Most contractors price the work and then discover the travel. On a metropolitan subdivision that habit costs a little; across regional Australia it decides whether the job was ever worth taking. A forestry attachment changes the transport equation in three ways at once. It adds mass to a combination that may already be close to the practical limit of the float, it adds width, height and overhang that were not there when the machine ran a bucket, and it adds a second item that has to be loaded, restrained, protected and unloaded at both ends of every move. This guide sets out how to think about that before you commit to a carrier size, and how to put the result into a price rather than absorbing it.
Transport rule
Price mobilisation as its own line, calculated on the combined mass and dimensions of carrier plus attachment plus hitch in the configuration you will actually float, and confirm current mass, dimension and permit requirements with the road authority in the state or territory you are travelling through. Do not carry it as an overhead and hope the hours absorb it.Combined mass decides the float, not the excavator’s tonne class
An excavator’s advertised class is a rough description of its operating mass with a standard bucket. Swap the bucket for a forestry attachment and the number that matters becomes carrier mass, minus the bucket you removed, plus the attachment, plus the quick hitch, plus any rotator or adaptor bracket, plus the counterweight that may have been added to keep the machine stable with a heavy head out at radius. Each of those is a genuine figure available before you buy, and the sum is what the float and prime mover have to carry along with their own tare.
The spread across the attachment families on this site is wide enough to move a combination between float types. A Dipperfox SC400 at 190 kg is effectively transport-neutral on the 1.5 to 5 tonne carriers it suits. A Shearex VM-50SR at 975 kg adds close to a tonne to a 15 to 20 tonne machine. A Powerhand EX36 grapple saw at 1,176 kg does the same to a 16 to 25 tonne carrier, and a Trevi Benne WE15 at 2,240 kg adds more than two tonnes to a 20 to 28 tonne machine before the hitch is counted. Those masses are the same ones that drive the lift chart arithmetic, which is convenient: one number does two jobs, and there is no excuse for not knowing it.
Australia regulates heavy vehicle mass and dimensions through state and territory road authorities and the national heavy vehicle framework, and the detail differs by route, by combination and over time. Nothing on this page is a substitute for that. What a buyer can do is arrive at the conversation with real numbers rather than a tonne class, because the transport operator can only assess practicality, access conditions and any permit requirement once the combined mass and the loaded height, width and length are known.
Floating the attachment fitted or separately
Leaving the attachment on the stick is faster at both ends and removes a lift from the process, but it raises loaded height, pushes the centre of gravity forward and sometimes adds width if the head is wider than the tracks. A Shearex VM-25SK at 70 cm of cutting width tucks inside the machine envelope on almost any carrier. A wide mulching head, a forestry grapple with the tines open, or a grapple saw with a 1,000 mm bar does not, and those are the cases where folding the boom to bring the head low and inboard stops being a preference and becomes the only workable arrangement.
Floating the attachment separately, on the deck beside the machine or on a second trailer, keeps the loaded profile predictable and lets the head travel in a stand where it is stable and easy to restrain. It costs a lift at each end and demands somewhere safe to do it. The practical rule most fleets settle on is that light and compact heads travel fitted, and anything heavy, wide or fragile travels in its own stand. A Powerhand EX28 forestry grapple at 617 kg with rotator is an easy fitted load; a two tonne root cutter with a 1,400 mm jaw usually is not.
Stands, lifting points, tie-down and hose protection
Every attachment that leaves the carrier needs a stand, and the stand should be bought at the same time as the attachment rather than fabricated in a hurry the week the job starts. A proper stand holds the head at the angle at which the hitch can be re-engaged without a spotter lying under it, keeps hoses and couplers off the ground, and gives the transport operator something square to chain to. For saw units it should also keep the bar clear of contact.
The same discipline applies to the details. Identify the designated lifting points before the attachment is first craned, and use them, because a sling through the tines or around a cylinder is how a grapple gets bent and how a cylinder rod gets scored. Cap or connect the hydraulic couplers so they do not fill with road grit, and tie hoses back so they cannot chafe against the deck for six hundred kilometres. Protect any exposed rotator and electrical connector. Restraint of the load is the transport operator’s responsibility and should be arranged to the applicable load restraint requirements, but the contractor is the one who decides whether there is anything sensible to chain to, and that is a purchasing decision made months earlier.
Distance is an Australian cost line
The distances that separate Australian work sites are not a detail. A machine that is two hours from the depot can be moved for a half day of float time and be earning by lunchtime. A machine going six or eight hours into a regional corridor consumes a full day each way, often requires overnight accommodation for the float driver and sometimes for the operator, and frequently has to travel with fuel, service items and enough wear parts to survive a week without a courier. That last point is the quiet one: at that distance a broken centre screw is not a parts problem but a mobilisation problem, because the alternative to carrying spares is moving the machine home. The wear parts to price before buying guide covers what belongs in that kit.
