Harvester opinions

[bkellyvtme]

I am looking a TJ 608L with a Wartah 622 head. I am in steep terrain and I know the L's are twitchy (has me a little concerned), has there been a fix for them? They are auto leveling right? How is the 622 on hardwood? The sales guy didn't know much about them and no one around here has one or used one.

[treefarmer87]

how easy is it to get parts for it? heres a link on the deere site about the head

http://www.deere.com/en_US/cfd/forestry/deere_forestry/info_center/feature_stories/making-headway.html

they look like a good machine. i dont know how much you are looking to spent but valmet makes a nice machine with the leveling cab...

[snowstorm]

twichy??how steep of ground? try you tube. lotta stuff on there. i have a keto head works real well. in hard wood a 3" limb popple sometimes 4". what dealer has the tj?

[bkellyvtme]

how easy is it to get parts for it? heres a link on the deere site about the head

http://www.deere.com/en_US/cfd/forestry/deere_forestry/info_center/feature_stories/making-headway.html

they look like a good machine. i dont know how much you are looking to spent but valmet makes a nice machine with the leveling cab...

I know the 622B is a beefed up version of the 622, but that is all I know. I like Valmet (Timbco), but I am trying to keep it towards the 130-140 mark. Parts are pretty easy from what I am told from a guy I know who has the 608S.

As far as how steep are we talking.. maybe 20-30% grade 80-90% of the time. I am not too sure on the grade thing but that is my best guess. All I know is I am in the mountains here almost all the time.

[treefarmer87]

heres a valmet, u might be able to find a nice used one

http://www.youtube.com/v/NDk7Pc9NcvY?fs=1&hl=en_US

[treefarmer87]

heres the 608 with a waratah 470 processor head

http://www.youtube.com/v/fvbNywoszAg?fs=1&hl=en_US

[tlandrum]

the timber i cut has bigger limbs than those trees have butt logs lol id never be able to go mechanized with the terrain and timber i cut. and really i dont think i would want to cut stuff small enough to run thant kind of equ

[Gary_C]

I'd sure want to try it out before getting serious about buying. That's kind of suspicious that the sales guys doesn't know anything.   :

[bkellyvtme]

The salesman was being vague when I talked to him about it. He stated the tilt did not work and they will have to replace some unit that controls it and that is $5700. He also stated the 622 is pretty good on hard wood 20" and under. Man, the more you put the pencil to paper it doesn't look so good right now for another machine  :P . Might stay small for a while longer.

[Jamie_C]

The 622 should handle some pretty serious wood ... pretty well anything you can fit inside the feed wheels. There are some 618's around here that are used primarily for cutting hardwood and they stand up real well.

I'm not sure what to tell you about the 608 self leveller ... lotsa folks around here used to run self levellers but they actually found they were flipping them more than the non-levelling machines.

We work on some pretty hilly terrain as well at times but don't run a self leveller.

[amberwood]

Levelller/non-leveller. The fixed machine will be cheaper to buy and repair, the leveller will be able to work steeper ground without risking oil starve for engine and pumps. The biggest limit we have found on the fixed base is the extra physical load it places on the operator trying to stay in the seat or to peer over the dash to see the stump. I dont operate the harvester, but am usually in the excavator shovelling and a few days at 25 degrees plus sure beats doing sit ups for an abs workout.. we have managed to work around the limits by planning workload, but in saying that I am pondering a Timbco 445B buncher to work a very steep block next year.

DTR

[snowstorm]

there is a 911 valmet for sale in vt. needs a little work real low hrs.....only.....36000     

[treefarmer87]

 bkellyvtme you said you might stay small a little while longer. that is smart, alot of the big guys around here are downsizing. stay small,use what you got and it might save you a big repair bill on the TJ, keep looking and the right machine for you will come along