fuel consumption

[JamesE. PikeLogging]

Hey everyone I know I dont post on here much but I was wondering if any of you could help me out, me and one of my bestfriends are lookin to grow the logging company my father has, which is just one skidder, and want to add a prentice 210 loader with a slasher, a hydro ax 221 with a hotsaw, a morbark 16 whole tree chipper and a timberjack 460 skidder to run with our current skidder. I was wondering if anyone knew how much fuel this equipment would use a day, week, month? thanks for any help

[thenorthman]

Allot... allot more then is probably healthy... good luck. 

[1270d]

Ill make a guess.  Maybe 250 to 300 gals a day running full production.   Chippers and constant speed sawheads burn a ton of fuel. I've heard of whole tree chippers using 200 plus alone   

[snowstorm]

one 100gal skid tank in the back of your pickup wont be enought

[celliott]

I visited an operation here in the ADK's, they were whole tree chipping and taking a few logs. All tigercat equipment. Was told the feller buncher could burn 150 gallons on a hard day, the skidders, (630C's I believe) would do 100 gallons easy. I don't remember the brand of chipper, but was told it had a 12 cylinder CAT turbo-diesel, and would drink 200 gallons of fuel a day no problem. Fuel budget for one year was over a million dollars, but workers comp. was a bigger expense than their fuel bill! 
I don't understand how there is any money to be made with chips. You are using the most expensive machine to run, to process your lowest value product.  :

EDIT: The feller buncher was an LX830C tracked machine, the skidders were 630C grapples, and the chipper was a peterson 5000G, with a 12cylinder 1200HP cat.

[PAFaller]

It depends on how hard you are going to run all that stuff, and only you know that. Friends of mine have the newest landing loader John Deere makes; its fuel system uses a different pump and gets them down to 6-8 gallons an hour, and they run it hard, usually processing off 2-3 grapple skidders. The old loader is closer to 10+ gallons an hour when running. Model 16 chippers are usually 250hp, and will probably burn 30ish gallons per van load of chips. I assume you are going to set tops in front of the chipper and only run it when you are ready to load a trailer? Letting one run all day unless you are producing crazy amounts of chips is nuts and thats not enough chipper to do multiple loads a day, I know, been there when I was landclearing with a crew in the northeast. Its more a fill a van at the end of the day kind of chipper. 460 grapple with a 6Bt cummins would be 8-10 gallon an hour if you run is steady. Hotsaws really suck fuel , but Hydroaxes are a bit less demanding than a track machine, but still figure 50 or more gallon a day. So yeah, you better have a big skid tank, or 2 pickups with 100 gallon tanks in them to keep it all going, and a whole lot of stumpage bought ahead, because that kind of iron needs to be in wood to be making you any money.

[jd540b]

Going from a 1 skidder operation to all that iron is a risky move in todays economic climate in the woods.  Good time to not have much debt, in my humble opinion.  The down days from weather, markets, breakdowns, sting quite alot more when your're big.  You are talking chipping, you are relying on EVERYTHING running to make it work, and unless you buy pretty new stuff, you can count on turning lots of wrenches.

[JamesE. PikeLogging]

ya me and my parents have talked about it and done alot of math and I think im just going to add another cable machine to our outfit

[JamesE. PikeLogging]

It depends on how hard you are going to run all that stuff, and only you know that. Friends of mine have the newest landing loader John Deere makes; its fuel system uses a different pump and gets them down to 6-8 gallons an hour, and they run it hard, usually processing off 2-3 grapple skidders. The old loader is closer to 10+ gallons an hour when running. Model 16 chippers are usually 250hp, and will probably burn 30ish gallons per van load of chips. I assume you are going to set tops in front of the chipper and only run it when you are ready to load a trailer? Letting one run all day unless you are producing crazy amounts of chips is nuts and thats not enough chipper to do multiple loads a day, I know, been there when I was landclearing with a crew in the northeast. Its more a fill a van at the end of the day kind of chipper. 460 grapple with a 6Bt cummins would be 8-10 gallon an hour if you run is steady. Hotsaws really suck fuel , but Hydroaxes are a bit less demanding than a track machine, but still figure 50 or more gallon a day. So yeah, you better have a big skid tank, or 2 pickups with 100 gallon tanks in them to keep it all going, and a whole lot of stumpage bought ahead, because that kind of iron needs to be in wood to be making you any money.

