GOLD DIGGERS - CablePrice

TRACK & WHEEL
Hawke’s Bay and East Coast
forestry contracting company,
DG Glenn Logging, reaches
new heights with its Hitachi
ZX360W-3 wheeled excavator.
Twenty kilometres north of Napier
at the Whirinaki industrial site,
Pan Pac mill’s processing yard is a
hive of activity as logging trucks,
cut-to-length excavator-based
processors, log loaders and wheel
loaders scurry about, transporting, scanning,
measuring, swinging, cutting, sorting and
stacking the continual flow of logs, in to the mill.
In the midst of the organised chaos sits the first
36-tonne Hitachi ZX360W-3 wheeled excavator
delivered into the country. Complete with an
impressive 16m boom/arm reach, hi-rising cab and
Ensign grapple, the ZX360W-3 – Hawke’s Bay and
East Coast forestry contracting company DG Glenn
Logging’s (DGL) newest purchase – is quickly
making its mark on the processing yard operation.
Behind the wheel of the new ZX360W-3 sits
Matthew Glenn, son of company owner, Dennis
Glenn. From inside the air-conditioned cabin, raised
3m off the ground, listening to music broadcast
via his iPod plugged into the radio’s auxiliary
point, Matthew sits in a key position in the yard’s
log-handling process. His role is to sort and stack
the logs as they come off the QC (quality control)
deck. The logs are then placed in bunks for wood
going direct to the mill by way of wheel loader,
with export logs separated out from there.
The processing yard is capable of averaging
2500-tonne per day when demand requires, with
Matthew handling around 60-70 percent of this.
If he can’t keep up it creates a backlog that slows
down the entire operation.
After clocking up over 32,000 hours on a
Hitachi EX300 tracked log loader over eight
years, Matthew says, “This is like learning to drive
a new machine ‘cause I was so used to having to
drive erratically with an older machine.
“Then I jumped into this brand-new one, and it
actually took a few days before I got settled and
started driving really well.”
It has also got a lot more
reach than the last machine, so
it means he [Matthew] can have
more sorts stacked around him
and he can run for longer if the
wheel loaders don’t come and
clean him out.”
Dennis Glenn, DG Glenn Logging
And now?
“Yeah, it’s perfect now,” Matthew says.
With the EX300 due for replacement,
operations manager for DGL, Rob Scurr explains,
“Putting tracks back onto a sealed yard wasn’t
going to be the best option. The rubber tyres don’t
damage the yard as much and the mobility of
the wheeled excavator makes it a more versatile
machine in our operation.
“If Matt finishes sorting and loading early the
loader can go and do different tasks more easily
than a tracked machine.
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