Ha , thought that would get you in . My clients have nick named my excavator with vertical tree extraction grab "Tree Hugger" . Today i cleared a kilometre of creek banks that were heavily infested with Camphor Laurel trees . The local council is cracking down on land owners , making them remove these pest weed trees . This is a great way to take them out . There must have been around a thousand of them , i charged $2100 for the day which sounds a lot but is only about two dollars per tree . It is up to them now to burn the piles . I am going to buy a disc mulcher but i think for this task the grab is better . Not only is it much faster , but also does not pollute the stream with poisonous bark and leaves like a mulcher would .
Tree Hugger goes mad... couldn't resist. Yup... you're a crafty fellow, Iron Horse... LOL You knew I'd jump on that title... You're machine must be working pretty good... a thousand in one day is a nice piece of work... :thumbsup I think you have already posted some pictures, but I would like to see some more... if possible. Seems to kinda work like a feller-buncher... without the felling head, i.e., shear/bar saw/hot saw... :cool2 I don't think that's a bad price at all... back when me and my brother were logging our own timber... occasionally, we'd have a friend or somebody come up and help us cut and limb... with there own chain saw. (we limbed in the woods, where they fell). I think we paid them 2 to 3 dollars a tree... around that anyway.... BTW... how's your satellite internet system working?... and what brand is it? OCR...
What is it that makes those trees considered a pest?
http://www.camphorlaurel.com/
Iron horse that was cheap job here that would have been a 10000 dollar job. that extractor looks like it does the job, after you extract them do you pile them in mini piles for the customer to bunch them. Here a fellow I know clears for TVA right of ways. He uses standard machinery and a few Cat skidders with rake blades one has been stretched with a dump bed added to it. Poormans ADT well hes not poor but just need a small atd. He as a rake for it that mounts on its blade then use the excavator to put a load of dirt in the back and makes a great piling machine to sort brush and trees to piles. Hows he house comming been following it on TBN. Sqizzy thanks for the link thats one mean plant didnt know that yall had Koala's on crack. We have Angel trumpet plants they are pretty and easy to cut off and root new ones. I didnt know they were poisonous and in the fall you have to cut them down at ground level before frost and lay a mulching over them. you can reroot the stalks indoors and double your plants. Dad was trimming his and had skint one on accident and picked it up later that night he had to got the the Emergency room with his ticker acting up. It over revved his heart and did have a good sideeffect that the doc found he had a bad aorta. folks take the leave and dry them for illegal tea. and a friend of mine had a neighbor that his goats got loose and ate some of the plants in his yard and killed them. At our landfill we had a grove of suma take over a hill it had been uncared for a year due to time and weather some of them were 3 inches at the base. We had a worker allergic to them I took the rubbish compacdtor over to them and ran over them with the spikes and the paddle chappers ground them into chunks.
OCR , where have you been mate ? I would like a shear now , the grab is good at pulling them straight out but a shear would be better if the stumps are to be left . Re. the Satelite insallation , as long as there are no clouds in the sky and a butterfly does not fly past the dish it is fine . Thank's Squizzy for posting that link , it will answer Steves question more completely than i could . Taylor , after i do a job like this , i'm told i work to cheap . But if i quoted any more and finished in a day they would call me a burgular , you can't win . The house is comming along fine , although time is a rare thing for me , thank's for asking . One of the photos shows the machine carefully lifting a tree out of the creek so as to not disturb the surrounding trees or cause soil erosion . The tree was partly cut so as to leave a neat stump for poisoning .
This is so often the vase with you tree removing burgulars...... We were doing some prelim earthworks on a rural site awhile back and I asked our client how he had gone getting quotes for the tree removal. He had quotes of 5 to 8 grand and thought that was expensive. I put him onto our guy who came and had a really good look at the job and said he'd do it for $3,500, so he got the job. Brad goes hard as hell and his guys work like demons. They finished about 2.30 in the afternoon and Brad wanted his cheque. The client couldn't believe he finished so soon and reckoned he was being ripped off...he didn't want to pay. Ya can't win for workin sometimes.
What i should do but can't because i work flat out is to work like council workers . Poke along , sit on the Esky for morning smoko , lunch and afternoon smoko . Pack up at 3.00 o'clock and make the job last 4 days . They feel better when they pay you as they feel they have got thier moneys worth . The job below was a tender for the council last week , it was an avenue of Camphor Laurel that had envaded a Tea Tree area . I worked the excavator for one day and left enough material on the ground to keep an 18" chipper and 4 guys going flat out to clear the road in the four days allocated . The photo shows the chipper and truck about half way into the pile . I made good money out of it and might try to get more council work as they pay without question if the job is done well . The chipper cost me $1600 per day for four days , $6400 .
I wished Austrailia was a bit closer I have an 18 inch hardwod 24 inch soft wood shear head that we took of f a 518 Cat turn around converstion when we built our compactor out of it. It was remanned before we bought it and even had an accumulator clamps on it. Dad was asking 1200 for it. kinda obsolete for timbering here as hot saws are faster and easier on the fiber. I used it one time when we were testing the machine out to cut off a few white oaks off a fence row before loading the trailer. I have a friend that uses one on a 100 Komatsu that has a set of poison nozzles on the head when he shears he spays a pint of roundup on the stumps A shear with an accumulater you could get 2 or 3 trees then set them in a bunch and go for another pass and in a minute have a large pile. Id still ike to have a vertice tree grab I got a 70 foot pole to set in a week and working on gettin a truck crane to do it. I dont like cable that high up.
Heres one standing a power pole . I would buy that from you and pay all costs if you could get it clean and put it on a boat (maybe someone shipping a car would share a container ). Do you have any pics ?
that grab of yours is really good for selective clearing reg, you said in the first post they were going to burn the trees you cleared, do they still allow burning in Qld ? no way you could burn those trees here
Hi Pete , i'm in NSW . Just light it up , must have been a lightning strike :beatsme . TBN = TractorBynet . It's another tractor forum i'm on , check it out .
for some reason i cant remember i thought you were in Qld. are you in northern NSW ? will check out TBN
Yes mate , Clarence Valley . What i need is a remote controlled vertical tracked grinder . Something i can feed the trees into verticaly like a carrot into a blender . Is there such a thing ?
the only machine i know of that you feed vertically is a tub grinder, i have never used one although i know they can be very dangerous, if you dont keep the tub full they throw out bits of timber , sometimes for 2 or 3 hundred metres, a guy was killed down here a few years ago by one, they are banned on all nsw govt tip sites, if you can burn them i reckon the best method would be to buy a hydraulic shear so you can shear them up and leave in piles, that would leave piles with no long bits sticking out so they would all burn, another option is to dig a pit and put the trees in the pit, get them burning with some diesel amd have a fan/compressor blowing air on the fire and green trees will burn, heaps cheaper than grinding, i have not seen it however my excavator operator has done it years ago.
Iron Horse ill get afew pics of it tomorrow afternoon. Ive got a dumpster over at the welding shop that needs to be picked up and that where the conversion was done at. Its got one set of holding clamps and then the accumulator. I have a steam cleaner I can lay into it and aget it spot less I also know a man that imports alot of machinery I think he has a load set to go that way in a month or so. The shear is a FLECO they are an old company. I used to operate a tub grinder on a job, I ran and excavator and 2 loaders depending on what I was grinding if I had piles I used an excavator if it was loose used a loader and clamp rake. had a remote I carried with me that I could stop the tub also controlled the conveyer to. They do sling alot of stuff if they get empty. alot of the time I had a truck backed into the machine as chipped wood is used alot here for boiler fuel and paper pulp. alot of time if I was in thin brush the truckers just chained the trailer with 2 hooks to the rear of the grinder and Id drag them along so they didnt get have to keep backing up and cut the loader travel time down.
