Awesome is the only word, Carl. Looks like you are getting real dextrous with it as well. Do you expect it to be at all hard on the device when the tree twists it about from the weight going over? Made to take that stress long term?
Yea, it looks like the bigger ones would really put a whupping on it.
Hard on the grapple? No, it's made for it. The grapple has a work relief port for the grapple tines and the tilt cylinder. If either go over pressure while in use, the work relief (pressure relief valve inline with the cylinder's line) the relief will open and the grapple will open or tilt down.
I'm sure it's harder on the excavator than digging in dirt, but it too has work reliefs. I figure over time it will add wear to the swing drive and slew bearing... maybe to the boom itself (cracking over time)... Still it should last to 3k hours without issue, which is a long service life for such a productive, low cost machine (relative to dedicated forestry machines).
I think its a niche tool and if ones market can keep it busy, its a sure money maker. I personally would be hard pressed to keep it busy, but can think of several gigantic jobs I lost the bid on that this head would have let me blow the other bids away and still make a fortune. Our state owned hunting lands are often put out to bid to harvest timber. The loggers obviously eat that up if the wood is good. But the state puts out bids pretty often of clearing 20 year old pole stage aspen to start the regen process. A lot of times its spec'd to cut the acreage and let it all lay. The loggers don't want it and the tree guys hesitate to bid because the volume of hand cutting is large and its difficult to put a number on. This machine and head would be the ticket on clearing those 10 acre blocks of 10" dbh aspen which has a really high stem per acre density.
Those habitat blocks I just described dont go for big enough money for a logger to justify running his full size mechanical cutter when he could be harvesting saw logs or pulp. If the wood all stays, its difficult to make money with a quarter million dollar cutter when bidding against uncertain guys that are figuring on hand cutting it. This set up would put the contractor right in the sweet spot of out cutting a chainsaw, yet bringing in small enough iron that he can make money off the deal. I think the key to successful bidding with this set up is getting to know what your production rate is per day in different sized wood.
The excavator is the most handy equipment I own. I use it for loading tree debris already doing residential work. The grapple saw is somewhat of a niche, but it will be used in day to day residential tree work as well as clearing and niche work. After a FEMA level storm, it will be a
HUGE money maker... like if I had an operator on par with myself, the excavator and grapple saw should be able to make to nearly pay for the excavator and the grapple saw in one month, figuring 240 billable hours. Ice storm? No problem clearing roads, driveways, yards, etc... all from the comfort of the cab, listening to the radio. Sun goes down? No problem, add lighting to the excavator and you could feasibly run it around the clock. What's amazing to me is the potential applications for it is still undecided. This is easily as big of a difference in the tree industry as the mini skid was. Sure it costs some money, so did the mini skids a decade ago when they were grass roots. I could see getting another excavator to mainly run the grapple saw/mulcher/stump grinder. Nice thing about the excavator is it can be used for so many applications to keep it busy, the grapple saw just adds a layer of super profitable work. If I can put in the effort to advertise the grapple saw doing work locally (vs selling them), I have little doubt it could pay for itself this year.
