The first thing we notice about Conan Hemsworth’s Weiler H457 harvester is the staunch, oversized, heavy-duty undercarriage with a discreet zero tail cab and a long 9.91 metre reach, says Iron Test writer, Tim Benseman. Built for thinnings, that undercarriage is going to be a broad and stable base in amongst the spot mounds.
Tim continues: “And Conan has spread his logging career across a broad base as well, starting in Wales manually harvesting thinnings with a chainsaw for a weekly forwarder pick up: ‘I would chainsaw down the trees, cut them to length and had these tongs which I would use to drag the logs into bunches. Then a tractor with a forwarder trailer run off the tractor PTO would come along and pick up the bunches.’
“Hard work for young men and an eye opener as to how things have changed.
“When asked how the H457 purchase came about, Conan says, ‘I needed a good tracked machine that wasn’t too heavy. Sometimes the weight of the machine can damage the roots in the thinnings, so weight was a factor… then it came down to having good balance and speed and the Weiler definitely fits the bill, and I am a Cat man too.
‘This machine went into a new crew along with an older machine we already had and currently the Weiler does about 70% of production. The head can’t be heavy either but that’s okay because with lighter heads you have speed.’
“The Waratah H424 weighs in at just 1.1 tonnes and is running the TimberRite H16 control and measuring system. Combined with the Weiler, total unit weight is 31.5 tonnes.
“Conan’s company, CMH Contracting, has two crews in Kaingaroa with Timberlands and two with Port Blakely, one of which is a ground based crew working on Matakana Island.
“He says, 'They are a small three-man crew running a Cat harvester and loader and a Tigercat forwarder. They produce 250 tonnes a day. That’s a sustainable level of production for the barge that carts log trucks and other traffic to and from the island.’
“Conan runs a couple of other Weilers and has also just ordered a new self-levelling Weiler to go into thinnings as future work heads into the steeper slopes: ‘Basically the same as the H457 but the H458 has that tilt option.’
“It’s an interesting story how Conan went from manual falling in Wales to owning and running four crews back in New Zealand.”
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