It takes a hearty dose of unbridled savagery just to get into the Mangatu Block, where Hill Logging is working.With a large, open, river crossing subject to dramatic changes in surface quality, and sometimes dangerous water heights after heavy rain, the crew then has to deal with steep, narrow roads and severe wind conditions on Windy Ridge Road, which was named for a very good reason. But more about that later.
We are heading into the Mangatu to test Hill Logging’s new Sany SY245F fitted with a Falcon Winch-Assist, financed by TDF Solutions. The SY245F is powered by a 6.37 litre, 147kw/297hp Mitsubishi engine, with two Kawasaki hydraulic pumps, pushing 260 litres per minute each. From what we are hearing, agility and fuel efficiency are two of the standouts noted so far.
It’s the last of the current Sany models to be tested, and also the smallest, but it sounds like it’s a bit of a pocket rocket. The Falcon system has advanced a bit, too, since we last tested it a few years ago, so it will be interesting to see how that looks with the refinements made, as the skillset continues to advance rapidly at their Nelson base.
The road has improved about 50% since we were here last year, but we saw about 50 potholes capable of breaking axles on normal cars and two-wheel-drive utes. Also, there is still that river to cross. Lucky it’s low today, and we have the big Chevrolet four-by-four belonging to Iron Tester, Clayton Hagen, to get through it with ease.
After a long drive up the range, there is a steep and narrow descent down a south face, into the heads of the Mangaotane stream. It’s the sort of grade that gets you edging away from the passenger’s side door, eyeing loose gravel suspiciously, and worrying about getting out of the place if it rains while you are in there. In this papa country, it is not unusual to come to work and find that a 50 or 100m section of road is about 10m below where it was yesterday, and you need urgent roading attention. You can see why everyone is driving a four-wheel-drive with beefy tyres. A swamp is crossed during this descent, and it looks like Gap 500 has been used as the base course.
This challenging forest roading has been carried out by local legends Kuru Contracting, who work closely with Hill Logging to make this operation run smoothly.
Eventually, we arrive on easier ground, where the hauler crew and ground-based crew are logging, and it looks like things are going well. Machines are processing steadily, the hauler is running smoothly, trucks are being loaded and the ground-based crew has some big stacks ready to cart and a reasonable surge pile.
Starting out on the ground
When Tony Hill first started logging, as a skiddie on a Stihl 660, he was 15 years old, and the logging crew owner was Clayton, so it’s a bit of a reunion and a good check-in on progress.
While...
