Hi, I don't have experience in forestry operations but I am looking to get an excavator with a mulcher attachment to do some land clearing and site prep on the ranch. I was also looking at harvesters and the possibility of harvesting some of the wood, as well as doing some large tree pruning and removal in sensitive locations for my neighbors. Anybody know if you can use a harvester to prune branches off of a large tree? Out here in Hawaii we have a serious problem with albizia, which is highly invasive and can grow 100 feet in 5 years. I'd be interested in being able to remove 12" diameter branches at 20-40 foot height. Any input would be much appreciated, thank you!
Most Albizia I've seen don't have many limbs that are 40' from the ground, I've seen many who's limbs start three times that height. I have a felling grapple saw that I run on my mini excavator (13.2klbs) that can single cut up to 14" stems. It weighs about 570lbs with the rotator. I have cut some limbs with it, but it's not exactly pruning from an arborist's perspective. Then again, you could cut farther out then cut the stub from the tree and have a cleaner job. Here are some videos of it working on my property. I do mainly of residential tree work (too wet currently), but some clearing and cleaning up and such. The grapple saw has and will revolutionize the way we do the work and put lots more hours on the excavator. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7GWS1OC4g4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9G8J1MUc1cM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUlp8xpGXI8
Thank you lumberjack! I didn't know about the grapple saws. Still, I haven't seen any videos of anyone making cuts on lateral branches up high on a tree. Just wondering how practical that would be. Reason is, some trees are too close to buildings/power lines to be felled whole, so it costs thousands of dollars to hire an arborist to climb the tree and take it down. I was thinking an excavator with a harvester or grapple saw could do that work in a fraction of the time, and much more safely. I just don't know how practical that is in reality.
You can run a grapple saw on a knuckle boom crane, it's a growing market. The problem with that is you'll have $400k plus invested in the machine. The height doesn't matter to anything but the machine lifting the grapple saw up there. If the machine can handle the weight, you're in business. Working around power lines is risky business. The benefits of the grapple saw that I see are it grabs before it cuts (a hot saw cuts as it grabs). Also a grapple saw works well as a grapple, so you can handle material as well as cut and process for chipping or loading out.