Invited to see a new Rottne harvester at work, Forestry Journal took a trip into the hills of Dumfries and Galloway and paid a visit to UK dealer Jim Wilmer & Sons on the way.
A short drive from the cheerful tourist town of Moffat in Dumfries and Galloway sits a big hill boasting the imaginative name Big Hill. Situated in an area popular with walkers and nature lovers, this steep mountain summit is halfway hidden by dense stands of Sitka spruce. Through a poetic turn of fate, the man charged with the task of clearing these trees from the slopes of Big Hill is David Little. The tool he’s using for the job is a Rottne H21D harvester.
To be more specific, he’s using a combination of the H21D and two Ecoforst T-Winch traction winches to ensure the 27-tonne harvester can make its way safely down the eye-wateringly steep terrain. Both pieces of equipment are owned by timber harvesting contractor Jim Wilmer & Sons (JWS), which is also the dealer for the brands in the UK.
When Forestry Journal paid a visit to the site on an overcast day in July, David had just arrived at the bottom of the hill after spending a successful morning on the slopes, and had time for a quick chat while preparing to re-ascend.
Rottne harvesters are fairly uncommon in the UK, which makes David an exception as he has driven several over the years. As a fan, he couldn’t wait to get in the cab of the latest, top-of-the-line model.
“It’s a fine harvester,” he said. “I’ve been on the diggers for the past five years, so it’s nice to come back to some comfort again. The three machines I had before that were all new Rottnes, so I have had a bit of experience with them. They’re very good machines.”
And how about the job itself? “Steep. It’s a real experience. I’d never been on the T-Winch either, before I came here, and it’s a fair bit of kit. I must admit I’m impressed with it.”
Two and a half weeks into the job, David had felled almost 5,000 trees, cutting 2,600 cubic metres, according to the H21D’s onboard computer – clear evidence of its efficiency in final felling in dense forest and its abilities over steep ground.
Capable of felling and processing large trees with trunk diameters above 70 cm, it is designed to be reliable, comfortable and user-friendly, with machine monitoring and harvesting touchscreen displays that are easy to set up and navigate.
The eight-wheel-drive harvester has a powerful six-cylinder Stage V eco-friendly engine of 227 kW (305 hp), requiring only a 2–3 per cent mixture of AdBlue. It is equipped with modern four-valve technology, a “common rail” injection system and two turbochargers to deliver high torque, which provides excellent responsiveness with rapid power output.
This technology makes it possible for the H21D to operate at a lower engine speed, resulting in a lower noise level, fewer vibrations and lower fuel consumption.
The powerful RK250 jib-arm crane has a tilting loader base and a reach of 11 metres, with a lifting torque of 325 kNm to tackle the biggest trees. It is located directly above the bogie to give the harvester optimum stability, essential when using the telescopic arm at full reach.
Rottne’s EG706 harvester head has five feed motors, providing exceptional tractive force, with two in the supporting wheel arms and three in the frame, clamping the tree underneath. This means it can run with lower knife pressure which reduces friction and results in faster processing times (typically around 25 to 30 cubic metres per hour).
David Little’s Rottne H21D is one of two in the JWS fleet, which also includes five Rottne forwarders. It owned and operated three T-Winches before becoming the UK dealer for the traction-assist machinery six months ago.
Speaking at the Big Hill site near Moffat, equipment sales manager Ronnie Curran said: “In this country, a lot of the easy timber’s been cut now. Much of what’s left is on steeper ground and the conditions are getting worse. A lot of companies are selling track-assisted winches that can be added to the front of excavators, but the T-Winch is its own unit, self-propelled and radio controlled.
“On this job, we have an excavator to go in and dig any roads we need. Then we send in the T-Winch, at which point the excavator can move on to the next job. When you have a winch on an excavator, you can only do one job at a time. That would be too slow for us so we like to keep the winch and excavator separate. It means a much smoother system.”
David Little agreed the T-Winch had made all the difference on the hill. He said: “I’d never seen a T-Winch at work before this job. When I walked up the hill beforehand, I didn’t think any machine would be capable of tackling it. I don’t think you could do the job without the T-Winches. It would have to be a skyline operation.
