Waratah dangle head

[deastman]

Any of you guys run one? They're putting them on 703's and 753's up here, Tigercat's too. Looks like a well built head , any problems with them?

[fishpharmer]

deastman, I know little about logging and essentially zero about the Waratah's, the fellas in this youtube run them and this one has about 15,000 hours on it, I believe...

https://youtu.be/HxkB55c1h8k

[wannaergo]

I've never personally ran one, but I've watched them on occasion, and talked to the operators. Unless you are consistently in big wood, I don't really think they are worth getting. I hear a lot about poor measuring in crooked wood, and they seem pretty bulky for smaller wood. Out of all the ones that I've watched, I haven't seen one that would outperform my Ponsse head.

[deastman]

We looked at a 753 today with a 622B and the head did look big. Looked at a Ponsse Fox and a Komatsu 6wd and those heads weren't so big with smaller delimbing arms, how do those arms hold up in hdwd?

[mike_belben]

Ive never seen a dangle head in person.  From pictures i notice a cylinder pushes against the yoke to switch them from vert to horizontal.  What makes them trip? Just swing the carbody to choose direction and a relief valve lets them dump over? 

Can a dangle head stand an average sized butt log up vertical or are they too weak?

[Riwaka]

I assume you are looking at a head capable of felling and processing, stacking at the stump
It depends on what type of wood you are working with. If you are in variable size wood  a 4  drive roller Waratah 622C might be preferable to the 622B.
The 622C four roller is heavier (6019 lb) than the 622B. (5060lbs)
I assume that you are looking for a John Deere / Waratah processing head combination due to the back up/ technical support  you can get in your area.

Depending on the support level the Southstar has a few changes over the waratah - with bolt on knives, generally an improved design layout of hydraulics/ electrics - and hose protection, 4 rollers.
Southstar QS450 (4290 lbs)- mainly a thinning head - no top saw.
QS500  works optimally in 18-24'' wood  (5921 lb including the link and rotator  four roller
QS500 on Hyundai  https://youtu.be/2PYG_TxuJj0

QS500 on Linkbelt 4040 on heel  https://youtu.be/eUpmAPcZGfQ

JD/ Waratah are trying to improve  their products (R and D) so what machine combinations people have seen in past as  performance comparisons may not be completely relevant now.
https://youtu.be/GjquWekzQI8  JD 853M with waratah  H480C   2734lb without rotator and link

JD 1470G with waratah 290 - still have to get the chainsaw out for the larger trees in this stand.
https://youtu.be/CX_7W6lk1wI

[quilbilly]

Lots of guys out west use em. Mostly working in a landing.

[barbender]

I've not been around them very much, but the guys running Deere equipment seem to be happy with them. One friend that had ran both Ponsse and Deere wheeled processors said the Ponsse was certainly faster, but he had better uptime with the Deere/Waratah.

[barbender]

Deastman, if you're wanting to go with a dangle head, you might as well get a rubber tired machine, unless you are consistently in large hardwood. My .02.

[deastman]

We're gonna take another look at a Ponsse 8wd that's near by, I'm not sure what model head it has but the Ponsse's I've watched online seem to have really fast heads

[barbender]

 I honestly haven't worked around anything but Ponsse harvesters, and I don't have a lot of seat time in them. The new heads- H6 and H7, are said to have improved reliability. The original model heads were the  H53, H60, and H73. Most of the heads in use up here were H73's, with a few H60 heads on Beaver models. The H53 is supposed to be super fast in small diameter softwood. Our company machines are all Ergos with H7 heads, except for one H6. The contract cutters have a few H73E equipped Ergos, which they say are the H73 with all the bugs worked out

[wannaergo]

I'll put in a second on the rubber tire. There's not much that I can't do with a rubber tire that I could do with a tracked machine with a big head. I would say if you were determined to get a big dangle on a tracked carrier, the best route would be south star. We demo'd one and i think it was a superior head over waratah. We actually almost bought one.

[barbender]

I've helped fell a few bigger trees like in that last video. I felt the tree shake when the processor grabbed the trunk above my head. No thanks- I'll notch and wedge them, clear out and let the machine push them over if they want. I have a decent idea what that tree is going to do, I'm way more concerned about that several thousand pound head being over me. That 1470 should have been able to drop those trees by the looks of it anyways. He butt them off with one cut.

[barbender]

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10207084780908527&id=1551195487&ref=content_filter#!/sharer.php?fs=8&fr=%2Fsearch%2F&sid=10207084780908527&refid=52&ref=content_filter

[1270d]

What kind of timber are you in deastman?

[Ken]

I am running a Waratah H480C and it seems to work quite well.  It certainly works much better in small diameter softwood but we do cut quite a lot of bigger hardwood as well.  I wouldn't mind trying one of the Waratah 270 heads.  Much the same design as the older Timberjack 762 heads which were very popular at one time.  I find the 2 roller heads do better with crooked wood.  Whatever head/carrier combo you go with make sure you have dealer support. 

[deastman]

Right now I'm in a 50/50 mix of small to medium fir and big poplar with nasty twisted tops. I usually cut more hdwd than spr/fir and I have a lot of big poplar ahead of me, too big for my harvester to lift off the stump. I think a dangle head might work better than my four-roller directing it where to fall with the ability to swivel the head around the tree

[1270d]

How what average diameter class is the poplar?   I have quite a bit of time running a 480 head like Ken's and it is a very powerful head.   They will cut up to a 30 inch tree, I do not believe the 622 series will accommodate something that large.  The 622 is built on a longer frame than the 480 or 415 waratahs.   The small frame heads are very versatile and manuverable at the cost of some durability.

Now running a Ponsse head.  Also very good but has a lower Max diameter at about 27 inches.

[deastman]

The poplar runs from 18" up to 26-30", the bigger ones I'll have to drop by hand

[Ken]

The poplar runs from 18" up to 26-30", the bigger ones I'll have to drop by hand

I like cutting poplar that size with my head.  We have the luxury of cutting our poplar random lengths, so when I get to a bushy top I just drop the tree, turn the head around and cut the top off.  A head with a top saw would be nice but my head is very suitable for doing commercial thinning which is certainly becoming a larger proportion of my work.  The 600 series Waratahs are considerably larger in size. 

[barbender]

That is huge aspen! Does it consistently run that size? We see a lot of 10-14", when you get into a stand 14-18" that is usually prime stuff. If you are consistently cutting 20"+ that is where a track carrier could have an advantage.

[deastman]

That size poplar is not real common around here, but this job has quite a bit of it. I can get my four-roller around a 24-25" tree but some of this stuff I have to try to double-side or leave it for the Husqvarna