Wood Chipper Hire Scotland

Our Wood Chipper Hire Fleet

We hire Forst wood chippers because they’re what we know inside out. We’re Forst specialists, which means our hire fleet is maintained by the same factory-trained technicians who service these machines for customers across the country. Every chipper is stripped down, inspected, and tested between hires.

6-Inch Towable Chippers

Forst’s 6-inch petrol towable handles branches up to 150mm in diameter. It weighs under 750kg, so most 4x4s and pickups can tow it without any special licence. It’s a good fit for domestic tree work, garden clearances, hedge reductions, and smaller arb jobs where you’ve got road or driveway access to the site.

If you’d prefer diesel, Forst’s 6-inch diesel towable gives you the same capacity with better fuel economy on longer jobs. Both models feature Forst’s AutoIntelligence feed control, which adjusts the feed speed automatically based on the material going through, and ForstGrip feed rollers that pull branches in without you having to force anything.

6-Inch Tracked Chippers

Not every job has a nice flat driveway to park on. Forst’s tracked 6-inch chipper is built for the sites where a towable can’t reach. Steep banks, soft ground, narrow paths between buildings, muddy woodland rides. The tracks spread the machine’s weight and give it grip on terrain that would bog down a wheeled unit.

Tracked chippers are self-propelled, so there’s no towing involved. We deliver them to site on a trailer, and they drive themselves to the working area from there. If you’re doing estate work, council tree removals, or clearing in parks and woodlands where ground conditions are unpredictable, a tracked chipper saves you time and hassle.

8-Inch Tracked Chippers

When you’re processing larger timber and need more throughput, Forst’s 8-inch tracked chipper steps up to 200mm capacity with a 55hp diesel engine. This is the machine professional tree surgery crews hire for bigger removals, site clearances, storm damage work, and contracts where volume matters. It handles hardwood and softwood alike, and the larger flywheel produces a more consistent chip through a 270-degree rotating discharge chute that lets you direct the output exactly where you want it.

For the heaviest work, Forst’s heavy-duty tracked model adds a wider track base for extra stability on slopes and rough ground, along with a more powerful engine. If you’re clearing a plantation or working a forestry contract, this is the machine that keeps up with the crew rather than slowing them down.

Towable vs Tracked Wood Chippers

It comes down to site access.

A towable chipper is the simpler, more cost-effective option when you’ve got good access. You hitch it to your vehicle, tow it to the job, and set up on a hard surface or firm ground near where you’re working. Towable models are lighter, easier to position by hand once on site, and generally cheaper to hire because there’s less machinery involved.

A tracked chipper makes sense when the site won’t cooperate. If you need to get the machine down a muddy track, across a soft lawn without leaving ruts, up a slope, or through a gap too narrow for a vehicle and trailer, tracks are the answer. They’re heavier machines and they cost more to hire, but they save hours of manually dragging branches to a chipper parked on the road, and they reduce the risk of getting stuck or damaging soft ground.

If you’re not sure which suits your job, call us on 0141 775 9288 and describe the site. We’ll tell you straight which machine fits and we won’t push you towards the more expensive option if you don’t need it.

What Size Chipper Do You Need?

Chipper capacity is measured by the maximum diameter of material the machine can process in a single pass. The two sizes we hire most are 6-inch (150mm) and 8-inch (200mm), and choosing the right one depends on what you’re feeding through it.

When a 6-Inch Chipper Is Enough

A 6-inch machine handles most domestic and light commercial work comfortably. Hedge trimmings, shrub clearance, crown reduction arisings, and branches up to about 150mm across all go through without any trouble. If most of your material is under wrist-thickness, a 6-inch chipper will process it quickly and produce a clean, consistent chip. It’s the right choice for garden clearances, landscaping projects, and smaller tree jobs where you’re not dealing with heavy trunks or large limbs.

