FORESTRY MACHINERY SPRING 2023 47

take a look in Europe to see what their solution is and saw the Westtech Woodcracker was favoured.”

Natural Selection

Receiving a quote on an Austrian manufactured Westtech W1350 Woodcracker from Aaron Maslen, James was keen to get one on order. “We saw videos of the Westtech on YouTube and thought it would be a far better tool for us, offering better splitting power and capacity and giving us to option to use it to stack material and load a chipper. Following our initial conversations with Westtech, we also went to see German tree specialist Latour using the equipment and were blown away with the versatility of the W1350.”

Constructed from lightweight yet super-strong Hardox steel, the twin jaws are worked by a single, large diameter ram mounted horizontally in the body of the grab. The large plates on the end of each arm are slightly chamfered to allow them to cut into each log and split the timber apart easily. Cutting forces exerted at the tip exceeds 34 tonnes allowing even the hardest wood to be quickly split. The curved jaws give a maximum opening width of 1,370mm allowing James to handle almost all the timber he regularly comes across. “If we nd anything larger, we can still split it, but it takes a few more goes just taking off smaller bites,” James commented.

With Greenwoods having a large pile of tree trunks, butt ends and pieces of trunk from all species of trees piled up in the yard, it was an ideal opportunity for Forestry Machinery to take a look at just what the attachment can provide. James sat himself on the concrete yard with the blade of the Volvo on the ground before stretching the arm out to pick up from the piled logs sitting close by. Despite having 1,200kg sitting on the outstretched dipper, the added weight of a dense willow truck measuring over 4m in length and 1m in diameter caused the Volvo no issues at all.

Right: At the end of the Westtech W1350 head is a Volvo ECR145E.

Below inset: Even bigger timber just takes more biting...

While the Westtech carries a price tag more than double that of a good cone splitter, James has concluded that his choice works out that he can effectively double his production with the W1350. This also means a huge fuel saving, especially as his machines now must run on white diesel. With the W1350 tted, the Volvo can now stack the round timber, process it and load the chipper, reducing the volume of machines on site and the downtime associated with swapping over attachments.

FUTURE-PROOF

The Morbark M20 chipper is also a machine that has been speci ed as a production tool. “We wanted a chipper that would future-proof us and the Morbark meets these expectations.” James explained. Putting short, thin pieces of timber through barely troubles the Morbark. The 910mm diameter drum simply eats the smaller material whilst the larger, heavier and more twisted material makes the engine dig in and work whilst still quickly pulling the timber through and producing a uniform chip. The automatic infeed table allows material to be placed away from the chipper opening resulting in a steadier ow of material and less potential damage to the machine. The adjustable discharge spout allows the Iveco’s body to be loaded easily and will also discharge straight into one of the many walking oor trailers visiting the yard on a weekly basis.

One issue James is very vocal on is the use of white diesel in the machines. Whilst he has no issue with the road-going kit using the highly taxed white diesel, he believes both the forestry and construction industries are being unfairly penalised with their use of white diesel. “It’s massively impacted our costs, hitting us hard in the pocket. We have tried our best to keep the majority of cost increases away from our clients. This is one reason we have looked at increasing our earnings through additional biomass production and adding further versatility through our attachment choices,” James added.