Shopping around: Joe Monette's quest for a new high-production feller buncher took him all the way to northern Quebec. The 100 Mile House logger came back with a new respect for what Quebec loggers are up against, and a brand new TG475 buncher

Canadian Forest Industries, May 2003 by Tice, Bill

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After a day of walking around a Prince George logging show, Joe Monette got an offer he couldn't refuse. The owner of Dowling C. Monette Logging had aching feet when Peter Myers, Trans-Gesco's western sales and service representative, offered him a seat, and asked if 'he would listen to a one hour presentation' about Trans-Gesco's equipment.

"That was how the whole thing got started," explains Monette, who took delivery of the TG475 feller buncher with a Quadco head, in January of this year. "I was just wandering around the show when I saw the Trans-Gesco booth and started chatting with Peter. My feet were hurting and I was happy to sit down for a while."

Monette, who runs the company his father, Dowling Monette, incorporated in 1965 was impressed enough with what he saw in Prince George that he agreed to visit Trans-Gesco's factory in Roberval, Quebec, along with his brother-in-law, Stan Kaluza, who is one of the main operators on Monette's feller bunchers.

Full-Out Forestry

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"We were primarily interested in the 475 buncher, so after we toured the factory, they took us out to visit three different contractors in the area who were all using Trans-Gesco bunchers to harvest for Abitibi Consolidated," says Monette. "We spent about a week in Quebec and had a good, hard look at how the Trans-Gesco equipment was being used. These guys were doing an incredible job under very difficult conditions. Because of Quebec's stringent machine travel regulations, they had to harvest 100% of the (merchantable) trees, but could only travel on 25% of the forest floor. They were able to accomplish this because the Trans-Gesco bunchers have a rotary manifold that allows the upper structure of the machine to swing 360 degrees continuously, and because the machine sits so high, it swings over top of much of the new regeneration, so there is very little impact on the new trees."

Monette and Kaluza also liked what they saw in terms of the reliability and durability the Abitibi contractors were experiencing.

"All three of the machines we saw operating were very well used," says Monette. "One of the bunchers had 8 000 hours on the clock, one had been used for 6 000 hours, and one was at 5 000 hours. They were using five operators with a new guy in the cab every four hours, and they were doing this 24/7 without running into any mechanical difficulties."

Monette adds that Kaluza immediately liked the cab on the Trans-Gesco machines and had no hesitation getting into the operator's seat and having a go.

"Stan is a big guy at over 6 feet and he felt comfortable in the cab right away," says Monette. "It is a big, roomy cab with lots of visibility, and also from the operator's point of view, he liked the easy access to the engine and the hydraulics. He was also impressed with the IPS controls and VOAC valving, which allow the operator to tune the hydraulics to his speed and requirements."

For Monette, the Trans-Gesco warranty was also a major selling point. The engine, a QSL 9 Litre Cummins electronic model, came with a three-year, unlimited hours warranty, while the rest of the major components, including the hydraulics, came with a three- year, 6 000 hour warranty.

"The engine only turns at 1 890 rpm, so that is going to add to the longevity of the machine," says Monette. "The low rpm's are also going to help us reduce fuel consumption, and to date, 35 litres per hour seems to be the top end of what we have burned in fuel. We also opted for melanite cylinders on our buncher, which is supposed to be three times as tough as chrome. This should also help our hydraulic system last."

Customized for West

Trans-Gesco makes four different bunchers: Two D7 undercarriage versions (TG475 tilter and TG470 flat bottom), and two D6 machines (TG465 tilter and TG460 non-tilt). For his tilting TG475, Monette elected to go with a shorter boom, which offers 29 feet of reach, rather than the full 10-metre boom that Trans-Gesco puts on its machines destined for eastern Canada.

"We felt the longer boom could not handle the larger wood profile we have in BC," explains Monette, who also had additional guarding put on the buncher due to the taller trees and heavier tops in BC.

According to Monette, the Quadco 24 inch high-speed disc saw falling head that came with the TG475 is a good match for the feller buncher. The head rotation is handled by two high torque motors, and has been field proven to handle larger and heavier trees, such as those found in western Canada. Monette put the head to the test when he completed some blowdown work for Larry Henderson, another 100 Mile House contractor who purchased a Trans-Gesco machine direct from the company.

"Even when doing the blow-down work for Larry, the combination of the Trans-Gesco buncher and the Quadco head gave us lots of power to lift the trees off the ground," says Monette, who adds the head will handle trees up to 24.5 inches in diameter with a clean cut, and up to 37 inches with a double cut.