Yeah I agree, Matt has done a great job.
Like he says, he's made a good dollar and he's thinking long term (good thinking).
By harvester, the job would be done very quickly.
By the photo's, there doesn't seem to be alot oversize for a 22" harvester.
Even if there was say 10%, the machine would be way out front.
If I was the owner of the property, I would not hesitate to contract Matt.
Trying to get the gist of what the Logging contractor was thinking makes me think he was pricing accordingly to justify the job.
30 trees an hour for supposedly experienced operators?
I guess he has greater overheads than Matt.
You don't see many larger companies take on small jobs like this unless it's worth their while.
Congtrats to Matt for a great job.
Thanks for talking me up mate
It basically all came down to cost. The harvester was AUD$240 an hour plus AUD$1400 to get it there. The harvester came with the saw guys, the saw guys came with the harvester. It was all of them or nothing so therefore a total of AUD$360 an hour for an estimated 140 trees an hour. In between many of the trees that I'm dropping there are PVC irrigation valves which the property manager was worried about (I had a tree roll when it landed and snap a 2" bleed valve off buggar it!).
I also used to work there in the mid '90s so know the guys too which also helped.
I'll get some photos of some of the bigger trees this weekend and may even drop a couple as well if not too windy.
Aussie old son, do buttress type roots upset harvesters? The Casuarinas on the property aren't technically "buttress" type but do have some interesting trunk shapes. Not sure how well the heads clamp on when the trees are out of round?
I'm with you still on this one though, there's something not right about the way this guy quoted - myself versus his chainsaw guys fair enough, but 80 trees an hour in relatively easy conditions never made sense to me for a harvester. I have a funny feeling that the guy and his team may be short of work and downplayed the speed at which they could drop trees to drag it out and make more money. Big call on my part but...
Made me look good though
There is probably another 10,000 trees to go on this property alone, maybe more?