When You Need an 8-Inch

Once you’re regularly feeding material over 150mm, or you’re processing a high volume of branches on a larger contract, an 8-inch machine is worth the step up. The bigger flywheel and more powerful engine mean it handles hardwood without bogging down, produces chips faster, and copes with forks and awkward-shaped timber that would jam a smaller machine. Tree surgery crews working removals, site clearance contractors, and anyone processing mixed hardwood will get more done with an 8-inch unit.

There’s no point hiring more machine than you need, because you’re paying for capacity you won’t use. Equally, hiring too small means the machine struggles, jams, and slows the job down. If you tell us what you’re chipping and how much of it there is, we’ll match you to the right size.

How Much Does Wood Chipper Hire Cost?

Chipper hire rates vary depending on the machine size, whether it’s towable or tracked, and how long you need it. As a rough guide, 6-inch towable chippers are the most affordable option, with tracked and 8-inch models costing more due to their size and capability.

We offer daily, weekly, and longer-term hire rates, with discounts kicking in on anything over a week. If you’re on a contract that runs for several weeks, we’ll put together a rate that reflects the commitment rather than charging you day-rate for the duration.

For a specific quote, call us on 0141 775 9288 or use the contact form. We’ll give you a price within the hour and there’s no obligation.

What’s Included with Every Hire

When you hire a chipper from ILH, the machine arrives serviced, fuelled, and ready to work. We don’t hand over machines with “known issues” or oil leaks and tell you to crack on regardless.

Every hire includes:

• Full pre-hire service and safety check in our workshop
• Delivery and collection across Scotland (we’ll quote delivery separately so you know the full cost upfront)
• A walkthrough of the machine’s controls, safety features, and maintenance points on delivery
• Phone support throughout the hire period, including advice on feed technique and minor troubleshooting
• Access to genuine Forst parts if anything wears during the hire

Because we’re the Forst dealer, we carry parts in stock at our Cumbernauld workshop. If a blade needs swapping or a belt needs replacing during your hire, we can get it sorted the same day in most cases. A generalist hire company would be ordering parts from a third party and hoping they arrive by the end of the week.

Why Hire from a Wood Chipper Specialist?

There are plenty of places to hire a chipper in Scotland. General plant hire outfits, tool hire chains, even some garden centres will rent you one. The machine might start. It might even chip.

But when you need advice on the right model, when the feed jams and you’re not sure why, or when something breaks at the worst possible moment, the difference between a specialist and a generalist becomes obvious.

We’ve been in the arboricultural machinery business since 2007. Darren and the team have over 20 years of hands-on experience with chippers, stump grinders, and groundcare equipment.

We’re not just hiring out machines we bought off a wholesaler. We’re Forst specialists in Scotland, factory-trained on every model in the range, with a fully equipped workshop behind every hire. We also service and repair other chipper brands including Timberwolf, GreenMech, and Jensen, so we know the market and we know what separates a well-built machine from the rest.

That means three things for you. First, the machines are properly maintained because we service them ourselves using genuine parts, not whatever’s cheapest. Second, if something goes wrong, we can diagnose it over the phone and often talk you through a fix without the machine needing to come back. Third, if the machine does need attention, we’ve got the parts, the knowledge, and the workshop to turn it around fast.

We’re a family-run business. We know most of our hire customers by name, and a lot of them come back because they’ve tried the cheaper option elsewhere and got burned. Not literally, although with some of the hire machines we’ve seen come through our workshop for repair, it’s a wonder nobody has.

Areas We Cover

We’re based in Cumbernauld, just off the M80, which puts us right in the middle of Scotland’s Central Belt. We deliver hire chippers across Scotland, from the Borders up to the Highlands, and the majority of our hire work covers Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling, Falkirk, Perth, Dundee, Aberdeen, Fife, Lanarkshire, Ayrshire, and the Lothians.

Delivery times depend on distance, but most Central Belt deliveries can be arranged within 24 to 48 hours. If you’ve got an urgent job and need a machine sooner, call us directly and we’ll see what we can do. We’ve turned around same-day deliveries before when the timing works.