Granite Group has three main strands to its business: Earth and construction; Tree works; and Environmental, and cites its aim as ‘to be a unified force in environmental solutions, construction expertise, and arboriculture…a one-stop destination for a wide array of services from ecofriendly environmental management to top-tier construction projects and comprehensive tree care.’
The Tree works section of the business deals with:
• Stump grinding
• Complete tree removal
• Large-scale chipping
• Tree reports, and
• Milling.
The Australian Arbor Age caught up with Director Jon Rogash at the National Golf Club at Long Island in Frankston. Granite Earth was rehabilitating the course, doing the tree removal and land clearing for the new fairways. Thousands of cubic metres of material were being removed.
The machine chosen for processing the foliage was a recently purchased Morbark 2230 Wood Chipper, and as Rogash outlined to The Australian Arbor Age magazine, upgrading from the previous chipper hadn’t been a difficult decision.
The Morbark was being fed by a 15-tonne excavator with a rotating grapple saw, and from what we could see, the 2230 was doing the job – quickly and efficiently.
Power play
“We upgraded from a smaller machine,” said Rogash. “When we looked at the Morbark 2230, it had 365 horsepower, and in my eyes it was just the straight out brute horsepower. “It was no brainer.”
“I got talking to Monitor Business Development Manager Stuart Samson about this machine, and the more I inspected it, the more I liked it.
“I decided to pull the trigger on it.”
Safety first, but power by the hour
While it was the grunt of the Morbark which caught Jon’s watchful eye in the first place, the safety offered by the remote control on the 2230 has been major bonus.
“We run a strict machine-feed only,” explained Jon. “It eliminates any risk of people being caught in foliage or things like that. We run it straight off the machine with the remote and nobody’s in harm’s way.”
Matching the Morbark with Granite Earth’s other machinery has also shown some big productivity improvements.
“When we team up some of the other equipment with this machine, we can break down big logwood, and it doesn’t struggle pulling it through. It’s got the horsepower to pick up the drum speed,” explained Rogash. “Also, the angle on the chute eliminates blockage, and the higher drum speed forces the material through quicker.”
Monitor situation
It was clear Jon had been giving the Morbark a thorough workout and knew his way around the 2230. “The top infeed roller is a very aggressive style which grabs the foliage and logwood and forces it through without any drama, and without having to use the lift-and-crush.” Jon’s satisfaction with the Morbark carried over to his high opinion of supplier Monitor. “It’s been really good,” he said. “Whenever there’s been an issue – which has been very rarely – it’s been fixed straight away, and parts are readily available for the Cummins engine throughout Australia.” While Granite Earth is a firm fan of both Monitor and the Morbark 2230, and further business between the two companies is likely, there’s work to be done first. “We’re not going to upsize our fleet for now,” said Jon thoughtfully, “but in two years we’ll look at upgrading to a newer model and it’s a no brainer: we’ll be staying with Morbark.”