20 minute read
SHAW’S WIRE ROPES IRON TEST
from NZ Logger June 2022
by nzlogger
POWER TO BURN
Story: Tim Benseman Photos: John Ellegard
BANNER 1BANNER 1BANNER 1
EST 1909EST 1909EST 1909 THE SUPPLIER TO NEW ZEALAND HEAVY INDUSTRY THE SUPPLIER TO NEW ZEALAND HEAVY INDUSTRY THE SUPPLIER TO NEW ZEALAND HEAVY INDUSTRY
BANNER 2BANNER 1BANNER 1
Sumitomo’s new 3740TLW loader (left) at work for Lloyd Logging near Kaitaia.
With improvements to fine control, the 3740TLW operator’s day just gets easier.
OR BUSTER PIETA, THE SUMITOMO 3740TLW IS A
real grin machine. He can’t stop grinning when he’s operating it. And he’s definitely not the only one at Lloyd Logging who is deeply impressed by it… and impressed on a scale rarely seen in this industry.
Lloyd Logging was among the first to take delivery of a new generation 40-series Sumitomo model in New Zealand. Weighing in at 37 tonnes, the 3740 loader is a 250-sized machine with a 300 base and an 11.68 metre reach. One of its stand-out features is fuel economy, as it appears to burn considerably less diesel than similar loaders.
It was a real treat for operator, Buster to finally step into his first brand new machine and he thinks it’s the best machine he’s ever operated.
“I reckon this machine is a good 40% up in production on the previous machine, and there wasn’t anything really wrong with the last one, I just turned around one day and here is this shiny new machine and a key handed to me,” he says.
For Lloyd Logging owner, Isaac Lloyd, a happy operator is a productive operator, but there is a raft of reasons why both Isaac and Buster are grinning. Not least of which is the fuel efficiency.
“Our first Sumi when we got it three years ago, it was just what it could do, the power, the smoothness, it was just amazing,” says Isaac.
“And the biggest thing for me was they just burn very little diesel. The amount of diesel it burns is just crazy and that was back then you know, they were already onto something as far as fuel efficiency goes.
“Then we got another Sumi, that was a 370 running our processor and the diesel use on that one was amazing too. And being a bigger machine, you would think it would be quite slow, but it was still quick and nimble. So now we have five Sumitomo’s; two loaders and three processors running Woodsman 850’s, which are well matched to the Sumi 370 and 350’s.
“So, the newest Sumi we have is running Ad Blue (necessary for a Tier 4 engine), which is a bit of a bummer but one thing we find very efficient is the 820-litre fuel tank. The Toll fuel tanker just fills it up once a week and that lasts him the whole week easy. Being such a large tank, we
do have to drain the water trap quite often because it creates a lot of condensation when fuel gets lower.”
Looking good
The machine is mostly used for fleeting and loading, but Buster does a little bit of shovelling in the cut-over when he gets the chance. Isaac adds: “He loves getting to go shovelling, finds it very well balanced, it’s not tippy or anything but we sort of want it to just stay on the skid. He’s got a few scratches on it already and I am quite fussy about that with the machines.” That’s one of the reasons why Isaac made the decision to have a unique character air-brushed onto the rear of each of his machines using a local Northland artist, Brad Walters. For Buster’s machine it’s guitar legend, Jimi Hendrix. The aim is to encourage operators to take ownership of their machine and be even more careful with the equipment they operate. And apart from those minor scratches from shovelling, this 3740 looks remarkably good after more than six months on the job. Meanwhile, Isaac still can’t get over the economy of the 3740, adding: “It is a little tank of a machine, it’s quite unreal actually. On a big week he’ll burn 600 litres of diesel, it’s usually between 500-and-600, which is amazing. One of our foremen has just bought his own brand-new machine, not a Sumi, and is running it in our business and he’s finding it burns just over 900 litres a week, which is substantially more than what the Sumi burns. “Just burning 11 or 12 litres an hour, it is just about nothing, and that fuel efficiency is actually a really big thing these days with how fuel prices are going. “Another thing I like about these Sumi’s is how they have done the cooling - they haven’t stacked all the radiators and coolers together as one, they are offset. It makes a lot more sense than stacking them one behind the other as one mass. When my mechanic does the 250-hour servicing he always blows out those fins anyway. BANNER 4BANNER 1BANNER 1 “Keeping a machine cool is one of the biggest things you can do to
SERIOUS POWER FOR BIG TIME LOGGERS
ALWAYS SWING A BIG STICK
Above left: Buster spreads sawdust and bark on the skid to keep mud and dust to a minimum. Above right: Buster Pieta puts the Sumitomo 3740TLW to work loading a truck for export. Bottom: The Sumitomo 3740TLW can load a whole truck from one spot and the stability and smoothness ensures there is zero operator fatigue at day’s end.
prolong the life of that machine to say 20,000 hours or more. If you keep that hydraulic oil cool, all the time, you’re winning. Once it gets hot it just hardens everything up, all the seals and O rings and then you have a leaky old b*tch for the next 5,000 hours. They’re awesome the Sumi’s, I rate them pretty highly.”
