ROLLS-ROYCE OF TOWERS
THIS NEW MADILL 172B HAS TO BE the Rolls-Royce of 70-foot towers. It’s a beautifully laid out machine. Everything is in its right place. Plenty of power. Smooth to operate. What’s not to like?
I used to have a 171 and this new 172B has definitely come ahead, it’s the next generation in tower hauling in the 70-foot world. I only wish I could have spent more time in the operator’s seat.
I was just starting to get used to the controls, but even with my short time, I found them good. Very soft touch. You expect that with electrics over hydraulics. It also means you are not going to get the wear and tear on your controls and clutches, because it eliminates that harshness and shock-loading.
Everything is nicely located, all where they should be. Having a 124, as well as an older 009 tower, helped me to find what I needed to use.
The only little issue I had was with the throttle, as the springs get a bit sticky – when you want to let the throttle go you have to push the throttle off, otherwise it will stay in position. All it needs is a little bit of adjustment. After a couple of drags I kind-of got used to it. Keanu just had to remind me every now and then to let the throttle go. You take your hand off and it still keeps going. Other than that, it’s a beautiful machine.
That Detroit has got a lot of power, you can feel it. We were only running it in second gear and with six gears it’s got sheer line speed that would be quite scary if you let it rip.
Keanu does well with such a small landing, if he was running faster he would want more
space to store the logs.
Interesting that they’re running a Hawkeye grapple carriage with the tower. We’ve got the same carriage in my crew, but I’m not used to operating it myself. Again, it didn’t take much to get used to. Some might get flustered with all the buttons, but you’re only using the top four most of the time. The only
challenge was getting adjusted to using the cameras.
Cameras are very useful in helping to pick out the wood on the ground. A couple of the drags I got two or three stems in the grapple. Only managed to lose one of them. Couldn’t really feel them on there and they came up real easily.
It will be interesting to see how it performs when they get to do some shotgunning. I reckon it will do really well.
Good to see Keanu keeping a tidy cab. He runs it in his socks – mind you, part of that is because the feeling in those foot pedals is so soft. You wouldn’t feel much if you had boots on.
The tower felt very solid on the landing with that extra fifth guy rope. The one thing I did pick up on is that it should have a bigger exhaust stack, as it’s a shame for a multimillion-dollar machine to be covered in soot. It needs to be extended up above the cab.
But really, there’s not much to fault. Those things are minor and easily fixable.