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LinkedInDutch Dragon Chipper at South Lake Tahoe
The video below shows a unique Dutch Dragon mobile in-woods chipper operating on California Tahoe Conservancy urban lots in South Lake Tahoe in early July. The equipment was purchased by David Mercer of Cross Check Services LLC in order to better process woody biomass from fuels reduction projects in the Tahoe basin. This is the only Dutch Dragon chipper in the USA.
The nature of fuels reduction work in the wildland urban interface (WUI) is expensive due to the small scale operations and high equipment move-in and move-out costs. David looked at many options including a regular chipper or one on tracks. However, he decided that a truly mobile option would be one that was mounted on a forwarder base. There are a number of manufacturers of this type of equipment, mostly based in Europe. Manufacturers include Dutch Dragon, BRUKS, Valmet, Silvatech.
The company decided that the Dutch Dragon EC 10075 drum chipper & bin was the best for their needs and opted to mount the package on a Valmet 890 forwarder. This is the largest chipper and bin combination offered by Dutch Dragon. The chip box is 28 cu yd and can be raised to over 14ft high in order to dump the chips into a chip van. The roller feed input can handle material up to 3.3ft x 2.5ft. The Valmet forwarder was sourced in Scotland and shipped to Holland for the chipper and chip box to be integrated prior to shipping to the US. The process from order to delivery was less than 8 weeks. The forwarder and chipper use standard (available in the US) components.
The video shows two different approaches to operation.The chipper can either operate in the woods where the onboard chip box is filled, and then unloaded at roadside, or for material at the landing or roadside it can chip directly into a chip van. The company believes that this equipment is a good alternative to purchasing a stand-alone chipper that would not be self-propelled and would need a loader to feed it.
This particular work area is located south of Pioneer Trail on 42 acres of California Tahoe Conservancy urban lots. The work is paid for with federal funds via the Nevada Fire Safe Council and administered through the Lake Valley Fire Protection District. It is part of a 200 acre, 600 parcel project. The chips were trucked to the power plant at Loyalton (which has recently been closed).
It is great to see a contractor investing in alternative approaches to woody biomass handling. The challenge in is ensuring a continual supply of work and also identifying further markets for the chipped biomass.
The nature of fuels reduction work in the wildland urban interface (WUI) is expensive due to the small scale operations and high equipment move-in and move-out costs. David looked at many options including a regular chipper or one on tracks. However, he decided that a truly mobile option would be one that was mounted on a forwarder base. There are a number of manufacturers of this type of equipment, mostly based in Europe. Manufacturers include Dutch Dragon, BRUKS, Valmet, Silvatech.
The company decided that the Dutch Dragon EC 10075 drum chipper & bin was the best for their needs and opted to mount the package on a Valmet 890 forwarder. This is the largest chipper and bin combination offered by Dutch Dragon. The chip box is 28 cu yd and can be raised to over 14ft high in order to dump the chips into a chip van. The roller feed input can handle material up to 3.3ft x 2.5ft. The Valmet forwarder was sourced in Scotland and shipped to Holland for the chipper and chip box to be integrated prior to shipping to the US. The process from order to delivery was less than 8 weeks. The forwarder and chipper use standard (available in the US) components.
The video shows two different approaches to operation.The chipper can either operate in the woods where the onboard chip box is filled, and then unloaded at roadside, or for material at the landing or roadside it can chip directly into a chip van. The company believes that this equipment is a good alternative to purchasing a stand-alone chipper that would not be self-propelled and would need a loader to feed it.
This particular work area is located south of Pioneer Trail on 42 acres of California Tahoe Conservancy urban lots. The work is paid for with federal funds via the Nevada Fire Safe Council and administered through the Lake Valley Fire Protection District. It is part of a 200 acre, 600 parcel project. The chips were trucked to the power plant at Loyalton (which has recently been closed).
It is great to see a contractor investing in alternative approaches to woody biomass handling. The challenge in is ensuring a continual supply of work and also identifying further markets for the chipped biomass.
