This may interest some of you guys on here. Grapple inovation has been getting a big push in this part of the world, this carriage has been developed and is now going into production. thoughts? http://www.dcrepairs.co.nz/falcon-forestry-claw-carriage.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqhCgmGhqu8
Looks a lot like Eagle's carriage, they also call theirs a claw. http://www.eaglecarriage.com/images/yoderclaw.jpg
It would be interesting to get some feedback on this carrage. I have been to a presentation on this and a similar grapple carrage and they appear to work well though I am yet to see hard data that has been collected using a control as to how they perform. A side issue that has bugged me is that these are primaraly for tower haulers and appear to be productive over strops only when the wood is bunched. It is not common down here for swing yarders to run in bunched wood because they pull enough to keep the crew busy anyway. So the question is why buy a carrage and a digger when a swing yarder already does the job? Answer, becasue thye are expensive, not easy to find, generally tower hauler guys dont understand them, and hard to get good operators and spotters. The age of our yarder fleet is high. Off the top of my head I cant think of another heavy equipment industry that would have a fleet as old as ours. Will putting new carrages on older poles improve this? No. Is this a step backwards? Im undesided. Your thoughts?
Did you go to the ffr workshop roger? The only benefit I can see is getting the guys off the hill but you still need to carry those guys in the system since its not always practical to grapple. I can't really understand the point in the camera? lets the operator see whats going on but personaly I think you would pull alot more with a good spotter than trying to log watching a tv all day. Bunched wood out of long spans might make it pay? I would think an acme or similar would be a better investment at a similar price and if ya really wanna grapple just fabricate the mounts and hang a promac or similar under it.
I went to a presentation they gave about a month ago in Rotorua. Not sure if you would call it a workshop. My boss went out to see it work down the South Island. I was a bit disapointed as they didnt have and real data that measures how these things perform compared to the status quo. It was more an over veiw of the FFR program. Im open about the camera. Not sure if it would make things faster or not. I would think it would depend alot on the spotter and operator combination. I sure every grapple yarder operator has had a spotter drive them crazy at some point. I would think a hydraulic grapple would hold big bunches tighter than a cable grapple so there is a benift there particularly with big bunches over long spans. Would be neat to see that sort of long span grappling on say a TY90 that can just gun the wood in.
Just another case of kiwis trying to reinvent the wheel.this concept has been around for years and tryed a few times. And never cracked it. How I see it.leave the grapples to the swingers and carrages on the towers! It is good to see contracters in that region moving away from highleading with chains.
Just because its been around for awhile and nobody has cracked it doesnt mean that it can't be made to succeed looks more like improving the wheel rather than reinventing it. I would hate to think where the world would be if every idea was given up on so easily. What setup are you running Kruger? tower or swinger?
Yes you are right prolog.its great to see new developments in the industry We run both a swinger and tower operation.we are shotgunning with acme carrages on both sites. We do grapple 90% of the time with swinger but have a couple of weeks of support work where the boys are pre setting. Every system has its place. I will be keen to see photos of it after a decent crash landing and the operator loseing the plot at how painfully slow the hydrulics are on it.
Good stuff personally I don't think you can beat the grapple swing yarder combination we tend to steer away from anything with more than 3 guys that doesnt slew and grapple haha. oh and its gotta be red and white! If I was ever going to go down the tower road a slackpulling carriage would be a safer investment to the grapple carriage just better bang for your buck. What area are you logging in? you guys running madills?
I would think it would depend alot on the spotter and operator combination. I sure every grapple yarder operator has had a spotter drive them crazy at some point. yes ........and yes :Banghead especially when you are given the newbie to be your spotter
What works for one contractor may not work for another. A few feel good logs left on the line can help calm things down with a new spotter during training, of greater concern seems to be that often forest owner has no understanding of the requirements of a true grapple operation especially in the area of harvest planning and woodflow, with the contractor changing a harvest plan to suit .Any means of enhancing safety and increasing productivity is a plus, but if harvest planners struggle to plan for a purpose built grapple yarder I can only wish the tower grapples the best.
I here you there T Rex. I am continually amazed at how forest management companies can go about making their bush more expensive to log through their own poor planning or miss understanding of what a machine like a grapple swing yarder requires. I would have thought getting this aspect of their operations correct would be of their highest concern.