The 4 Most Important Ways to Reduce Ownership Costs with Your Forestry Equipment

Forestry equipment and felling logs, even during times when consumers are becoming more environmentally conscientious, are an integral part of our daily life. This explains why the logging industry generated $15.9 billion in revenue in 2019. But even so, you need to be careful with your budget and finding ways to reduce ownership costs can significantly help improve your business.

That’s why Boehm Tractor Sales has provided some tips for cutting costs with your forestry equipment. Check them out for yourself, and then stop by our location in Shiner, Texas, to check out some of our forestry equipment for sale. We welcome all those from Seguin and Austin and we’re open for business, so let us know how we can help you!

Identify the Biggest Cost Factors

Keeping track of the biggest areas of spending is crucial for a successful business, so if you aren’t already doing this, we highly recommend you start. The logging industry poses unique challenges when it comes to budgeting, but thankfully you aren’t alone. 

There are many online logging cost calculators, which will prompt you to enter in some data and let the calculator spit out those crucial numbers you need. You can also find examples of budgeting spreadsheets specifically made for loggers and forestry equipment. For more information, check out the United States Forest Service Technology & Development Program.

If you do already keep track of your costs, this step should be easy. Continue to carefully monitor these cost factors to see how some of the changes you implement improve or worsen your budget. It’s not an exact science, so you might need to try a few ideas before something really sticks.

Preventative Maintenance

This one’s practically a no-brainer, but it’s worth stating. Preventative maintenance for your forestry equipment is essential for preventing severe breakdowns in the future. When one of your machines goes, it not only can be expensive to fix, but the uptime you lose can be damaging to your business. 

Improved Operator Efficiency

Just as the driver can hurt a car’s fuel efficiency, so too can a machine operator hurt your equipment’s fuel efficiency. Something as simple as running the machine at around 80% rpm can reduce fuel consumption by 20%. Those are dollars that’ll really start to add up. 

Some other areas your operator can be more careful include finding the optimal speed for your felling equipment, positioning machines to reduce drag resistance and improve balance, and engaging any lock valves that might be available to keep the grapple closed without burning through more fuel to force it closed. You might want to consider signing up your operators for a retraining to ensure they understand the latest practices and information surrounding their job.

Reducing Fuel Costs

This is the one you’ve probably been waiting for. After all, it’s consistently one of the biggest cost factors for any business involving heavy machinery. We’ve already touched on some ways your operator can improve fuel efficiency, and certainly getting your equipment to a professional technician can ensure you aren’t wasting money on forestry equipment that burns through fuel because it’s working through maintenance failures. But there are other ways to reduce fuel consumption.

Consider being more thoughtful about jobsite flow. Try to limit the distance your forestry equipment travels, thus reducing the amount of fuel wasted driving around the site. 

Invest in fuel-saving features and technologies, including auto-idle and auto-shutdown, which can automatically adjust rpm during times you’re not using the machine, allowing it to stay in a more efficient range. Telematics (GPS) equipment can reduce the amount of unnecessary movement a machine makes and improve your fuel catalyst to reduce combustion inefficiency. 

These are just some of the biggest ways you can reduce cost with your forestry equipment, but there are other ways to improve your budget. This could result in a variety of benefits, including having the money to upgrade your equipment and your fleet. If you’re looking for new pieces of forestry equipment, contact Boehm Tractor Sales and let us know which models interest you. We’re happy to help all those from Shiner, Seguin, and Austin, Texas.