Brushcutter

If your just going to be doing simple coppice then 30/31 would be fine however if you did coppice with standards and you want to take some out then 32 would be a good idea. The windblown cover both hard and soft woods however you need 32 to do them. There is CS50 that does require 32 but still covers the same techniques. Your best bet is to go and do some work and then see what you feel you need. If your dealing with the felling side well it maybe time to train for extraction.

They look very good not used one though. I like the idea of the little shelf for the logs on the butt plate. They seem to have put a lot of thought about how the cable lays onto the drum, which seems to be a problem with most of these skidding winches.

Anyway you could get yourself into a position to buy it back from him?

Looks like a tidy bit of kit.

I so missed that. I had a 6.5tonne winch on a 390MF works a treat. You might want to think electro hydraulic to save having to lug lots of cable downslope.

As already said as much pull as you can afford or the tractor can handle. What tractor will you be putting it on? I like the Igland and Uniforest winches.

Imagine tariffin' 500 acres. What a horrid thought.

It may well be. I'd of thought you'd of known a local contractor who had the money to splash out on a harvester like that. Could be an owner/opperator subbed in by a local guy? The chances of someone letting you having a go on a 1270E are very slim.

Big bit of kit. Its probally going into a block of woodland someone has brought standing and shipped their harvester up to it.

Bit big for a valtra.

Another thing in the classified i missed.

Nothing like felling a big tree like that. I've done about 5 4' plus tree straight fells this year.

Stunt fell?

How many hours on a 5k head.

Unfortuantly when your forwarder breaks or your harvester. You have to ring Mr Wilson and tell him. Then sit down for a while and weep when he tells your your broken boggie is about 6k. At least with older kit you just weald a new bit on:thumbup1: Chris i too am suprised about the lack of 'micro harvesters' over hear as i like to call them. I've had the idea for a while then Nick Hilton turned up with one in the forestry journal. practically the same set up idea. The harvester heads are the killer a s/h valmet and cranes are reasonable money if you look in the right place. Have a look in the forestry journal there are a few skylines for sale one forwarder mounted. might do the job.

Barony college do it. Be prapared for the 500 quid skills check and 1500 quid a week training cost though.

Should of paid scrap value to him and set it up yourself. They can be a pain in the backside though. Our one is electric on 3phase and since it lives in a barn we have issues with the electrics.

Good old machines the Danckaert. Belgian i believe, there we a few back in the old cabinate making workshop. Nothing as big as that though probally of looked like that when it was up and running?

I've used a variety of methods that all work really well depending on the team and the wood. Did some ride side felling on some nice 12-18" chestnut which was to be left to naturaly regenerate to SC coppice. there were 3/4 of us two of us who were experenced and 2 college kids with CS30. We felled and dressed the chesnut out in the wood. The college kids would drag it in on the winch and process it to 5' 8' 10' depending on what we were using it for. Made the best of kit and people skills and it was dam quick. Now if we had a roof mounted crane then the stacking side could have been sped up. Do a lot of final nurse crop felling so again hand fell into the racks and stack the 3m chip and leave the sawlogs 4.1m-5m for the forwarder to deal with. As long as the racks are wide enough and used properly its all good. Bigger hardwoods i tend to cut to length and then either pick up with the forwarder if i can get to them or skid them to one place then extract from there. I've worked with the harvesters in the hardwoods too. Sometimes they're fine and get along but you have to cut out a few 3m lengths out of the stuff too small for the rollers. Other times you have to fell by hand take a length off and let it do its thing. Other times you fell take the top/forks/co dominate stems off and let the machine do it. Had to deal with a few hung up and windblown cherrys over a foot path all about 18" across. The tractor just could not get in the wood so had to use a redirect and a tractor in a meadow. So my normal methods wouldn't have worked there. However i'd just widen the rides to get my kit in then a few racks here and there. A year down the line bit of natural regen no one would know we were there.

Looks like you've got a pulp hook rather than tongs too. Never got on with a pulp hook.

Spend the best part of a year in Finland training on the big forwarders and harvesters. Then i'm thinking come back big bank loan and getting myself a T131 and a harvester head. Looked at a few woodland jobs around here that the harvester would breeeze through.

I'm off to Finland to train on the harvesters. So i shall show you some pictures when i'm over there.

What sort of size is the larch? Can you get a tracked harvester in? Will an 8wd forwarder handle the slopes? can you get acess to the valley floor and work from there? Can a skyline do the job Do you have any of this kit of will it have to come in?

I considered buying Steve Holder skidder. I sat on my money one day hoping to have a bigger tractor. The Holders are ace little things. If you watch Riko the ocasional big alpine tractor comes up.

There are lots on youtube. Amazing what a 95hp tractor will do.