Today we are in Southland, testing the CDL log grapple made by 3D Industrial Engineering in Rotorua. It’s a tough test, the macrocarpa logs are big, old and heavy, but the grapple shines through as a solid bit of New Zealand-made kit. The 3D Industrial Engineering story is a classic one of starting out with humble beginnings in a shed south of Rotorua and now having 15 staff making equipment for forestry operations nationwide. But more about that later.
We venture about as far south as you can go, to Invercargill, to test this grapple at Neville Stirling Excavating, and find it hard at work on a macrocarpa windblown salvage operation, connected to a tidy Caterpillar Next Gen 320.
The two-man operation has just come from a nearby woodlot as they answered the call to clean up several farms affected by recent serious wind storms in the area. While much of the macrocarpa blown down is being milled, this particular lot of logs is being stockpiled for the land owner’s personal firewood stash. It must get very cold down here, because it’s a huge pile, probably over 100 tonnes, but that will store well for a few years’ supply.
When really big, topped shelter belt macrocarpa trees blow down, you need tough gear, and if it can pull some wizard tricks, then even better. As many will know, macrocarpa shelterbelts differ greatly from plantation pine, in some cases to the point that it’s just a clean-up operation of mangled limbs and twisted trunks, dismantling the debris and piling it high, so that notorious Southland wind can dry it out for a good bonfire later in the year. That’s where this fixed, rotating, tilting grapple comes into its own. While CDL make a universal hanger for regular dangle grapples for logging operations, this one is a few steps further along, and gives the kind of control you crave when you want to do storm clean-up quickly, safely and efficiently.
The Southland weather never fails to disappoint as far as excitement goes. On a previous visit, we had a blizzard and gale force winds almost blowing the porch off the house we stayed at. This time it’s just a six-hour thunderstorm overnight, followed by sleet and below zero wind chill. The beauty of all the rain, combined with the very fertile soils, is obviously great tree growth.
A father and son operation
Neville Stirling started out in ag work with ‘dozers in 1973, and bought a digger from his uncle in 1979.
“That was an O and K excavator, which was red and white. There weren’t a lot of diggers around then, except maybe a few bigger Cat machines which were in the forestry. And I’ve just worked by myself as a contractor, mostly in ag earthmoving, since then,” he says.
“I was actually going to retire, as things were getting too busy, but (Neville’s son) Anthony stepped in and said he would like to buy the business, so we sorted a plan for that to happen, and it...