And he couldn’t think of a better person to put into the cab of this new series machine than Buster, who has been in the bush for 30 years.
“This Sumi is the first time he has ever been given a new machine to operate,” says Isaac. “I didn’t tell him. I just threw him the keys and said here you go. He was freaked out. He was over the moon and really chuffed. He didn’t want to go home. Wanted to come to work early. Reckons the lights are like Christmas and everything is nice and clean and tidy.
“He’s an awesome, smooth operator.”
Big wood
In recent years, Lloyd Logging has grown to have 24 employees working across four crews and they are quite lucky up here to have ongoing sustainable work when some others have been forced to move away from Northland to allow the big corporate-owned forests to reach harvesting age again.
The manual breaker-out pole team the NZ Logger team visits is in a Fortuna-owned forest west of Kaitaia and has a target of seven loads a day.
Lloyd Logging has been in this block harvesting since the start of 2021 and will probably be finished near the end of this year.
As we approach the skid site, Isaac points out the huge 34-year-old stems felled near the road and says: “This older wood is really high quality and dense. It’s a bit of a shame it’s heading to China and not going to local mills.
“This block has three different spacings for final stocking, so some settings are perfect cannons and some are quite ugly. The logs are all big and they are heavy.
“They do anything from seven-to-ten loads a day in here. If their target is seven then there is no pressure to go balls out just to get their tonnage. When we first came in and started road lining, we had to park our processor up for two months, the wood was just too big. It was just huge. We were producing ten loads a day manual cutting. It was just crazy. It was actually too big.
“It got to a point where we had to cut the logs in half after the fallers just to move them. Just as well we still have quite a few experienced guys who had done manual processing before. The fallers were only getting 10-to-12 trees down per tank. You don’t realise how big it is until it lands on the skid.
BANNER 3BANNER 1BANNER 1
SERIOUS POWER BIG TIME LOGGERS
“The pain in the arse for this whole block has been powerlines right through the middle. We have also had a bit of wind damage, so that now needs a felling machine brought in. It’s just too dangerous for our fallers.
“We have had some gnarly settings in here. The boys have done well though. There’s a lot of broken ground and clay - the worst soil for logging in New Zealand. If you’re logging up here in winter you are on a hauler, or a 6-wheeler but even then, you can be making too much mess. Lots of real deep ugly guts.
Lots to impress
The setting we arrive at was only established the day before. While this part of the block could have been ground-based, there’s much less ground disturbance with the pole hauler.
This crew also employs manual breaker-outs, rather than grappling the wood from the cut-over.
“Breaking out is a good gateway for young guys to get into logging,” Isaac says. “Our other hauler has a grapple on it and that is quite boring now.
“We think we will hold onto manual falling and manual breaking out for a while yet because the forest companies are happy with what we do. All our fallers and breaker-outs are Safetree certified. Compliance now is just so expensive, but it is just what you have to do to stay in the game with the big corporates.”
Our attention returns to the Sumi we’ve come to test. First impression is that she has a big counterweight on her, emphasised by the graphic of Jimi Hendrix ripping on his guitar.
After just 10 minutes in the Sumi, Isaac says he loves it: “Everyone who runs it rates it highly. The reach on it is amazing.”
Originally, he wanted a high cab, but that would have meant a three-month wait and this machine was sitting in the AB Equipment yard and ready to go.
The other thing he would change is to put a bigger grapple on the end of the stick, adding: “I didn’t think it would handle it only being a 250-size machine, but they spec’d it up so much that it’s just got power to burn.”
The improved bonnet is very solid, reached by a handy set of steps alongside the boom and you don’t have to risk putting your back out to get it open or closed. Plenty of space for mechanics to work around and good access from the ground for filters and other checks.
Fuel economy has improved 14% compared to the previous Sumitomo model. That big 820L fuel tank is a 50% expansion and among the biggest you’ll find on a loader of this size. The 36% faster boom-down/arm-in also stands out and ties in with Buster’s assessment that it is about 40% better than his previous machine overall, then add in the cumulative effects of a 9% faster boom up/ swing and 11% swing torque increase along with up to 5% bonus lifting capacity due to wider lifting area and you can see there has been a serious effort to improve the hydraulic performance.
