This month our Iron Test team visits the Catlins with Mark Farrell from Farrell Logging to test his new Komatsu 895HD Comfort Ride forwarder.
Says, Iron Test writer Tim Benseman: “Eastern Southland looks like one of the luckiest parts of the country to be a logger. Smoothly rolling hills, nice tall and straight tree stems, and bright green grassy paddocks of beef and mutton to ensure a tasty dinner after work. And then you can add in zero early load outs to take a fair bit of stress out of your day.
“The weather forecast is for a fine sunny day and I guess that may be happening up above the rain and wind chill but it isn’t much use to us there. I have to run from one camera shot position to the next to keep warm despite five layers of clothing. On the plus side there is some good shooting light diffused through the mist.
“This is our second time into the Southland eucalypt clearfell operations and it still surprises us to see thousands of tonnes of debarked logs laid out over many hectares waiting for collection. Today there is a difference because there is some extra steep ground in this block, so a contract tree faller named Fizzer has tipped most of the steep area trees over with his Stihl 661 and he also has a 22-tonne excavator down there tracking. It has a quick hitch so can go from grapple to bucket in a few minutes. Once the tracks are done, the 22 tonne Sumi operator and Mark with his Komatsu harvester, will shovel the wood up to the track and process it so the forwarder can collect it.
“And it’s a big forwarder. There’s a 7.4 litre engine packing 280 horsepower and a payload of 20 tonnes. This is similar to the Grimmer Contracting forwarder we profiled in the April 2023 edition of NZ Logger but this HD version is over a tonne heavier. It has an XT transmission which hugely increases its tractive effort from 262Kn to 307Kn, meaning more power on the hills.”
To read more, get your copy of the June 2025 edition of NZ Logger magazine, on sale from 2 June. Check the link on this page to subscribe to either a printed or digital copy (or both).
