Low impact forestry services in Devon and the South West

[Big J]

43 minutes ago, Mick Dempsey said:

Must have missed this J, Where you off to, Germany?

Hi Mick - Sweden as it happens. My wife's brother is there, my mum has connections too and the language is fairly easy to learn. 

 

Endless work (75% forest cover in southern Sweden), politics my wife and I feel more comfortable with, great climate, cheap housing, better work/life balance, better prospects for the children and still within the EU. 

 

I still love Germany, but the summers are too hot for me, and the winters too inconsistent. The forestry industry is suffering a bit with the summer droughts too.

[IronMike]

7 hours ago, Big J said:

 

Hi Brian - sorry I missed you there. 

 

Yes, we still do a fair bit with the Kranman. With operator, it does the work of two men, but stacks the timber too, so saves on forwarding time too.

 

A change of machine line-up. The Logbullet has been sold and replaced with a Vimek 610.2 from Northern Sweden. It's not new, but it's low hours and 5 years old. A bigger, but still very small forwarder. 

 

The Logbullet was great, but just not big enough for the jobs I had lined up. The Valtra N92 tractor and the Komatsu forwarder are for sale, and it'll be just the Vimek and Kranman until we emigrate next year.

 

Very cool my friend!  How you finding it?

[IronMike]

Ps. @Big J I had a two minute long voicemail from you of nothing but silence...... was this a cryptic message or non intentional?! 🧐😆

[Big J]

2 minutes ago, IronMike said:

Very cool my friend!  How you finding it?

 

Generally very good. The drive train is a bit annoying after the ease of the hydrostatic system, but it climbs well. The crane is amazing. On thumb jobsticks, the swing brake and the grab make for quick log handling.

1 minute ago, IronMike said:

Ps. @Big J I had a two minute long voicemail from you of nothing but silence...... was this a cryptic message or non intentional?! 🧐😆

 

Hehe! Sorry about that. I dropped my phone into some mud yesterday and it's developed a bit of a mind of it's own.

[IronMike]

Excellent mate, I’m sure it’ll become second nature soon enough. And having a cab is always a pleasure! Bet the crane is like grease lightning compared to the LB. 

 

No worries about the phone call! I tried calling you back but presumed if it was urgent you’d touch base again. Catch up soon my friend! 

[Big J]

To update, the Vimek is going very well. I'm just over 100 machine hours into it now, and it's a capable and powerful little machine. 

 

The crane is strong, and will chuck around logs weighing 800kg easily. I had a douglas log at 1.1 cubic metres (pictured below) that challenged it, but that I think was mainly due to it's 3.7m (ie, rather short) length. 

 

Load capacity is rated at 5000kg, but you'd struggle to get that on unless you had a full load of 4.9m sawlogs. More realistic is 3.5-4t.

 

It climbs fairly well, but much better going backwards than forwards on account of the Robson drive (the cage between the wheels) on the back. Empty and going backwards, it is like a mountain goat going up hills. 

 

Productivity wise, it's probably close to double what the Logbullet is, but then you'd expect that given that new, the Vimek is more than 4 times the price. The 68hp CAT diesel is incredibly economical, so even on the site I'm presently extracting, where I'm climbing up to the loading bay, I'm struggling to use 25 litres of diesel on an 8hr shift.

 

It has a crane mounted hydraulic winch, which has been a godsend. It's a strong winch, and will pull an 8-900kg sawlog up a 1 in 4 hill easily. It saves a lot of driving and putting yourself in a situation you might not be able to drive out of. 

 

So, overall, very good. It feels like a big forwarder scaled down rather than a small forwarder scaled up. 

 

[woodwizzard]

I didn't see it in the flesh when I was there. Nice to see it is in a low impact colour as well, much better than bright orange or red 👍

Any chance of making Lee low impact 🤣

[Big J]

Some updates to the machine. The reversing camera is a great addition and having the grab tank is brilliant. No more pouring Jerry cans. It's 220 litres and that lasts 50-60 hours of machine operation. 

 

Were finishing up a medium sized conifer first thinning at the moment. Some incredibly fast grown trees in there. The largest spruce we felled at 21 years old was just about 2 tonnes. 

[doobin]

FFS, that's more economical to run than a 2.7t digger!

[Big J]

9 minutes ago, doobin said:

FFS, that's more economical to run than a 2.7t digger!

 

I know 😄 

 

I had a 5 tonner on site the other day putting ramps in for me, and he tanned a good 50 litres on a 10 hour day. The Vimek is drinking the fuel on this site too, as it's almost half a mile from the bottom of the block to the loading bay, with a 70m climb. Normally, 30 litres sees you a full day on the machine.