2017 International Forest Industries Magazines October November 2017 | Page 34

New generation of
forest tires
The Twin Forestry T440 and T480
are two new tires series, which
combines the best attributes of
the previous range with innovative
performance enhancing technology
and design.
The Twin Forestry T440 and
T480 are designed for harvesters
and forwarders. Thanks to new
technology, these tires now offer
even better grip and stronger
resistance. The new design,
including ProgressiveTraction™
and inter-lug terraces, delivers the
next generation of self-cleaning,
track-compatible tires with
superior traction.
Lars Eriksson, Global Product
Manager Trelleborg Forestry
Tires, says, “The new ranges
draws on all our experience and
know-how from forestry and adds
award winning innovations from
Trelleborg’s agricultural tires. The
result is two enhanced tire ranges
that are ideally suited for the
tough demands of forest terrain,
providing improvements in traction,
resistance properties, stability and
accessibility.”
Except for the new design, the
Twin Forestry T440 and T480 tires,
are made from a newly developed
enhanced rubber compound, so
that maximum grip and maximum
performance is achieved with and
without tracks.
The Twin Forestry tire range
is complemented by the Skidder
range T418 specifically designed
for log skidding service.
A solution for every challenge
Forestry demands machines that can work in and
navigate the forest regardless of the terrain. Tire
and wheel quality are decisive to the fulfilment of
this challenge. This is why customer feedback is
important when Trelleborg develops new products
and solutions, incorporating both needs and
opinions. On this spread, professional forestry
contractors share their experiences of Trelleborg’s
solutions.
TWIN FORESTRY T480, L-G
HULTSJÖS SKOGSMASKINER
AB – SWEDEN
“L-G Hultsjös Skogsmaskiner AB
has been logging the forests of
Småland for more than 25 years.
With eight employees and a fleet
comprised of three harvesters
and one forwarder, all Komatsu
machines, we’re one of the largest
contractors in the region.
I became a partner in the
company in 1996, together with
my father Lars-Gunnar Hultsjö.
At that time, he’d been running
the company for a while and was
already a loyal Trelleborg customer.
Since then, we’ve always been
pleased with the tires and the few
times we’ve needed to contact
Trelleborg the service has been
great.
The main harvesting services
we offer are thinning and final
logging, mostly for our biggest
customer Sydved. We work an area
south-west of the city of Jönköping,
with highly diverse types of terrain.
One day we might be working in
the hills, the next on the plains.
One distinguishing feature is the
many wetlands, which means that
we often need to use tracks. I’d say
that’s about 70 percent of the time.
We’ve just invested in a
Komatsu 901 that will mostly be
used for thinning in varied terrain.
That machine is currently working
32 International Forest Industries | OCTOBER / NOVEMBER 2017
in a very hilly area, with both
steep inclines and flat wetlands.
Since we’ve always used tires from
Trelleborg, they were the obvious
choice for our new Komatsu. We
decided on the latest Twin Forestry
T480, since they’re specially
designed for using with tracks. So
far we’ve clocked up about 350
hours with the tires, solely with
tracks, and we’re very pleased.
What I like most about the Twin
Forestry T480 is the traction and
the unbeatable force transmission
from tire to track. The tires have
transverse grooves that grip the
tracks and hold them firmly. This
makes working with the Twin
Forest ry T480 tires very different
compared to the competition.”
Johannes Hultsjö, Partner,
L-G Hultsjös Skogsmaskiner
AB, Sweden