Best head for a Volvo EC150

[Haleiwa]

Good day,
I'm a new member, and new to forestry, sort of.  I grew up in Pennsylvania in the dairy business, spent about twenty years in Hawaii farming and providing machinist and repair services to other farms, and now it's time to move for what will probably be the last time to northern New York, where we still have the 140 year old house that my wife grew up in.  I'm going to be involved in some land clearing and woodlot projects.  Most of it is land that was logged off from ten to twenty years ago, a mixture of hardwood and softwood, (about 80% hard).  The hardwood is only marketable as firewood, while the softwood , mostly cedar and pine, has some worth as dimension lumber and fenceposts. Just to be clear, I have a lot of experience with heavy machinery, and dirt moving equipment, just not in trees, although my area of Pennsylvania was a strong lumber market, and I did have a lot of friends in the logging and sawmilling business. These projects will include both land clearing and selective thinning, especially where there are enough maple trees to make it worth developing a sugarbush.  Tree size will range from six to eighteen inches on the hardwood, most below twelve.  There are other projects in the future that will be much larger trees.
I have a very nice Volvo EC150 that I want to put a processor head on.  The choices I have found so far are a Ponsse H53, Ponsse H73, and a Keto500.  Talking to a Ponsse rep, the Ponsse H6 would be the ideal size for my machine, but I haven't found one of those yet.  The two Ponsses come with what appears to be the full complement of electronic controls.  There is another Ponsse H7 that came off of a burned Ergo; no electronics, but buying a complete control package would bring it to about the same cost as the other units, and it looks like it is a little newer and better shape than the complete sets.  The Keto is by far the most head for the money, but is right on the top of what my machine can handle.  Neither the dealer nor I know enough about that particular setup to know for sure what if anything I will have to purchase in addition to what he has.
Most of these units will end up being about $25,000 by the time I have them in new York and installed.  The Keto would be less, even if I have to buy some control pieces.  A big factor is that the Ponsses are owned by a Canadian dealer, and his staff speaks more English than I speak French, but that's a low standard.
The other option, but not what I really want to do at this point, is to look for a used Ergo, or something similar, but that would be twice the price at a minimum.  I need the excavator as a digging machine, so like the idea of having a head that can be taken off.

[snowstorm]

i have a 150 and a 500 keto. i think they are well built and a tuff piece of equipment. they are either a 2 line or 3. 2 line has 2 hoses 1 psi and return 3 line is harder to explain. it has an a and b line some functions a is psi and b is return some the other way around. bolth work fine. you would need a set of sure grip controls. the display mcc mkc mckc. it runs on 24 v. it should have close to 75 gpm and 250 bar. keto comes with there own rotator. more oil cooling ??? the 150 feeds faster and has a little less feed force that a 500. parts are a day or 2 away. quadco now owned by komastu. has everything in montreal and almost everything in sc 

[Skeans1]

Some other options would be a SP 561, Logmax 5000 & 6000, as well as a Waratah 480.

[timbco68]

whatever you get , make sure tech support is readily available and preferably other loggers nearby have the same head. It might be a great head but when the electrical and hydraulic gremlins start to appear, there's nothing like talking to someone just down the road who's went through similar problems.

[BargeMonkey]

Why spend all that money on a dedicated processor head unless your going to run it for its intended purpose ? Have you seen a CSI / Bells style dangle barsaw head ? that paired up to a live heel will shovel, pile, top/delimb 90% of it, no computer, less hoses.  

[Riwaka]

You might have to start backwards and go and see what city hall and the environmental authorities have planned with regards to firewood in your area. Market size for firewood & changes, how the customers want it delivered etc A lot of places only want wood burners that burn only wood pellets rather than solid wood etc, if they allow fireplaces at all. Might have to investigate mulch for growing Japanese mushrooms or something and other options co-gen plants etc.

There are some awesome firewood processor machines around or even humble skid steer or mini excavator
Halverson Wood Products with Mini - YouTube

Rotobec grapple saws?
CSI idt-3000 whole tree processor
IDT-3000 Whole Tree Processor - YouTube

CSI dl-4400 slasher saw
DL-4400 Slasher Saw - YouTube

IntermercatoGrapples & Grabs Archives - Intermercato  (ny state agent?)

Grapple saw on engcon tiltrotator , probably a 'no hands' change back to a 360 degree rotating bucket.
Grapple Saw On Engcon Tiltrotator - YouTube