Brought my machine home for a service and some damage repair , thought i may as well pull out some Camphor Laurel from my property while it's there . No snapping them off and poisoning the stumps here , just tear them out roots and all . I'd like to see them try and grow back now .
should make for a good fire this winter, dont breathe the fumes, i read a bit of that link squizzy posted, they are some kind of narcotic, you can make ecstasy from them, no wonder they smell so nice when we put them through the grinder.
It's had no affect affect affect on me yet .
maybe you need to chew the bark like the koala's and possums.
Maybe that's it . Well , i don't usually buy used gear , but i made an exeption today . I bought this 2004 TGA MAN 26-460 with Tiptronic transmission and retarder . It's only done 540,000 k's on light work . Has had it's 60,000k service on time every time . Ive always had a soft spot for M.A.N's as they are well built , quiet and economical . They say it will do nearly 8 miles per gallon (AU gallon) , not bad for a 460hp truck . All the loot i had went into this truck today , so i'll have to borrow for a low loader which i hate doing .
they are a good truck, i have a 2004 model which pulls a tanker, have had it for 10 months and have had no problems. i saw one auctioned at slatterys at newcastle last month, it made $35k, however finance company did not let it go, it is up for auction again this month. i paid $70k for mine before prices collapsed.
i just had a look at slattery;s website and the MAN has disapeared, very likely that is the truck you bought, from memory it had 540,000 klms, it was a very clean and tidy truck. a tip with the transmission,my driver changed from fourth gear to fifth however forgot to flick the button to high range which meant he changed back to first gear, it disintergrated the clutch, new clutch supplied and fitted $5,000.computer showed engine reved to ( 3800 revs from memory) engine still ok so it must have survived without any valve damage.
Ooh. I have this thing for MANs too, and yoh, I'm not surprised that your the same. You know, they got this, hmm, uh, ya, you know?, feeling about them. I must say, good choice. And a good looker too. Well, if there's two truck brands to buy, its the DAFs and the MAN's. Yoh.
Now listen here Ducky , i saw him first !
You can keep her! Long distance relationships don't work out in the end!
I would have thought the speed sensor would have not allowed the change to take place . 3800 revs aint bad without dropping a valve . I'd say that was my truck at the auction , i hav'nt seen it yet so i can't say . If ever anyone in OZ is looking for some gear , give ****************************************** a call . They put on 10 new tyres , had MAN do a $1700 service on it and are going to deliver it 1700 kilometres all included in the deal . I bought the Vertical Tree Extraction grab that i use for pulling trees from them also . Good guys that you do'nt come across every day .
there is no protection against that, when i bought it off a mate he told me that it happens, i thought no more about it till my driver did it, i was using it to pull the float while the mack was being painted, to be on the safe side i use the clutch when changing range( 4th to 5th gear) once when i changed to 5th it was a little hard to push in to gear, i checked before letting the clutch out and sure enough i had done the same thing, fortunately i realised my mistake before letting the clutch out, if i had changed using the auto shift button i would have wrecked the clutch like my driver did, they are a good truck, like you said, quiet, comfy and reliable,low maintenance, not 1 grease nipple on the whole truck, has an exhaust brake which works just as well as a jake brake,cross locks which are handy in soft or wet ground.i bought a case roller off aust machinery wholesalers, i think it was off richard, bought it off the pic in magazine, they delivered from melbourne to here, roller was good, was just as he described.who are you buying the float from reg ?
I have the same thought, though I must admit to not being an expert on boxes. Many years ago and very green I was tramping a 2800 double drive DAF with Eaton Roadranger box ( the dogs bits in 1980) pulling a lowloader trailer back to camp on an undulating stretch of blacktop. All I needed to do was drop one gear, eg, split top, OD into Direct on the triple splitter. Did it about three or four times near the crest of each brow then back up again as I started down the otherside. as I peeked the next brow and flicked back into OverDrive ( no need to even dip clutch, just ease off the power peddle) power back on, no drive .........:beatsme dipped the cluth, stick in and out, flicked trigger OD to Direct and back again, still no drive....... really down on speed now and starting to pull onto the shoulder when I finally look down at the trigger that worked sideways not up and down :bash dumbass driver was flicking between DIRECT and LOW :Banghead back into OD and away we went boy was I glad the safety feature, whatever it was, worked. Very nice looking truck and you sound very pleased with the deal. I hope it works out for you. That excavator sure seems to be doing the business for you also. :drinkup
roadrangers are good like that, if you screw up the change they neutralise.
Thank's AtlasRob , and yes i'm very pleased with the deal and the way they conduct themselves . The excavator is starting to become popular as i can reach in around keeper trees and carefully and safely extract the target tree . This is of great importance with the enviromental concious agencies i'm targeting . I need a mulcher now , but after hitting my Piggy Bank with a claw hammer to buy the MAN it won't go "oink oink" anymore . Pete , i'm in a qaundry at the moment re. a trailer . I have three choices , i can either buy a cheapie to get me moving . I can borrow money to buy a deck widener like yours and also do outside work and hope to get paid . Or i can buy the low deck float i posted in the other thread so i can not only cart my digger but also do trade towing ie. broken down coaches , accident recovery etc. that i can get paid for . I'm a big fan of staying home and going broke instead of running around the country side , burning fuel , not getting paid and going broke .
I've been trying a little of both lately and it seems to be working My policy is to hang on till the grim death. My take on things is that if I owned all of my gear outright then I'd be able to stay at home and go broke quietly in peace. I don't think its the time to be buying new gear (says he who was just drooling over new dump trucks this morning) but if you have the readies the 2nd market is ripe for the pickin.
well reg i guess all three have pluses and minuses, my first trailer/float was a non widening drop deck with electric ramps, loading a 20 tonne excavator with tracks hanging over each side is not ideal and looks bad unprofessional) going down the road, another problem with the dropdeck was that i could not get the excavator far enough forward to get the axle weights correct, it was a tonne over on the tri,having a deck widener is very nice.if you are selective who you move you should not have too much trouble getting paid.looking at the recovery side i suppose you would get better rates salvaging broken down and crashed vehicles.i know i am biased but i would get the deck widener,if you are interested in a cheapie i still have my dropdeck, i paid $41,000 and spent $5,000 on brakes, suspension, wheel bearings etc.prices have dropped since then, i would sell for $35,000 including gst. if you are buying a new float get a price off colron/lusty at wacol, Qld wher i got mine, keen price, good float and nice people.
I'll pay that , not bad . Pete , do you have any pics of the old float just in case i get scared , and don't borrow money ? AMW sell Lusty floats , $119K for a deck widener , is that about right ?
i'll see if i have any pics on file, if not i will take some tomorrow. as for lusty floats there are a few lusty float builders, i think the lusty family have sold out a few times, mine was from colron industries at wacol, (near ipswich ) they use colron and lusty in their advertising, talk to chris or john lusty. i have seen a new deck widener on springs advertised in deals on wheels for just under or just over $100K, cant remember the brand although it was a well known national brand.
no pics of the drop deck, will take tomorrow, here is a pic on my MAN though, mine is a 2004 model, the one from slatterys was also a 2004, im guessing that is yours.
