Hello! This is my first post, but I have already gleaned a lot of great information from this forum as a reader. I hope to tap into the wealth of knowledge that you folks have to help me gather the information I need to decide on if a CTL is what I should be looking at for my needs, and if so, which ones to consider. I work as a research technician with a hazelnut breeding program at the land grant university here in Oregon. We plant out about 4000 seedling trees each year and have some 28,000 trees from 1 to 8 years old in the field at any one time. As the trees are evaluated and discarded, they have to be cut down and hauled out of plots where the trees are planted 3' apart in rows 10' apart. In the early stages, this is all done by hand. As the trees get older and more and more thinned out, we are able to mow the stump sprouts with a tractor and rotary mower, but we are still pulling brush by hand, stacking it in windrows, then pushing it to a burn pile with a front-end loader. So I am thinking that we look at using a CTL with a rotary mower or a mulcher head to 1)re-cut the stump sprouts each year and 2)chop the felled brush in the aisles between the rows of trees. The other particular job that we would use the CTL for is with a 45" tree spade, to move the elite seedlings from the seedling plot to a propagation plot. This will require a large CTL, something on the order of a 10,000+ pound machine. Besides the heavy lifting capability of a big machine, I foresee wanting high flow or enhanced high flow auxiliary hydraulics and the flexibility of EH controls for say, using a trencher to dig the furrow for planting nursery stock. Machines of interest to me, knowing what little I know at this point, include the Takeuchi TL250 or TL12, the Case TV380, or the Deere 333D or 333E. Cat, Kubota and Terex all make suitable machines, too. I have Cat, Deere and Case dealers all nearby for service. I am particularly curious if anyone can comment on the TV380; I see a lot of them for sale used and am wondering if that is because of their popularity or if they have problems. Any and all suggestions will be appreciated!
Does the university have a huge pile of cash just burning holes in their pockets?
No, Welder Dave, the university does not have money to burn. The program that I have worked for over the last 35 years has developed and released several new varieties of hazelnut that have resistance to a major disease that was threatening to wipe out the industry here in Oregon. The industry is now not just surviving, but thriving, and appreciative farmers have generously donated money to support the ongoing genetic improvements that will help the industry continue to grow and be profitable. I have been implored to "think big, think outside of the box" by the growers, and so I am reevaluating every step of our program, to look for ways to leverage the existing resources and maximize the return on the growers' investment. I am managing about 50 acres of field plots and, as is common in research, we do not have many economies of scale, so finding ways to maximize efficiency in material handling (tree removals) is top of mind for me. If you have experience that can help answer the questions posed in my initial posting in this thread, I welcome your input.
I know some guys that have a tree farm and they use a tl150 with a 40 something inch spade. I called and asked him about this for you he said as long as you stay with a spade in the 40 to 48" range it will be fine. They have added 500 to 1000 lb additional weight to the rear end in order to help control the weight. He said he would look at the new tl12v2. There ground is flat. They had some clever way of adding extra weight I wish I had taken a pic but I did'nt. He also said a larger spade would require a bigger loader such as a wheeled or tracked 943/953 sized machine. At one point they were considering selling there machine for $40 to $50 k. At the time I was interested in getting the machine but I found one a little more beat up for less money. A decked out tl12v2 will run about $100k.. Good luck.
Thanks, Georgia Iron! The tree spade definitely demands a big frame machine, especially because I need to move the trees across our research farm, maybe as much as a quarter of a mile, and I want to do it at top speed without the spade tipping on it nose. I had that experience when I borrowed a SS and spade from a nearby nursery; it could dig the trees just fine, but it didn't have enough bricks in its pocket, so to speak, to move at more than 1 mph without tipping forward. It was like pulling teeth to move trees with that set up. My first choice will be to look at low hour, late model CTL's rather than new, based on price. We will probably not put more than a 100 hours per year on a machine, so I kind of hate to pay top dollar for that new-CTL-smell. I know that it is an age-old question, but how many hours is too many hours on a used rig, where is the balance point between purchase price and remaining useful life (=repairs not eating you alive)? One grower here, who has a lot of experience with heavy equipment in construction before he became a farmer, swears by buying machines with 400-600 hours on the clock.
http://atlanta.craigslist.org/sat/hvo/5598147394.html This might interest you.
LOL, that would move my trees, for sure, but maybe just a little on the large size. Thanks for the link!
Bobcat 975 and 1075's could run up to a 50" tree spade. It was common to have to have rear stabilizers to keep the front of the machine down when digging. Some users had a ripper on the back they used or had hydraulic stabilizers mounted on the side under the boom pivot points. It may be less expensive to find a tree spade on a trailer or truck. A CTL, tree spade, mulcher and perhaps a trencher could be nearing 200K if purchased new. Here's a 975 set up with tree spade. This same machine was hired to dig tree's from our acreage when we sold a bunch of tree's to a golf course back in the 90's. All the tree's were put in baskets for transporting. He sure looks after his equipment. A neighbor a few years later also had a 1075 with a tree spade and moved a couple larger tree's for me. http://www.boydstrees.com/ Dave