Hey Guys. Deere officialy released their new M series Feller Bunchers and Tracked Harvestors. They look like nice machines and they are finally giving tigercat a run for their money. Up until this point I have been 100% a Tigercat Buncher fan, and I still love them, but these new M's look very nice. The G's, J's and K's were not good machines, at least the 759's weren't. So hopefully Deere is onto something. I do know that later in the year they will be realsing a New Series of (Forestry Swing Machines) aka. Log Loaders, Road Builders, Processors, Delimbers. I was wondering what your guys thoughts were on these new bunchers? A link to Deere's website with them: http://www.deere.com/en_US/products/equipment/feller_bunchers/feller_bunchers.page? A link to a video showing them run: http://youtu.be/ym2q7y3dhkI
We have one local logger here working 3 Tigercat tracked bunchers 24/7. They vary from 6 months to 4 years old. His lead cutter told me a couple weeks ago that he went back to the 4 year old machine as it is more reliable than the other two. Although he liked the newer cabs he's not happy with the electronic glitches that often pop up. Another local guy runs a tracked JD 24/7 also with hotsaw. His original machine got burned by a tree hugger at 28,000 hrs with no issues. He picked up a used one on the east coast with 8,000 hrs on it and had nothing but problems. This summer he traded it on a brand new tracked JD and with 3,400 hrs on it he has had no problems yet. Not much for rubber tired bunchers around here except for the old ones being used by us hobby loggers.
Never been much of a Deere fan, mainly because CAT has the market cornered here when it come to parts and service. About two years ago, I was contacted by a marketing research company wanting to know if I'd fill out a feller buncher survey for John Deere. They claimed they'd pay me $100 if I'd fill out their survey (which they did). I was a little surprised when I got the survey in the mail - little more extensive then what I was expecting. They asked questions about bunchers I'd ran in the past/present, specifically what I liked/disliked about each, what features I'd like to see in a new machine, etc. Having spent way too much time operating and working on bunchers, I took this survey pretty serious. Anyway, my hat's off to Deere for listening to the guys who own/operate bunchers and incorporating our ideas and concerns into their new line. Will be curious to see the final product and what they did to address my "bitch list" and ideas.
I am looking at a Valmet EX10 tracked self leveler with a dangle head. Its a 2006 model with about 9,000 hours on it. Looks like the undercarriage is in pretty good shape. Anyone have any experience or areas of concern with this type of machine? We have a JD 200 LC log loader with Young boom and grapple and have had good luck with it. When it was just out of warranty it started cracking bolts on the rotec. It was found that there was a metal defect in the bolts on some of the machines. Both Deere and the local dealer took real good care of us on the repair. We load, shovel log and run a Waratah dangle head on occasion and it has served our purpose real well.