Nice looking truck Pete , the only difference i can see to mine , is yours has a high roof and alloy wheels . Mine is 460hp , whats yours ? How does it pull ? I drove a new MAN cab over in the 80's , it was 280hp which was pretty powerfull back then . It was so quiet inside , it was unbelievable as i learnt to drive in a B model Mack . I just found the deck widener you were speaking of , it's a JTB out of Smiths Trucks in Ballarat . $93K inc gst , not a bad price at all .
gidday reg, mine is 460 hp.it's a TGA 26 460.it pullls pretty well, i have used it on the float and while it does not have the grunt of the cummins it goes quite well, it will do it easily pulling a tri with a 20 tonne exc.it is very quiet and comfortable. that JTB sounds good, you would be looking hard to find a used one at that price, you will probably never buy one cheaper than you can now.and as i said the deck widener is so much better.below are the pics of the drop deck. it also has a 1000 litre fuel tank under the trailer.
I'm still torn between a Deck Widener and a Tilt Deck trailer . I have just emailed JTB to ask them if they can build me one with a widening tilt deck section . This will give me the best of both worlds , a low aproach trailer and a wide pad to sit the digger on . I may get a reply tomorrow .
i think that would be the ideal unit as long as there was no downside using the tilt trailer to move the excavator, wont be cheap but would be an extremely useful unit, you should probably price a winch for it too, would be handy salvaging broken down and smashed heavy vehicles, having a widening deck would probably be good for loading smashed tracks , gives you more room.
The bare trailer is 100K , the 20,000lb winch is $8500 and the wireless remote for the winch is $1500 . Iwould get it with the winch and remote as the 8 wheeler tilt tray i built had one . It's so easy to be able to sit in the seat and steer a dead vehicle while winching with the remote . I don't know if a proper widening system like yours would be needed or weather some RHS pull out outriggers would suffice . This is the same trailer as the one above , the big fork gives an indication of the size of the tilt deck section .
i suppose outriggers would do although no doubt a widener would be better,you just have to decide how much money you are willing to spend. the main thing is to try and get it right the first time, costs a lot more if you decide you need something different after you have bought it.a good example is my float, i had never towed a float that long and did not realise how hard it was to get around tight corners, you would not believe the amount of kerbs i have to run the rear wheels on the float over, wish i had got rear steer, i dont know the cost however it would have been worth it, i am going to call colron and see what it costs to convert it now.probably too much.
looks like a hell of a good trailer.
I suppose when you consider that this trailer will still be worth 100K years from now , it's not such a outlay . The beauty of it is that i can put my tractor on the top deck and the excavator behind it and take both to the job in one shift . I have asked them about finance , i hope to know next week .
that's true and like i said earlier, better to get it right the first time, probably much better money salvaging broken down and crashed stuff than moving machines, a lot less competition
reg, i just had a good look at the pics of my truck and yours, mine does have a higher roof, i did not realise they had different roof heights, wonder why, mine has a sleeper with 2 bunks one on top of the other, maybe that's why.
Very nice looking trailer Iron Horse and I can fully appreciate your thoughts on the recovery possibilies, more work oppertunities is only a good thing in my opinion. The question I would have to ask is, do you legally require the widening trailer to meet your weight regs as in parts of the States. If not, I would spend the extra money on a tiltdeck with rear steer ( power or self tracking) and decent outriggers, provided it does not bring you into conflict with authorities when moving your biggest piece of plant. In UK we regularly move 30t exc on step frames with outriggers. Investment in a proper set of illuminated slideout marker plate and you look as proffessional as any other cowboy going down the highway. :my2c
Thank's for your comments chap's . These are a couple of thier other trailers . One is the Deck widener and the other is a drop deck tilt tray . Way to much to think about .
All very nice trailers and I can understand your predicument in which way to roll That deck widener really is a beauty BUT is only a DECK widener looking at the picture, the axles dont spread. If that is the case I dont see any real benefit for your personal use that a set of decent outriggers wont solve at a better price. That tilt and slide is also a beautiful piece of kit if you are going to spend all your time recovering crashed coaches It would break my heart to put a 20t exc up on that. :thumbdown From all you have said, that first tilt deck with the big forklift on it has got to be the best option to cater for your needs, provided they are happy to fit outriggers for your exc when its flat. :IMO Man I didnt realise how easy it is to spend somebody elses money. Good luck which ever way you go. :drinkup
I'm from the ......????...... help you! Oh oh!!!...... OCR... LOL...
some nice looking trailers reg,im glad it's you trying to work out the best option..that drop deck tilt trailer looks real handy.
The decision is getting easier , they have not replied to my emails or about finance . It may be because of the fires , i will give them the benefit of the doubt .
I like that white tilt top, loks handy for moving containers and dead machinery to. That rear shot of the cabover looks sharp in that pic. Is it a KW a friend of mine hauls specialty loads like imported autos. he just hauled an XB Falcon and a KW SAR truck to a collector in Missourri. He 's not allowed to give the name but I did get to look the car and truck both over. Ive always liked Austrailian cars and trucks especially the utility of them. Cant find enough pictures of them, I did fin Beamish Heavy Hauliers site some time ago really liked all the pictures there.
try colron at wacol near irswitch.
try colron at wacol near ipswich.
TTN , i do'nt know how many XB Falcons have been crushed for scrap in the last couple of years . The amount of classic cars that have gone to China to make Jonyang excavators is a shame . Yes , the truck would be a 104 Kenworth . Here's another shot of the hydraulics and slide on the Tilt Tray . Pete , i sent them another email today and had no reply . Something has happened to them , i hope thier OK . If i was'nt on generator power i would build my own .
seems strange they are not replying to emails, particuarly in this tough climate, have you tried phoning them ? are you emailing them direct or through their website ? sometimes emails through websites dont get there.
Iron Horse its a shame to lots of good old iron has gone I have a friend got a buy in 2 old Chevelles going to scrap. Id like nd XB and also and old Holden or 2. A fella I know junked 3 nice lowboys and a good Feller buncher when it was high. I like that tilt top, I use one of the rolloff trucks at wrk we have a flat bed we built for it when I need to move a fork lift or have to haul my mini ex to work. Sits flat on the ground for easy loading Hope it goes well with the new trailer. Wonder why they wont respond.
I rang them this morning to see if they were still around . I asked for the guy who was handling the deal and was told he no longer works there . The fires came within a mile of thier factory but they were OK . They are sending me some stuff today . I'm glad i gave them the benefit of the doubt .
they are damm lucky the fire missed them by a mile, the video i have seen on TV and what i have read in the paper describing the fires is terrifying, the loss of life from the fires is shocking.
Three shots of some clearing of regrowth i am doing at the moment . I pull them out with the excavator and tree grab and lay them into neat rows . I then come along with the tractor and scoop them up with the grapple and put them into piles . These trees laid on the ground for two weeks while i was away at another job with the tractor . When i'm finished , i give it a mow with the flail , you can't even see where the trees were . The fenceline in the photo was heavily overgrown before hand . Notice the bent roller on the flail , someone had left a 3" stump in the long grass and i found it .
that looks effective reg. i assume you can get away with burning in your area. you did a good job on the roller.
Because it's a rural area , no one seems to be worried about burning , they all do it . This week , i have staked a front tyre on the tractor , broken the air con pump bracket , picked up a nail with the mower and sent it through the back window so hard it dented the tin panel on the back of my seat . And then i blew a hose on the excavator and spat out a couple of hundred dollars worth of oil . When exactly do i get to the fun part of this ? I'm still thinking of becoming an Avon lady . OCR , can i count on your order for the Hot Pink lippy and Lusterous Lash mascara ? Weve also got some new hair removing wax that wont do what the last batch did .