Sumitomo has improved manoeuvrability and fine control in the hydraulics too, with a dedicated control valve for application and forestry-exclusive circuit for arm-in-arm regeneration and arm-2 spool.
The new models Isuzu AQ-4HK1X engine has the same specs as the previous model at 5.2L, 177HP/ 132KW but the DPF has been replaced by a DEF tank in the upgrade to Tier 4 specifications.
The DEF, or Diesel Exhaust Fluid tank (AdBlue), required for this new Tier 4 engine is just another tank to fill and get used to, but the machine warns you in plenty of time with an on-screen notification when a top-up is required. Ignoring the warnings results in a major go slow, (around 90% reduction) so having spare product on hand or
ordering at the first warning is advisable.
Isaac and Buster both like the turbo timer.
“All machines should have a turbo timer,” Isaac says. “If you get young fellas anxious at the end of the day when the ride out is waiting, they might be tempted to count down 1,2,3,4 and turn it off. At least with the turbo timer you know the turbo has been cooled down properly.”
Buster started off in roading before switching to the forest and says: “This new Sumi is the best machine I have ever been in for all my life in logging. I don’t want to get out of it.
“I like the wide platforms. Really safe. You can get your whole boot on it. It’s easy to get in and out of with my new titanium knee. The tinted windows are really good. Factory aircon is just awesome. And the reach is good too. You can just park in one spot and load the whole truck. The Duxson grapple is good and strong, compared to the previous grapples I’ve experienced, this one seems a little bit tougher.
“This machine makes my life easy. I do way more than I normally would do. Sometimes I see the boys in a rough spot breaking out where the wood is too crossed up, so I like to get out there and shovel it clear for them. Isaac doesn’t really like it though.
“Sometimes I help with getting the ropes out too, if it’s a gnarly spot, just to help the breaker-outs get it done. On a recent rope shift it was quite steep and I was thinking man when are you going to start to tip over? But nothing. So stable.
“I don’t think the fuel tank level affects the stability. I have never had an issue with stability when the tank was low. It is economical, too. Shows you how much fuel you have used since you started. The lighting package is beautiful too.”
Like all modern forestry machines, the controls can all be changed via the computer to suit the operator, but Buster hasn’t needed to make any adjustments.
“I haven’t changed anything on the screen as far as set-up goes, it’s just right how they sent it out,” he says. “Koro (Isaac Lloyd) didn’t believe me that it was so good so he asked me if he could have a go. I says, ‘you own it man, take it down the hill, take it wherever you BANNER 5BANNER 1BANNER 1 want!’ So he had a go, and he says, ‘far out, no wonder you like it’.”
Above : The 3740TLW has power to burn as it picks up a huge 34-year-old 5-metre log with ease and just doesn’t tip or lurch at all. Bottom left: The increased visibility from the new PFS cab helps eliminate operator fatigue. Bottom right: The Duxson grapple could have been a bit bigger in hindsight, but operator, Buster Pieta, is impressed with how tough it is.
MADE IN CANADA FOR NZ CONDITIONS
1 2 3
4 5 6
1. Filters and sample ports are super-easy to access. 2. The offset coolers, huge air vents in the door and the reversing fan mean this machine runs cool right through summer. 3. Regular operator, Buster Pieta, likes the extra storage and the wide catwalks. 4. The improved bonnet is much easier to open and shut and is built tough. The Isuzu 4 cylinder 5.2 litre turbo engine has power to burn without scorching your wallet. 5. The steps up to the engine bay and grease nipples are a good safety improvement, as noted by regular operator Buster Pieta (left) with Iron tester, Tim Benseman. 6. Buster Pieta chose Jimi Hendrix as one of his musical heroes for the counterweight graphic.
Log loading made easier and more efficient with Sumitomo’s new 3740TLW loader being 14% more economical than its already impressive fuel-wise predecessor.
BANNER 1BANNER 1BANNER 1
EST 1909EST 1909EST 1909 THE SUPPLIER TO NEW ZEALAND HEAVY INDUSTRY THE SUPPLIER TO NEW ZEALAND HEAVY INDUSTRY THE SUPPLIER TO NEW ZEALAND HEAVY INDUSTRY
INTO THE DEEP END
ALL THIS PRAISE FOR THE NEW 3740 HAS WHETTED MY APPETITE
to get behind the controls. As this is my first Iron Test, I was expecting an easy intro, some fleeting and maybe some shovelling to ease into it and get to know the machine but no, truck three of eight arrived and after two minutes of instruction from Buster I was thrown in the deep end.
