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Welcome to Brandtville, BC: an in-the-woods live demo near Kamloops, BC displays Brandt iron and commitment. It was a heck of a show too

The BC resort community of Sun Peaks was transformed into 'Brandtville' over the July 12[Symbol Not Transcribed] weekend when approximately 1 500 people converged on the mountain village to take part in 'Brandt In The Woods', a three-day extravaganza showcasing Brandt Tractor's line of forestry equipment.

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Brandt banners placed throughout the village and signs in most of the shops and restaurant windows welcomed the guests, who were primarily Brandt forestry customers. Along with a number of Brandt Tractor staff members, there was also a large contingent of John Deere and Timberjack employees on hand to co-host the event, and to answer questions and promote their respective product lines. The event was one in a series for Timberjack and John Deere, who have been hosting customer demo days in all their key North American forestry markets.

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The Sun Peaks venue provided a perfect backdrop for the event. When guests were not taking in demos or networking with business associates, they had time to play golf, ride mountain bikes, canoe, fish, have a massage, or just take a relaxing chair lift ride, which provided a panoramic view of the surrounding area.

The only hiccup in the event was when high winds forced the evacuation of the large tent that was used for meals and entertainment. Nobody was hurt in the episode and event organizers quickly moved the festivities to the front entrance of the Sun Peaks Delta Resort Hotel.

The hotel also served as the event headquarters, with the area directly in front of the hotel acting as a viewing area for a number of pieces of large forestry iron. The main Sun Peaks parking lot also served as a static demo site for John Deere equipment and provided suppliers such as Denharco, Waratah, Weldco-Beales, Cal Tire, Continental Tire, Risley Equipment, Gilbert Products, IMAC Design Group, Quadco, Rotobec, Wallingford's, John Deere Credit, Canada West Finance, and EPG Insurance, an opportunity to talk with Brandt's customers. One of the booths sold every imaginable John Deere logo item, from hats and shirts to miniature equipment models and office supplies.

Live Energy

The real excitement at the Sun Peaks venue was on the Friday evening when Brandt introduced the Timberjack 1490D Energy Wood Harvester (bundler) to the North American market. Punctuated by fireworks, the 1490D manoeuvred down the mountain towards the large crowd, who were enjoying hors 'd oeuvres and refreshments.

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The 1490D, which has been in use in Europe for several years, is designed to collect, compress and bundle logging residuals. Once bundled, the fibre is easily transported to mills by logging trucks for use in co-generation plants.

"There has been a great deal of interest in this machine in Western Canada," explains Reid Zimmerling, Vice President, Marketing Forestry for Brandt. "We are hoping to get the 1490D back up here this fall so that we can get it around and demonstrate its capabilities to major contractors, as we feel they will find a need for it."

According to Zimmerling, the 1490D can collect all debris up to 18 inches in diameter, including cut off branches, tops, leaners, and rot.

"There are two values to using the 1490D," Zimmerling says. "High natural gas prices will push the mills to use co-generation plants, and the industry is moving away from slash burning in the bush, so managers of the forest have to come with a plan as to how they will handle this. We feel the 1490D is the solution. Also, the latest legislation in the US is around fire prevention, and one of the methods they are looking at is to remove all of the fire debris and dry ignition material out of the bush."

When working in the forest, the 1490D picks up the debris and places it into the machine's feed mechanism for its patented continuous bundling process. The bundler then compresses, wraps and cuts a 10 ft. 'slash log' that will range in diameter from 24 inches to 36 inches. According to Timberjack literature, the dense bundles can be easily transported and stored for use as biomass fuel for energy used in power plants, a process already working effectively in Europe. Timberjack estimates that each 'fuel log' contains about 1 Mwh of energy when combusted in a biomass plant, with the electricity produced equal to the energy from 21 to 28 gallons of oil.

Even the engine in the 1490D is environmentally friendly. The harvester is powered by a John Deere electronically controlled diesel engine that offers low emission levels, high torque rise and responsive power bulge in the work range.

For the operator, the 1490D features a quiet cab with reduced vibration and Timberjack's Total Machine Control System, which allows up to seven operators to choose and save their personal preferences for loader and processing speed and response.

Private Demos

Following the Friday night debut of the 1490D, the machine was moved to the woods demonstration site, where it joined a stable of other equipment sold by Brandt. Three live demo sites were set up in the woods, one for small log harvesting and processing, one for large log harvesting and processing, and one for road building.

All of the guests were transported by bus to the site, about 45 minutes from the resort. In the woods, grandstand seating was set up to provide everyone with an excellent view of the demos. There was plenty of time to take in all three demonstrations, with time in between for lunch in the woods and a close up look at the equipment while it was idle.

Zimmerling was thrilled with the response to the demos and the weekend in general.

"This was the greatest show I have ever attended," Zimmerling said. "We were there to set our flag in the province of British Columbia and to tell our customers that we are here to stay, and that we will be a major supplier of forestry equipment in the province. We had a number of very loyal Brandt, John Deere, and Timberjack customers at the event, and some of these guys never show up at regional shows such as Prince George or Grande Prairie, but they were here for this show. In addition to planting the Brandt flag, this was a way to say thank you to our customers."

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Zimmerling stressed that the regional shows are also important to Brandt, and the Sun Peaks event was one more tool in the marketing tool box.

"This type of show definitely has bigger effect because we were the only supplier there. It is a very effective way of promoting our products and it provides us with a long-term return, which is one of the things we are looking at in BC. The BC market is the largest market in western Canada for forestry equipment, yet it has been the territory with the lowest market share for us. Our objective is to get that market share up to what we experience in the other provinces, and shows like the one at Sun Peaks are a good way to do that."

In addition to the 1490D, Brandt has introduced a number of other machines this year, including the John Deere 3554, a purpose-built forestry carrier that was introduced at the Grande Prairie show in May and will be available in September. The company has already sold two of the machines, one in BC and one in Saskatchewan. They have also sold two of the recently introduced Waratah 616 heads, a small wood harvesting and processing head that is designed for wood up to 16 inches in diameter, with a 20 inch diameter maximum.

In addition to raising their profile, the Sun Peaks event gave Brandt the opportunity to raise some funds for local charities. Through draws, donations, and an auction, the total raised was $87,752.00, of which 80% was donated to the British Columbia Children's Hospital in Vancouver, with the balance going to the Sun Peaks Health Centre.