We'll see, Iron Horse. I'll have to run a cost/benefit ratio analysis... :cool2 Maybe JDOFMEMI can help me... he's real good with numbers... OCR...
Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Orstraya , Ex convict stock Gee that a first been called a lot of things but a convict
i'll do my best to help, i am a bit conservative though, may have to go with a softer colour.
i knew i could count on your support . I may not end up being an Avon lady but it's good to know i have something to fall back on .
us aussies have to support each other.
After watching that show axeman I want one of those. God it would save time.
Iron horse May i chime in here and just say some things about trailers just watch out if you decide to get the tilt slide trailer that you can put an excavator on it with out it bending as there is very little support when you have it slid out, with the tilt trailer with ramps just make shore the tilt section has the capacity to support the weight you want to sit on it, In my option you wood be better of getting deck wideing trailer. He is some other information for you if you want to do recover work of broken or crashed bus and trucks in the state you live in you need to get your self a tow truck licenses to do it with out getting fines from the rta I spent 6 years doing this and had to have license for both QLD and NSW as I live on the gold coast. In one of you post you say you wood love to put your tractor and grabber on the same trailer just watch out as if you are over width you can not do this if you read your permit the rta a really on to it at the moment there are some exceptions like if you are carrying a bull dozer and have the blade and cab off there can be on the same load, but a tractor and grabber wood be a no no, I now run drake deck wideing with rear steering which is good for around town but if you do a lot off hi way work go with the non steering type as you have to lock the steering at hi way speed any way, Oh and you should look at auctions for trailers as I know of a few company that brought floats to move gear around on job like all pipe lines up here that have know finished which will be looking to get rid of them, Oh and Pete your not going to do the mulching at Oran park are you
hi oversize, i have priced the mulching at oran park, what do you know about it ?
They need more mulch there...I crashed my RZ500 there in 1984 ...and it hurt....lots:spaz
hi squizzy, i have raced there although fortunately have not crashed there, that track has a lot of nasty stuff to run in to, i have always gone a bit slower there.
Nuffing other then it will be a loss to see it closed down, Sorry if i caused you any problems. Went and had look at your web site after seeing your last name and found out that you use to be driver I guess your name stuck after seeing your cars on a track and speed week, You used to be sponsored by an oil company ?? or have I got you confused with some one Else. My comment was meant as a bit of humor and again I say sorry if it has caused you any problems, I will pull my head in and sorry again
hi oversize, dont stress mate, i did price the job and still waiting to see if i won the job, i thought you may have known something about it.i competed in the touring car challenge and was sponsored by gulf western oil, i started gulf western around 18 years ago so that's how i had gulf western on the cars, two of my sons bought gulf western off me 3 years ago and that is when i went in to the clearing business, you have not caused any problem, no harm done, i have given up racing, too old now and too slow. have sold the other 2 cars and still have the au supercar that is ex 00 motorsport, first ford that craig lowndes drove, it is for sale .appreciate your apology however your comments were no problem . regards pete.
I was too young and had too much horsepower to listen to good advice then. The thing I feared most was the clay...it always seemed to be rock hard. I'd like to go back oneday for a look. Hope you get the job and post some pics. .
I thank you for your chimming . I did wonder about carrying two machines on a low loader as i seem to remember something about the load needing to be indivisable . Thats interesting about the tray bending on a tilt slide when they are slid back , what's the use of having a 20 tonne + capacity if they bend whilst loading ? Also re. the need to get a tow truck license , i sold my twin steer tilt tray for that reason . And to get the license i needed a council approved holding yard to store damaged vehicles . The law is though , that if the trailer or truck can carry 3 cars it is classed as a car carrier and does not require the licence . And if you go to a truck accident as a contractor to the tow truck company doing the recovery , you are just classed as a low loader .
the whole oran park site is around 1000 acres, they have started roadworks on the first stage which is next to the track area, the track owners have said the track will keep operating till the first family moves in to the first stage, i think that will be about 12 months from now, will take some pics if i get the clearing.
hi reg, i have a mate who has a widening drop deck for sale,with a big winch for winding on non goers, i will find out how much he wants for it and pass the details on to you.
Yeah the 20 ton tilt slide can carry 20 ton but it really needs to roll on like a truck wood as when you load a excavator the weight is in a very small section and you get the bending there are other problems to with them that if you have weight in the wrong places and slide the tray back in you can lift drive wheel of the prime mover off the ground, Also some of the new units need you to have two pumps fitted to your truck one for the winch and one for the tilt and slide. There is also some pro and cons with the widening trailer if you get one with rear steering you will find the that the wheels do not widener which is fine you just need to be a ware that the trailer will lean some in trun's and care will need to be taken not to tip over. Also you wood need to have wiring and a switch fitted in the cab to activate the steering locks, you need this as you need to lock the axles for backing up and also going down the hi way Hope this helps as i have used both types of trailers you are looking at and currently use drake widening deck with steering rear axles which with dolly can take 50 tones
hi reg, spoke to my mate, has changed his mind, not selling widening drop deck.
hi oversize, what makes the axles on the trailer turn ?are they connected to the steer on the truck ?
No on the quad axle drake's the steering is self tracking, There are other types but most of the smaller trailer are self tracking, And on most of larger ones the steering is controlled off the skid plate or turn table
Thank's Pete , i'll find something . If i had grid power i would get a pair of rails profile cut and build my own . I can borrow some money and buy a new one but that entails paying it back .
thanks oversize, i wish i had got them on my quad, would be a hell of a lot easier to get around some of the tight spots i have to get through.
with the financial meltdown it;s hard to know whether to spend/borrow much, it may well get a lot worse before it gets better, i wish i knew.
That is why we use them in Brisbane and gold coast area's we have all types but the steering makes it easy to get into places like cavil ave with a dolly on and a 40 ton pile rig on.
i bought my quad to move my horizontal grinder, i have never owned a float before so did not have much of an idea, it has a 12 metre deck, i could have bought a shorter one which would have been easier to get around tight corners, i run over a lot of gutters, centre islands etc,, the rear steer must be a lot easier on tyres, sometimes i turn around in a culdesac on full lock and i cry as i watch the tyres on the float drag sideways, the rear tyres on the float are actually going backwards, i dont know how they stay on the rim with the weight of the grinder (32 tonne )
it is essayer on the tyres until you need to make a very sharp turn like you describe then you find that the front Tyres still drag there are some tricks if you have a spared between the front set and rear set of axles you ma be able to reduces the amount of drag by raising your height which you will find will nearly have the rears of the ground depending on where the load is on the float. this is just some thing it have found out though trial and error, but yeah I wonder how my tyres stay on the rims to but that all part of the fun of been a float driver
i have a spread, thanks for the tip, next time i have a real tight turn i will try lifting the suspension as high as it will go.
G'day Pete , does your float have any lifting axles ? It would be an easy matter too fit a valve so you can lift them momentarily while you make the turn . If not , you could fit a dump valve too the front axle group so the trailer turns on the rear axle group . The front axles group would just skim accros the ground with no down pressure to kill the tyres . The 8 rear tyres would have no trouble carrying the load for such a short time . Turning on the rear group would also have the advantage of increasing your wheelbase making the trailer track in a wider arc and would stop it cutting in and mounting curbs etc . Give John Lusty a ring , i'm sure he could tell you how to do it .
