Deon Boynton is the first and only operator in the world running the brand-new Woodsman Pro 560 tree harvester small wood/thinnings head when the Iron Test team arrives at this Jensen Logging operation in Kaingaroa Forest.
The owners at Jensen Logging have been so impressed by its performance that they have already ordered a second 560 from the Rotorua-based manufacturers and it’s easy to see why.
We Iron Tested the John Deere 803 only a few months ago, so we’ll focus the majority of this story on the new Woodsman Pro 560 head.
Usually when we ask if a regular operator noticed anything different on their new gadget there is a pause as they remember back to that day the transporter rocked up and how they felt when they first powered it up and ran through the motions. With Deon there is no hesitation about the John Deere 803 and Woodsman Pro 560 combo.
“A lot more grunty,” He smiles.
Of course, the Iron Test team wants to know if that is the saw, the feed or the grip?
“All of it. When I’m forming a skid on Day One in a new block I just grab trees and rip them out of the ground with this. This head holds real good. The saw is gruntier than what I have used previously. The feed is gruntier. The delimbing is one pass and it’s clean. You can also adjust your speeds on this one which is good for fine tuning. And the self-tensioning chain is good too.”
We’ve got to see this. The Jensen 090 crew has just moved into a new block this morning near the Webb in Kaingaroa so we will indeed get to see trees ripped out of the ground roots and all. But first 76-year-old Paul rumbles past in the John Deere dozer folding back the blackberry as he opens up the block for production thinning. Once he has passed Deon’s machine in the first small bay suitable for making into a skid, Deon gets busy.
Like a wolf through sheep
This bloke is soon tearing through the trees like a wolf through sheep – running the machine wide open as if it is an extension of his hands, swiftly and accurately reaching, gripping and ripping them out. It’s obvious we have another one of those rare maestro operators here in a machine he really digs. It brings to mind what the Woodsman Pro website says, ‘if you’re a tree, look away now’.
This thing sounds grunty too as it rips another tree out of the ground like it was nothing and lops the root ball off. It’s cool to see, and also interesting to see the deep root development here from the Timberlands spot cultivation programme. Way bigger root structure than the flat pan you often see from wind thrown trees. Probably three times the root structure, maybe more.
Deon’s Dad didn’t want him to go into logging: “He wanted me to get a trade...
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