A few days ago, the first “Gremo harvester”, Eco Log 1058 H5, was delivered. It ended up in south Sweden and has been rolling for a week now. The sister-site Skogsforum.se payed a visit to the new machine in a young thinning, had a look at it and talked to the owner.
Photo: Ecologforestry.com.com
Eco Log 1058
Since the merge between Eco Log and Gremo last spring, all machines in the new group are manufactured at the Eco Log plant in Söderhamn. The brand name for all machines is Eco Log, and the colors are Eco Log colors – mainly yellow. During the last few weeks, “Gremo” forwarders of models 1050F and 1250F have been delivered. The first yellow harvester of Gremo model was delivered a week ago, an Eco Log 1058 H5.
The harvester ended up with an old and faithful Gremo customer, Bokelunds Skogsentreprenad in south Sweden. Another contractor, who does the forwarding for Bokelunds, upgraded with a new Gremo 1050 forwarder last year – maybe the last Gremo in Gremo colors?
The Eco Log 1058 H5 is, except for the color, identical with the harvester that Gremo launched in 2019.
Stable harvester with wide and filled tires
The Eco Log 1058 is a harvester to use on strip roads in thinning. It has a sturdy 10-meter crane and SP’s smallest harvester head, the SP 461. This machine is equipped with 700-tires and it´s possible to put on 1-meter tracks on the wheels if needed. Bokelunds quite often operate on soft soil, sometimes even pure peat land, and under those conditions the wide tracks come in handy.
To gain max stability, the wheels are filled with fluid. This machine is 3 meters wide and according to the Eco Log site the weight is 16 tons excl. the fluid in the tires.
The owner of the machine, Ola Bokelund, says that the stability in is the biggest difference compared to his previous Gremo harvesters, 950H and 1050H. The new 1058H is considerably more stable according to him. He appreciates the low center of gravity. Also, the cabin and the crane a placed quite low on the 1058 which gives good visibility when you work in dense spruce stands, which Bokelunds do.
The crane is a Mesera 221H with a lifting torque of 188 kNm. The engine is a 6-zylinder, stage V Cummins with 200 hp.
Two harvester heads give flexibility
Bokelunds Skogsentreprenad have two harvester heads to the 1058. One SP 461 for young thinning and one SP 561 for older thinning and some thin clear cuts.
“As the sites often are small, it´s a benefit to be able to do different kinds of jobs with the same machine when you are on site,” says Ola Bokelund.
Low motor hood gives good visibility
A big difference compared to other brands is that the engine part of the 1058 is built on length instead of heigh. This is most appreciated as the visibility also backward is good with the low hood. The sophisticated exhaust gas purification on forest machine engines demands a lot of space. Something that most manufacturers have solved by making the hood higher. Eco Log have in this case chosen to make the hood longer instead. Probably the longest hood on a harvester for thinning?
30 meters between the strip roads
Bokelunds works with hourly rates. The mid-zone between the strip roads is felled by chainsaw. This means that, despite the 10-meter crane, the distance between the strip roads can be 30 meters. This is something that the landowners want, but also Bokelunds client who is a sawmilling company. They want as many small trees left in the thinning as possible to grow and become high quality sawlogs, rather than being cut for strip roads at an early age.
Thankful that the Gremo machines are still around
Ola Bokelund is thankful that Eco Log have decided to keep the “Gremo-line” in their new range. He has always appreciated the Gremo machines during his contractor career. He thinks they offer a good combination of size and efficiency that no other machine does.
Film and photos
Here is a film of the 1058 in action and an interview with Ola Bokelund:
And some more pics:
Film and photos: Torbjörn Johnsen, except where otherwise stated.
