Forest Operations > Conduct Feller Buncher Operations > Feller Buncher Maintenance

Maintenance and servicing

Scheduled maintenance should be performed by accredited mechanics, and to manufacturer specifications.

If performed in the forest, environmental policies and procedures must be followed.

Day to day maintenance and housekeeping should be performed to OH&S regulations and organisation policies & procedures.

Where you are required to top up fuel and oil levels, it is important that you understand the hazards involved when handling these substances.

All substances used on forest harvesting operations should have a material safety data sheet (MSDS) provided. This will give you the safe handling and first aid information on a specific substance. 

If required, you may need to fill in a pre-start check list and maintenance or break down report book/form.

It is important to perform a pre-check of the feller buncher before start-up to make sure the machine is in good working order (for your own safety and for those working around you).

If a machine has a fault, damage, or has been vandalised and is then operated, it could result in further damage, and be much more expensive to repair.

The felling head is one of the hardest working parts of the machine and should be greased daily (8 hourly), It should also be visually checked for any signs of stress fractures or cracking.

The felling head has a tree cutting component that must be visually inspected daily for sharpness, faults or defects.

Figure 1&2 shows the daily grease point locations for the Quadco felling head.

Components and grease points of the Felling Head

Fig 1 The tungsten tip high speed cutting disc is an extremely efficient method of felling trees.

Fig. 2 The Accumulator arm is holding two trees in the head while the
main clamp arm is about to be clamp around the third tree as it is being cut.