hydraulic forwarder

[Ronnie Tucker]

this was mentioned elsewhere i know about the idea of forwardering timber what about the hydraulic part. ronnie tucker tn logger

[Scott G]

Thought I would attach these pics of different models. Majaco, Payeur, and SJM are represented in that order. Eye candy, but if the volume justifies it and your body isn’t up to sorting, decking and loading. Just maybe…. Open the attached files to view.

Take care,
Scott

[Ronnie Tucker]

the term threw me . i have worked with one of these.we just called it a log wagon with a boom loader on it .the picture of the smj was interesting do they have a web address ronnie tucker tn logger

[Scott G]

Ronnie,
The link below is all I have. Maybe Simon or a member of the BHL can weigh in since this picture came from the Brits
Take care,
Scott
http://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/website/fcpiclib.nsf/Images/68DEB4C3223CF4798025731500742FFE?OpenDocument

[Gabe Ayers]

I have never seen one of these horse drawn forwarders that I thought would comfortably handle a 300 board foot hardwood log. They all seem to have light duty booms, grapples and hydraulics. A fellow at HPD a few years ago said he tried one with larger logs and collapsed the main boom. They were first developed in Scandinavia and were designed for smaller softwoods.

I bet some of these manufacturers would custom make a heavier unit with four wheel rear brakes, to help with hills, but how in the world is a horse logger practicing restorative style forestry going to afford it? Not with today’s raw log prices….

Just we will keep using the old 1974 John Deere on a 68 Chevy truck, it’s paid for…and stout.

Hey Ronnie, do they still have any of those side loaders out in western Tennessee?

[matt wny]

a freind of mine had a metavic loader on a cart that he pulled with a farm tractor.when he first got it i thought that the boom looked to light and weak and i told him it would snap in half after about a month or so of heavy use.that was 5 years ago and it still doesnt have a crack in it.he has handled a lot of good sized hardwood with it.it will handle a 20″ diameter 12′ long hard maple or oak log ok but that is about the max.

[J-L]

They look like a really nice piece of machinery. I can see other uses for one. The best of which is feeding loose hay. I’ll bet you could modify that bed a little and use it loading/feeding loose hay. Get two uses out of it that way and maybe justify the cost a little more.
I wonder just how expensive they are? Of course with the timber prices in the gutter (and cattle prices) anything looks expensive.

[simon lenihan]

Our forwarder will load a 300 board foot log, however they were not designed for loading very large logs and were designed for the softwood market of which we rely on here to make a living as do the horseloggers in scandinavia. Anyone handling large volumes of softwood are nearly all working horsedrawn forwarders now, not as a choice but as a necessity. we mostly work conifers this side of the pond and the current log and chip prices are at an all time low, £25/ £30 for sawlogs and £10 for chipwood, we need to shift large volumes to stay in business. In southern sweden horse loggers like jan bong and linus elmirid work their horseforwarders in conjunction with a small timberjack processor. I visited jan this year and while he was working in extracting pulp wood from a spruce thinning his colleague was finishing off a 500 tonne pine thinning with the processor. The processor will cut the equivilant of what 4 men with chainsaws will cut and therefore the economics will always favour the processor, i know folk will say that this is not enviromentaly friendly but the money is not in the product to allow any other method than mentioned. There are several companys in sweden manufacturing horse drawn forwarders and one company in finland. They usually come in 2 sizes, single for 1 horse and a capacity of 2 tonnes and double with a capacity from 3 to 5 tonnes, they weigh from 700kg to 1500 kg, the lifting capacity varies from 350kg for some of the singles to 1000kg for some of the bigger doubles. The finnish forwarder comes with small drive motors in the back wheels to assist the horses when going uphill and nearly all are fitted with hydraulic brakes on the back, however jan’s has also disc brakes fitted on the front. Prices start at £12000 for some of the singles and £16000 to £18000 for the doubles. J-L mentioned about other uses, there are many, we have moved large round bales of hay and silage with it, you can get galvanized sheeting and fit it inside the pins and you have a trailer for firewood, small square bales of hay and also loose hay, etc.
simon lenihan

[Y 4 Ranch]

I had a Majaco M140 on a Majaco trailer, I was real impressed with it, I have picked up a 24 in butt cut by 10 foot log with it. I made the 9 hp Honda grunt some but she picked it. I liked to use it for feeding round bales and loose hay. The continuous rotaion on the grapple made it a cinch. The only problem was the hand operated brakes, seems someone forgot my hands were needed somewhere else.
I sold it when I was deployed over seas. I would like another one if the price was right. Mike

[Author]

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