Page 16 - OPE Mar-Jun 22

MARKETPLACE
Chippers, Shredders & Splitters
Business continues at
Hansa Products after its devastating fire in February.
of years and this success is reflected in solid demand for high-end LawnMaster products.
Steelfort offers the Eco 45 and Eco 75 chippers under the LawnMaster brand with the lightweight Eco 45 meeting domestic garden demands and the 75 (with its 7hp 208cc engine and 75mm chipping capacity) being more suited to the maintenance of large gardens or lifestyle blocks.
Steelfort has no relevant new models
to report at this time, but Gavin Lowndes
is quick to point to LawnMaster’s three
log splitter variants (22t, 37t and 37t with hydraulic lifts) in the LawnMaster range that are all highly portable and cover the requirements of domestic, farm and lifestyle block users.
In Nelson, Chris Smith from Taskpower has been selling Canadian-made Wallenstein chippers for over a decade and he was pleased to report some new models in stock.
The Wallenstein BX36 and BX52 chippers are tractor-powered units that should find favour with orchardists, farmers or lifestyle block owners alike.
The BX36 chips branches of up to three inches in diameter and can be powered by a light 20hp tractor.
More power is required to operate the heavier-duty BX52, which accepts five-inch- thick branches.
“These models give people choice,” comments Chris, “as they’re great alternatives to small, petrol-powered chippers and mean one less engine to maintain.
“We’re also well stocked on the log splitter front, with new commercial Exocut models (two petrol, one diesel) now in stock.
“These are highly productive machines for anyone making firewood and we expect the usual uptick in demand in the lead-up to winter and through the winter months.”
Manufactured locally in Nelson, the Exocut Splitter is the product of years of research and in-the-field testing, with
specialist input from technical, engineering, and hydraulic sectors.
“This Exocut machine has been designed with two main priorities: maintaining
high production, while ensuring optimum operator safety and comfort. The operator is always standing upright, well away from the danger zone, and the two-handed controls further contribute to safety.”
Chris Smith notes that conveyors are also under development to complete the package and, while the Exocut splitters are motorised, Taskpower also sees solid demand for tractor- powered units from the Split-Fire and Wood- King ranges it supplies.
Confirming that Taskpower maintains very good inventory and has been “largely unaffected to date by supply chain issues”, Chris concludes by emphasising the importance of support in the form of replacement parts and concedes that any chipper or splitter that is used to its potential will probably require fresh blades or bearings in due course.
It’s a hard life for a chipper
Returning to the North Island, Steve Cartwright at Hastings-based Hydralada sells and sets up heavy-duty Bandit Intimidator chippers for the local market, most notably the 12XP model for regular work and the heavier-duty 15XPC with 140hp diesel engine and winch.
While the latter is rated as a 15-inch chipper, Steve stresses that it actually has a very generous 17.25-inch infeed opening and towing weight of 3400kg, meaning it doesn’t require a heavy trailer licence to transport it.
“Both options,” Steve explains, “are very cleverly designed to take forks, ‘shorts’ and stringy/viney fibrous material without jamming the infeed or wrapping the
feed wheels (typical bugbears for chipper operators).
“And their compact size and modest
width also help when accessing domestic properties.”
As Chris Smith points out above, all these machines lead a tough life and Hydralada’s Steve Cartwright too takes pains to emphasise that correct daily maintenance is important with any hard-working machinery and laments the fact that too many Kiwi contractors are in the habit of putting a machine away dirty after a hard day’s work, then greasing it first thing in the morning.
“During a typical day’s work, moisture, sap, and acidic juices from the trees being chipped track their way through into the bearings.
“If left until the next morning, acidic juice pits the bearing shells and tree sap sets hard in the grease canals, and blocks them, so that grease can’t be pumped through them by the next morning.
“This leads to premature bearing wear. And if contractors fail to drop the bottom pan every night, then moist chip is held against the lower feed wheel bearings, which inevitably impacts on bearing life.
“But if you drop the pan and grease bearings at the end of every day, while a machine is still warm, the grease easily purges all of this contamination from the bearings, leaving them clean and packed with fresh grease for the night.
“We have customers who follow this procedure and have run up over 5,000 hours without ever replacing a bearing.”
Full-on fieldwork – the end users speak
As you would expect, there’s never any shortage of tree care work to be done throughout the country, as evidenced by the hundreds of predominantly small businesses
operating in this sphere.
Indeed, the handful of suburban tree care
and stump grinding specialists we managed to speak with were all under time pressure or driving from one job to another, and some were clearly feeling the pinch from labour shortages, soaring fuel prices, summer heat, the volume of low-value work driven by intense competition, and frustrating delays with repairs and parts supply...
One busy operator with 20 years’ experience (who preferred not to be named) was running two 12-inch Vermeer Excel chippers and a heavier-duty, winch-equipped 15-inch Bandit.
He was satisfied he had made the right machinery choices for typical workloads and maintained a spare chipper for use when one machine required attention.
Another operator, however, had three chippers from different brands that had all proven problematic, with one motor failing after only 12 months.
He said a Bandit was on his wish list, but the cost of the unit, the rising cost of parts and fuel, and the projected wait time, meant it was currently well out of reach.
One man who can knows all about the capabilities and servicing demands of chippers, splitters and stump grinders is Treefellas Fleet Manager, Josh Granger, and he was in a better position to choose his words in the relative comfort of Treefellas’ Auckland workshop while most of the company’s eight chippers were in operation around greater Auckland.
“We’ve been flat-out,” he begins. “We had a lot of work booked in before Omicron and it died down a little as people isolated, but my life has been made more difficult as we split staff into three bubbles.”
New high-production log splitter
EXOCUT HAS TAKEN
commercial firewood production to a new level with its new B62 log splitter promising to produce wood faster, more efficiently and more safely.
Classed as a super heavy-duty machine, the B62 delivers uninterrupted productivity with Exocut’s patented return arm design and powerful 6-inch diameter ram rated at 42t and produces uniform-size firewood pieces of 110 x 125mm, an ideal size for handling and stacking.
The 148L oil tank is mounted between the axles to lower the centre of
gravity and improve towing and the oil cooler allows the machine to operate all day, giving operators the potential to split 80 cubes of firewood per day.
www.taskpower.co.nz
016 NZOUTDOORPOWEREQUIPMENT MARCH-JUNE2022
more at www.facebook.com/NZOPEmagazine