Six of the best
IT CAN GET MIGHTILY WET DOWN HERE IN THE DEEP SOUTH, SO anything that can aid traction when you’re trying to pull wood from the cut-over is very welcome.
That was obviously part of Clint McIvor’s thinking when he swapped from his four-wheeled rope skidder to this new six-wheeled Tigercat 625E.
The last skidder I drove was a 635 and you do notice the difference that extra set of wheels provides when the Heavens open. We often have to park up 4-wheelers, but the 6-wheeled machines can keep going without doing as much damage, especially when fitted with band tracks.
So I was interested to see how Clint’s new 625E matched up to my expectations, even though ground conditions were dry for this particular test. Traction can still be difficult to come by on a steep crumbling track and the trail leading up to the cut-over at this site is in that category. But I had no trouble putting power down to the surface through the six wheels on the 625E. Probably didn’t need those chains on the front, although it felt nice to have the extra bite once I had a full load in the grapple, to steady progress on the way down. I didn’t even need to think about putting in the diff locks and if you do need them you’ve got a choice of having them all engaged, just the front or just the axles on the bogie.
This one is pretty good compared to the big machine. Very responsive. Does it very easily. Doesn’t seem to over rev and you toggle it off with your throttle anyway.
Didn’t notice I had all that weight on the back, especially going downhill, and you only felt it If you went over a stump. It would have been interesting trying it uphill with a load.
The old 635 I drove had 15,000 hours on it and no TurnAround seat. The new seat makes it so much easier and you’d definitely feel fresher at the end of a day.
Steering through joysticks is better, too.
The steering controls are on the left-hand side. On the other side are controls for the arch and then you have buttons for open and shut and for constant pressure – when you’ve got the grapple up with a bunch of logs it will keep the constant pressure on them so it doesn’t let go. Then your rotate is the next two buttons, but left doesn’t make it turn left, because it turns right, so maybe they want to change that.
If you want extra throttle it’s got a trigger, like the new 635, so instead of using your foot you put it into neutral, like when you put weight down to make the logs crunch, and you flick it to power on and it makes it squeeze.
With the hydrostatic drive you don’t have high or low range – just feed more juice to go faster and back off to slow down. I liked the way I could place it just off low all the way down the hill and it held it going down.
Good vision all round, bloody good, in fact. Even with the arch and grapple hanging out there when reversing up to the cut-over. Just look to either side to judge the track. As you approach the stems the visibility through the arch improves as you begin to lower it.
Lots of grunt in the hydraulics as you grab stems in the grapple, which can hold quite a bit of wood. Full rotation means you don’t have to worry where you approach the stems from and I like how much it lifts the wood off the ground to create less drag.
I didn’t get a chance to use the winch, but Craig seemed happy with it and he’d know, having used one continuously for the past few years.
All up, the Tigercat 625E is a big improvement on what Clint had before.
NZL