£50k to spend.. wish list wanted

[Dalynn]

Hi, new to this forum so please excuse any irregularities.

We are in the process of setting up a charitable business enterprise based in our 200 acre community woodland.

The initial phases of the business will involve the felling, extraction (from a steeply sloping site) and processing into firewood of 12-15" Larch thinnings and some 24-30" Beech.

Can any of you far more experienced guys help uswith advise on best systems and to compile our wish list of Equipment?

It looks like we will have up to £50k to spend over a two year period.

We already have a 20hp compact tractor with loader, PTO but no rear hydraulics, 2 ton mini digger with thumb.

Cushman turf truckster with PTO and Hydraulic take off.

Initial thoughts are

Alstor Mini forwarder,

Circular saw firewood processor 12- 14"......which make and model?

15 ton splitter

etc etc.

[treequip]

Extracting timber from a steep slope says tractor and PTO winch to me.

 

Is the timber going into firewood?

[Stephen Blair]

What experience will the operators have in Tree Work?

[Frank]

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-C9xv36L-lM&feature=fvsr]YouTube - Heli Logging[/ame]

[treedave]

The alstor will take care of most of the £50K, you might get that and a basic firewood processor, the splitter might have to be an axe! Try looking at Oxtrac / Forcat, (can get loading trailer to go behind for £4Kish), will do a similar job and leave more for the splitter / processor.

 

Thought of a kindling machine? - would complete the package nicely.

 

Have to echo Mr Blair's question, £50K of toys all of which can and will bite big time.

 

Nice problem to have though!!

Good Luck

[testcricket01]

 

 

:thumbup:

[Pete Hart]

wish i had this 'problem'

 

If it was 50k on an arb co. i wouldn't hesitate to get a MOG with pto chipper!!

Oh well, never mind - better stop dreaming!!

[Brushcutter]

Seems a lot of money to spend on 200 acres of woodland. Will the kit go out to other woodlands?

 

50k isn't a lot of money to spend on toys in the grand scheme of forestry toys. If you want to get 30" Beech of a slope you need at least 8 tonne of winch. Thats about 10k gone already. A tractor for the winch would be another 20-30k depending on wether you want new or not. Say another 20k for a Botex forwarding trailer. Thats the 50k budget gone before you've got to splitters saw benches and processers.

 

Stephen raises a good point about experence. If you have to train operatives to use the kit then you'll burn through even more money. Forwarder training is about 2k per person! Being able to fell a small tree is very different to a large tree on a slope set up for extraction.

[windfall]

Have you checked how much would it be to outsource the felling and extraction job?

[Brushcutter]

Have you checked how much would it be to outsource the felling and extraction job?

 

That was my first thought.