A new chipper was designed around a versatile wheeled carrier, capable of both in-field and road traffic. This solution reduces relocation cost, and it is especially valuable when dealing with small, scattered fields. At the same time, good off-road mobility allows taking a large industrial operation directly into the field, to the benefit of improved downstream handling. The new machine is especially conceived for use by rural contractors, who must negotiate wood crops established on ex-arable land. Trials were conducted on three sites, representative of the most common conditions encountered by these contractors. Productive potential was very high, averaging 120 m(3) loose chips (or 42 tonnes of green chips) per productive machine hour. Such a high productivity may strain the capacity of the chipper support fleet, especially if the latter needs to reach the chipper directly into the field. Therefore, actualizing the potential of the new system requires a good organization, possibly assisted by modern precision control technology. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.