AMPLE POWER
I AM USUALLY ON A TETHERED FELLING MACHINE AND I HAVEN’T operated a lot of wheel loaders. They are not that common really. My last one was ten years ago actually and it had a bucket, but I have loaded logs with one before for sure and you never really lose the feel for it once you’ve got it.
Napi gives me a brief rundown of the controls and a demo of what goes where in the fleeting, and I climb in for my turn.
All the footsteps and handrails are in good spots.
My first impression is that the John Deere 624P is spacious compared to the K model on the other skid and in general compared to other loaders I have run. The seat is comfortable, and as I am the same height as Napi I don’t need to adjust it at all. I notice it has a seat heater and seat cooler which is mint. I start up and it is super quiet. The John Deere screens are familiar from operating their other forestry machines.
The rear camera is very good, it has a good wide view and is sharp. I don’t set off the rear radar but hey, good to know it is there working to alert me if something or somebody is there and I miss them while focussing on handling logs. The radar is like the proximity sensors on a car, which is a massive bonus on a busy skid like this.
I just put the loader in drive and it works perfectly without me needing to deal with the gears. It has ample power for the job at hand, a wicked amount actually. The responsiveness of the controls is the best I have been in - real smooth, like crazy smooth.
On the old models the forward and reverse was on the steering wheel, but with this one it is on a joystick with the beak open and close, so I have to be careful not to drop the logs instead of backing up or vice versa, but I iron that out pretty quick.
Most of the time I am running this loader I am chatting to 040’s feller buncher operator on the radio, which is located right in front of the joystick, so it’s easy to use. Often radios are just thrown in as an afterthought but having it in a convenient place saves a lot of time when you add it all up over the day.
How Mark and Jim have set this skid and logging job up is really well planned and laid out. Always has been. Makes it easy and quick for the operators.
The Ensign forks are good. They have the high lift kit which is a bit difficult to grab with as the forks won’t lay flat on the ground, but you need the extra height with all the off-highways otherwise you can’t get over the higher bolsters.
The loader has good speed loaded and unloaded. You are always going to lose a bit of stability when you have a big load in the beak, but it barely affected operation.
I can definitely say wheel loaders have come a long way. It is almost as if this thing is electric, it is so quiet and strong. I wasn’t really thinking about wheel loaders as a future option on my horizon but now I definitely am after running this one.