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The New LX870D Exceeding Expectations in Pacific

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The New LX870D Exceeding Expectations in Pacific issue 47 | november 2017 OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF TIGERCAT INDUSTRIES INC. The new LX870D exceeding expectations in Pacifi c northwest. Page 2 Sexton Lumber – Newfoundland 5 Steep Slope Update – Chile 22 Battery Maintenance 11 Event Wrap-up 26 Sykes Logging – Alabama 14 Wik Timber – Australia 28 Women in Logging 18 Changing of the Guard 33 171618 btb.indd 1 2017-11-02 12:38 PM LX870D FIRST IMPRESSIONS The LX870D tethered on steep terrain near Olympia in Washington state. BTB visited Olympia, Washington to get operator Gary Smith’s impressions of his new LX870D track feller buncher. Gary works with R.L. Smith Logging, which is owned by his brother and sister-in-law Roger and Carmen Smith. BTB: When did you start operating the LX870D? Gary: I started operating forestry equipment in 1988. So almost thirty years. Gary: The machine started working at the beginning of February. It currently has 1,100 hours on it. BTB: What are your thoughts on the new model? BTB: What did you operate prior to this machine? Gary: Well, I like just about everything right now. The boom movements are quick and the saw head is Gary: I was on a Tigercat 870C with the 5702 saw quick. There has been a lot of thought put into this head. It had 21,000 hours and I ran it for about eleven machine. I’ve been smiling since day one. First day I years when we traded it for the new one. Prior to that ran it I thought this is impressive. You can tell that the I ran Timbco. guys that build these understand loggers. They even BTB: How long have you been operating put the storage area in the back, which is great for the equipment for? shackles for the tether. The toolbox is also really nice, I can put a spill kit in there and shut the door and nothing gets thrown around too much. 2 | between the BRANCHES 171618 btb.indd 2 2017-11-02 12:38 PM Gary Smith of R.L. Smith Logging in front of his Tigercat LX870D track feller buncher. BTB: Why did you guys decide to purchase the my tethering lines without having to swing around Tigercat LX870D? when I am going down the hill. We also do a lot of selective cutting around RMZs [resource management Gary: The difference in the maintenance cost is just zones]. Normally you would have had to turn around phenomenal. I mean tens of thousands of dollars to come out but now you can just use your camera to cheaper a year to operate. I told Roger buy whatever back out. That is a really nice deal there. you want but that 870 was so good it wasn’t really a question. It had over 21,000 hours on it and it has BTB: What are your thoughts on the longer R-163L the original swing bearing. The other undercarriage? brand at 10,000 hours already had two swing bearing replacements on Gary: This machine gets around a it. It severely cracked from one end to “I’ve been lot lighter than it is. It performs like the other. And other brands overheat. smiling since something that weighs 10,000 pounds The Tigercat runs cool. 143 degrees day one.” less. We were worried about the soft Fahrenheit is as hot as I have ever seen terrain but the ground pressure is even – Gary Smith, LX870D operator the oil get to on the computer and that better than the older 870. is very cool for a buncher. BTB: Your previous machine didn’t BTB: Have you noticed any new features with the have ER, are you using it now? new cab? Gary: Yes, you use a lot less effort and the boom Gary: I was very leery about the rearview camera but shoots right out. It’s so quick. I got used to it very fast and I really like it. I use it constantly. At fi rst, I didn’t think I would like it but cont’d on page 4 for tethering it is perfect. It makes it easy to look at between the BRANCHES | 3 171618 btb.indd 3 2017-11-02 12:38 PM cont’d from page 3 BTB: Do you like the Bluetooth® audio system? I have seen Ken [MacDonald] at a couple of logging shows and I’ve been to a Tigercat dinner and that man Gary: I told my kids I had Bluetooth now and they is impressive. Those are the type of people you want laughed. I don’t know how that works, but my kids to buy equipment from. You know it isn’t a company said they would get me an iPod and get me hooked up. that is just slapping things together and pushing them BTB: What improvements would you suggest for the out the door and saying sold! With this machine and engineers back at the factory? the last machine, there has always been someone asking how things are going and checking up on you Gary: I honestly can’t think of any. It has got after you purchase it. You know there is someone back everything that needed to be changed on the old one. in Canada at the factory that cares about you. I can’t come up with anything. It has great access and steps everywhere you need them. I like how you can fuel without lifting the lid. Having interior lights come on when you open the door is very nice in the morning. BTB: Have you been using Telematics? Gary: I like to know how much fuel and DEF I am using every day. My sister-in-law Carmen is in the offi ce and likes to look at the average history of fuel and DEF usage. She showed me how to log in and look at the graphs to see when I am idling and when I am working. It was really neat to see. It turns out I go in two hour spurts. I work for two hours then take a 10-minute break and relax. Then I go for two hours again. I never paid attention to my pattern but [my brother] Roger was laughing at that. BTB: What is it like working with your brother rather than managing your own company like you once did? Gary: I like it. I get to do the part I like now. All I do is take care of this baby right here [points to his LX870D]. And Roger fi nds the work. When I was on my own I was only one guy. I had to stop work to go bid on a job that I might not get, and it bothered me. I decided with my kids that I want to have time to go Gary likes to play guitar so his brother added “Gig Bear” to to baseball games. This is more my style. I didn’t like his cab door. being a business owner. BTB: Have you visited the Tigercat factory? Watch Tigercat LX870D feller bunchers operating in Washington with and without Gary: I had the chance to go but then something came cable assist systems on Tigercat TV by up and our mechanic went. He couldn’t stop talking visiting about it for months after he got back. He said they were so informative. The only thing they wouldn’t www.tigercat.com/video/lx870d tell him when he asked was what type of steel they were using – they laughed. Roger says I have to go sometime and I do want to. 4 | between the BRANCHES 171618 btb.indd 4 2017-11-02 12:38 PM word of mouth ON SEXTON LUMBER Our harvesting costs have gone down. And that’s mainly because of production. Production comes from machines running. Simple as that. Along the way, roundwood is processed at the Big dreams and hard work led the twin line small log stud mill at a rate of 60 million Sexton family business from a horse board feet per year. Round pulp as well as chips and water-powered sawmill to a and recovered residue are trucked to Corner Brook modern, integrated harvesting and Pulp & Paper. The mill and harvesting operations sawmilling operation. employ around 100 people. The company rates as a major success story in the province, overcoming – Paul Iarocci many challenges along the way through hard work, forward thinking and common sense. Kevin Sexton In August 2017, BTB visited the harvesting and tells the story in his own words. sawmilling operations of Sexton Lumber based in Bloomfi eld, Newfoundland. Owners, Kevin How it began and Susan Sexton have built a thriving, vertically integrated business. It begins in the rugged, My dad started his fi rst sawmill in the early forties scrappy spruce and fi r forests of the North Atlantic when they were using horses to pull the logs and the island and ends with Sexton Trucking delivering water-propelled wheel that would drive the saw. The dimensional lumber to customers within the watermill we’d call it. I never came along until the province. The company also has a market reach sixties and during summer holidays and after school, throughout the Maritimes and into the United States. that’s where I’d be, at the mill – stacking lumber or cont’d on page 6 between the BRANCHES | 5 171618 btb.indd 5 2017-11-02 12:38 PM cont’d from page 5 We eventually bought another truck and hired a driver. He started hauling the chips and I stuck around and helped at the mill a little bit.
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