Mulching heads on Schaffer Wheel Loader
For me the ride isn't that different and I think the Takie with the stiffer tracks rides better over small rock/slash. I spent over 20k on the ASV in a little over 2 years on breakdowns not including many half days lost. I did blow the engine due to a poor mount design that was warrantied after I put the story out on another forum ($10,000) It dam near took all my profit to keep it running. ASV does have someting new coming out and after talking to the sales rep it does seem thay are putting in a big effort to improve. I don't know if I'd buy another but if it's a great machine I might.
I really like the idea of the Schaffer 130 hp loader, maybe if it were wider/lower for stabilitly it would be perfect. Add some chains to the tires and off you go. I looked hard customizing a Takeuchi loader (Atlas loader) to use mowing ROW where the material is smallish (2-3 inch) for most. One of the biggest problems would be skid plates and side protection...some sort of cage. When you are mowing the edges of the ROW you are always busting through branches from the mature edge trees. Put a dual spindle rotary in the 8 foot wide range and it's a winning combo for what I do. Alot of my ROW is in busy areas and I don't what to buy a Hydro Ax...just to big for transport and getting in some areas.
One bit of concern is the mulching enviornment is ROUGH as is any forestry work...the Schaffer needs to be overbilt to survive in this line of work an average loader in the woods would die a quick death.
I'd like to test one of those Schaffer loader...why don't you send one over
Hi Quickdraw,
Thanks for your comments, I wish I could send one over. It does remind me of some customers who ask to trial a Schaffer for 6 months.
opcorn:
The Schaffer 9330Z is around 2080mm wide, with 550x45-22.5 tyres.
This picture I hope shows the front end of the Schaffer - Germany really overbuild everything, part of the reason they cost a bit more than other wheel loaders.
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Schaffer tell me their loaders aren't overbuilt, just "built to spec" but if you put one up against any Japanese machine you will see a huge difference. Japanese machines in general have a lot lighter componetry as they are built for the local market which is seasonal snow removal. Generally masts are made of 15mm plate and not crossed braced as much. I just came back from Japan and every petrol or "gas" station in the mountains has a small wheel loader to do a quick tidy up in the streets after snowing.
The Schaffer 9330Z mast is all made of 30mm plate, pins are a minimum of 50mm, with 5mm bushes and oscillating bearings to take out any twist. The mast is also crossed braced with massive pipe sections in a few areas giving even greater strength.
In Australia we've put machines in areas that are very harsh on machines.
An example of this is this
pdf with a much smaller 3150 wheel loader going into a smelter. They orginally owned another wheel loader brand and twisted the mast after a month, so decided to fabricate their own mast in 20mm plate - thicker than their previous mast. This made the mast a lot stronger but transferred the stress back onto the samson posts which then started to crack, just showing if the machine isn't built heavy duty from scratch if you reinforce one point it transfers to another point.
When it came to building their
Schaffer Loader the customer asked for our "heavy duty option". I explained that our standard mast was made of 30mm plate and so are the samson posts so its survived in that environment well.
I definitely agree mulching is a very hard environment as well.
These pictures show how much weight is out past the rear axle and down low, I think if any loader is stable, a Schaffer loader is! Many loaders are built on a different principle and are much higher as the operator is sitting high up above the engine, the Schaffer Wheel Loaders generally have the engine out the back added to the counterweight.
One picture is of the former model, the 9100Z.
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View attachment 137742
Did I put this link up to a
Schaffer telehandler doing some forestry work?
This clip, although just 16 seconds long, is my favourite video showing an
all purpose machine.
Cheers,
Cameron Moir