230A Timberjack Forwarder

[Horselog]

I'm looking for opinions and experience on the 230A Forwarder with 4BT Cummins.  Reliability? Parts? Capability?  It has a Serco 4000 loader with continuous rotation grapple.  Any parts of the machine to look for wear or potential breakdown?  Also, what price range would you expect?  This one is a 94.

[BargeMonkey]

 Serco 4k is a good loader but your always reaching out to max. Pick quite a good sized tree. Other than hoses and 1 cylinder mine has been good. Long bunk or short ? Levers or joystick ? There is a nice looking 170 6wheeler @ Cooleys in PA, Unless your on real flat easy ground i wouldnt buy a 4wheeler, mines going down the road at somepoint.

[Horselog]

This one is a short bunk 4 wheel, which is what I need for the way I use it.  Anything bigger I couldn't maneuver where I need to. And it is levers for loader operation.

By going down the road, I assume you mean sell?  Are you looking at selling soon?

[gjersy]

I see one for sale on Richards Machinery for $45,000. I knew a guy who had one in the 90's when they were new and he loved it, he sub-contracted out, skid a lot of wood.

[BargeMonkey]

 The 230A-610's where nice because you could run them in reverse and load. Nothing wrong with a lever machine. A short bunk will maneuver alot better, mine is a long bunk and is a pig sometimes. Im not in a hurry to upgrade, bought mine and have been all thru it, we use it on maybe 2x jobs a yr, more of a lawn ornament out back of the sawmill than anything. What doe you have for other machines ? Alot of it figures into what kind of terrain and how much wood your going to cut, i know a guy doing over 1mil ft a yr by himself with a dozer an 6 wheeler. I wouldnt spend 45k + on a well use 4 wheeler with a serco 4k, unless your cutting high dollar easy to get to wood. 23.1 tires ?

[Horselog]

I have an old Treefarmer C5D, a D3 dozer with winch and a big skid steer.  I mainly do jobs with my horses though, which I use in conjunction with the forwarder on big jobs.  Bunch with the horses to main trail, pick up with the forwarder.  I'm just looking to upgrade from my old worn out C5D.

This does have 23.1 tires.  It's had a lot of major repairs done to it.  Crate 4BT engine, lots of hoses, lots of recent packings, ring gear, clutch etc.  He's asking $44k.

[BargeMonkey]

 Wouldnt be a bad machine to have if youve already got a skidder or dozer. Mine holds about 2mbft, 3.5 cord if stacked right. 44k if its clean and super nice, alot of the ones coming from the lake states have been run to death, 30k+ hrs and then some. Picking big long timber isnt going to happen, maybe slide up the back if your lucky but 4'x16' monsters and your either tipping over or she wont do it. Youve got a nitch market horse logging and a forwarder would be handy and productive. I bought mine for 20k, and figure ive put 10k in it, straight 230 which isnt quite as nice as a 230A but she works. Im seeing more and more cheaper 6 wheelers, but CTL is an investment i dont want to make right now.

[Horselog]

What's the difference between a 230 and a 230A?  And you say you can load going backwards?  Do you just mean the seat swivels and it has high reverse gears?

He says the hour meter shows 8800 hours, but he also says it doesn't appear to be working.  When they put in the crate engine they didn't bother hooking the hour meter back up.

I don't need to pick up long stuff, just big diameter shorter stuff.  I routinely run across 40" plus oak, usually 10-12' is as long as I ever cut on that size stuff, a lot of times just 8'.  I cut very few 16's of any diameter.  The taper just works against you.  I'm sure the Serco must be a lot better than the contraption I have now.

[BargeMonkey]

 Straight 230 is a converted skidder. 230A had reverse controls, best thing to do would be check youtube, they have a great product video from Timberjack yrs ago when the 230A came out, just a whole diff machine. If you where half loaded, and super flat you could pick up some beefy sized stuff. If i had to do it again i would buy a 6 wheeler, probably a Valmet. Again its all your market, pulp isnt huge down here like it is way up north, CTL is rare and mostly on state softwood. I know of 3 forwarders in a 30-40 mile area.i run it when its not easy to drag my slasher in, or when im logging on a private road we dont want to tear up with the log truck. Worst machine we have to trailer, my well is only 21.5ft long and she barely fits.

 
There was some decent sized oak, maybe 30" x 10-12' long and she didnt mind that.

[Horselog]

Have you had any trouble with your brakes?  Both parking and running. I've heard several people say they aren't the best on these units. 

[Ken]

I'm not sure of the brakes on that machine but if they are the same as the 610 I had the brakes were relatively simple to work on.  Are the tires in good shape?  $44K sounds a bit high but used forwarders that are ready to work seem to be quite expensive lately.   I just sold a 99 TJ 610 long bunk for slightly less than that but the machine had 32K hours and was still working daily.   Only had it advertised for a day.

[ABTS]

I've got a 2002 610. easy to work on fairly simple . It can be tipy but you learn and figure things out mine is reiable. Had it six months only down once for a loader sol. Other stuff just normal wear and tear. I wish it wish I had a 8 or 6 wheel double but that's because I work behind a fabtek 153 and its hard to keep up in the pine clearcuts. He'll bury me. It's agood machine though .

[Jhenderson]

I've always figured $50,000 for a forwarder that works 8 hrs a day 6 days a week. Doesn't matter if you pay 50 or pay 25 and put another 25 in it. If you need it day in and day out the entry fee is about $50,000.