Everyone knows Wagner’s are big, but to get up close to them and even ride in one while it is working is nothing short of awe inspiring. Did we mutter obscenities in awe? Yes we did. Heck we even made some legit outbursts, says Iron Test writer, Tim Benseman, of the Wagner L130 being tested at Rotorua Forest Haulage (RFH). 

He continues: “Every man should have one of these really. You’d save so much time loading and unloading pretty much everything. It sounds manly too when it winds up with a load on, that 15 Litre Cummins hits the spot. 

“Kaingaroa site manager Jay McLean smiles, no doubt having heard this before, and says, ‘Our old machine had a lot of flexing damage to the boom from the uneven terrain here so we had this new machine built to RFH specs with a more rigid and strengthened boom made at the Allied Systems factory in Oregon, USA.  

“ ‘Because it is so big, the Wagner arrived in a number of components on several trucks as it weighs around 90 tonnes all up. The assembly and commissioning undertaken by Quality Marshalling (QM, who are  the New Zealand and Australia distributors) and a factory technician was completed in our yard and then we made some further adjustments as a contingency for making this machine last longer in our conditions. 

“ ‘So while this machine would lift 70 tonnes easy in ideal conditions, here it just wrecks the gear, so we had the pumps adjusted so they Stop at 66 tonnes. In normal conditions this machine has a top speed of 40kph but because we are only doing very short haul tasks here we had two of the gears removed as well so two forward and two reverse.

“It’s an impressive machine’ Jay says and we most certainly agree with him.”

To read more, get your copy of the February 2025 edition of NZ Logger magazine, on sale from 3 February. Check the link on this page to subscribe to either a printed or digital copy (or both).