Heavy-duty Volvo harvester arrives
A NEW ZEALAND-INSPIRED HEAVY-DUTY forestry harvester has been developed by Volvo for worldwide markets and the first one to come off the production line has now arrived.
The Volvo EC380 is the latest swing machine designed specifically for forestry applications and joins the EC250D and EC300D introduced two-and-a-half years ago.
Like the two smaller models, the new EC380D owes its existence to demand from customers in New Zealand.
“After we were successful in getting the factory to build the EC250D and EC300D for our forestry customers we then said to them ‘we need to talk about a 380’ and they thought we were joking at first,” says Ewen Satherley, Territory Manager for TransDiesel.
“With my background operating 40-tonne harvesters I was able to explain to them the importance of having a machine in that segment of the market, especially with the emphasis on mechanising forestry operations.”
When Canada also backed the proposal to make the EC380D a factory-built model, it finally received approval from Volvo.
The new model was made possible because it takes the track gear from the 50-tonne EC480D, providing it with three top rollers per track, slew bearing guard, heavy-duty track guards and under-guarding. The high and wide undercarriage endows it with a ground clearance of 700mm.
The upper structure has been donated by an EC380D, which has sufficient room to fit the EC480D’s Volvo 13-litre engine that develops 310hp peak power. Like the EC250D and EC 300D, the new model gets a forestry guarding package, heavy counterweight and forestryspec cab with 32mm polycarbonate front screen, all built in the factory, so no need to go into a workshop to prepare it for the bush on arrival in New Zealand – once the attachment is fitted, the new Volvo can go straight to work.
Compared to the EC480 on which it is based, the new EC380D has different gearing so that it can tackle the varied terrain it will encounter in our forests. And it comes with a dedicated rotor circuit and a pair of pumps providing ancillary flow for attachments.
Equipped with a heavy-duty boom and arm, the world’s first EC380D has been fitted with a SATCO SAT325T fall and de-limbing head spec’d with topping saw and full optimisation and is ready to go to work in the central North Island. A second one is due to arrive shortly, bound for Northland.
Ewen Satherley says there is also an option for contractors to purchase the EC380D with a knuckle boom for those who want a heavyweight shovel loader.
NZL