Roof mount tractor and driven trailer.

[elfinwood saws]

I,m interested in roof mount tractor and driven trailer, are they any good for real forestry not arb, How stable are they, easy to use? Thinking of replacing our forwarder with a tractor based outfit, as i,m working for the next 10 years in a large woodland that,s 2 miles from our yard, Been in the North east we can,t leave machines in the woods because of all the thieves/poachers, so i,m thinking tractor based so i can drive to site each day. Thoughts and ideas, thanks Mark. couple of photo,s of delimber tractor and forwarder.

[Logan]

Hello Elfinwood, we use a botex/valtra setup for forestry, the advantages as you say are the road ability plus the pto can make it winch tractor, run other equipment etc. Though this clocks hrs on an expensive service machine which is trade off.

 

Biggest drawbacks I've noticed is poor stability on any ANY sideslope, brash damage to wiring and sensors, hoses underneath and around back axle, and slow crane function when using tractor pump which most are built as. Separate pump or newer high output tractor would be improvement.

 

Only other thing with reverse drive tractor is, although better ergonomics to kneeling over a county seat, it's a little cramped facing rearwards for day after day forwarding compared to a purpose built machine or 360* etc, personally gives me indigestion some days hunched up in there over rear valve block, particularly in thinnings where you're peering out side windows etc. Botex new wider frame looks interesting in that respect

When we bought ours they were having trouble with the armrest style joysticks they were using at the time and when i asked for them i was warned away from them, since then apparently they using better ones with greater reliability, this would improve the ergonomics.

 

Think the sideslope issue is the biggest hurdle, that makes me want to go to purpose built. They can't handle anything even slightly sideways.

 

Cheers

[WoodED]

These are our 2 forwarding unit, they do a lot of road miles all across Milton Keynes to one log store, the botex they have had for a good few years and the farma was new this year, due to the crane being mounted on the trailer with legs its very stable. The trailer has a pivot to on both units for manoeuvring.

Hope this helps

[Brushcutter]

Agri based forestry is the ultimate compromise. The real question is do you want a roof mount or a jake mount? Roof mount gives you a short king post crane shoved up on a frame at the level of the roof. This is great as it gives you a good viability but stability suffers as you have a lot of weight up high thus raises the center of gravity. Jake on the other hand uses a long king post crane and puts it on a frame just below the window. Downside is that you have have a big crane king post to look round but you get use to this. The advantage is that you've moved the weight further down in the tractor so stability goes up a bit. Also you can put legs on the frame to increase the stability.

 

I've mainly used crane on trailer based setups but when i've done roof mount it's been useful mainly because you can winch up logs and then stack up logs and brash neatly. Ease of use wise it's no different to using a regular crane on a trailer but you get thrown around a lot if your not smooth with it. Also picking up logs that are too big or working on slopes can lead to scary moments. Tip a forwarding trailer over and its easy to rectify tip the roof mount and cost run up quick.

 

setting up the tractor is another big challenge -4 cylinder is light and nippy and can get anywhere i the wood. 6 cylinders gives you pulling power and stability. Then there is tyres - big or narrow agri or forestry. Step out the hubs for width for stability or keep them in for going up racks. PTO pump or get a modern tractor with a load sensing pump and run it off that or just run it off the spools. Big front tank or run it off the tractor tank.

 

I think it depends on what woods you will be working in. A lot of the ones i've worked in would have had issues with roof mounts just because of all the pipes up high.