Well , most of the red is gone , i cannot understand why a company wanting to get into the Western market would paint thier machines red . How many times have they seen us painting them red ? DUH . And ive seen them painted Kermit Green !!!! Anyway , i pulled the panels off the excavator yesterday and gave the counterweight a scuff up . Then gave it a good hose out . It dried during the day and i got a chance to put the Grey on the machine and on the engine doors . This morning i masked the Grey on the doors , following the old factory lines . Then i put the New Komatsu Yellow on the doors and panels . I had planed to mask up the cab and paint it today , but a shower of rain blew in and put an end to that idea . It also blew into my shed as a mist and settled on all the panels . It's a wonder you guys did'nt hear me from there .
it has hydraulic suspension that you can raise and lower, all axles move together, when empty you lift the front and back axle, however not by hydralics, when all axles are down you flick a switch for each axle which pushes a pin by air pressure, this locks the front and rear axle to the chassis, you then push hydraulic button which pushes other two axles down lifting chassis and other two axles, must not be easy or practical to lift them hydraulically.
I knew it the one day we get brilliant sunshine and some have decent temperatures in Eire the Auzzies get rain and start behaving like pommies
the chinese aren't the only ones with bad colour taste, hitachis are orange/reddish, and what about kobelcos ? thet are a terrible greeny girly colour.
the chinese aren't the only ones with bad colour taste, hitachis are orange/reddish, and what about kobelcos ? thet are a terrible greeny girly colour. Would have called Kobelco blue,summitomo had a puss yellow,the Hitachi would be referred to as orange. The excavator above is a ringer for a Volvo but has an izuzu engine ,Hi-dash track motors,kawasaki hyd components . Stock
maybe it's blue,whatever it is it's ugly, i guess your correct about hitachi orange,dont agree about the sumitomo, i have one and i think the yellow is ok.
My new Volvo excavator....NOT . The sun came out yesterday , so it was a hasty mask up and hit it . These shots are just after i un masked it and put the doors back on today . It needs a good cleanup now and some decals to break it up , but i'm sure you will agree , it beats the heck out of the red .
That was an ambitious project good job!
It has come up very nice, Iron Horse, but I keep thinking, you must have too much free time. Rn'R.
Proper job !
Thank you quantum and stock , it was a big job . I had accumulated a heap of small dents on the cab and the fibreglass toolbox had a chunk missing . The repairs and the endless masking were wearing thin . And every time i looked up , the skies were getting grey and i'd have to stop . Thanks also RnR , yes it is quiet at the moment . The only time the phone rings is when some bloody Indian wants to give me a "free" phone . One rang yesterday and told me my phone number was very lucky and it had been chosen to recieve a free phone . I said thats great , but i have one . I said , have you got any children ? He said yes cautiously . I said good , they can have it , i'm giving it to them.........But sir , i cannot do that !
looks good reg, much better than the previous colour. land clearing is hard on the paint/panels, both of mine have several small dents and scratches.im jealous about the free phone, no one is offering me one. i have had some calls though offering me a advice on share trading where they say i'll make a fortune, have also had some from a tipping service offering easy money betting on race horses. they claim you cant lose ??
I had the same race tipping scammers ring me . I said if it's so good , why don't you put all your money on one of your sure thing's and get rich overnight , instead of trying to scam me for money ?????
Good morning Iron Horse, that's what I tell them, as well, a few years back, a bloke from some finance mob from New York would ring me all the time, wanting me to invest and make a fortune. I said if it is so good, why don't you invest yourself, why would you worry about making money for me. As for the phones, if I hear the Indian voice after the delay, I just hang up, but I know a lot of people put the phone down and walk away, then it costs the telco mob money, while their operator is waiting. Rn'R.
i asked the same thing and he said they had made stacks of money and wanted to share it with others. i told him i would feel bad using their system because it would eventually send all the bookmakers broke and ruin the racing industry and i did not want that on my consience.gee they are a bunch of blood sucking crooks.
i also have had the share traders from new york offering easy money, over the years i have had heaps of various crooks and scammers. also had heaps of emails from nigerian scammers, they are the worst of the worst crooks.
The sad part about it Pete, is that they keep sucking people in and usually those that can least afford it. Rn'R.
That's what amazes me is people still fall for the Nigerian scams. I have $3M dollars that I need to deposit in an American/Australian bank account. What I need you to do is deposit x amount of dollars in an account that has both our names on it to get the process started. Oh BTW, we can't tell anyone about our deal. Greed to some folks is like the curiosity that killed the cat.
I hav'nt told a soul about the deal but i still hav'nt heard back from them . What does it all mean ?
Shhh... don't say a word... these things take time!!! OCR
your right, i cant believe people fall for any of those scams, unfortunately they do.
i guess that is what gets people in , greed, and a good dose of stupidity.
nothing for nothing and very little for a h'penny as me mum says
AUSSIE PETE you any where near coonabarbran???
no, coonabarabran is west of here, i think about 6 to 8 hours drive, i am about 80 kilometres north west of sydney.
here is a site that tells you all about various scams. http://www.scamwatch.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/693900
Looks really smart and yes I agree the novelty had worn off the pillar box red What decals are you going to put on it? I have access to some Case 1088 decals if you need them
Thank's mate , you think the Case decals will make it go better ? The machine is a 230E , as in 23 tonne . And as it has a 6BT Cummins engine , i was thinking 230E with Cummins Powered below it and put on the Grey area on the engine door . The Volvo it is coppied from has it's model numbers in that place . I also want to get the safety decal kit to keep it OHandS compliant , "keep clear of swing area" etc . I'm told i also need to put , "stay back 300 feet" on the boom . And of course my Iron Horse logo's and phone numbers .
It seems to be there is some new rule to go with OH&S every week and it can be different between job sites, The one i really laugh at is the safety rail round the top of an excavator to stop you falling off when you a working on the motor the only thing is it can stop the cover opening all the way, there also seems to be some rule about a bump rail which just a pices of angle iron weld right around the bottom of top half but i have had to take 2 machines off site to have this fitted too, And don,t get me started about the truck cab is not an approved ROPS
Cant promise that, but it would be great for the entertainment value in folk trying to work out exactly what it is
This is the artwork for my 1/2 page Yellow pages ad . The background represents Grafton being the Jacaranda city , it should stand out as all the others are just Black on Yellow .
pass the H2So4, Stock
Crikey, Iron Horse, you will have to mortgage the "Vol-yang" too pay for it! Rn'R.
Vol-yang , i like it . I call my old Volvo truck the Volvadyne , what a pair !!! The local directories look after me , you should give them a go if they are in your area . The book is smaller and people like it , they refuse to look at the big one now . The 1/2 page for the excavator , an 1/8 page for the tractor and a few line ads costs $4K . Every time i ask someone where they found me , it's always here , never in the newspaper .
looks good reg, shows what your machine can do, i am also a great believer in the yellow pages.
We used to use the Yellow Pages, but it just got too expensive and we never got got any enquiry from there, anyway. The only advertising we do is on a local business calender, produced by the Apex Club and the rest is word of mouth. Rn'R.
Damn , I'm getting good at this , i might sell all the gear and become a graphic (BS ) artist . This is the artwork for the tractor that runs in conjunction with the excavator .
more money in graphic design and easier, an less capital tied up, all you need is a computer and photoshop.
We have those trees around here, while somewhat a pest they are not as bad as some Australian trees introduced here. There's the australian pine (casurina) tree that was once all along canals and coastlines. The all time worst is the melaleuca which has overtaken thousands of acres of everglades. In my own yard brazillian pepper was everywhere and with my trusty Bobcat I have removed every last trace of it.
Oops , sorry about that . They are hardy little buggers are'nt they .
funny how trees that are native to a country are not a pest in thier own country, i guess mother nature knows what she is doing..
