Large, dead ash clearance job. Advice appreciated

[monkeybusiness]

Would it not be better value for the landowner to pay hand cutters to fell to waste? Even a poor cutter should be able to smash through a couple of hundred of those a day surely? 

[Dan Maynard]

I was trying to think if it would work to put it straight in a smaller chipper with the excavator which is shearing, that way you are not trying to handle and forward brash at any stage. I think it would need two people all the time though to move the chipper and trailers around.

[Big J]

49 minutes ago, monkeybusiness said:

Would it not be better value for the landowner to pay hand cutters to fell to waste? Even a poor cutter should be able to smash through a couple of hundred of those a day surely? 

 

I don't think so. 50k trees is going to look awful on the deck if felled to waste. Still expensive too.

 

43 minutes ago, Dan Maynard said:

I was trying to think if it would work to put it straight in a smaller chipper with the excavator which is shearing, that way you are not trying to handle and forward brash at any stage. I think it would need two people all the time though to move the chipper and trailers around.

 

There just isn't space within the stand. Has to be rideside or in the shed.

[AHPP]

Go back to one of your earlier ideas of mounting a chipper/branchwood logger on the Logbullet trailer? Still to waste though.

[dumper]

Wet ground, poor soil how many movements before site looks like a battlefield?

[Big J]

9 minutes ago, dumper said:

Wet ground, poor soil how many movements before site looks like a battlefield?

Hence the idea of a harvester/forwarder so that you only pass over each bit of ground once. Harvest in winter when nesting birds are inactive, then forward the chipwood on in late spring when the ground is harder. 

 

You do get a few passes with the little forwarder on soft ground before it makes a mess. 

 

[dumper]

Would the tops act as a mat and just remove trunk?

 

[Big J]

9 hours ago, dumper said:

Would the tops act as a mat and just remove trunk?

 

There isn't enough trunk to warrant the additional processing. With taking the whole tree, it's just a single cut at the base and away you go. No grading, no processing, no fuss.

[dumper]

All the branches will decrease the load capacity of the forwarder I think you are on the optimistic side with your calculations

[doobin]

How much will it cost just to put a mulcher through it? Only fair way for the client is to price this option up, then if you want the chip you can undertake to remove them for this price. The chip value is your profit.