Brushcutter

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.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmSAk-HHVP8]YouTube - ‪valtra in action 2‬‏[/ame] I'd love to have an Keto 51 on a Valtra T131 with a either a Jake mounter Kronos crane or a 580TL Botex on the roof. I think it would be the best way to manage a lot of the small woods around here.

Looks like a very good bit of kit. I'd rather load it with a crane rather than a winch, but thats just a personal thing. As for hardwoods i imagin that it would eat through birch regen thats only got some branches on top. Bigger stuff i and stronger stuff such as oak thinning i think it would struggle. Wonder what the cost is compared to a s/h small harvester head?

No experence of the MS460 but i have of the 576xp. Fantastic saw pull very well even in the big hardwoods and flys through the softwoods. The anti vibe system is amazing. Just ordered a 576xpg. Couldn't afford autotune but it's really good.

Well done. I'm off to college in Finland to drive harvester & forwarders:thumbup1:

We generally cut 4.1 -4.5m saw logs in larch so the bigger but plate make them bit easier to roll and flip up onto the stack. With the current Fransgard its a pain to get more than 2 butts skidded or 3-4 poles. With the bigger one i expect i can get 4-5 poles on at least and 3 butts. Saving a bit of time for not a lot extra cost. So of the hardwoods i've skidded have been massive and the butt end and the bigger butt plate would have really helped.

Its an A92 so its around about 90hp. The tractor has never stuffered with 6.5 tonne on it. I've pulled the tractor back digging in about 18" an it didn't stall. Snapped a full steel winch cable and it didn't stall. pulled things so heavy that the winch refused to move it and the tractor didn't even sound worried. I think it was £5500+vat for the EHpro and the remote and delivery.

A 100hp isn't a lot of hp but it should be fine to run a 8tonne winch. It will be at the top end of what you can run power wise. It will be sub 1tonne on the linkage i would have thought so balacne won't be too much of an issue. Just as a point of reference i got a quote for a 9tonne Igland double drum. They're a jaw dropping 13k+vat. Although when you think thats only about 6.5k a drum. So you can see what value the uniforest offer. Iglands are ace though.

Yes yes it is. The guy with the big Tujifun has a remote for it. He set a hig winch line chokered around the stem. Faced up oppisite to the lean and started the back cut. As he cut through he used the winch remote on his belt to pull it back to upright and then over. Riko offered me a very good deal on the uniforest 85proEH with remote.

I've got my heart set on a 8 tonne uniforest. The electro hydraulic one with the large butt plate. I think Hardwood Logger on here has the 8tonne uniforest. A local guy guy has the tujfun and it's VERY impressive. But from what i've seen of the uniforest i've been swayed.

That is a massive MEWP. What is the hight of that and the reach?

What about the Bat & arb course from the bat consertvation trust. What about some of the report writing workshops and fungi course from treelife?

Probally cost you more than that at the stump.