Aint that the truth.! Some bright spark really liked the bright flowers on a plant and brought it back from Japan many years ago. It went on display at Kew Gardens I believe. Little did they know what they had brought us. Japanese Knotweed ! where it wont grow and what it wont grow through is nobodys business, a major hazard to any structure. If located on a site the area is immediately fenced off and becomes a no go area while the thing is eradicated. I believe they have found an in situ spray that will kill it after a few treatments but previously I have dug a square metre ( 3 ft ) all aroung a plant the size of a teaspoon and loaded it onto a tipper to go to a special tip many miles away.
we have a bad one here called lantana, dont know where it is from, i saw on a website that 4 million hectares ( around 10 million acres) are infested with lantana in NSW, i have it on my property however slowly spraying and killing it.
yea we have that bloody knot weed here and what is worse is that flaming giant hogweed ,the one with sulphuric acid in the leaves. Stock
It's African Boxthorns for us, a native of South Africa, they were imported to be planted as hedges, same as the hedgerows in England, when the country was first settled. They are not a real bad problem, but they grow fairly prolific in the sandhills around the coastline and any country not farmed. They are a declared noxious weed and at one stage the local Councils declared war on them. A mate and I started a boxthorn removal business using a couple of old feller bunchers with hydraulic grabs, where we could pull the boxthorn bush out in one grab. They were good for working in the sandhill country, with minimal disturbance. Rn'R.
The Di.....the Richard..the...craniu....the idiots grow Lantana in their gardens over here. I couldn't believe when I was a kid and came to Perth and saw them growing Arum Lillies in their gardens: Arum Lillies are how a young bloke learns how to convert a knapsack sprayer into a flame thrower
Is that like Hawthorn?..I saw Hawthorn hedges down the mornington peninsula stop a Drott dead in its tracks. That stuff was tough and horror prickly so a brown dog wouldn't go in it.
Common Name: Arum lily Genus: Zantedeschia Species: aethiopica Cultivar: 'Crowborough' Skill Level: Experienced Exposure: Full sun Hardiness: Hardy Soil type: Moist, Boggy Height: 90cm Spread: 60cm Time to divide plants: March to May Flowering period: May to June Arum lilies make striking architectural plants with large, glossy foliage which, in late spring and early summer, is joined by large, white, hood-shaped flowers. These are popular for cutting. The plants look best grown beside water, in shallow pond margins or a bog garden, where they associate well with other water plants. They can also be grown in damp borders with other moisture lovers. In cold regions or when early flowers are wanted for cutting, grow in large pots of rich compost in an unheated or frost-free greenhouse. The Royal Horticultural Society have given it their prestigious Award of Garden Merit. Do not think my mum would agree with you Squizzy she like them in her garden.Why the flame thrower conversion?
I read that as ... " I know a better way to get rid of these darn plants rather than spraying them " BURN UM!
There a :cussing.noxious weed. Just another introduced species this country is ruined by. On a warmish day baby beef will have a chew and then they are dead in half an hour. It will kill a kid too if they eat some of the stem. Rates right up there with Dock weed, Lantana, Cape Weed, Skeleton Weed Pattersons Curse, Fire ants, the cane toad, the rabbit, the fox, Paul Keating....
im staggered that any one would grow lantana in their garden.
Where are arum lilies originally from? Does anybody actually know?
yes Bellboy....they are a natives species of ...South Africa
I am not sure what Hawthorn looks like, but it sounds similar. Here is a couple of pics of the boxthorn and the puller. Rn'R.
I knew that! Also, the boxthorn says that it is "African Boxthorn" even though I have never seen it around here. One thing that we here inn South Africa, particularily in KwaZulu Natal, is bugweed. Anybody heard of it? It has rather large and unsightly leaves, hairy if thats the right way to describe it, light, furry, green bark, and round bauble like seeds. they are a real nuisance because they take forever to kill, and the only sure fire way to do this is to coat the bark with a mixture of diesel and herbicide. Back to the thread, what is that machine pictured R'nR?
Bellboy,all the information that I have read, says that the African Boxthorn is a native of South Africa and it was introduced to Australia in the 1800's, by someone who wanted to make a hedge out of it. The machine in the photos is a Kockums 880 Feller Buncher. Rn'R.
RnR , did you make any money with that machine ? Are you still doing it ? This is Lantana , South American native . Brought to Australia as a garden plant , it escaped !!! It shrouds trees like these that have been used as cattle camps , the cattle have no shade . Cattle from the same paddock can tolerate eating a small amount of it but cattle brought in from another area will die a very painful death if they eat it . It also harbours vermin , foxes , rabbits , cattle ticks etc .
No, Iron Horse, I probably didn't make much money out of it. I was working on a job with a mate of mine, when we were approached about clearing boxthorns on a 5,000 acre island, owned by the local aboriginal community. At the same time the local councils wanted to start removing boxthorns from the sandhills along the coast, so we were trying to work out the best way to go about it. He saw an old Kockums for sale at Griffith, that a chap had for pulling out telephone poles, so we went and looked at that and he bought it. I then bought another one out of Tumut and we set them up with grabs and they actually worked very well. He then wanted to travel all over the state pulling boxthorns and I decided that I had enough to do running my crushing business, so I sold my machine to him. He since bought a third one and worked them for a few years, but he had a lot of problems chasing after them, because he runs an engineering business as well and then the work and the Government money dried up. He has only just sold them to another local chap who refurbished them and has picked up a couple of good contracts with them and I think he could do OK. Rn'R.
That looks like a great machine for that task . It never ceases to amaze me that we have so many guys with gear like this and we still have Lantana and the like crowding the sides of the roads and strangling our forests . We are forced to watch the government roadwork employees sitting on their Eskies and doing nothing , yet we rarely get a call from our councils to do some contracting . Are they keeping all the weeds for themselves to justify their own existence ? Well , the Tree Hugger is all stickered up , nearly 40 in total . I was beginning to think i wasted my time painting it as it looked like i was going to cover the machine with stickers . Now , the first person to scratch it will die . Hmmn , I'm the only one that drives it .
we have heaps of lantana around here on the sides of roads in in properties, the council seem unconcerned about it, they dont spray it and dont make any attempt to educate people as to how bad it is. i guess they are too busy harassing people like me for clearing some scrubby regrowth and carting in a couple of loads of clean fill to level an area.
Well Iron Horse and australian pete, it is no different here, where local Councils are concerned. We have a silly situation here, where the Aleppo Pine tree is supposedly a noxious weed. In the early days, people planted Aleppo Pines, because they were tough, grew fairly quickly and made good wind breaks, which you would appreciate, if you lived here. Granted, they do seed quite prolifically in the area where they are growing, but in most cases, there is nothing else growing there, anyway. But there is one old bloke here who has made it his life's ambition, to get rid of every Aleppo Pine tree in existence and what's more, he gets government funding through Landcare, to do it. Just recently they had a local contractor cut down a whole plantation of Aleppo Pines, leading in to the local town. Now, these trees were planted many years ago, as a memorial to the service men and women who lost their lives in both wars, but no, that didn't matter, cut them down. While the Aleppo Pine may present a small problem, I just think there are other areas, where the money would be better spent. Rn'R.
This is the township of Ledgerwood in Tasmania . These pines were planted for the same reason , they became a problem . So instead of just tearing them down , a chainsaw artist was employed to carve these amazing figures to remember the men and women who have served their country . It's hard to spend time here without getting a knot in your chest and a tear in your eye . If any of you guys are planning a trip to Tassie , you must not miss this township .
