Forestry Memories

Early Kockums Processor

Early Kockums Processor

Date Added: 05 June 2012 Contributor: Norman Davidson Year of Photo: 1980 Picture No: 1126

Photograph courtesy of Forest Research Office, Newton.

This is an early Kockums Tree Processer which has a yellow Forestry Commission symbol on its door but the FC number cannot be identified. The processor model or type number on the engine cover appears to read something like GP8?2.

This type of tree processor removed the branches from felled trees only and relied on operators with chainsaws to fell areas of trees. The tree stems when processed were also still in their original length and required to be cut into products afterwards. Seem to remember seeing a crude cross cutting system which relied on aligning the product to be cut with marks on the boom in some processors?

Unfortunately in this photograph the hydraulic clasping arms and stripping knives are not seen at the end of the boom hidden by the ditch. Basically, the clasping arms at the end of the red part of the boom gripped the butt end of the felled tree and the stripping knives on the yellow reciprocating arm also gripped the tree immediately above this point and were then pushed up the length of the tree as far as it could travel cutting off the branches as it went. At the end of its travel the knives gripped the tree, the clasping arms on the red boom slackened and the yellow arm then pulled the whole tree back along under the red boom towards the base of the machine. Once the yellow arm was fully back the red arm grippers locked on again and then the yellow arm pushed yet further up towards the top end of the tree stem.

A few of these mainly second hand machines from Scandinavia were used in this country but their limitations were such that they were not very popular. They were used at a very late date (from 1986) in the Lodgepole pine plantations in North Scotland where the technology coped surprisingly well with the small tree stems many of which had basal sweep or a bend at the bottom.

Can anyone provide more information on the machines, where and when they worked, the operating system and last year of working?

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Groups: Timber harvesters, processors, forwarders and cable cranes

13 Comments

I remember one of these working next to where I was brought up at Annsmuir forest near Ladybank. It would probably be mid to late 80's possibly early 90's doing thinning work but the machine I remember cut the tree into lengths as well as stripping them. I remember seeing it in several times doing thinning, it was very noisey when working, it belonged to the forestry commission and I remember it being the same operator every time. Comment left on 14 July 2012 at 10:18 by John Roberts
John - I believe you are correct that the Kockums Processor did cut tree stems into lengths. Will Anderson, Seafield, recalls the stems being pulled through until they reached one of several chains which hung down from the boom. The different chains denoted fairly roughly different product lengths. Comment left on 16 July 2012 at 08:15 by Norman Davidson
I drove one of these in 1990 in north wales it had a hydraulic chainsaw and I suspended chains from the boom to set the length of the logs it cut. If the tree was felled in the wrong direction I could pick it up by the top and throw it up in the air and catch it by the base. It broke down a lot and eventually burnt out after catching fire during a repair Comment left on 11 September 2012 at 14:28 by Dave Bond
It's a GP822. The FC had one based in Fife for a number of years operated by the late Donald Balfour, one of the best operators they had.I worked for MES at the time and used to service and repair it. As long as the chains were in the right place it was pretty accurate at measuring. Comment left on 13 November 2012 at 20:27 by Graham Miller
Hi all this was my late dad's machine. His name was Donald Balfour. He was mainly based from Blairadam Kelty Fife. He work for the forestry commision all his life. I have an old VHS video of this machine working and trying to convert it to DVD. This brought loads of memories back of when I was younger as I often went with my dad to work. Comment left on 30 January 2014 at 14:42 by Scott Balfour
Scott, great to get your comments and a bit more history of the machine. If you manage to get a digital version of the VHS video I would be happy to try to load some of the video onto this site along side the photo. Comment left on 30 January 2014 at 19:12 by Norman Davidson
As a former bothy boy from Strathyre, 1956-58, I put in my surname "Balfour" and up came this site. When I finally found the Balfour connection for Donald Balfour, I saw that it had been placed there by Scott Balfour. Amazing.

Cheers

David Scott Balfour Comment left on 10 March 2014 at 11:19 by David Balfour
It was one of these machines that brought an end to my cutting career at the time 1985 I think, the contractor we worked for got rid of most of us and replaced us with one of these, I went on to cut off for one of these for TPH in Kielder a couple of years later Comment left on 10 July 2016 at 20:14 by Anthony Carr
Hi to all the Balfours my name is Dougie Elliot born in Kelty I'm one off 5 brothers, I joined the army when I left school then got a job with A&J Nelson transport Kelty. My job with them was on a timber lorry I picked up the timber from the stock piles Aberdeen Comment left on 11 March 2017 at 16:41 by Dougie Elliot
Hi Dougie. I did it the other way round. Two years in the forestry business and then I joined the RAF. But that was a long time ago. These days I'm trying to write a few words about those forestry days and would be grateful for any of the older guys -who were working in the 1950s and continued on - to give me an idea of how things changed over the years since then until the time they retired. I've been out of the country since the 1960s so I've missed a few pages. Nothing lengthy unless you want to. Just a few points would be very welcome. Many thanks David Balfour Comment left on 09 June 2017 at 18:42 by David Balfour
Hi,
this machine worked in Speymouth Forest District in the early 80s, it was operated by two operators on a system where one felled and the other delimbed, they then changed over, the machine had a dual control system and could be operated front or rear by turning the operators seat, and viewing thro the roof window. Comment left on 03 February 2021 at 10:33 by Hamish Stevenson
As a 'sandwitch year' OND student at Dunkeld in 1979-80 I was invited along to a demo of this machine in Pitmedden Forest in Fife where I repeated all the guff I'd picked up about thinning with the machine from the harvesting team at Dunkeld to the 'high-heidians fae Corstophine. Particularly how they were doing it all wrong! Right until Richard Wallace who was harvesting forester at the time sidled up to me and said "Shut up John"!

So I did.

The arrogance of youth. Comment left on 04 February 2021 at 18:06 by John Burrow
Hello

Base of these machines are normal kockums model 822 - manufactured ( in that cabin ) from around 1979 to 1984. This is not very popular machine, but it is super base 2 make skidder.
I bought a pair of two same type machines that was fitted with winch and are superb for work in forest.
Engine is not 2 big but 117 HP work fine in forest.

 Comment left on 09 March 2021 at 10:02 by VITEK
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