Head for Excavator

[Farmwood]

I am thinking about the economics  of fitting a second hand harvesting head to our 14t excavator. We have several small blocks of mature Sitka and Lodgepole shelter belts that are ready for clearfell, with a view to chipping the wood for our own use. Could a second hander off some of the Forest Enterprise harvesters that get auctioned off be adapted?  My concern would be oil flow /temp and getting the controller rigged up. Anyone familiar with this sort of adaption, any help would be appreciated

[Jwoodgardenmaintenance]

@LGP Eddie is the genius behind these sort of things

 

Jack

[Gray git]

I'd say you'd be better off just getting a established contractor to come and just do it for you, it not just a case of hanging the head on the boom and fitting a few switches to the controls.

[gm valmet]

i would say your better getting a contractor in.we run a couple of excavator harvesters,we just had a recent one built it was 30k for a recon head,the fitting was 12k.i have just this week been taking a head off and putting it back to excavator,the pipework and fittings are unbeliveable amount. the other thing is a 14 ton could only have a smallish head due to lack of oil flow,and if your gunna be doing shelterbelts i would say the trees would be very hairy and big bows which a head wouldnt do.

[Farmwood]

Getting a contractor in our area would be an issue and I expect and they would want to clear them all in one go which isn’t ideal as I only use about 60t per annum, so I thought we could pick away at them and let them season as we needed them

 

Other idea maybe a shear and the chainsaw for snedding...

[Conor Wright]

Getting a contractor in our area would be an issue and I expect and they would want to clear them all in one go which isn’t ideal as I only use about 60t per annum, so I thought we could pick away at them and let them season as we needed them
 
Other idea maybe a shear and the chainsaw for snedding...

For 60 ton a year shear and saw seems more appropriate. Forestry kit is very expensive and unless you are a mechanical genius, very complicated too..

maybe a big old stroke head on a tractor or converted to work on the digger.. far simpler than a roller head and will strip off larger branches too. People will tell you they are slow but they will make short work of 60 ton without huge outlay.

[Farmwood]

That looks like something worth pursuing , thanks very much Conor.

 

Have you much experience in them, good/bad- ones to avoid!

 

I think I could adapt that onto a 360 as all the pipework and electrics are already harnessed and the control box already attached, just fabricate a mount and couple the hydraulics to the hammer line, not sure about switching the bench from the grab, may need a valve block in there somewhere.. will need to study one closer..

 

Any idea how many spools needed usually, two pairs of double acting I expect? 

 

As you say time isn't the driver more convenience and cost

[LGP Eddie]

Been there in a similar way, but my applications were all for low impact non commercial applications, in terms that site impact and improvement was the main consideration not profit from the timber.

 

I started a thread on it and went on to actually purchase a Kesla Stroke Head, but in reality never used it. Everything just gets sheared now.

 

The Stroke Processor was good, and in the time we had, Greg really cracked the operation of it and it was doing the job nicely.

 

I’d say they’re for a roofmount tractor though ideally.

 

Eddie

 

[Conor Wright]

That looks like something worth pursuing , thanks very much Conor.
 
Have you much experience in them, good/bad- ones to avoid!
 
I think I could adapt that onto a 360 as all the pipework and electrics are already harnessed and the control box already attached, just fabricate a mount and couple the hydraulics to the hammer line, not sure about switching the bench from the grab, may need a valve block in there somewhere.. will need to study one closer..
 
Any idea how many spools needed usually, two pairs of double acting I expect? 
 
As you say time isn't the driver more convenience and cost

I bought the one in the picture, then didn't get the job I had planned for it!
It's used for loading logs onto the processor and occasionally retrimming brashy logs, have never used it on a larger scale job but it has serious power when it comes to pulling through timber.

They are a simple machine so even an untrained eye should spot defects ie cracks, poor welds bent rams.. It's 100% mechanical so no 'puters to go wrong.

You will need (going by my machine, others may differ) one pair of spools for the stabiliser legs, pto for the crane pump and another pair of spools to run the delimber.

I personally wouldn't consider adapting it to a 360, it could get messy and it's a bit bulky to hang imo. Another option to consider may be to use the 360 and shear to fell the trees, make a stack sufficient to fill a trailer and bring in the processor, then clean and load the timber in one go and move on to the next stack. No physical labour. No expensive of complex machinery adaptations (except guarding, for your own safety. Strongly reccomended)

Patu is the make of the one pictured, now kesla to my knowledge. Kelfri make one too but it may not be so strong. I am far from an expert here, lgp Eddie has more experience in using such machines.

[LGP Eddie]

Certainly no more experience than buying one, having a good crack at it and moving it on.

The Valtra was brilliant because we were able to ditch the pto Pump and simply select how much oil we put through the valve block to make it fast enough yet controllable.

It’s a while ago now, but we somehow worked out how to control it all through the mini joystick of the Valtra and straight off the spools which would have been nice.

Certainly if you’ve a roofmount Tractor and one comes up, it may be a real handy thing in someone’s armoury.

 

I may be completely wrong, but in my experience for 60 tonne, get yourself a good fixed mount rotating grab on your machine to do the donkey work and a decent cutter, you’ll soon have your 60 tonne and a tidy job.

 

 

Eddie.