After sorting cameras out, the turbo timer - a nice feature, shut everything down and I somehow forgot to flick the switch for one of the throttle modes, so I unloaded the trailer and hooked it to the truck at idle, which worked out to be the perfect speed for somebody who has mostly been processing firewood on my aging Cat 320A for the last five months.
To give a bit of background, I started getting thrown in the deep end running excavators when I was about 20. Back then I met a transporter driver in the Raukumara Ranges who had just unloaded a high hours Hitachi UHO 6 tonner. How do you drive these things? I asked. Oh, just get in and start playing, you’ll figure it out.
From then on, I have been on old Hitachi EX 200’s with up to 26,000 hours on the clock, brand new Komatsu and Hyundai 20 tonners on pumice for around 10,000 hours and then stepping straight into a oneyear-old 40-tonne Kobelco shovelling on a swamp where corduroy was mandatory and sometimes had to be several layers deep unless it was A40 plus size. So yeah, deep ends seem to be a bit of a habit but that’s how we learn, right?
I was conscious of the log truck driver’s long haul ahead to Whangarei so got busy loading as fast as I could.
First log I was thinking, ah heck, I am not quite positioned close enough but then stretched the stick out and raised my eyebrows at just how far out there it went. Just far enough. Being a big 34-year-old 5-metre butt log, I braced for the machine to be jolted or lurch as I lifted, but nothing happened, just picked it up easily like it was nothing. Almost like somebody had welded the tracks to the ground. Or like I imagine a remote operating unit would feel. On the one hand kind of disconcerting at first, but on the other, that lack of feedback is why Buster says there is no operator fatigue at day’s end with the Sumitomo. The big logs filled the bolsters pretty quick and smooth, and it was nice not to have my usual log truck driver giving me chapter and verse about upsetting his Weetbix munching with my bolster thumping. If this beast of a machine is the future, I want more of it.
The responsiveness to the controls is uncanny. This machine is smoothly responding to your operative actions every split second, pouring power on when you are lifting and dialling it back when you are doing lower power tasks, and the machine’s response is instant and well regulated.
It walks nicely, swings and lifts very smoothly and the Duxson grapple answers the controls immediately. Very impressive.
Although the 3740 arrives from Sumitomo with a factory-built high and wide undercarriage, the forestry cab is a local design and build from PFS of Hamilton. It’s very operator-friendly, with excellent vision all-round and minimal use of bars, thanks to Marguard screens. A great A/C system and
Iron Tester, Tim Benseman. Above: Iron Tester, Tim Benseman, loads 34-yearold logs with the new Sumitomo 3740 at Lloyd Logging and enjoys the 11.68-metre reach. Below: Iron Tester, Tim Benseman, lifts the trailer off at idle and is impressed by the new Sumitomo’s stability and responsiveness.
BANNER 2BANNER 1BANNER 1
SPEC IFICATION S SPECIFICATIONS – SUMITOMO 3740TLW LOG LOADER
ENGINE
Isuzu AQ-4HK1X Final Tier 4 turbocharged diesel Rated power 132kW (177HP) @ 2,000rpm
Peak Torque 621Nm @1,800rpm
Displacement 5.2 Litre
HYDRAULICS
2x 234 l/m pumps
BOOM / ARM
Model Reach Sumitomo 11.68m
GRAPPLE
Model Rotation Max opening Weight Duxson GX171 continuous 1,700mm 1,299kg REFILL CAPACITIES (LITRES)
Fuel tank Engine oil Hydraulic tank DEF tank
DIMENSIONS (MM)
Length Width Height Ground clearance Operating weight Ground pressure 820 23.1 147 120
14,100 3,500 3,840 700 37,897kg 8.99 psi
super-comfortable air-suspended seat round it off nicely.
With the extra reach, power and stability I can see why Buster didn’t want to go home. This is a machine that you could probably break records with on a daily basis if you needed to and still feel more than half human when you get home.
Overall impression of this Sumitomo is that of a well laid out machine with operator health & safety in mind.
As a simple loader, the new Sumitomo 3740TLW is highly capable. It will be interesting to see how this capability extends to the rest of the 40-series range that is now starting to go to work in forests around New Zealand. NZL
WINTER REPAIRS?
Stock shortages and price increases, sound familiar? Try our Award winning Superseal® tracks. Get FREE Track Bolts/ Nuts & FREE fitting of new shoes for every full undercarriage set ordered during June & July 2022.
Full range in stock for
• Excavators 1-50 Ton • Forestry Machines 20-50 Ton • Dozers Cat D6, D7, D8,
Komatsu D65
Tigercat fitted with Mainline Supeseal® Tracks and Undercarriage
