Big Tree Topper

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31380, 27 May 1967, Page 9

Big Tree Topper

It 11 by no means the first of its type, bat what is believed to be one of the biggest and probably the most powerful tree-topping machine ever built in the country is now being ' operated by Briggs Brothers, Lti, contractors of Ashburton. The ruggedly-constructed topper and motor-truck, on which it is mounted, together weigh considerably in excess of 10 tons.

This machine was built at Templeton by Jones Engineering, Ltd. With the sixwheel drive truck Included the unit cost between £6500 and £7OOO. The machine has successfully topped pine trees more than 80ft tall down to 22ft. It ia a fully hydraulicallyoperated unit Mr F. S. Jones, managing director of the company which made it, says it has a dual hydraulics system with one pump operating the cutting heed of the unit and the other the rest of the hydraulic system. For cutting relatively light material up to somewhere about the din or Tin diameter mark, the head eonsista of two 22-inch long knives or slashers operating at either end of an arm and giving a 10ft diameter cut at each pass. Beyond what can be reasonably handled by the slashers, a sft diameter saw 34th of an inch thick is mounted on the head. < Mr D, J. Briggs, a partner in Briggs Brothers, who operates the topper, says that with the saw it is probably possible to handle material up to 2ft to 3ft thick. The saw has a specially wide set between the teeth to enable material to clear from it easily so as to avoid jamming. It makes a cut about li inches wide. The cutting head is mounted on a telescopic arm, which is about 22ft long when fully extended, and this can withdraw to about half of its full length. This arm can turn as well as extend so that the cutting head has a wide range of positions. The arm or jib is mounted on a telescopic post which is , in turn on a hydraulicallyoperated turntable. ■ The unit is powered by a 105 horsepower diesel motor and there are some 90 gallons of oil in the hyraulics system. With the telescopic arm or jib fully extended, the unit with the saw working can top trees to a height of nearly 30ft and it can also operate at ground level to, say, cut off old tree stumps. The slashers or saw can also operate to within a foot of the side of the motor-truck to about 20 feet out to facilitate operation over a ditch or water race.

: there are four gear levers. ■ There is a radio inter--St Mssrswe who is located in a mow, oonstrocted cab with safety i mesh and shatter proof glass .Ml VhH» te to, lh. mat ■ ' of heavy pieces of timber which may fall on top of ft. In his eab, on what looks like scopic atm on which ft is mounted. Ho has seven JEFATSW Operating this week in a single row pine shelter .belli on the property of Mr J. Davidson, at Lyndhurst in Mid-Canterbury, the topper topped about eight feet of down to about 23ft and tfinß med both sides of a 25 rimin section in about three hours. The hiring charge is £5 an hour. For travel the telescopic arm comes down to rive the unit an overall height of under 14ft

The motor-truck on which it is mounted has special gear boxes, to enable it to travel at speeds ranging from only one-fifteenth of a mile an hour to 40 miles an hour. The range of operating speeds is, however, somewhere between one-fifteenth of a mile an hour and about three miles an hour. In the cab'of the truck