FAE USA Inc. held two PrimeTech Power Day demo events in Oakwood, Ga., the first in late February and one in early March. The events were held to promote FAE’s PrimeTech division of self-propelled tracked carrier prime movers. The site, a heavily wooded area, proved ideal for a demonstration of the machines, and was located just a few mi. from FAE’s U.S. headquarters in Flowery Branch, Ga. The PrimeTech PT-175 (160 hp), PT-300 (275 hp) and the PT-600 (600 hp) machines were made available for demonstrations during the event.

After his first time operating the big PrimeTech PT-600, Jon Flournoy of Richardson Service 1991 Inc., Conway, S.C., said he was pleased with the machine’s performance. “I like it. It’s powerful, it maneuvers well. It’s a good machine — very strong.” Flournoy gave high marks to the comfort of the cabin, and said the noise level in the cab was minimal. He noted that with the door shut, while machine is running, he was able to talk on the phone with ease with limited background noise. Flournoy demoed the PrimeTech PT-300 and PT-175 as well as other machines.

“I like them — we use them. They’re really solid products, really well made products, they last a long time. All in all they’re good machines and good attachments.”Flournoy’s company is in the rental business and the company already has about 8 to 10 machines with FAE mulching attachments for rent and is now looking to expand and offer tracked carrier prime movers

Jack Kaiser of Pattillo Grounds Management of Stone Mountain, Ga., covers multiple states in the southeast constructing office, industrial and warehouse buildings and handles the landscape arm of the company. “My interest in the PrimeTech machines is primarily for hiring subcontractors who utilize these machines to come in to do contract land clearing. We have a lot of property and I just need to see for myself how these products can clear the property to make it ’showable’ for prospects and for vegetation control. We utilize trackhoes and bulldozers for site prep, and clearing the site with the PrimeTech machines ahead of time could certainly save us some money. We also would be able to clear properties and show them before they’re purchased or leased. I’m quite impressed and want to see some more.”

Eddy Queen of Queen’s Tree Surgery Inc. in Nashville, Tenn., a first time operator of PrimeTech machines, was quite impressed with the horsepower of the PT-175 and the travel speed of this machine.

“While in operation you can easily slow down or speed up the travel speed, which gives an infinite range of motion. In other words, you can creep and then gradually speed up as the cutting speed increases while on the fly.”

Kyle Fretwell of Mid-State Land Clearing, Nashville, Tenn., also had a chance to operate the PT-300. “You can tell it’s a very large machine when operating it. It’s consistent. This machine has consistent power and you can tell the barrel never stops spinning, and there’s a lot of instrumentation that tells you exactly what’s going on with the machine. I notice with my skid steer/mulcher combination that when the head slows down, you tend to have to wait a while for the cycle time to come around. Not with this machine. I love the cab and prefer the side entrance of this machine. It’s spacious, and you could spend hours in it and be in complete comfort the whole time without fatigue. Controls are very concise.”

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