And we partnered up with a company that built some for us.
Good machine.
Everybody was happy with them.
But we got some feedback, and we always
like to improve our product.
So we sent our tractor product manager out
and did what we call the Voice of Customer.
And he picked people all over the US who had operated ours
and our competitors' machines in the past.
And they told them everything they
liked about specific machines, everything they didn't
like about specific machines.
We took all that information and came up with this machine.
And we've had nothing but fantastic feedback
about this machine ever since we came out with it.
I believe this first came out in 2007, if I'm correct.
If you'll notice-- and the reason I
asked them to leave the engine compartment--
one of the comments from our Voice of Customer studies
was serviceability.
We don't want to have to disassemble this to get to this
to get to this.
We'd like to be able to get into the engine compartment
to do our daily routine maintenance and anything
major that could happen.
So I can probably fit about three of you
inside here along with the engine.
It's very serviceable.
I'm probably not going to do it right now,
but if you unscrew this and unscrew on the other side,
you take that, you thread it into here
just to hold it in place so you don't lose it in the dirt.
There's a button over there.
This cap hydraulically tilts forward,
and you can get to anything under the cab as well.
Serviceability, serviceability, serviceability, we
heard time and time again.
So we definitely listened and designed this machine
with serviceability in mind.
Some other aspects of the design--
people like loader arm machines, the ability
to reach up into a tree and then come down
on it so you've got the ground holding it in place.
The PTOs are great, but you've got to run into it,
knock it over, and mulch it as it's knocked over.
With this, you can reach up pretty high into the tree, fell
the top out of it, and you got the ground
holding the rest of the tree.
So you don't have to use the ground as an anvil.
The ground's got a hold of the tree for you.
So loader arms were important.
It's a very unique loader arm design.
This machine is capable of running skid steer attachments.
It's a skid steer quick attach plate.
On the front, you can put skid steer attachments on it.
It'll run those.
However, if you're going to spend the money
on this machine, I suggest you're
going to run the mulcher more than anything else.
Machine's not cheap to design.
It's not cheap to build.
But when productivity is an issue or a key, this will--
I tell people that this will do about what you're
used to two to three Bull Hogs on compact track loaders
or skid steers.
When I tell people that, they come back and tell me
I'm way low.
So we'll see what's your guys' opinion on this.
Daniel is going to hop in and operate for us.
Another thing about this that came from the Voice of Customer
is people said, man, your Bull Hog heads are great,
but I get beat up after being in that thing
for eight hours a day.
Well, this machine has a suspension seat.
We make two versions of it.
This is the crosslinked undercarriage.
Basically, it's two steel-reinforced rubber bands
with a steel bridge across them--
very soft ride.
Instead of-- with a dozer or a steel track,
when you go over a log, you go like this and down.
This will actually go over the log and contour to the log.
It's a very soft ride.
It's got about a 7-mile-per-hour top speed.
People say 9, but I don't run it that fast, so I call it 7.
It's got emergency exits.
This whole front window pops off.
There's four quick releases in the corners of there.
You're not going to get trapped in the machine.
You can also go out the back or go out the side door
that you enter in.
This is 142 horsepower, delivers 61 gallons a minute at 6,000
PSI.
So with your typical skid steers, a Bobcat, I believe,
is about 37 gallons a minute and the 3,500 PSI
range, somewhere around there.
So you've got almost twice the flow and almost twice
the pressure.
And you'll see when he starts it up.
For this environment, I think the crosslink undercarriage
is OK for where I was in Antimony yesterday.
Where it's boulders and rocks and all that,
I'd recommend the steel undercarriage.
Again, two versions of it-- this has got air conditioning.
For those of you who have operated the compact track
loaders before, you tend to operate by sound.
You know when you're getting into something too big.
You can hear it, OK?
That's the one thing I did not like about this machine
when it first came out.
It's so quiet in there.
You cannot hear the head running and grinding down.
So I was a little apprehensive when
we prototyped this machine, and I'm like,
I can't gauge my work by sound, which
is what I'm used to doing.
A couple of hours in the machine,
you don't need that sound anymore.
And it's nice to be able to get an emergency phone call
and know your phone's ringing.
Not that I recommend it, but you can
talk at a normal level on your phone in this machine
and hear it all day.
It's comfortable to operate all day.
That was another thing from our Voice of Customer.
So productivity, serviceability, comfort
are the three key factors.
Also, if you'll notice, on this head--
Daniel's machine, on the PTO head--
all the teeth are straight across in a line.
This is one of our newer heads, where
we've staggered the teeth one forward, one back, one forward,
one back.
Gives you a little more bite per horsepower per tooth.
I'll fire it up and lift it.
Give me one second, Daniel.
And then if you notice the skid shoes--
on Daniel's machine, it was more squared off there.
We've now rounded that so you don't
plow the ground if you're going to ride
across the top of the ground.
Those two things, again, came from customer suggestions.
We love hearing from our customers.
This has a variable displacement hydraulic motor in the head.
That sounds a little technical.
But basically, what it means is, as you come into something
that's maybe a little too big initially,
and that rotor starts to slow down--
and for those of you who operated this, and you
stall it--
well, this one's probably not going to stall.
It's going to shift to its larger hydraulic displacement
setting and provide more torque, more power,
to torque on through some of that bigger stuff.
So some of the changes over the past few years
that we've incorporated--
go ahead and start it, Daniel, if you would.
[ENGINE STARTING]
Daniel spoke about the counter combs earlier in the head.
If you want to take a look at them--
see those metal spikes in the back there?
That's why it works as an anvil.
Material is drug back through there and shredded.
There's a line of them straight across the bottom.
And then that geometric design that Daniel was talking about
helps to distribute the material across the mill.
Push bar-- this is a three-position push bar.
If you're felling larger trees, you can move this down
to this position.
It'll tilt the push bar forward, and you'll go into the tree,
fell it, then mulch it.
In this application with pinyon-juniper,
I like it to be in this position because your teeth can
expose right into it.
We also offer a hydraulic trap door option.
It's a good option if you want a park-like finish.
If you're doing a customer's backyard or something
like that, for this type of application,
I don't recommend it.
I guess, if there's any questions
before Daniel gets started.
Let's fire her up.
We're going to go that way, guys.
Look out, Dennis.
It's coming your-- you're going to get a close-up.
You may not want to start that until you
get where you're going.
Oh, I thought you wanted me to rev it up just to--
No, I said, let's mulch.
OK.