Yes PAFaller that was the plan for the chipper, only run it when we had enough tops piled up. I've found a different skidder too a 130 franklin and also a different loader a barko 160 I know that the franklin wont use much fuel at all but still not sure on the chipper or loader, I like the barko because its on a truck and is cheaper than the prentice but doesnt have a slasher with it.

[Kemper]

I have a barko 160b, not on a truck but on a trailer. It doesn't use much fuel at all. It can idle all day on a gallon or two of diesel. It has a 5.9 cummins.

It depends on how hard you are going to run all that stuff, and only you know that. Friends of mine have the newest landing loader John Deere makes; its fuel system uses a different pump and gets them down to 6-8 gallons an hour, and they run it hard, usually processing off 2-3 grapple skidders. The old loader is closer to 10+ gallons an hour when running. Model 16 chippers are usually 250hp, and will probably burn 30ish gallons per van load of chips. I assume you are going to set tops in front of the chipper and only run it when you are ready to load a trailer? Letting one run all day unless you are producing crazy amounts of chips is nuts and thats not enough chipper to do multiple loads a day, I know, been there when I was landclearing with a crew in the northeast. Its more a fill a van at the end of the day kind of chipper. 460 grapple with a 6Bt cummins would be 8-10 gallon an hour if you run is steady. Hotsaws really suck fuel , but Hydroaxes are a bit less demanding than a track machine, but still figure 50 or more gallon a day. So yeah, you better have a big skid tank, or 2 pickups with 100 gallon tanks in them to keep it all going, and a whole lot of stumpage bought ahead, because that kind of iron needs to be in wood to be making you any money.

Yes PAFaller that was the plan for the chipper, only run it when we had enough tops piled up. I've found a different skidder too a 130 franklin and also a different loader a barko 160 I know that the franklin wont use much fuel at all but still not sure on the chipper or loader, I like the barko because its on a truck and is cheaper than the prentice but doesnt have a slasher with it.

[JamesE. PikeLogging]

wow thats pretty good!

[JamesE. PikeLogging]

The barko looader I found has a deere engine. Are those pretty good on fuel?

[Kemper]

I can't speak about those, I'm not sure what model engine it is. My JD 6.414 turbo is pretty good on fuel.

The barko looader I found has a deere engine. Are those pretty good on fuel?

[JamesE. PikeLogging]

I can't speak about those, I'm not sure what model engine it is. My JD 6.414 turbo is pretty good on fuel.

The barko looader I found has a deere engine. Are those pretty good on fuel?

O alright thanks Kemper

[Bobus2003]

Most Deere Engines are pretty good on fuel.. Ran a TJ 450 that had a 5.9l Cummins and it would go through 70 gallons a day and we were never pushing it overly hard.. But the CAT 515 with that 3304 has been the worst on fuel i've ever seen

[JamesE. PikeLogging]

Thats good I don't know much about deere and cat equipment/engines because I havent really been around them much. My dads franklin 100 has a perkins in it and will run all day on between 5-7 gallons of fuel

[Bobus2003]

Thats good I don't know much about deere and cat equipment/engines because I havent really been around them much. My dads franklin 100 has a perkins in it and will run all day on between 5-7 gallons of fuel

Thats how my JD 4045T is.. i can run all day on 10 gallons

[JamesE. PikeLogging]

Thats good I don't know much about deere and cat equipment/engines because I havent really been around them much. My dads franklin 100 has a perkins in it and will run all day on between 5-7 gallons of fuel

Thats how my JD 4045T is.. i can run all day on 10 gallons

Thats pretty good