It was a pleasant surprise to hear that Russell Jensen himself was going to host us for this John Deere 803MH harvester Iron Test at Hamurana just north of Lake Rotorua. It turns out this is Russell’s ‘Pet Crew’ operating in a forest managed by Todd Cheeseman from Waipa Forest Management.
Russell does the earthworks on a JD700 dozer most of the time in here, pushing in tracks and skids for loading out the thinned logs. Most of these are going to Kawerau pulp mill and there is a small amount of K grade going to export via the Port of Tauranga which is under an hour away to the Northwest.
There are two 803’s in this crew. We are testing the newest one with a newer operator while the other one is getting its scheduled maintenance done when we arrive.
There’s a third 803 on the way too, so Russell must be happy with them. That will bring Jensen Logging’s John Deere stable to eight in its seven crews, being the three 803’s, a 959, two 1470’s and two 1910 forwarders, one fixed cab and one rotating cab.
Terry Duncan from Brandt says, “The 803’s drive train is very similar to the 959, you have the nine-litre engine but with smaller track motors. The 803 and the 859 are similar bodies. The 859 is the short radius leveller which is what Iron tester, Shaun Field, is usually in, so the cab layout will be fairly familiar to him. The head controls will probably be a bit different.”
So, this one isn’t a leveller? “No, it isn’t required in the thinnings role where they are working the easier slopes close to the road for forwarder extraction.” Terry says.
So, basically everything you need and nothing you don’t, less moving parts, less rams and hoses to look after.
This machine had something of a baptism of fire in some respects as, instead of going into the thinnings that it was spec’d out for it was delivered directly into the carnage of Cyclone Gabrielle near Turangi, but more about that later.
Pushing boundaries
Driving into the block, the access road is almost ground to bulldust but that’s a good problem to have compared to it being wet. We hear the roar of the 803 before we see it and at first it makes me think we have a disc saw on our hands. It sounds pretty impressive but that’s actually those 300 horses’ worth of power roaring and the cooling fan required to expel the high volume of pine needles raining down on the machine.
It seems to be quite a bit more than you would see on a clearfell machine and I’m thinking it’s because a lot of the trees are left standing and the machine is running under them most of the day and rattling the needles loose as it rumbles past.
And the head is a Southstar regular 32-inch bar and chain job which Russell says is a...
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