“I will admit it’s all been a bit of a learning curve, taking on the new Rottne and the T-Winch together. But I just get on with it.”
A 90-minute drive west of the harvesting site at Moffat is the village of Dailly, South Ayrshire, and the headquarters of Jim Wilmer & Sons (JWS). Established over 40 years ago when Jim Wilmer picked up a chainsaw and began offering his services as a cutter, it has grown considerably over the decades, expanding into firewood, machinery sales and full-blown timber harvesting.
Today, it is one of the largest timber-harvesting contractors in Europe, with a fleet of over 60 machines undertaking various timber-harvesting services on a contract basis for clients across Scotland.
However, it has perhaps never seen so much change so quickly as in the last 12 months.
The company already counted harvesters and forwarders from Tigercat, Komatsu and John Deere among its fleet, but its appointment as UK dealer for Rottne equipment, sales and services – announced last year – has added a new dimension to its business.
The dealership was launched at Forestry Expo Scotland in Elvanfoot, South Lanarkshire, where the imposing F20D forwarder had a prominent position at the site entrance and proved quite a draw throughout the duration of the event.
Since then it has added six more Rottne machines – including the H21Ds, two F18D forwarders and an F15 – all at work in the woods, with 10 more due to be delivered. The Swedish manufacturer has a strong reputation for the build quality, comfort and low operating costs of its machines, but they are also known for being expensive.
“Most people in the industry already know Rottnes are good products, but they’re not cheap,” said Ronnie Curran. “One of the reasons there haven’t been many here in the past is they were probably too expensive. That makes it difficult for a dealer.
“Where we’ve got a big advantage is that, as a large forestry contractor, we’re quite happy to sell off other machines we have – John Deeres, for example – and put Rottnes into our own fleet. By doing that, we’ll have a good stock of well-maintained pre-owned Rottne machines to sell at a more affordable price point. Plus, we’re building up a really good knowledge of the machines. We’ve already sold one, but we aim to become experts before we start selling them all over the country.”
JWS’s appointment as UK dealer has happily coincided with Rottne’s own plans to ramp up production. The manufacturer is currently in the process of rebuilding its main factory with the aim of producing 300 forest machines a year by 2026.
In the meantime, JWS is investing over £500,000 to transform its workshop facilities, doubling capacity and adding state-of-the-art equipment to ensure a first-rate aftersales service.
“Everyone knows the importance of aftersales,” said Ronnie, who brings a wealth of his own experience from his years with Timberjack, Ponsse and Silvatec. “We’ve already got really good workshop facilities, more than 10 service vans on the road and 15 people working on the team including five welders who are also mechanics, and a lathing service repairing and making hydraulic cylinders from scratch. I don’t think there’s another forestry contracting company in the country that can go to the lengths we do in making and repairing our own gear, so we’ve already got the ability to provide a good aftersales service.”
The redevelopment of the JWS workshop includes the addition of a shop selling parts for a wide variety of forest machines and Rottne merchandise. However, JWS’s development as a dealer for names including Rottne, Ecoforst, Mesera and Olofsfors is just one reason why the site has been expanded. Another is to accommodate the firm’s new venture into timber haulage.
Jim Wilmer bought his first timber truck last year. Soon he was up to three, and now the company has eight. With a number of transport firms stepping back from the dicey world of timber haulage, one might wonder why JWS would choose this moment to get involved, but Ronnie explained the move brings clear benefits.
“We do a lot of harvesting for big companies, but we also buy our own smaller jobs,” he said. “So we own the timber, we harvest it and we haul it. We don’t let timber sit. We can cut it and move it straight away. In the summer months, that could be a 20 or 30 per cent price gain compared to other guys, because it’s not being left to dry out. Because we can control every part of the job, it becomes more profitable.”
It’s a shrewd move for the company which looks likely to offer it a distinct advantage in the marketplace. As for the sales side of the business, this remains relatively new territory for most of the staff, but with much-admired names like Rottne on board and a clear development strategy in place, Jim Wilmer looks set for some very profitable years ahead.
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