6 Wheel Dangle Head Harvester.

[BargeMonkey]

 My addiction to forestry equipment is slowly getting expensive but it keeps me sane when im off the boat. Wondering what you guys know or thought about the 6 wheel Valmet Harvester  ?  An older 911-911C or 921. Ive looked at a 4 wheel 901 but I think its to small. I want something that will handle 75% softwood 25% hardwood, and can delimb tree length if I have to. Im not a huge softwood guy but its getting to the point where a harvester / forwarder team makes sense on some of these jobs,

[snowstorm]

i looked at several 911's. ended up with a rottne smv. its about the size of a 921. one 911 i loked at had 36000hrs on it. it looked pretty good except for the head that had 50 lbs of welding rod in it. i bought a 546 a few yrs ago they are ok. mine had a 150 keto on it. i took that off and put it on the rottne and it works much better. most 911's had a 965 head. if it has the vm1000 computer parts are no longer available. also have a 646 fowarder. the only repair in 4yrs other than a couple hoses were center pins and bushings. and i bought one new tire

[snowstorm]

delimbing tree length is not going to work well. i looked at a 1270 last winter the owner thought it would work and he would pull it with his skidder. after 2 weeks the 1270 was for sale. when you say soft wood what kind and how big? how big are the limbs and how close together?

[1270d]

My addiction to forestry equipment is slowly getting expensive but it keeps me sane when im off the boat. Wondering what you guys know or thought about the 6 wheel Valmet Harvester  ?  An older 911-911C or 921. Ive looked at a 4 wheel 901 but I think its to small. I want something that will handle 75% softwood 25% hardwood, and can delimb tree length if I have to. Im not a huge softwood guy but its getting to the point where a harvester / forwarder team makes sense on some of these jobs,

Make sure you do some homework before getting into an old processor.  Like snowstorm said there are some that parts are hard to get.

[BargeMonkey]

 I appreciate the info guys, yeah ive looked at a few 911's with a 365 head. Im looking at soft wood 24" and down, hemlock pulp maybe some red pine. Hardwood would be firewood or low grade, saw logs we cut with the timbco or by hand. Having one on wheels seems so much handier and smoother ride. Lakeshore has a 120 w/ fabtek 4 roller but again your into a small carrier and around here It would be real hard on it. How are the Timberjack 1270C series machines  ? With say a 762C head ?  A 1270D with a 758Hd is a nice machine just hard to justifie that much money.

[snowstorm]

hemlock can be harder to limb than hw

[barbender]

Old processors could be a real nightmare, you need parts and service support for sure. They are a step up in complexity over all other woods machinery. I don't see how delimbing tree length with a processor in the woods can be effective either. There's a few outfits up here doing it, John Deere/Nortrax is pushing the 703 track processor pretty hard for this purpose from what I hear. I think they are just trying to do a Backdoor maneuver to get these guys CTL : Some of them have just gotten a forwarder too.

[BargeMonkey]

 I was looking at an older 911, with the squirt crane and a 365, I guess in their day they where a hell of a machine. Being able to do tree length, just drop and limb is handy around here. there is alot of places a forwarder wont make it, to wet or to steep. I get 1 hour west or north and it gets flat. So whats your opinion on a 1270D ?  Nortax has one with 12k on it, 758hd, not a bad looking machine.

[snowstorm]

a 6 wheel fowarder will go places your 440d wouldnt think of. be more stable and work much softer ground. all while coming out with 4 plus cd. if it was an older 911it had a 965 head a 365 wold be fairly new. the cat dealer up here has a 501 with a dangle head and a timco with a quadco fixed head with a disc saw

[Ken]

A dangle head is not well suited for tree length unless it is shorter wood.  We have done some of it but the butts of longer trees tend to "jillpoke" into the ground before you get to the top of the tree.  Fixed heads with topping saws are much better for tree length imho.   

Although I had lots of previous logging experience my experience with cut to length equipment was zero when I purchased mine so the learning curve was very steep.    Older machines can be very productive but they do create lots of down time.  Mine has served me well but the search is now on for something far newer and reliable.  That being said I would never go back to a chainsaw and skidder to make a living.  My body just would not take it anymore.  Good luck in your decision.

[BargeMonkey]

a 6 wheel fowarder will go places your 440d wouldnt think of. be more stable and work much softer ground. all while coming out with 4 plus cd. if it was an older 911it had a 965 head a 365 wold be fairly new. the cat dealer up here has a 501 with a dangle head and a timco with a quadco fixed head with a disc saw

Yeah the one lakeshore had was a 965, and I had looked at a 911.1 ? That had a 365 and newer boom. Ive got a 230 long bunk forwarder now, and seen a few 6 wheelers and im not completely sold on the idea. It was a toss up between a bigger forwarder and slasher here 6 months ago, and then I would either need a bigger lowboy or have to hire it moved. Im just on the fence looking, seeing whats out there and general opinion. Anyone run a 901 ? Chadwick baross has one up there, but I think its to small ?

[Big Rooster]

Barge Monkey

I'm curious why you want to tree length as it appears you have a forwarder and I know you were looking for a grapple skidder. 

You may have seen some of my posts and I am looking to do the same thing with either an excavator mount or purpose built.  There is one guy here tree lenghting and skidding with a grapple high track cat and another guy harvesting for a grapple skidder and putting the logs parallel to the trail.  Both make it work.

Tree lengthing you can bring more in per drag and then reprocess and sort roadside.  Being able to sort roadside is huge.  The guy that runs the skidder has to sort every evening with a loader.

As for being able to tree length they were not designed for that but this guys makes it work good on 25" wood too.  The butts will hit the ground but he just moves the machine and the boom up the tree and then tries to squirt the next one to the last one and form partial bunches.

What are your actual plans?

[BargeMonkey]

 I wondered about "tree length" only because I had seen a guy with a 490D / fabtek do it and it had worked out good. Im not a high production operation, just building up as I go so that @ somepoint I can walk away from the boats fulltime. The idea of putting a rolley-2 on my timbco is there, but 75-125k plus a big forwarder doesnt sound to good for something that runs maybe 25 hours a month right now.