There are many carvings in the park . Some are of men writing letters home , some are saying goodbye and i think the one with the little girl on a mans shoulders is the day one man came home . If you hav'nt got a tear in your eye by the time you get to this one , your a harder man than I .
What a great idea, Iron Horse, and they will have a memorial that will last for all time, with a little bit of up keep. At least some people are thinking. Rn'R.
I can understand your frustration. Sometimes you just :Banghead and wonder what the hell happened to common sense. Iron Horse, that is amazing, thank you very much for posting those pictures. As you say, its hard to not be moved. :drinkup
Tree Hugger that shows some Respect! That is absolutely amazing, Iron Horse... what a magnificent way to show respect and pay homage... :thumbsup :thumbsup A tribute to you, Iron Horse, by providing the means, such that others could know of this... a task well done, sir. Rn'R, it's nice just to be able to copy some one else's words, and use them to express your self, in a manner one may find difficult... thank you. I hear you, Rob... OCR
those carvings are brilliant, the local council must be made up of people with feelings, foresight and brains.
Thats a....oxymoron...or something... You said "council" "foresight" and "brains" in the same sentence.. Over here its much better managed...if you want your Mayor to develop some "feelings, foresight and brains" {ie to approve your new canal development} you just whip him 40 G's under the table at lunch.......just don't let your ratepayers find out!:cool2
All the carvings have plaques like this , it is a very moving experience when they are read and you let yourself be taken back to their time of separation and loss .
Ok , time for a bit of levity . How do I "adjust" the high quality Chinese radio in my excavator , ahhh , yep , that did it . In Bart Simpsons most evil laugh .
Chinese radio "adjust": Must have worked... I can hear it all the way over where I live... :lmao Turn it down a little, would you please... OCR...
i'd say that radio looks very well ajusted now reg.
i quite like that system, at least you would know where you stand and the 40 grand would probably be cheap compared to all the red tape etc when lodging applications the usual way.
I wouldn't hesitate to give someone a backhander , as doing it straight has got me nowhere . But how do you know who to talk to or how to go about it ? Is it like a Mormons handshake or something ? Or is there a twitch or wink that Ive been missing .:Banghead
i dunno reg, i have never been clever enough to know who to bribe or when to bribe some one. i am too shy or scared i guess, i guess i will have to just dream about it.
Australia , land of drought and flooding rains ......... I started a Government contract on Monday , Tuesday it started raining . Wednesday i got a bad feeling and brought the gear home . Today , Friday they are evacuating Grafton as the Clarence River may top the levy banks and flood the city . It looks like being a 1 in 100 year flood . Things can happen quickly here , 2 months ago we had raging fires .
dorothea mackellar summed it up pretty well. i love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains of ragged mountain ranges, of droughts and flooding rains i love her jewell horizons, i love her blue sea, her beauty and her terror, this wide brown land for me. my apologies to the author for any errors.
For the first time in my life, today I plowed snow.....no..thats not true...I pushed ice.... with the loader....I swear those hail stones where the size of golf balls.....shoulda seen my compactor man run for it
it is absolutely pouring here now, fortunately no hail.
Don't go getting all sphillisopffical on us now Pete . Banjo Patterson get it right... http://www.bushverse.com/paterson/daceymule.htm
do you reckon banjo patterson wrote that ? i may be wrong, i learnt that poem in primary school over 50 years ago, i thought it was dorothea mackellar. pouring rain here again.
The Clarence River has topped at 7.38 metres , it topped at 7.75 metres in 2001 . The Levey wall is breached at 7.80 metres , we are hoping the evacuees can come home tonight .
This is what i want to do to my excavator . I want to fit a tractor PTO driven drum chipper between the tracks at the front , driven by a 400hp horizontal bus engine between the tracks at the rear . The two would be connected with a PTO shaft running through a steel tube cut into the center of the slew ring tower . I want to be able to snap a Camphor Laurel tree off and feed it straight into the chipper which would throw the chips out the side and onto the ground . It would work the same as the dedicated machine pictured but would have the added ability of also falling the tree . I got a silly price off of an Australian company to supply the chipper . Does anyone watching this forum have the ability to supply me with a 400-450mm capacity chipper at a reasonable cost ? Please PM me if you can .
Sorry, Sqizzy.:nono http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Country Rn'R.
that looks like an excellent idea reg, what brand is the dedicated machine ?
I wasn't talking about the Sunburnt country...whenever I think of things typical of Australia I think about a wonderful country run by buffoons. Did anybody actually click on the link I posted...BP wrote "when Dacey Rode the Mule"....I was just trying to covertly put a political spin on the thread. If you didn't get it...here is the link again: http://www.bushverse.com/paterson/daceymule.htm
that is a damm funny poem squizzy. as a kid i learnt another poem, very funny, maybe by patterson, cant remember much of it, something about a barber shop and the only verse i can recall is something like , their heads were flat, their eyes were dull, they had no brains at all. my father had a book of australian poetry and used to read us poems from it, sadly i have forgotten most of it.
Woops! I read the poem, but I didn't get the drift from your post, but then I am a bit slow on the uptake sometimes. I totally agree with you, it is a wonderful country, but I am concerned about where we are headed, with the current crew at the wheel. Rn'R.
It still raining on and off here at 830 am Sunday moring Have not worked for 4 days to wet and I do alot of runs into Lismore, Hope you don't get to wet iron horse now that look like a very good idear with the chipper wood you not be better making it driven off a hydraulic pump with an aux motor mounted up where the counter weight goes there is a another company that work there vertical mulcher that way
Yes oversize , we have had plenty of rain , I'm over it . This is my driveway . The reason i can't use hydraulics to run the chipper is because it will be mounted to the track frame and a power pack would be on the upper structure and i don't think you can buy a big enough swivel housing/rotary valve . Also , there are a lot of losses with hydraulics . Pete , the tracked chipper is a Bandit . I'm not having any luck with a large capacity PTO chipper , they are simply not available on Convict Island . You European chaps should be able to help me .
that tracked bandit chipper looks good, does it have blades like a chipper or does it have tips like a grinder ? chipper blades would produce a much better product however i assume they would not be able to process stumps with dirt on them. we have had 140 mm since thursday, no rain today, your driveway looks a bloody mess reg, fixing that will keep you busy for a while.
and while we are on the subject of banjo patterson i found the one about the barber shop, very funny. http://www.bushverse.com/paterson/ironbark.htm worth having a read, patterson wrote some brilliant poetry.
Does any one have a thought on tracked feller bunchers vs ruber tired. I 'm tired of fliping my tigger cat 360 over. I'm some what new to the logging busness and have alot of questions!
All i could with the driveway was to give it a bit of a tidy up with the mud bucket . At least we can get out now with the 4X4 in the event of an emergency . Ive lost a lot of material , the whoa boys and the run offs i had , just built up with the migrating sand and where over topped . The water logged sandy soil had no chance once the water ganged up on it . We have had something like 600mm/24" of rain in a week . Pete , I'm not sure what kind of knives/hammers the Bandit uses . It would not handle dirt and gravel though . I won't be putting root balls through this thing if i get it . I will snap the trees off and feed the trunks straight in so the soil does not get on them . Most of the time the stumps are to be left in place to hold the soil together anyway . Ace , someone will have an answer for you . Giving a machine an oil change the hard way is not fun . How do you get it on it's feet again ?
