Small-scale forestry equipment buyer's guide: Fuelwood, GreenMech and Price Turfcare

Whether you are working in a confined space, tackling tricky terrain or on a sensitive site, this month’s Buyer’s Guide brings you the latest on small-scale equipment for woodland management. 

Today we share Part II, featuring the likes of GreenMech and Fuelwood. Part I ran yesterday. 

READ PART I: Small-scale forestry equipment buyer's guide: Treeline, Oakleaf, Jas P Wilson and Orion Forestry

Fuelwood 
Avesta Vagnen and FTG trailers

FUELWOOD supplies both large- and small-scale forestry equipment designed to make life easier, safer and more profitable for its customers. End users involved in smaller-scale woodland management need versatility in their equipment and if a tool can have multiple uses, it can keep costs down while keeping productivity high.

Fuelwood offers various solutions for timber extraction, with two ranges of smaller trailers from Avesta Vagnen and FTG Forest, equipped with either a radio-controlled winch or a crane for loading the timber. Optional trailer sides and bodies can turn these timber trailers into conventional or tipping trailers for moving much more than just logs.

The Uniforest range of winches, skidding grapples and firewood processors offers the perfect solution for small-scale forestry, enabling the extraction and processing of fallen timber into a profitable product for relatively small outlay. This new range of machinery, along with the FTG 5- and 6-tonne timber trailers, has proven to be very popular with customers clearing fallen trees following the recent storms.

For landowners and estate managers with their own woodlands and biomass heating facilities, the Heizohack range of chippers enable self-sufficiency in fuel supply for relatively little cost. Many biomass chip contractors need a huge amount of timber to make a day’s chipping worthwhile, and storage space for a huge amount of chip to last between visits. The versatility of owning your own biomass chipper means you can chip little and often, as and when the need to top up the fuel store arises. The energy efficiency designed into the Heizohack range of machines means that only relatively small tractors – the type that most estates and farms will have already – are needed to power these chippers.

As anybody involved with forestry knows, one of the most difficult and time-consuming tasks is handling timber. For those lucky enough to own a mini-digger, Fuelwood can offer a range of accessories and attachments including grapples, cone splitters, tree shears, post hole borers, concrete mixing bowls, stump planers, screening baskets and brooms, thus making your excavator the most versatile tool in the shed, and making the majority of tasks within the woodland a lot safer. Accessories are available for 1.5-tonne machines upwards.

Once extracted, there are numerous ways to capitalise on the valuable resource that timber has become. The range of Lucas Mill portable sawmills enable sawmilling and slabbing of timber, while the range of Japa firewood processors and the range of AMR log splitters and saws enable automated firewood production, transforming surplus timber from the woodland management into a quick return on investment.

For more information on the Fuelwood range of forestry and firewood machines that can help existing organisations to diversify profitably, contact 01926 484673 or visit www.fuelwood.co.uk.

Greenmech
CS80 and CS100 Woodchippers 

THE pedestrian woodchipper range from GreenMech combines accessibility with powerful performance, with machines designed to make light work of timber, vegetation and woody waste.

The CS80 and CS100 models offer an impressive 100 mm chipping capacity, ideal for the professional landscaper, arborist and gardens manager.

The entry-level CS80 is powered by an economical Loncin 12 hp pull-start engine and features twin long-life reversible blades made of high-grade steel, for effective chipping and easy re-sharpening. Its wide infeed chute design means large volumes of bushy material can be processed with minimal snedding to save the operator both time and money.

For added convenience, the discharge chute can also be adjusted to disperse the chip produced up to 5 m in any direction. The CS80 is the perfect solution for jobs in small spaces at just 760 mm wide, meaning access and manoeuvrability is no issue.

Further up the range, GreenMech’s CS100 range has proven itself to be a small yet mighty workhorse, powered by either a 16 or 18 hp Vanguard petrol engine. As with the CS80, its high-output chipping ability is provided by twin blades – completing the heavy-duty specification of a machine which delivers the perfect balance of convenience and strength.

READ MORE: Small-scale forestry equipment buyer's guide: Treeline, Oakleaf, Jas P Wilson and Orion Forestry

The tractor-mounted CS100 TMP model is also available, to utilise the horsepower of tractors of up to 30 HP. Both the CS80 and CS100 models have the option of a bespoke trailer for ease of transportation, and as with the entire GreenMech range, are covered by a three-year no quibble parts and labour warranty as standard.

For more information, visit www.greenmech.co.uk.

Price Turfcare
Ventrac

IT might not appear to be the obvious choice of forestry equipment, but the deceptively powerful Ventrac 4520 all-terrain compact tractor comes into its own for woodland management. With attachments that include stump grinders, brushcutters, buckets and grapples, there’s definitely a place for this versatile machine.

The KC180 stump grinder makes quick work of unwanted stumps and roots. Heavy-duty carbide cutters provide extended and effective performance in spite of dirt, stones, and debris in the work area. When mounted on the new 4520 tractor it creates an agile, powerful and ‘turf-friendly’ mobile unit for woodland management on estates, golf courses, parks and more.

A special convex mirror mounted to the tractor provides operator visibility to the front cutting edge, while the steering wheel-controlled articulation provides side-to-side cutting action. Forward and reverse motion is controlled with the tractor’s hydrostatic drive.

The HE482 power bucket with grapple accessory is an exceptional material-moving tool when working in woodland. It allows operators to securely transport debris, brush, branches, and logs with ease.

Hydraulically controlled from the driver’s seat, it facilitates smooth and effortless operation and, when not in use, it is designed to sit upright after detachment, with the lift arms in the proper position ready for direct reconnection when the bucket is used again.

The HQ682 Tough Cut deck attachment has been specifically designed for knocking down heavy brush. Able to work on slopes of up to 30 degrees, it can save huge amounts of time when compared to strimming. A large front opening directs material into the deck where three heavy-duty blades counter-rotate to cut and deposit waste evenly without windrowing. The blades are sharp on both sides so they can be used on right- or left-hand spindles, allowing for extended blade life. 

Tackling saplings up to 2.54 mm (1 inch) in diameter, the Tough Cut makes short work out of overgrown thickets. It has three cutting heights: 76 mm, 92 mm and 108 mm.

Easy servicing of belts and pulleys is provided by the hinged and removable cover, while the flip-up deck provides easy access for cleaning and changing blades. 

For more information, visit www.priceturfcare.com.