Jason Jones (left) Aspen Tree Service, Inc.

The luck of the draw recently brought Vermeer yellow iron and bragging rights to the doorstep of Jason Jones — the Vermeer AX19 Brush Chipper Sweepstakes

winner. Jones, vice president of Aspen Tree Service Inc., a full-service tree care company located in Carbondale, Colorado, entered the contest at the 2016 TCI Expo in November 2016.

“Winning this sweepstakes is really crazy because my crew and I actually looked at the AX19 brush chipper and talked about how of all the equipment we'd seen at the show, this machine was the one we could see ourselves using the most. We even took a picture standing next to it,” Jones said.

The sweepstakes, which coincided with the launch of the new AX19 brush chipper, grants Jones and his crew free use of the machine for a full six months. The 19-inch (48.2 cm) AX19 features dual horizontal feed rollers and a new manual feed roller crushing system to help tree care contractors load and process large branches and logs with less chainsaw work.

The addition of the AX19 further strengthens the Vermeer brush chipper portfolio — which currently includes the 6- to 21-inch (15.2 to 53.3 cm) capacity brush chipper models. The unique characteristics of the infeed system on the AX19 lessens the need for an operator to stand next to the machine in order to assist feeding of large or branchy material by manipulating feed roller direction.

“We're excited to use the AX19 as it looks like a big step up from the already exceptional performance of the Vermeer BC1800 brush chipper,” said Jones, whose team plans to use the

brush chipper for forest thinning and large removal work. “We are hoping that it handles large material quickly and reliably, and we are very interested to see how the new feed table system performs."

The AX19 infeed and crushing systems have been optimized to process larger materials through an oversized feed roller opening that is 28.8 inches (73.2 cm) wide and 24 inches (70 cm) tall. It has offset, dual horizontal feed rollers and a fixed infeed table design to help funnel large limbs into the chipper. These enhancements help reduce the amount of chainsaw prework that needs to be done, which can improve jobsite productivity by freeing up crew members to do other tasks.

For more information, visit vermeer.com.

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