As far as I know the Bandit chippers use knives. Either the drum style or disc style. There are a lot of PTO chipper companies out there, especially in Europe. Kesla and Dutch Dragon are just a couple that come to mind. We have tossed around the idea of mounting a modified Bandit 1680 grinder on the back of a modified logging forwarder for doing storm clean up jobs, you can through anything into those grinders and have it come out as chips or mulch. Seems like it would work but I don't know if it would work fast enough to make it profitable to operate...Who knows, just an idea...
maybe you should leave that driveway as a creek reg and build a new one, we had just under 6 inches of rain in 3 days. breaking the stumps of should give you a very handy machine producing a very nice product, i have noticed some manufacturers in australia advertise small chippers that run off a tractor PTO, maybe they could build a bigger one.
Feller Bunch Thanks for you reply, we use our skidder to pull to pull it back over.
Iron Horse thanks for the pics of that memorial. I'd love to see something like that here but it'll never happen unfortunaltely. Good job with the driveway too by the way.
Thanks chap's . Well , i told them . When the "engineers" built the new concrete bridge in our township , i made mention of the fact that putting a chain wire fence on the down stream side would cause problems . I saw them putting in the poles and asked them if they were for a chain wire fence . They said yes , why ? I pointed out that the river gets pretty cranky in flood and at the very least the fence would act like a big sieve and catch all the flotsam and jetsam . If logs happen to get caught in it this could cause the fence to be pushed over , the poles acting like crowbars which would destroy the footpath . It would also cause an eddy to form and damage the roads surface . I was told i didn't know what i was talking about . Luckily , no logs got caught in it , more good luck than good management i think . Now they will spend all day cleaning the caught grass out of it . Look at the potholes in the new road surface .
Look like there was some water there Iron horse, You live near Grafton do you not,? Up here on the gold coast we have alot of beach sides house that have lost back yards and some may have there footings washed away tonight on the king tides There is also alot of trees down and all the beach a still closed there was a boat ramp that has been uncoded at a local surf club that has not been seen for 30 years, Up on the north side of Brisbane there have been land slips and heaps of trees now blocking creek, also during the start of the rain the main water main that is part of there water hi-way blow apart which was adding to flooding,
the last decent flood we had here was about 1997 or maybe 1998, that was the last time warragamba dam was full, we must be overdue for a big flood.
I had a couple ideas for your chipper. The simple one is to skid mount a chipper and pick it up and move it with the grapple. It might have trouble with sliding around while trying to load it, but putting some spikes on the bottom might work. Also, sitting it against the idlers or track frames would work. The second one is find a midi ex that's salvage preferably b/c it lost the engine and mount the engine/chipper on swing frame. Then r/c the travel and chipper functions and run it from the cab of your hoe. It just seems that your plan has a couple of major downsides. The first one being the complete lack of ground clearance. Second your gonna be increasing your swing radius by 1-2' with a big motor hanging off the back. As long as you can deal with these drawbacks your plan will work.
Yes oversize , we are 40K's West of Grafton . The bridge i took the photo from is 7 metres above the river to start with , you can see how far up the hill the water went . I'll never understand people building in front of a beach . It's not IF , but WHEN you will lose big time . Pete , If we were to get more rain now , we would be in big trouble . hvy 1ton , your thinking cap is on . I have put some thought into skid mounting the chipper and power pack . Ground clearance is a problem also , i was going to fabricate a spacer ring to bolt under the slew ring to raise the upper structure 10" or so . The horizontal drive engine would be mounted to the track frame , not behind the counterweight . I have found 2 new front 3PL tractor kits i was thinking could be welded front and rear of the track base so that the chipper and drive motor could be raised for travel and also easily unhooked . I'm having trouble finding a PTO chipper , the biggest in OZ will only do 6" and i need 16" . I was quoted $110,000 + tax + freight from Germany , I'm sure they are not that expensive .
If $110k is USD thats a big chunk of coin, i would have to assume b/c of the exchange rate. As far as i know no one in the use makes a pto chipper big enough for your application. I've seen lightly used 18-22" chippers with a motor go for 35-55k here in the US. I don't know what the shipping/customs/taxes would be, but i thought the info might help. I'm not really sure how much a Denis Cimaf head is, but i know there is at least one distributor in the land of oz. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1M5Zjg91ug Since your just gonna shoot the chips all over the ground anyway, this might be a good solution. From what i've seen and read on the internet, these heads are scary fast.
Arround our heck of woods, finnish chippers are most popular, they seem to be properly built as well, but the size you want to put them thru, pushes to the upscale of disc chippers. here is a list of virtually all most popular chippers: http://www.tekes.fi/opet/pdf/chippers.pdf laimet, nuormi, hakki, junkkari, jenz, bruks seems to be the most popular names. So you probaly can google contacts of those companies and see what they can offer. i have a worn out farmi ch260, works well, except for occasional welding here and there
[. Pete , If we were to get more rain now , we would be in big trouble . i dont really need any more at present, drilled and poured the pier holrs for the new house, formed up the slab and then it rained, too wet to get concrete trucks to slab, keeps raining lightly, enought to make it too wet and boggy, just finished a week long job up at the central coast, lucky with that, real wet boggy groung, just managed to to finish today, would love a weeks wind to dry up the house site.
I took your advise and turned the driveway into a creek . I cleaned all the sand out and created a spoon drain in the clay , it seems to be working well . I'll put the driveway beside it . When i pulled the gate posts out with the excavator , the holes filled with water immediately , the ground is like a sponge . I hope you have better luck with your footing holes .
Iron horse it just occored to me about the chipper are any of them self contained and could be towed either by Tree Hugger or your tractor? I know I've taken engines off old farm equipment and used them for various projects over the years after the implements were shot. the engines were still good so I used them. If you had an engine could you put a hydraulic pump of enough size and mount chipper and all on a wagon or trailer and pull the chipper along that way? Might keep you from losing ground clearance under the hugger when in some nasty type of terrain. just pull spin and feed the chipper. Something to mull over if you want. If youd like i could scab together some kind of drawing or something of what I had in mind. Take care and have fun.
with the new driveway higher at least when you have more rain the excess water can wash down the new creek, my house slab is no real problem, the piers are poured and the house site is on a slope, just need a few days without rain to get the concrete trucks in, had some more light showers tonight, need 3 or 4 days of sun and no rain. do you have any shale or sandstone on your property ?
Rained here yesterday afternoon just as i arrived on site of a pick up out a chillingham not real fun loading a smooth drum roller in the rain that has been parked on red clay, and rained here last night as well but today was fine, As of lunch time yesterday the Pacific highway was still cut at hardwood so all the truck are been sent via Lismore and then down to Grafton,
Thanks bear , yes i have also thought of a trailed one as well . It could be on tyres or tracks , the only thing that would make that idea difficult is that it may want to tip over trying to follow me into the creeks etc . You've given me an idea though , if i mounted a self contained one on an excavator track base i could have it follow me via remote control . I must keep costs in mind though . Pete , my neighbours have gravel on their properties , but i have none . I have put down some test holes , but alas , nothing but sand and then clay . oversize , the poor old Summer land Way Highway is trying to cope with all the diverted traffic . The B doubles will give it some new pot holes .
I was trying to suggest putting the chipper on tracks, but yet again i did a bad job of it. I thinking mount the chipper on the swivel/swingframe so that it doesn't have to track to face in the direction needed. An older hoe that had a blown motor would be a perfect candidate for chipper carrier. It wouldn't take much of a hydraulic pump to run just the tracks and swing motor.
bad luck about the gravel, i have soil and clay on the level areas and sandstone where it gets steep, not game to try digging sandstone though, the greeny neighbour would be on the phone to the council,im a bit lucky though, can get 40 mm minus crushed concrete delivered for $5 a tonne.