Alpine tractor work

[Treehugger1]

Hi guys, new to this forum so bare with me please.

I have 16 years experience working within large country estates and now decided to start working for myself.

I have now purchased an alpine tractor 50hp and was just wondering what if any, work is available for such a machine in the forestry/woodland sector.

Basically I'm wanting to have as many avenues as possible to keep the wheels turning.

 

Any help/info will be very much appreciated.

 

I'm located near Edinburgh and willing to work throughout Scotland and North England if that helps.

 

Thanks in advance.

[MattyF]

Sorry to hijack the thread but what is the max size forwarding trailer you would run on one of these tractors?

[Stephen Blair]

Hi and welcome.

 

Get some pictures of the tractor up with the attachments you have for it!

[penfold]

Have a word with Chris Sheppard on here. I think he runs a similar sized machine and he also worked for riko for a bit so knows about the attachments side of things.

Off the top of my head I would say flailing rides etc would be a start.

[Brushcutter]

Sorry to hijack the thread but what is the max size forwarding trailer you would run on one of these tractors?

 

I'd of thought a 6t trailer would be at the limit and in the good too.

 

As for work you'd be looking at low impact. Ride mowing would be a good bet, paddock mowing, snow plowing etc.

 

Forestry wise you could pull a baby forwarding trailer and use maybe a 5t winch on it.

[Treemon]

 

This is our set up

 

 

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[JimE]

3t capacity (approx 4t gross) trailer is the most I generally recommend behind a 50Hp alpine. Its likely a tractor that size will only weigh 1.5t, so any more and it will struggle.

 

Usually suggest 3.5 or 4t winches, as any larger and an alpine wont pick up high enough off the ground for the butt plate to clear stumps etc.

[Treehugger1]

Hi guys, thanks for the speedy replies.

Low impact stuff was what I was thinking but is there much demand for this?

 

Thanks again

[Chris Sheppard]

[ATTACH]144630[/ATTACH]

 

This is our set up

 

 

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That's pretty much how I ran with mine, though it spent most of the time with a 3.5T winch on the back running stuff out to where the County could get to.

 

From memory the JMS 900 trailers were something like 1.5T capacity and worked well behind my old one (50hp Carraro). The one I used was unbraked but was OK if the site wasn't too steep.

 

We used to have a 4T trailer (4T gross but carried between 2.5 and 3t of timber) behind a 40hp Kubota (so physically a good bit bigger than the Carraro was) and that worked well - but I'd not have wanted to use it behind my alpine on anything other than decent firm tracks. That trailer's currently being pulled by a 90hp Ferrari Alpine and looks about a perfect match. (EDIT: see post below this )

 

Biggest drawback I found with mine was the lack of ground clearance - if it was fairly clear of brash and stumps were kept low, then it would go well beyond where I wanted to take it - fine if you're doing the felling/presenting yourself, but not ideal if you're going in behind someone else.

 

I never did use a flail behind mine, but did some flailing with somebody elses (an AGT 835) and that worked really well on steep sites.

 

I reckon a decent flail and a small PTO winch would be a good couple of implements to start with and then grow from there

Edited December 29, 2013 by Chris Sheppard

[treedave]

[quote name=Treehugger1;

I have 16 years experience working within large country estates and now decided to start working for myself.

I have now purchased an alpine tractor 50hp and was just wondering what if any' date=' work is available for such a machine in the forestry/woodland sector. .[/quote]

 

Ok you know what kind of work happens on larger estates. An estate I work for has an alpine for bank mowing, snow plowing/gritting, general shifting duties ( handy as it takes a ton bag in the link box but it goes thru tight spots) and I use it for the firewood production duties (pto for processor).

I run my own larger alpine for woodland work, tows the 4t capacity weimer trailer (ex of Chris Sheppard) and a 3t winch (looking to upgrade to a double drum with remote 😘)

 

If you're going to invest in a mower, there are a couple of things I've learnt.

Reverse drive on the tractor is easily worth the extra if your doing a lot of it.

Get a mower that gives a good standard of finish unless you're going to aim at really rough cutting/flailing.

Side shift on the deck is well worth the extra, and don't max out on the deck size, it's caused issues on the banks when the grass is long and wet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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