Harvester head for harwood??

[cosworth]

Any one using a harvester head for harwood thinings? is it possible?might be a silly question??Any info would be great

[Andy Collins]

Saw a harvester just the other day on hardwood thinnings. Sorry cant help you more than that, maybe pm Woodworm on here as he operates a harvester.

[Johny Walker]

quite a few use them on h/w ,but can leave a few stubbs ,

[slasherscot]

harvesters can do hardwood. the main trouble is with fork multi stem heads, u lose a load of produce, they really need clean straight stems

[woodworm]

Any one using a harvester head for harwood thinings? is it possible?might be a silly question??Any info would be great

 

What sort of harvester are you using?

[cosworth]

I havent got one but seen a county 1174 for sale with a crane and patu 410 harvester head on it thught it could be handy,any good??

[Brushcutter]

They will do it but don't do well with multi stems. Basil on here uses one for Coppicing.

 

I'd like to give one a go for doing firewood thinnings. Think on the right stuff such as birch regen youd fly through and do the work of a couple of guys in a day.

[woodworm]

I havent got one but seen a county 1174 for sale with a crane and patu 410 harvester head on it thught it could be handy,any good??

 

I'm not trying to sound patronising, but please save your money and don't do it. You will be soooooo short of hydraulic power that on a tractor based unit I honestly don't think it would be man enough to take of the branches hardwoods. I drive a John Deere 1270D and it needs everything its got to cleanly cut off MOST of the braches. Fine on Sycamore, Beech (exrtremely hard on the equipment), Oak too stringy and fibrous can be a real head banger sometimes, Birch not too bad but you need the feed speed to do a really good job. The downside of harvesting hardwood is that you probably lose 10% of the produce to waste cos its too unproductive to mess about with it. The upside is that you can cut up to 150 tonne a day in the right material.

What part of the country are you in Cosworth?

[cosworth]

I'm not trying to sound patronising, but please save your money and don't do it. You will be soooooo short of hydraulic power that on a tractor based unit I honestly don't think it would be man enough to take of the branches hardwoods. I drive a John Deere 1270D and it needs everything its got to cleanly cut off MOST of the braches. Fine on Sycamore, Beech (exrtremely hard on the equipment), Oak too stringy and fibrous can be a real head banger sometimes, Birch not too bad but you need the feed speed to do a really good job. The downside of harvesting hardwood is that you probably lose 10% of the produce to waste cos its too unproductive to mess about with it. The upside is that you can cut up to 150 tonne a day in the right material.

What part of the country are you in Cosworth?

 

Thank you very much for your info woodworm will giv it a miss I think, Im in west wales.