US fixed head felling shears launched in NZ
ANOTHER FIXED FELLING HEAD HAS become available in New Zealand, this time from an American manufacturer.
The Dymax brand, which hails from Kansas in the mid-West, is now being sold in New Zealand through Auckland-based Boss Attachments.
Former forester, Paul Herbison, heads up Boss Attachments in this country and says the new Dymax fixed felling heads are ideal for large-scale thinning operations. They utilise shears, rather than a chainsaw blade, and come in two classes; the Contractor Series mainly targeted at rural contractors for general land clearing and the more heavy-duty Forestry Series that is suited to thinning small-to-medium trees.
The first Forestry Series Dymax felling head is already working in the South Island for a contractor based out of Oamaru, who originally purchased it to clear willows on riverbanks and has now put it into a small woodlot job harvesting 18-year-old trees.
Paul says the Forestry Series is produced in sizes ranging from a 200mm cut up to a 600mm cut, from 362kg up to 2,800kg in weight, and they are capable of producing 160-to-170 stems an hour in small woodlots.
“They are built very strong and will withstand a lot of hard work,” says Paul, adding that Dymax is a family-owned business that’s been in existence for 110 years “so they should know what they’re doing”.
Among the features on the heads are bolt-on cutting knives that are built to give at least 1,000 hours of service and are easily sharpened. Bolt-on guards also protect hydraulic hoses from damage.
Although the head is fixed vertically it does have a 60-degree left and right tilt for easier access to trees on either side. A bunching arm attachment for multi-stem cutting is available as an option, as is a knife attachment on the top.
Dymax says its felling heads have the most powerful closing pressures and quickest operating shear on the market.
The Dymax heads were displayed on the Boss Attachments stand at the recent HarvestTECH 2019 conference in Rotorua and Paul says he spoke to thinning contractors who showed “good interest” in them.