Campbell Hill, Illinois—Scott Swisher, owner of CuddleBug Firewood & Forestry Products, is not one to jump into business over his head. Being assistant vice president of the local bank by trade, he’s seen too many businesses which start off too big and get into financial trouble. But when his firewood and forestry business kept running into time issues with actually cutting the firewood.
Since John Deere’s acquisition of Timberjack last year, the company has worked to expand its range of forestry equipment and recently, the John Deere Forestry Group entered the knuckleboom log loader market with three purpose-built machines, the 335, 435 and 535 loaders, which feature optional delimbers and slashers.
Several accidents in the Nova Scotia forest industry have occurred this year when the turntable bearings on knuckleboom loaders have broken free, causing the loader to fall. Investigations showed that several bolts, which attach the turntable bearing to the body of the vehicle, appeared to have been broken for some time. Those broken bolts placed additional strain on the remaining bolts. Those bolts eventually broke, causing the loader to fall.
Knuckleboom Loaders
full story
printer version