Micro forestry

[CHC]

I only thought of it last night, i am guessing that you will need an additional power pack to power the hypro

 

 

I was googling this morning after reading this thread and saw one on a back of a alstor. That had its own motor on it. Looked all very neat

[slack ma girdle]

Just seen that that Bison forwarder doesn't have bogie drive, only tyre lug drive motor - think about tyre wear / brash / mud blah blah blah... I can see why; the centre joint hasn't the space for a prop shaft; how stong will that be?

 

Nice fast crane tho; as did the Kinetic 8x8 have. The Bisons bigger diameter wheels matter - a lot imo.

 

 

Loading and moving, that's going to go wrong, or end in a disaster.

[TTS North]

Hi Big J,

 

Complicated.

 

I spend a large part of my life in sitka stands (not far from you), doing thinning. I'd think -

 

1. That's a lot of cash to recoup even allowing for capital allowances/writing down allowances. ( Do you have repay grants if you sell the kit?).

 

2. If there's no money to be had from thinnings we'll cut and leave on site for nature to deal with or feed through a big chipper. We'll put as little money into it as possible. That is probably the key point with first thinnings.

 

3. Site I'm on now - you'd struggle for access even with that great looking set up! There is a presumption against access racks which makes winching the only real option (or heli-logging but that's never going to happen!)

 

4. I'd prefer to (and do) fell and winch out to the rack/site edge, and delimb there, chip the brash - then I might hire you in to move the cut timber from A to B. Winch costs nothing to run, flick the switch and your whole tree moves 50m. In theory we can winch to the roadside. So you'd get a few hours work maybe after we'd done all that? That might be a more typical job?

 

5. That's a lot for a day rate. I could hire a three ton digger + operator, and tracked chipper plus a firewood processor for less than that - and that combination might be better for us because we've found firewood is one of the few ways to make money from first sitka thinnings.

 

6. (Takes deep breath) I think you've over estimated the day rate a typical first thinnings customer might tolerate and underestimated the amount of product you could move.

 

But hey! Go for it, if it doesn't work you won't lose the shirt of your back and I might even hire you a couple of time a year!

 

All meant as advice from someone who on the face of it would look like your ideal customer and is in the thick of this type of job right now

 

Cheers.

[Ferguson system]

Kranman has recently launched a strokeharvester that can be mounted on the back of the Bison models. 2 in 1.

[Big J]

All outstanding feedback and very much appreciated. I've always felt that the most important stage of the management of a stand is the early stage. Get the first thinning right and the rest is relatively simple.

 

That being said, I'm not willing to lose money on it! So it looks like a little forwarder is perhaps not a bad idea but the harvester is not. I will have a look at the Kinetic in May when it's in the UK and I'll pop over to the Kranman factory when I'm in Sweden in summer (only a couple of hours from where my brother in law lives).

 

J

[Ferguson system]

Kranman's new processor P25/R25. It can also be mounted on the back of a Bison or Kranman's ATV trailers.

 

[ame]

[/ame]

[Big J]

Kranman's new processor P25/R25. It can also be mounted on the back of a Bison or Kranman's ATV trailers.

 

 

That certainly looks quicker than their previous stroke processor. Skilled operator though - looks like a learning curve on the hydraulics.

 

Any idea what sort of money that is?

 

Does that make more sense than a roller processor?

[Big J]

It's £16,500, but extra £4k for diesel and an extra £800 for larger wheels.

[Ferguson system]

The P25/R25 is about half the price of Alstor's processor (Hypro 300). A stroke processor can handle trees with larger brances and it has very few parts that can break compared to a processor with rollers. The downside is that it's slower. The P25/R25 has a stroke of 1 metre.

[Wood wasp]

Im selling this for £10k

 

http://arbtrader.arbtalk.co.uk/listing/lokomo-919-forwarder-with-kesla-patu-stroke-processor/

 

No idea where the Stihl photo came from, never seen that image before. More machine pics are on this thread

 

http://arbtalk.co.uk/forum/forestry-woodland-management/57942-purpose-built-forwarder-thread-osa-fmg-bruunett-entracon-norcar-logset-etc-50.html#post1446923

 

It's a tidy little machine, about same size as a Bruunett