Established some 30 years ago, Carron Valley Plant is a forestry ground-preparation business based in Dumfries in Scotland. The three-man firm, headed up by founder William Brown, has two 14-tonne Hyundai HX140 high-walkers, which, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, were being put to work on contracts for Forestry and Land Scotland.
CARRON Valley Plant is responsible for the mounding for Forestry and Land Scotland. Ground preparation within the forest can be extremely difficult and challenging, which is why a firm undertaking this kind of work would need specially designed machines that enable them to work efficiently in this type of environment.
William has two 14-tonne Hyundai forestry HX140 high-walker crawler excavators in his fleet, which are operated by Sammy McEwan, who has been with the company for three years, and highly experienced newcomer Chris Chapman who operates the newest of the machines, which was purchased in November of last year from local Hyundai dealer Agritrac Exports.
“The Hyundais have proved to be much better than the machines I used to run,” reported William Brown. “They run from 6am to 6pm, Monday to Friday, and we have no bother with them at all. They are very good on fuel too – the lads will get a day and a half’s work on one tank.”
William continued: “The Hyundai high-walker (HX140HW) is delivered with full-length track guards as standard – these fully cover the roller frame which prevents wood and forest waste from getting into the tracks. The machine’s ground clearance is 600 mm to the turret plate, which enables it to clear the height of wood stumps.
“For extra protection on my machines, I also ordered reinforced belly plates, a half guard for the front window and extra lights.”
Should workload be high, William will hire in another high-walker from Agritrac Exports, and jump in the saddle himself.
“The operators also rate the machines highly,” added William. “Sammy has said the Hyundai is the best machine he’s ever had the opportunity to operate – and when doing a 12-hour shift this is important. The machines are powerful, sturdy and the wide pads give the machines extra stability for working in often very marshy conditions – I can’t really fault them.”
Leigh Dalgleish, sales manager, Agritrac Exports, explained why Hyundai’s forestry high-walker is never stumped while working in the woods: “The Hyundai machine has a clear advantage over its competitor machines in that all of the models are factory-fitted with full-length track guards, which fully cover the roller frame and prevent, for example, large wood-waste, entering the tracks – this makes the machine practically bombproof!”
Leigh added, “To retrofit the tracks and convert another machine to this spec would cost in the region of £4,000 to £5,000 and it certainly wouldn’t be as safe – factory-fitted is always far more beneficial from both a safety and cost perspective.”
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