As I have reported over the last few years we have been getting on well with our Malwa 560F forwarder and have been very impressed with its performance, productivity, comfort and light touch within the forest.
Having said that it was an early model and Malwa have been doing a huge amount of development over the last few years with huge increases in strength, design and reliability, while retaining all of the features which made the original machine great. Having watched this progress keenly, fed back to Malwa on our experiences and finally seen a lot of the improvements in the flesh at Elmia Wood last summer we have been keen to upgrade to a new 3rd generation model.
Help came in the form of an additional claim round for European funding in the form of the Harvesting and Processing grant, administered by Forestry Commission Scotland. FCS staff were incredibly helpful with the application and claim process and indicated that this is exactly the sort of thing they are hoping to fund. Having applied we were quickly informed that our application had been approved, were issued with a contract and were able to place an order for the new machine.
The new 560.3F is excellent and the many improvements add up to give a very capable machine. I will cover these improvements properly in another article but the main things are a stronger chassis and crane mounting, heavier duty drivetrain, stronger articulation brake and steering, more efficient cooling system and far stronger bolsters. We also opted for a longer, double extension crane and Malwa increased the load space area by 0.6m^2 to optimise the machine for carrying 3m chip, ensuring we can carry as close to capacity as possible with this common UK size.
For more information check back here soon or give us a call, we are happy to discuss the machine or show it to anyone interested.
Checking out our new Malwa 560.3F in Sweden prior to shipping
Malwa 560 loaded up with 3m chip showing the increased load area
...again showing the increased carrying capacity for short roundwood, allowing us to get close to the 5.5 tonne capacity
The Malwa extracting firewood from an amenity site we are working
Showing the double-extension Cranab crane, this gives greater reach but also speeds up loading and unloading considerably
