Swog members joined Alex Bienfait in his beautiful and diverse woodland in Pluckley at the weekend for a meeting with the theme of small scale extraction of timber.   We are indebted to Alex not only for  his hospitality but also for  arranging a demonstration of some timber moving equipment by Keith Douglas from  the  Micro Arb Truc Company.

We began looking at the types and sizes of wood we want to extract, this ranged from brushwood and small diameter coppiced cordwood  to larger diameter trunks and cross cut  rounds.  We then  examined  the difficulties most small woodland owners face when extracting.   It became apparent that most of us  have  woods with quite difficult terrain and underdeveloped tracks,  good for diversity and interest, but quite difficult for getting wood out.

Keith then showed us some of his products.  He had originally developed the Micro Arb Truc for tree surgeons, who usually need to get along side alleys and up and down steps, but he soon realised that with some minor modifications of the spec, the Truc would be suitable in a woodland environment.

It is a total system with the drive unit, skip, arb trough and trailer.  There are lots of quite ingenious design features, like the multi positional ‘bolster arms’.  These can be turned around for use with large volume brushwood, or kept more upright for hauling cordwood. They also create a ramp system for winching on heavier loads.

The engine is a 160cc 5.5hp honda which seemed more than adequate for the needs of the demonstation, and we did push Keith to load it beyond his ‘comfot zone’.

Keith is very enthusiastic about development of this product, and was keen to get feedback and suggestions from the group.    His reccomendation for small woodland owners on this type of terrain would be a twin wheel kit, weight kit (these help to keep the drive wheels on the ground and prevent it from tipping. and a standard skip.  Contact Keith for exact prices and specifications, but set up would be just over £2k. So maybe not such a huge expense if you are intending to extract timber over difficult terrain on  a regular basis.  Other useful additions would be the trailer, trough and timber tongs, for pulling most sizes of wood you are likely to want to haul.

Alex has been at the wood for 15 years and kindly gave us a tour around in the afternoon.   The wood is a diverse mix of English and Turkey oaks, hornbeam, ash and hazel with a lot of other species intermingled.  Alex explained that the Turkey Oaks were planted by the Victorians in the hope of making a quick profit from the sale of  these majestic fast growing oak trees for veneer wood.  They soon discovered in this climate,  timber here creeks and rots very easily.

Julian, who helps manage the wood explained, that it does however make excellent firewood.  He has a wood fuelled boiler and the wood provides all his heating needs.

Many thanks once again to Alex and his helpers who made SWOG members feel so welcome and to Keith for the enthusiastic demonstration of his solution to difficult timber extraction sites.

Links to videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39W6IrAawVM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fH2S_fBzIQo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7AQE5gIiRIM

You can contact Keith through the Micro Arb website with any further questions or comments.
http://microarbtruck.co.uk/

More pictures from the day: