It ain't a Gravely, and it ain't 1955 anymore.
This machine has a use.....unfortunately, it is not what it is advertised for. I got mine "nearly new" on Craigslist. I knew exactly what to expect....I have dozens of large gas powered tools...tractors, trenchers, 10 chain saws, splitters, sawmill, on and on. We know tools and machinery.
I wanted something to reduce garden waste to "chop" so that the chickens/pigs/ducks would scratch it down to compost faster. Corn stalks, corn shucks and cobs, Tomato plants, broccoli stalks, all the residue from 2 acres of organic garden. This machine is perfect for that.

We took out the chopper blade and sharpened it razor sharp, then polished all the surfaces on a flap sander. We pressure washed the blade/flail chopper and put a spray on black chain oil on the flail pivots. We also razor sharpened the chipper blades.

We harvested a 75'x75' plot of corn. The ears were shucked for cutting and freezing. It took 2 kids about 2 hours to run all the cobs.....all the shucks....all the stalks through the chipper green. If you want dry shredded bedding material, you will need to let everything sun-dry for a week. This was green chop that had enough corn grains in it to keep 75 chickens interested for 3 days. The stalks were run through the hopper and the chipper chute with equal success. THIS EFFORT WAS A RESOUNDING SUCCESS, AND REPRESENTS THE LIMIT OF WHAT THIS MACHINE WILL SAFELY AND EFFICIENTLY PERFORM. This is no more a "CHIPPER" than a car-window burger is "food". If you want to "chip" any sort of woody material, you need 17+hp and a lot more iron and mass. This is light stamped metal, and it shudders on a load of corn shucks and cobs. I will write a second review in the fall as we run the bedding material through it. About 30-50 pickup loads of leaves should get a measure of its value. Our flock of Muscovy Ducks will eat acorns if we drive over them and crush them....HMMMMMM....what if we ran hundreds of pounds of acorns through this for supplemental feed !! We will see. Cheers, Gorignak.

me too
This chipper was fine for a while. Then, when loading leaves into the chute, my wife accidently included a small piece of a branch - no more than one inch in diameter and two inches long. That destroyed the machine. It came apart internally as described by the other buyer - the clamp came off and a blade came loose badly damaging the flywheel. It is nearly 0 for a replacement flywheel. Then, shortly after repairing that, the engine literally exploded when the engine case cracked open throwing bits of case and oil everywhere. A replacement engine is around 0.
The engine case is about as thin as cardboard and looks like it's made of cheap sphelter. That's not to mention having to replace the oil seal after only a year of operation. If it was made of materials that could stand the strain of real work and if the spares were reasonably priced it would be OK; but as it is, it's an expensive lesson in modern junk manufacture.

WORTHLESS!
We bought a Troy Bilt chipper from a local dealer. It was advertised as "heavy duty" on the Troy Bilt site, "chips 3 inch limbs". We thought Troy Bilt was an established, reliable brand. Took it home, and it wouldn't even chip privet hedge clippings! Took it back, the dealer kept it a week (a small local hardware store) and the old man said he couldn't find anything wrong with it ("the engine runs fine") The engine does run fine - it just won't chip anything! MTD (the company that now owns Troy Bilt and has bought up several other brands) told us to take it to another local dealer. We did. They kept it almost a week, called to tell us it was 'fixed'. We got there and were told the blades were dull, the steel wasn't good quality and we might want to get aftermarket blades of better quality, but they'd sharpened them anyway (without asking us or suggesting we replace them with better blades) then demanded for labor because the blades aren't covered under warranty. Of course, this chipper had been used all of one hour! Needless to say, we're outraged. MTD refuses to cooperate. We're filing a complaint with the Attorney Generals consumer office and maybe taking the dealer to small claims court(as local agent for the company) under the UDAP law (unfair and deceptive acts and practices act).
This chipper is worthless - definitely not heavy duty - barely even light duty since it couldn't handle 3/4 inch privet. It might have shredded leaves ok. Don't buy it, and for that matter, I'd stay away from anything made by MTD (they own many brands of lawn machines now) - their customer service is rude and not there to help you.

Some poor points
The engine is very difficult to start. It takes two men and a boy to pull the starter rope. No shut off on the gas. Important for winter storage, engine should be run out of gas. After third useage, the engine died--no spark. Troy does not stand by their entire product, the engine is under a Briggs warranty. When I called Briggs, the rep seemed to have limited knowledge concerning the engine. After a listening to elevator music for a long time, finally found out that I needed to get the engine to a dealer. Now of course the unit is very heavy, so if you live a long distance from a service center the shipping costs would be extreme; therefore, I am going to tear the engine apart and try to fix it myself. Wish me luck.

Troy Bilt ain't wat It used to be
I have owned Troy Bilt products for 30 years.

Sprayers, mowers, and the like.

Loved them all.

They were well built and went on year after year after year.

I had a Troy Bilt Tomahawk Chpper that I had used for 25 years before it gave out.

I has heard Troy Bilt's quality had taken serious hits but bought this unit anyway.

BIG Mistake.

It jams repeatedy, it is poorly engineered and if you have more than a modest amount of chipping or shredding to do, you are going to be at it a long long time with this piece of junk.


No more Troy Bilt for me


Gry Hutchinson