack rack for easy banding and stacking of bundles = clean/safe work area, less cost - fuel, time, chip disposal etc., money from sale of banded bundles. Unless you have a need or use for the chips or you sell it for mulch.
Thanks Sandy, something to note, shear pins/bolts have the relief groove in line with the shear point on the mating pieces. I noticed the snow blower bolt had the relief groove just below the head of the bolt which didn't appear to be in line with the mating faces of the plates. Just some information to be sure to use the correct bolts for the applications to avoid damage to the equipment. Shame about the sludge cup, guess it was todays sacrifice🥲
Thanks for that. I wasn't aware of that.
Dude, tough day. I hope you manage to get the bolt and chip the rest before the weather turns.
Thank you! I'm hoping I get it all cleaned up before long as snow is en route I think
Her in Norway we are using the slabs as firewood we have a old tractor mounted log cutter with a big blade and it is done fast and easy
That would be a great setup. I think I’ve seen similar setups but with small diameter logs
1:06 the canadian version of being utterly furious.... "gosh"
I don't get fired up too much
thats great@@sawingwithsandy
New subscriber here! We are a UA-cam channel from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania 👍. I like the way you think I use ibc totes like that also !
This would be great to have to use to put the chipped wood under my fruit trees as a mulch. Increases organic matter under trees. Interested in this piece of equipment for that reason.
U are right. I got about the same with out the feeder and that is no good.
Little wider opening size would be great for the slabs
Sandy, u almost got about the third of the way at clipping the Hurricane wood pile. too bad about the sevbolt.
It's a start for sure eh Billy!
RIP Sandy's favorite sludge cup.
hahah I'm hoping I can revive it
@@sawingwithsandy CPR Coffee Please Rush.
Hey Sandy. Wood, it be as slabs, chips or logs may be considered as sunshine in the solid state. You should utilize the energy..The experience is, that 50% of the harvest will be energy wood directly from the forest, and from the 50% of the growth having the dimension and quality for saw logs, the yield will ½ of volume in the logs. In total tending a forest will deliver you 3/4 of the total harvest as firewood. - So start burning.
Add a cup holder to the fender for when your outside n make sure it's high enough to survive the shake when running.i carry pins in a bag w a hammer n punch behind the seat just because of that.
Now that's an idea!
Do you need to sharpen the blades in the chipper frequently?
Good question Paul. I don't sharpen them hardly at all. Seem to hold an edge real well
but did you get a cuppa when you went back for the shear bolt?
I didn't actually haha I should've
Well, some days goes that way
I thought I maybe saw a edge of the plastic top for your cup under the chipper in the mess
Good news is I did manage to get the top of the sludge cup back. If for nothing else it will be a reminder haha
I wonder why walk to shop when driving the tractor over would be simple. also if I were closer i would gladly take your slab wood for rustic projects.
It's a slow go with the tractor as the trails aren't very smooth in some spots and when I walk I can just. cut through the woods without taking trails
How long ago was that forest planted....what's the turn around on the tree growth as opposed to when it was harvested?
These trees are 45 years old. It’s a little behind on thinning which should have been done already so some of the growth has been stunted
That chipper does a great job for its size.
Absolutely. It's been a workhorse for years
Do you have any neighbors with an outdoor wood boiler? These work fine for those unless it is super cold.
When one of my uncles was still alive, he owned a very large piece of property in Wisconsin, I want to say it was 400 acres. When he would fire up his saw mill, he would post a notice in his local church's bulletin, advertising for free firewood on a specific date. We would cut down the slab wood into four foot lengths, load it up into the bucket on his tractor, and he would put it on the side of the road close to his driveway. There was never a shortage of people looking for "Crazy Joe's" free firewood.
That would be a great thing to do for sure. My trouble is there's no drivable access aside form 4wd tractor to the sawmill so it would require a fair bit of time/effort on my part to transport all the waste wood to somewhere someone could pick it up
A slip clutch would be nice on that chipper. That last piece you threw in was quite a chunk. The snow is coming real soon and I think it will be here too next week, just more work moving it all around. Oh well, them slabs will be there in the spring for ya along with some more I'm sure. How much snow are you forecast to get?
Yeah a slip clutch would be a nice addition. I figure the snow will just hide all the chores I didn't get done before winter haha.
Well that sucked. Man those cups, the good ones anyway, are getting expensive. Better luck next time. It also sucked about the sheer bolt. Good vid. Thanks.
One of those days for sure
Like your video but dang I would burn that all winter if you was closer to Idaho 😊
@woodlandmills should sponsor you.
Thanks Steve.
I see so much good wood there for 1x4 or x6 strapping or 1x1 for stickers in the waste you're chipping away. Any reason you don't get as much as you can from the slabs?
Good question. Usually it just comes down to time and storage space.
nice video
Thanks Rodney! Always great to hear from you. Hope all is well with you
Love my WM68. I also have DK4210 SE Cab, so pretty much the same setup. I keep extra sheer bolts in the small tools box at the back of the tractor. I haven't needed one *YET* on my WM68, but need them (different) on my rotary cutter most frequently. You mentioned getting the next size up chipper, but does your current tractor have enough HP at the PTO? Thanks for sharing!
Nice tractor you've got there! I think the next size up chipper would work well with my pto hp.
The mills in my area can't keep slabs. People use them for kindling in wood stoves. For years I sawed it into small pieces and sold it for Chimera wood
I've got a pretty big pile of sawed up slabs just off camera here for camping. Around here it's hard to give the slabs away
My thought is why are you chipping the slabs? do you have a use for the chips? you could process them into firewood or just bundle them and sell to someone. Love the channel BTW
I needed these out of the way and I use the chips for keeping dust/mud down on my trails. I"ve got a massive pile of already-cut slabs ready for camping season just out of view. Unfortunately where I live slabs are so plentiful that they are offered for free
I figured that might be the case …. I make maple syrup so we burn them in the evaporator… thanks for getting back to me
you about got me sold on one of those, does it come in orange ,lol
hahah anything can be orange with the right spray paint can
would the larger slabs be good for firewood? I'd use it in a heartbeat! :)
Hi Marvin, I think those large pieces would be good for that. Think I"ll throw them into my campfire wood pile for next season
Nice! Enjoy and Merry Christmas!
@@sawingwithsandy
Merry Christmas Marvin
So do you market those chips or are they just feeding the forest?
NOOOO! Not the precious sludge!
I can take alot of set backs but not the sludge! haha
Is it worth the time to cut any of those slabs to length for fire wood. Some of those slabs look pretty thick for burning.
I only have a little harbor freight sawmill and i use my slabs to heat the shop.
I don't have a wood burner in the house yet and in the shop I'm always right there to keep up the fire.
I think it would be worth it in some cases for sure. I have a big pile going already of the slab wood cut up I use for camping.
The shreds would make great animal bedding, or cat litter! Wirh the tractor, you could just shove the pile into the woods! Plenty of room!
That's true
They make a 3pt circular saw that would be perfect for slicing that into “campwood” bundles and selling roadside. Easy money at 5$ a bundle or however much you want to charge. Hell you have enough trash slab you could sell it 10$ a wheelbarrow and still turn a profit for nothing. Just chain a cash box to a tree and leave a sign on the pile or crate of wood slab scrap. Passive income with no real loss.
Chipping is great but you run out of room for chips faster than they decompose and future projects in those areas get “spongie” with all the chips used as fill. Almost flipped a tractor on a chip filled yard when the rear wheel sunk into a pit of spongie earth.