The Angry Ant 4-Inch Wood Chipper is a tough looking piece of equipment and the newest in Global Machinery Sales’ range.
The Angry Ant AAWC4 is also the smallest in their range and a great size for landscape maintenance contractors.
The AAWC4 is powered by a Briggs & Stratton 2100 Series 420cc engine, which produces 13.5hp.
This proved ample for all types of material I chipped, including logs at around 4 inches in diametre, which is the maximum for the machine. These large diametre lengths of approximately 1m were sucked through with little effort. Smaller twig and leafy material can be easily fed into the chute making it ideal for hedge trimmings and the chipped material is nice-looking with no stringy twig lengths.
Driven by a centrifugal clutch it is so simple to use with nothing to engage for operation – a key start, quick warm-up, then maximum revs and it’s ready to chip.
With the removal of a pin the operator can rotate the chute 360 degrees making it handy to spray mulch directly into different garden areas without moving the machine. This feature, combined with the adjustable fall angle also enables quick adjustments for spraying into the back of a truck or ute, packing the maximum amount of chipped material in by changing the spray angles/positions.
The only negative I could find, and I’m not sure if it’s possible as the angle might be too acute, was that I couldn’t adjust the fall angle down enough to spray mulch directly in the garden beside the machine.
The directional flap does hinge down enough for this but in doing so a gap is created between the flap and the discharge chute expelling the majority of the mulched material out before it can be directed down.
When I spoke with the guys at Global Machinery Sales they believed it would be pretty easy to attach a thick piece of rubber over the gap that is created with the chute tip pointed directly down.
Having used smaller chippers before, and seeing the larger tree lopper’s machines in action, I used to think that it would not be worthwhile for landscapers to own a chipper. Solely for the reasons that the smaller chippers would not be economical with the labour time required to chip the material, and the cost and size of the large professional chippers with the hassle of towing them around to multiple maintenance jobs just wouldn’t work well.
However, the Angry Ant provides the best of both – an efficient and powerful machine that is easily towed and manoeuvred, even by hand around a site, which is something that would be very attractive to the landscape maintenance contractor.
With a great price tag, it is definitely worth consideration, especially with the exorbitant prices being charged for dumping green waste.
We also sell a range of Small Wood Chippers and Garden Mulchers by Angry Ant.
This article originally appeared in Landscape Contractor Magazine. Reviewed by Andrew Tulloch.
