At 9.5 metres long and 285 horsepower, the Tigercat 635H is one big mother of a skidder. And big is what Tainui Logging owner, Phil Hemopo, was looking for when he planned this new machine purchase a bit over a year ago.
“You know you are on to a good thing when a machine is out of stock and you need to order it a year in advance,” says Phil.
“Here in central Kaingaroa the Douglas fir blocks we harvest have a smaller and lighter piece size than radiata at 30 years old, so we need to handle almost three times the number of stems to get the same weight of wood compared to radiata. That’s about 800 stems a day which is in the region of 500 tonnes a day, which is our current target.
“So, if a bigger skidder can go out and get two loads in one go compared to a smaller skidder then we are going to reach target a lot sooner with less wear and tear on the machine, the operator and the environment.”
As the NZ Logger Iron Test team signs into the log site on an iPad at the container we notice an enormous lifting lug on the container roof. Very heavy engineering. “We have to reinforce all that now,” says Phil. “It’s to stop the corner-mounted chains from folding up the roof when the transporter operators load and unload them. Some of those guys must be quite strong as the containers have been getting a bit bent out of shape and holes have been put in the roof.”
Iron Tester, Shaun Field, agrees saying that he is sure transporter operators just flip the containers onto their roofs for transport judging by the state of the gear inside when it arrives at a new block. This new lifting rig will stop that from happening as the container won’t sit on its roof with the lug on.
Phil had one of the first 855’s in the country and recognised early on what a specialised forestry machine could do over and above modified excavator bases.
The reliability he saw in those first Tigercats has led him to try their skidders and after a good run of over 7000 hours on a 635G model 6-wheeler it made sense to replace it with the latest model, the upgraded 635H.
Weighing in at 25 tonnes with a grapple capacity of 2.32m2, there aren’t many machines around that will challenge it in the forest either. Tigercat has gone all out on the mods with this latest H series, it’s actually quite breath-taking to see the list of improvements.
Extra grease nipples and seals have been added to the blade arms and arch. The hydraulic oil tank size has increased by 20% and rubber mounts...