The cost of a move for a given combination and distance is a question for a transport operator, not a figure to be guessed at here. What matters for pricing is that the total includes float hire, pilot or escort if the combination requires it, permits where applicable, fuel and delivery of consumables, the operator’s travel time, accommodation, and the productive hours lost at both ends. Assemble those into one number, multiply by the number of moves the contract actually requires, and you have a mobilisation line you can defend.
Mobilisation belongs in the tender, not the overhead
Burying travel inside an hourly rate punishes you on short jobs and makes you uncompetitive on long ones. The cleaner structure, set out in more detail in building a tender rate, is a stated mobilisation and demobilisation charge per move, a separate production rate, and an explicit assumption about how many moves the scope contains. Clients understand this because it is how every other plant discipline prices, and it protects you when the scope is delivered in three separated parcels instead of the one block described at tender.
The arithmetic is worth doing explicitly. Take an illustrative job of 60 productive machine hours. Assume, purely for illustration, that a single mobilisation and demobilisation cycle costs the equivalent of eight machine hours of revenue. Spread across one continuous visit, that is roughly thirteen per cent added to the job. Delivered as three separate visits because the client staged the works, it is nearly forty per cent, and a price built on one visit has lost its margin before anyone started an engine. The same logic sits behind the utilisation argument in total cost of ownership: moves consume paid hours without producing anything.
Why a compact carrier sometimes wins the contract
A larger excavator almost always works faster. It is not always the machine that wins the work. Across a program of scattered small jobs, councils, utilities, subdivisions and farm blocks, the total cost is dominated by how many times the machine has to be moved and how easily it can be moved each time. A carrier that travels on a smaller combination, gets into a suburban street without traffic management, and is unloaded at the kerb in twenty minutes can put in a productive half day on a site where a larger machine would still be waiting for its float window.
That is the commercial argument behind the compact end of several ranges. A Dipperfox SC600 on a 6 to 12 tonne carrier is slower per stump than an SC850 Pro on a 13 to 30 tonne machine, but on a council program of a hundred scattered street stumps the compact combination frequently produces more finished stumps per week and costs less to deploy. The same reasoning applies across the 5 to 10 tonne and 10 to 16 tonne classes generally, and it is worth testing with real numbers rather than assumed, because it also reverses: on a single large block, mobilisation is a one-off and raw production wins. The cost per unit calculator is a quick way to settle the argument for a specific contract.
Confirm before ordering and before quoting a move
- Attachment weight in the exact ordered configuration, plus bracket, hitch, rotator and any added counterweight
- Combined mass and loaded dimensions of the carrier with the attachment fitted, and with it removed
- Current mass, dimension, permit and escort requirements for your combination and route, confirmed with the relevant state or territory road authority
- Whether the head travels fitted or separately, and who performs the lift at each end
- Transport stand supplied, its cost, and whether it suits re-engagement without working under the attachment
- Designated lifting and tie-down points identified, and hose, coupler and connector protection for travel
- Site access: gate widths, overhead clearances, ground conditions at the unloading point and any traffic management required
- Number of mobilisation cycles the contract scope actually requires, and the rate charged for each
Frequently asked questions
Should I float the attachment fitted to the machine or on the deck?
Light, narrow heads normally travel fitted because it saves a lift at each end. Heavy, wide or fragile attachments, including large mulching heads, grapple saws with long bars and two tonne root cutters, usually travel separately in a stand so the loaded profile stays predictable and the head can be restrained properly.
How much mass does a forestry attachment really add?
It varies by family. Compact stump grinders can be under 200 kg, mid-range mulchers and grapples run several hundred kilograms to over a tonne, and heavy root cutters exceed two tonnes. Add the quick hitch, any rotator and any counterweight fitted for stability, because the float carries all of it.
What are the legal mass and dimension limits in Australia?
They depend on the combination, the route and the jurisdiction, and they change. Confirm current requirements with the road authority in each state or territory you travel through, and give your transport operator the real combined mass and loaded dimensions rather than a tonne class.
Is a transport stand worth buying with the attachment?
Yes. A stand designed for the head holds it at an angle where the hitch can be re-engaged safely, keeps hoses and couplers off the ground, and gives the transport operator a square item to restrain. Fabricating one later usually costs more and fits worse.
Can a smaller excavator really be the better commercial choice?
On programs of scattered small jobs, often yes. Production per hour is lower, but a combination that mobilises quickly and cheaply can complete more sites per week. On a single large block the advantage reverses, because mobilisation is paid once and hourly production dominates.
How should mobilisation appear in a tender?
As a stated charge per mobilisation and demobilisation cycle, with an explicit assumption about the number of visits the scope requires. Hiding it in the hourly rate overprices short jobs, underprices staged works and makes variations difficult to claim.
Get a recommendation, not just a price
Send us your excavator model, hydraulic figures, tree species and typical diameters. We will come back with a carrier-matched configuration and a written specification you can compare against any other quote.