tis 08 jul 2008, 21:48#31776
Lantisen........ yes its great to be able to talk with people actually out there and doing the real thing.
There are only a few small companies building accessories Rosin is one, they make harvesting heads.
Australia adopted cut to length harvesting probably 15 years after scandinavia invented it.
Today we watch you with great interest and buy your machines when the work we have requires it.
I have the only H8 and Naarva Grip in Australia at the moment... Contractors here don't use small harvesters... it is better to have a higher $profit margin for most work in plantations of our usual harvest age (30 - 40 years, up to 500mm dia) or early thinnings using an out row harvest pattern... AND to have a low $profit margin and sometimes a loss for work the larger machine is less suitable for.... which doesn't happen too often.
So the work I am doing is new and in Eucalypt. I have been doing this with the H8 for 18mths. The Eucalypt plantations for saw logs in Australia started on a larger scale only 10 years ago, before that it was all for pulp.... Yes we know more about growing pine trees in plantation than our own native species???? but thats another story.
One reason I joined the forum is to meet other H8 operators to share info and experience. I have had some problems matching the Naarva to H8.. mainly too much oil flow... gradually it is being fixed and I am very happy with the job that both machines can do.
Eg. today I replaced the pressure and return hoses that run from the hose swivel next to L90 back to the shutoff block under the cab... If I was running a Egs 402 processor is it possible I would be replacing these hoses in the same time 2700hrs.