Harwarders in final felling
- Direct loading and low fuel consumption make a strong case
Isabelle Bergkvist
Skogforsk has evaluated the productivity and costs of the harwarder system in final felling by means of operational follow-up and studies. The results show that the harwarder, in small-diameter stands close to the truck road, can operate at a substantially lower cost than today’s harvester-forwarder systems.
The harwarder’s direct loading of the timber increases the efficiency of the logging work, and also contributes to a reduction in fuel consumption.When the haulage distances are short, logging costs can be reduced by up to skr17 (us$2.67) per cubic metre as compared with today’s dominating harvester-forwarder system.
However, the harwarder is a single-machine system, which means that no trees can be felled or processed whilst the machine is extracting and unloading the timber. This reduces the competitiveness of the system in stands with a large proportion of extraction work, particularly when extraction distances are long, and in large-dimension stands where the logging work is fast.