The memory is still fresh enough to make Nick Wylie cringe. J. Pettiecord Inc. crews were hard at work clearing 30 acres of trees along a new rail line when the shear they were using to process stumps broke. In an instant, work came to a standstill and it stayed that way for three weeks while crews waited for the shear to be re-welded and repaired.
"It just killed production," said Wylie, J. Pettiecord, executive vice-president. "That cost us a lot of money when that thing went down. It took us longer to get that job done, so we couldn't get to other jobs."
It wasn't a lesson he needed to learn twice.
This time, when Pettiecord landed a project clearing 91 acres packed with all manner of trees, he turned to Nye's Extreme Service Hydraulic Stumpharvester Model SHX 350. And he wasn't disappointed.
"The guys really like it," Wylie said.
Pettiecord crews clear areas by bringing in a hydraulic excavator. It topples the trees, then the shear comes in behind the excavator and downsizes the trees so they can be fit into horizontal grinders. Another excavator feeds the downsized trees in the grinder.
The back side of the Nye is wider and it's got excavator teeth for ground penetration. "With it being wider, it helps out popping stumps and cleaning up job sites. It will split a large log lengthwise very well to feed into the grinder."
In the past, however, the Iowa contractor tried to save money by going with a less expensive shear.
"They just can't hold up to the abuse we put on these things," Wylie said. "We need super heavy duty, extreme duty pieces of equipment. We got bit by going with some cheaper brands that just didn't hold up. You get what you pay for. They are just too light duty. They don't have enough metal."
But Nye's Stumpharvester does.
"These things are built heavy," Wylie said. "There is a lot of welding."
It's all about quality.
"We use seven different blends of Swedish alloy, which is the most expensive you can buy," said Gabe Guimond, vice-president of Demolition Products for National Attachments. "Every shear is engineered and designed to last 20 years, 20,000 hours plus with regular maintenance."
The machined, replaceable weld-in cutting blade, exclusive to the Nye Stumpharvester, is positioned on the operator's side for superior visibility and control. It's easy to sharpen and maintain, for extreme service and longevity. "It's also designed to easily split any stump that fits within its jaws," said Guimond. "All knives have replaceable piercing tips. This makes the splitting process truly explosive. Ninety percent of your splitting occurs here."
It's also well suited for removing dirt and rocks from stumps prior to the grinding process. In addition it's easy to install, safe and silent to operate. Other features include replaceable pin-on teeth, a heavy-duty high pressure cylinder that articulates the cutting blade and fang for maximum versatility, power action geometry for unsurpassed splitting force, both radially and axially, and a wide opening that allows a clean pierce from any angle. Both pin grabber and direct pin models are available.
In short, said Guimond, "It's the fastest, most efficient tool in the industry. It's incredibly productive. The cost per acre using a Nye Stumpharvester is dramatically less than anything else on the market. The fuel savings alone probably pay for the thing inside a couple of years of use. Nobody in the marketplace has anything like this."
And when you're a contractor, especially one like J. Pettiecord, clearing 250 acres of elm, maple, oak, ash, and cottonwood, that's the tool you want for the job.
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