Mud can be real fun – with a Hydraulic Auxiliary Drive
Story
Micke Fahlström is a driver for Billman & Holm. He uses his 510 hp strong Arocs tractor vehicle with Hydraulic Auxiliary Drive to transport heavy forestry machinery to wooded areas that need to be cleared – and of course back home again. And all that on forest tracks that you could hardly recognise as such.
Micke driving his forest "taxi".
"I drive machines into the forest and I fetch them back again," he says. "Making headway there is really difficult." Micke describes his work as a sort of taxi business that operates all year round. "You never know what to expect the next day. You get a call and then off you go."
Micke has quite a short semitrailer on his truck, and he often drives on really narrow tracks with huge machines. Today he has to transport a thinning machine. As he is expecting space to be at a premium where he is going, it's important that he uses a truck that enables him to turn round there.
"Sometimes you have to move onto the edge of the track or find another alternative. After all, there's not enough turning space for us everywhere. But somehow we always manage."
When we pay Micke a visit, the weather forecast claims things are going to be thawing nicely, so it's muddy and slippery everywhere. A group of nursery children would have a great time here (though perhaps their teachers wouldn't be so happy...). With weather like that, the truck really has to take a stand. It's a 510 hp Arocs with Hydraulic Auxiliary Drive – a front-wheel drive that can be applied when needed but which doesn't remove any of the truck's valuable available payload because it doesn't need a propeller shaft or a drive shaft.
"Sometimes you have to move onto the edge of the track or find another alternative. After all, there's not enough turning space for us everywhere. But somehow we always manage."
– Micke Fahlström
"I have a normal chassis without a rear tandem drive axle. And I also have a button, and all I have to do is press it to make the hydraulic motor grip the hubs of the front wheels. At about 30 km/h it switches off again automatically. As soon as I go below 15 km/h it switches on again. That really helps you to get ahead, especially in foul weather like what we have today. That's when it's really useful. Without front-wheel drive we couldn't do this work."
The Arocs with Hydraulic Auxiliary Drive guarantees better manoeuvrability in the forest.
Photo: Annika af Klercker
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