What Tree Shear Works Well With Avant 630?

[Chipperclown]

As the title says does anyone have any type of tree shear with the Avant 630, if so is it worth it?

[Stephen Blair]

I've got a 423 and the Avant shear.  I've only used it a few times to shear and it's good. The blade folds out the way when not in use with a turn of a couple of bolts. The strength in the ram is excellent and it's great as a grab for moving timber around site. 

[Mick Dempsey]

What diameter will it cut? I know @kevinjohnsonmbe has one for his MO.

[Mick Dempsey]

Just seen the video in the Avant site, I see how it works now. 
The grab pulls the trunk onto the blade in the middle, how simple is that?

 

[Stephen Blair]

Only weakness is the blade just being attached on a hinge, mines an x demo so there's a slight bend so the blades at an angle, I'm going to take it off and put a new spare blade I've got off another shear and bolt it on similar to my other 1

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

My thinking came down to 2 key points. 
 

Firstly - I specifically did not want a cut & hold function because it was my assessment that this could / would lead to an unacceptable likelihood of toppling the machine over. With the best will in the world, human nature is likely to lead to the temptation to push the limits leading to catastrophe. It is a relatively narrow wheel base after all. 
 

Second - I did want a rotator function for the likes of hedge reduction and the ability to cut at any angle rather than just upright. 
 

So far as I could see, there wasn’t a grab + rotator function so - for me - rotator was more important than grab although I like the functionality of the Avant variant using the grab part for grabbing. 
 

It’s horses for courses I guess. Like any tool - great in the right circumstances. 
 

I got mine from Exac-1 all the details are on their website. 

[Stephen Blair]

For grab and rotator you just need enough hydraulics or an electro valve set up.

  To cut and not grab just is not in my thought process.  It would create more work, the cuttings the easy part, the lifting is the best thing to reduce manual handling.

  

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

2 hours ago, Stephen Blair said:

For grab and rotator you just need enough hydraulics or an electro valve set up.

  To cut and not grab just is not in my thought process.  It would create more work, the cuttings the easy part, the lifting is the best thing to reduce manual handling.

  

You can still grab / pick up cut stems by just ‘pinching’ the tree in the shear but I know what you mean. I’m happier cutting and letting it drop rather than cutting and holding on - means I can cut bigger and further away without risk of going over with it. 

[Chipperclown]

I want  it to be able to hold a vertical branch/trees of sensible sizes etc so I can then the the branch/trunk and move it one go. It looks like from the photos/comments this is possible.

[dumper]

I ve seen avants rolled when cutting and collecting with a shear you have very narrow wheelbase and not a lot of weight, might think about ballast in wheels and full set of rear weights. Shears are much more suited to 360 diggers