Every forestry attachment is sold on its capital price and owned on its wear parts. A mulcher head that is three thousand dollars cheaper than the alternative is poor value if its teeth cost more, its holders crack, its belt is a special order and its rotor bearings come from one warehouse in the northern hemisphere. The information needed to avoid that outcome is not difficult to obtain, but it is almost never volunteered, because it is the least flattering page of any quotation. This guide lists what to ask for in each attachment family, how to ask for it so the answer is usable, and how to turn the answers into a cost per hectare, per stump or per stem that you can actually tender on.
Procurement rule
Ask for a written wear-parts price list with Australian stock position and lead time for every line, before you place the order, not after. A supplier who will put that in writing is telling you something about their parts operation. A supplier who will not is also telling you something.Tree shears and root and stump cutters
On a tree shear the consumables are the cutting blades and the pivot hardware, and the two are related: worn pins and bushes let the blade wander, which accelerates blade damage and raises the pressure needed for every cut. Price the blade set, the hard-facing or sharpening specification, the minimum blade profile before replacement, the main pivot pins and bushes, the cylinder seal kits and the rotator seal and service kit if rotation is fitted. Ask specifically whether blades can be sharpened locally and to what specification, because on a remote project that answer decides whether a dull blade means an afternoon or a fortnight.
Root and stump cutters in the Trevi Benne WE range wear in the same places but harder, because they work in soil and stone rather than clean timber. Price the jaw cutting edges as the primary line, along with pin bores, bushes, cylinder rod and seal kits. Ask what the cutting edges are made of and how they are replaced, since an edge that requires the attachment to go to a workshop is a different commercial proposition from one that bolts on in the field.
Dipperfox stump grinders
The Dipperfox range is unusually clear about its wear strategy, and it is worth using that clarity. The blades are reversible and double-sided, which means a set delivers two working edges before replacement, and the centre screw is a replaceable item rather than part of the body. Both are published as wear parts across the range, including on the SC400, SC600 and SC850 Pro.
Price the blade set, the centre screw, the gearbox service requirement including oil specification and interval, and the seal and bearing availability for the transmission. Ask for the replacement procedure and the tooling it needs, the recommended inspection interval, and what stock is held in Australia. Stump work is abrasive by definition, and on rocky ground the blade and screw consumption is the dominant variable cost.
Forestry mulchers
Mulchers have the longest wear list, which is appropriate given they do the most work per hour. On the Shearex VM and HM ranges the lines to price are the cutting tools themselves, whether carbide teeth or blades, the tool holders, the drive belt, the rotor bearings, the bolt-on liners and the skid shoes. Shearex publishes Hardox 500 bolt-on liners and skid shoes and a Poly-Chain carbon transmission belt, and the fact that liners are bolt-on rather than welded is a real commercial advantage worth confirming on the model quoted.
Holders deserve particular attention. Teeth are expected to wear; holders are not, but they crack and tear out when the head meets rock or takes a deep uncontrolled bite, and a head that is destroying holders is expensive in parts and in downtime. Ask for tooth price, holder price, the tool count on the rotor, belt price and interval, bearing price, and whether liners and skid shoes are stocked locally. Multiply tooth price by tool count before you compare two heads, because a cheaper tooth on a rotor carrying half again as many tools is not cheaper. The blades versus carbide teeth comparison covers which tooling suits which ground.
Grapple saws
A grapple saw carries two wear systems in one attachment. The saw side consumes chain, bars, sprockets, chain oil and eventually saw motor service, and the consumption is heavily influenced by operator discipline, because a chain that touches dirt once is finished. Price chain by pitch, since the EX28 and EX36 offer 0.404 inch and 3/4 inch options and the running costs differ, along with bars, sprockets, the automatic tensioning components and the chain lubrication system.
The grapple side consumes what any grapple consumes: pins, bushes, tine wear and rotator seals. Ask about the Indexator rotator specifically, since rotator service kits and lead times are a common weak point and a rotator failure stops the whole attachment, not just the saw.
Forestry grapples
On the Powerhand EX forestry grapples, the mechanical wear is concentrated in the pins, bushes and tine tips, and the hydraulic wear in the cylinders and the rotator. Powerhand uses solid Hardox tines, which wear slowly but do wear at the tips in dirty material. Price pin and bush kits, cylinder seal kits, rotator seals and service kits, and the hose swivel components that carry oil through the rotator, because that is where a leak usually appears first. Ask what tine repair looks like and whether the manufacturer specifies a procedure, since undocumented tine welding is one of the things that destroys the resale value of a used grapple.
Mechanical pruning
The OMEF pruning range splits into two different wear stories. The TG trimmers, BF cutter bars and TRI pruning bars consume blades and blade sections along a long bar, and the critical questions are the sharpening interval, whether sections can be replaced individually in the field, and the cost of a full bar’s worth. The BTD disc trimmers consume discs, so price the disc, the mounting hardware and the drive components. The CS forestry pruners are closer to a shear: blade, pins, bushes, cutting cylinder seals and rotation service.
Long bars carry a second risk that is not strictly a wear part. They bend, and a bent bar is often uneconomic to straighten, so ask what a replacement bar costs and how long it takes to arrive before you rely on one in a linear contract.
