Ponsse Skidders & Processors

Hoop · February 11, 2005, 08:49:23 AM

http://www.ponsseusa.com/index2.htm

Their North American headquarters is approx 25 miles away. The machine is manufactured in Finland. It comes with an English Perkins diesel engine.

I've worked on crews with Ponsse's for 8 years. The skidder (forwarder) has perhaps the best loader in the business, with a 24' reach. The rest of the machine is questionable.
It is a very complicated machine and being thus, is nearly impossible for the average Joe to attempt repairs. The dozens of sensors/etc make efforts to repair it a lesson in futility, at best.
When breakdowns occur (I'm convinced this is a far common malady), a quick look through takes place before the call goes out to have a Ponsse technician drive out to the woods in a service truck. As you might guess, this is an extremely expensive undertaking.

The Ponsse processors are regarded as the class of the field. With a price in the $450,000 category, they better be. Personally, I think they break down too much.

Ponsse's are good machines when they are new. Perhaps the best. IMHO, they should be gotten rid of after they have 6000 hours on the machines......cause they will skin you alive in repairs.

Black_Bear · February 11, 2005, 10:09:40 AM

From talking with the CTL operators here in Maine it can be determined that the learning curve is extremely steep for a processor. Does the computer also tally your production for the day or week? From what I understand there are not any (?) CTL operators that utilize the computer to tally production; it seems as though that is primarily a Scandinavian practice.

I'm curious as to what kind of production you are attaining? The numbers here seem to fluctuate, but the numbers I get from local processor dealers seem to be in the 175-225 cords per week range. This is primarily pulpwood production from all types of cuts. I have heard of production rates as high as 100 cord/day in mature softwood. I was also surprised at the size of the hardwood trees that these machines can cut cleanly and efficiently. How is production in steeper terrain?

BB

leweee · February 11, 2005, 11:56:35 AM

Quote from: Hoop on February 11, 2005, 08:49:23 AM
http://www.ponsseusa.com/index2.htm

Ponsse's are good machines when they are new. Perhaps the best. IMHO, they should be gotten rid of after they have 6000 hours on the machines......cause they will skin you alive in repairs.

Reminds me of new vechiles..... Too expensive when new.... not worth anything when the warranty runs out because their too expensive to service. >:(
The planned obselecense is built right in :

Dom · February 13, 2005, 07:26:17 PM

I saw some Ponsse's at a forestry exbistion. I thought some of the new Ponsse's had Mercedes engines? They were extremely quiet and smooth!

Many of the new machines on the market have sophisticated electronics, that will bring up productivity, but the downfall is they are complexe when they break down. The harvesters usually have systems that will determine the length of the wood that will minimize loss. It measures the length and diameter of the tree, can be programmed to cut different type of trees and many other features. I work at Rocan Forestry Service in Dieppe NB, we sell Rottne forwarders, MHT harvesters, Logmax harvesting heads and we also manufactuer a thining harvester called the Enviro. I'm always amazed by the strentgh and efficiency of these machines.

timberjack_teen · February 21, 2005, 09:55:29 PM

I personally think that Timberjack makes a much better machine then Ponsse. Both harvestors and forwarders. There is a few guys around here that run Ponsse operations and from what i hear they are alot of trouble and to me is doesn't look like they are built for the woods. THe company i work for owns an 2003 Timberjack 1270D, and a 2004 Timberjack 1110D(8 wheeled). The processor has been a great machine and has become very very reliable, and so has the forwarder. These machines are CRAZY fast, the movements a good operator is able to make with one of these machines is amazing! SO so super smooth. Both of the machines have a reach of 32 feet, so you can reach that much futher inot a swamp or wet area. That is really where these machines shine is in the soft conditons, the floatation of these machines are amazing too! I, being the forwarder operator, can basicly move 6 cords of wood at a time without any ground desturbance.

As far as i am considered... PONSSE's don't compare to a JACK!

Oldtimer · March 01, 2005, 10:20:46 PM

I am convinced a Valmet 445 EXL with a large CTL head and a Fab-Tek 540 forwarder would be 100% ideal here in Central NH. The CTL head would need to cut and delimb a 25" hardwood....Then, even small diameter pulp would be profitable, provided the lot had enough to bother moving in for... It's so fast, eco friendly, and effiecient....think about it..2 men, two fuel tanks, and a clean well ordered landing. If I had the means I'd have a new CTL set up. So long as it's worked 45 hours a week, it's bound to be profitable here. But the cost of what I just mentioned would be $700,000.00.....
Lets see...I make about 400 bucks per load of HWP...thats 1,750 loads of pulp to make 700,000....that would mean 49 loads per month...figure 20 work days per month, thats 2.5 loads per day....then the cost of running the show + payroll, that would be another load a day easy...so call it 4 loads of HWP per day for 3 years to pay for it and make a paycheck...at current prices here....If you could put a load of sawtimber a day out above the pulp, you'd be doing pretty well I'd think....assuming you left the trucking headache to someone else...
Wonder if a new Valmet and a new Fab-Tek would last for 3 years of that sort of production here?