Tracked Wood Chippers
A towable chipper goes where your vehicle goes, which is fine until you need to chip timber in a woodland with no road access, on soft ground that would sink a wheeled machine, or on a slope where towing isn't an option.
That’s where tracked chippers earn their place. Self-propelled on rubber tracks, they drive to the work under their own power and handle terrain that would leave a towable chipper stuck on the trailer.
We sell and hire Forst tracked chippers covering 6-inch and 8-inch throat sizes, from compact manoeuvrable models through to heavy-duty machines built for forestry and high-volume commercial work. All come with AutoIntelligence feed control, ForstGrip feed rollers, and a 3-year warranty on new machines.
Why Our Customers Love Us
Why ILH for Tracked Chippers?
We’re a specialist Forst dealer with a workshop that services and repairs chippers from all major brands including Timberwolf, GreenMech, Jensen, and TP. Whether you’re buying a new tracked chipper, hiring one for a contract, or getting your existing machine serviced, you’re dealing with technicians who work on this equipment every week.
Call 0141 775 9288 or fill in the form. Tell us about the site and we’ll recommend the right machine.
When to Choose Tracked Over Towable
If most of your work happens on sites with good road access and hard standing, a towable chipper is the simpler and cheaper option. But certain jobs demand a tracked machine, and trying to make a towable work in the wrong conditions costs you time and risks getting stuck.
Tracked chippers make sense when you’re working in woodland without vehicle access and the timber is deep in the site, on soft or waterlogged ground where wheels would sink, on slopes and embankments where a towed machine can’t be positioned safely, or on restricted access sites like railway corridors and motorway verges where the chipper needs to travel along the work rather than being moved by vehicle between positions.
The rubber tracks spread the machine’s weight over a larger footprint than wheels, which reduces ground pressure and protects turf, lawns, and soft ground from the kind of damage a wheeled machine would cause. That matters on domestic sites as much as it does in woodland.
6-Inch vs 8-Inch Tracked Chippers
6-inch tracked models
Forst’s 6-inch tracked models handle branches up to 150mm diameter. They’re compact and manoeuvrable enough to fit through tight gaps between buildings, along narrow paths, and into back gardens where a larger tracked machine wouldn’t fit. The petrol version runs quieter for residential sites, while the diesel variant offers extra torque and lower running cost on longer jobs.
For tree surgeons and landscapers who need tracked capability but mostly deal with domestic garden work and lighter clearance, the 6-inch models do the job without the extra weight and cost of an 8-inch machine.
8-inch tracked models
Forst’s 8-inch tracked models handle branches up to 200mm diameter and process material significantly faster. The standard 8-inch tracked machine is a capable all-round option for commercial tree surgery crews who need tracked access and 8-inch capacity. The heavy-duty variant adds a wider track base and more powerful engine, built for contractors running a chipper hard every day on large clearance contracts, infrastructure projects, and high-volume woodland work where throughput matters as much as access.
If you’re running an 8-inch towable chipper on most jobs but keep hitting sites where you can’t get the machine to the timber, adding a tracked 8-inch to the fleet means you don’t lose capacity when the ground gets difficult.
Hire or Buy
Our hire fleet includes tracked Forst chippers serviced in our workshop between every hire. If you only need tracked capability for occasional difficult-access jobs, hiring makes more sense than buying a machine that sits on the yard between those jobs. Tell us what you’re chipping, how much access you have, and we’ll match you to the right machine.
If your regular workload takes you onto soft ground, slopes, and restricted sites, owning a tracked chipper removes the repeated hire cost and means the machine is available whenever the work demands it. New Forst tracked chippers come with a 3-year warranty and full dealer support from our Cumbernauld workshop.