Is it Time To Invest In A New Harvester?

Replacing your underperforming existing harvester can be a tough decision. Do you invest money now so that you can become more profitable? How do you calculate and forecast when that investment will be repaid?

This blog post outlines a couple of key factors you must consider when making this decision.

In our calculations below we’ve calculated typical savings experienced by clients that have upgraded their harvester to an Eco Log 560F. The calculations are based on 3000 working hours per year and service cost savings are based on the average hourly rate of service providers.

Longer Service Intervals – Save $6,000 per year on Service Costs

Ecol Log’s harvesters and forwarders use Volvo Penta engines. These reliable engines only require servicing every 1,000 hours.

Compare this to the 500-hour servicing requirements of a typical engine.

The result is significant savings in service costs.

Longer Service Intervals – Save $10,000 per year on Up-Time

There’s an added advantage to the longer service interval of 1,000 hours mentioned above. That is you can use your harvester more often.

The harvester is hard at work rather than being in the workshop undergoing a service.

This factor has a significant effect on revenue which can add up to $10,000 per year.

Increased Productivity – Save $65,000 per year

Many of our clients report huge increases in productivity when using Ecolog F-series harvesters.

Greater reliability, excellent manoeuvrability and an extremely powerful harvester crane are just some of the reasons why productivity increases.

This productivity increase can be as much as 20%. However, we’ve been conservative and used just a 10% increase in productivity when calculating the $65,000 saving per year saving.