New Horse-Drawn Forwarder

[hawthornheavyhorses]

Looks good, the internal hose routing is a nice feature

What it the timber stacked into in the 4th picture?

 

 

We're stacking into Roll-on-roll-off platforms that get loaded onto a skip lorry and taken away by our buyer. Works quite well as saves space and double handling too! Look like this close-up.

[felixthelogchopper]

We're stacking into Roll-on-roll-off platforms that get loaded onto a skip lorry and taken away by our buyer. Works quite well as saves space and double handling too! Look like this close-up.[ATTACH]215577[/ATTACH]

 

Back at Havering?

[hawthornheavyhorses]

is there much work in horses or are they only for show, small specialized work. just interested

 

 

There is definitely work out there. We tend to specialise in SSSI's, Nature Reserves and Parks mainly. We're fully booked this season (Sept-April) and taking bookings for next season already! Summer tends to be more shows/demos/carriage rides/weddings but it's good for the horses to have a change. They keep us busy throughout the year, we'll never be rich but we love what we do!

[hawthornheavyhorses]

Back at Havering?

 

 

Yep, 500t coming out this year!

[felixthelogchopper]

Yep, 500t coming out this year!

 

Nice.

[TRADITIONAL LOGGERS]

I work with Shire/Cydesdales horses and most is on steep/boggy ground so cannot understand the logic. All that noise and fumes when working horses and the risk of bust hydraulic hoses. The Amish won't use tractors then drag a huge diesel engine around powering machines. How about using a Vimek Minimaster / Alstor instead?

 

Expensive? Hope able to have some funding! The BHLA now have a 8x8 manual forwarder to hire I was told.

[hawthornheavyhorses]

I work with Shire/Cydesdales horses and most is on steep/boggy ground so cannot understand the logic. All that noise and fumes when working horses and the risk of bust hydraulic hoses. The Amish won't use tractors then drag a huge diesel engine around powering machines. How about using a Vimek Minimaster / Alstor instead?

 

 

 

Expensive? Hope able to have some funding! The BHLA now have a 8x8 manual forwarder to hire I was told.

 

 

Depends on your sites I guess - we certainly won't be using it in every wood that we work, and where we do primary extraction is still often via skidding to internal rides or racks, but the forwarder then allows us to take on larger jobs and longer extractions that simply aren't possible without some level of mechanisation. We can move twice as much timber per day as a manual forwarder and stack much higher but retaining most of the benefits of being horse drawn. This Honda petrol engine runs at just above tick over and only when loading/unloading and only uses 3-4l unleaded per day, so much less disruptive and no more polluting than a saw to be honest. They hydraulics are as small as possible to reduce pollution risk.

 

In terms of costs, it was 20% of the price of a new Alstor! It just made much more sense to our business model than going fully mechanised for secondary extraction, but certainly won't work for everyone.

[gdh]

I was watching some horses at one of the Princes estates a couple of years ago, it's good to see them working. I bet the poor man stacking by hand there would have appreciated a crane.

 

Out of curiosity does it have brakes you can apply on hills or are the horses able to hold it from running away?

[hawthornheavyhorses]

Out of curiosity does it have brakes you can apply on hills or are the horses able to hold it from running away?

 

 

Yes it has a hydraulic foot brake - pretty much essential with these weights on steep sites. Also has a lock to act as a parking brake, and the front axle locks hydraulically to stabilise when using the crane.

[IRE David H]

whats the advantage over a quad