Compactors and auger drives
An OMEF CPT compactor lives on shock loading, and its consumables reflect that: the rubber isolation buffers that protect the carrier and the attachment, the base plate, the hydraulic motor and the vibration unit components. Buffers are the line most often forgotten, and a compactor run on collapsed buffers damages both the attachment and the boom. On a TRV auger drive, price the teeth, the pilot, the gearbox oil and service interval and the output shaft seal. Rock work uses a different pilot and tooth arrangement, so if any of your work is in rock, price that configuration separately rather than assuming the standard tooling will do.
How to ask so that the answer is useful
A general question produces a general answer. Send the request as a table to be completed, with one row per part, and ask for five columns: part number, description, unit price excluding GST, quantity carried on the machine, and current Australian stock position with lead time if not in stock. Ask for it for the exact model and configuration being quoted, because tool counts and holder types differ between models in the same family.
Then ask three follow-up questions that reveal more than the prices do. What is the expected life of each consumable in dense hardwood on abrasive ground, stated as a range with the assumptions behind it. What does a recommended starting spares kit contain for a machine going to a remote project. And which parts, if unavailable, stop the machine entirely rather than merely reducing production. Nothing in those answers should be treated as a guarantee, but a supplier who can answer them has customers doing the work you are about to do.
Distance from the dealer changes the strategy, not just the freight
Parts strategy is a function of how far you are from support. Close to a capital city and a stocking distributor, a lean approach works: carry a set of consumables and rely on next-day supply. Several hours out, the calculation changes, because a day of downtime costs more than a shelf of parts. On a remote project, the spares kit should cover everything that stops the machine, including the items that are cheap and boring: hoses and fittings, seal kits, a spare tooth or blade set, gearbox oil, mounting hardware and the special tools needed to fit them.
The commercial framing is simple. Compare the cost of holding a part against the cost of the machine and crew standing idle for the real lead time, not the optimistic one. On infrastructure and mining corridor work, where mobilisation is expensive and access windows are fixed, the spares kit is cheap insurance. Build that cost into the project rather than the attachment, and see total cost of ownership for where it belongs in the hourly rate.
Turning wear parts into a rate you can tender
Wear cost only becomes useful when it is expressed per unit of work, and the arithmetic is straightforward once you are recording consumption.
Illustrative method. Track each consumable separately (teeth, holders, belts, chain) so you can see which line is actually driving the cost, and record the ground conditions alongside it.
For mulching, track tool cost per hectare and separate it by first pass and second pass, because a fine finish specification can consume tooling at a very different rate from a rough knockdown. For stump work, track blade and screw cost per stump, classified by difficulty rather than diameter alone, since a rocky stump and a clean one are not the same product. For shear and pruner work, track blade cost per stem and note the percentage of stems requiring a second cut, because that percentage rises as the blade dulls and is an early warning that sharpening is overdue. The cost per unit calculator handles the arithmetic, and the resulting figures feed straight into building a tender rate.
Confirm in writing before ordering
- A complete wear-parts price list for the exact model and configuration quoted, excluding GST
- Quantity of each consumable carried on the machine, including rotor tool count and holder count
- Current Australian stock position and lead time for every line, including the slow ones
- Expected consumable life in your dominant species and ground conditions, stated as a range with assumptions
- Sharpening or reversing specification, minimum profile before replacement, and whether it can be done locally
- Gearbox, rotator and saw motor service intervals, oil specifications and service kit prices
- Recommended starting spares kit for a remote project, itemised and priced
- Which parts stop the machine entirely if unavailable, and where the nearest stock of those sits
- Whether liners, skid shoes and holders are bolt-on or welded, and what replacement involves
Frequently asked questions
The supplier says wear part life depends on conditions and will not give a figure. Is that reasonable?
It is reasonable not to guarantee a figure, and unreasonable to refuse a range. Ask for a range with the assumptions stated, or for the consumption an existing Australian customer sees in comparable material. What you cannot accept is a quotation with no wear cost information at all, because that is the number that decides whether the job is profitable.
Are cheaper aftermarket teeth and blades worth using?
Sometimes, but compare them on cost per hectare rather than cost per tooth, and check the effect on holders. A tool that wears faster or sits differently in the holder can cost more in holder replacement and downtime than it saves at purchase. Also confirm the effect on any warranty before fitting non-genuine parts.
How big a spares kit should go to a remote site?
Enough to cover everything that stops the machine for the realistic lead time to that location. That usually means hoses and fittings, seal kits, one full set of cutting tools, gearbox oil, mounting hardware and the tools to fit them. Price the kit against a day of standing time and the decision usually makes itself.
Should wear parts be in the attachment budget or the project budget?
Both, in different forms. The initial spares kit is a capital item bought with the attachment. Ongoing consumption is a variable cost that belongs in the hourly rate and in the per-unit price, which is why it needs to be tracked per hectare, per stump or per stem rather than absorbed into general maintenance.
Why price holders and liners when teeth are the obvious consumable?
Because teeth are the predictable cost and holders and liners are the surprise. Holder damage usually signals rock contact or an aggressive feeding technique, and replacing holders is slower and more expensive than replacing teeth. Knowing their price before you buy tells you what a bad month on rocky ground actually costs.
Does a longer parts lead time really matter if the attachment is reliable?
It matters most when the machine is committed. On a fixed-window corridor or possession job, a fortnight's wait for a part is not a maintenance issue, it is a contract issue. Lead time should be assessed against the consequences of standing, not against how often the part is expected to fail.
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.