Peterson Machinery team provides complete support for Wolfco Timber Services

With every purchase of a new Caterpillar^® machine from Peterson Machinery Co., the customer gets more than just a great piece of equipment. A team of Peterson experts will be there at every step to help with selection, financing, delivery, training, and more. A new CAT 527 track skidder has just joined the fleet of machines at Wolfco Timber Services, and, once again, the Peterson team was there to ensure total satisfaction.

Wolfco is a Lebanon, Oregon, company owned by father and son team Bob and Ryan Wolfenbarger, and provides forestry services to northern and central Oregon. In business since 1986, these contractors are available for logging and road building work. Bob is also partners with his wife Nancy in the operation of Wolfco Tree Farm.

Sales Representative Pat Miller from the dealership's Eugene offices worked closely with Bob to select the skidder and close the deal, guiding the financing and warranty process and directing all the paperwork that comes with a major equipment purchase. Then, on a typical crystal-clear summer day in the Cascade Mountain range, Pat brought Mike Coiner, Forest Products Technical Communicator for Peterson Machinery, up to Wolfco's worksite to get together with Bob and his younger son Rich to go over all the features of the new machine. Mike reviewed the everyday maintenance and operational details the Wolfenbargers will need to keep the 24-ton CAT productive.

That included a thorough review of the worktools. The skidder at Wolfco uses a brush rake and a grapple, making the skidder a versatile forest machine. The grapple grabs the salvageable lumber from the forested worksite, and moves it to the roadside to await the trucks to take it to the mills for processing. The brush rake sweeps up the remainder, mounding the debris into piles for later burning or disposal.

The Peterson reps then talked a little about the service Bob could expect from Peterson Machinery's service shops. The next member on Wolfco's Peterson team will be Mike Brant, the Product Support Service Representative from the Albany store. Mike will be there whenever the skidder needs a part, a tune up or fluid analysis, a repair, or just to answer any questions that might come up.

The first milestone in the life cycle of the skidder will be the customary revisit once the machine hits 250 hours of use. The machine will be thoroughly re-inspected to ensure it continues to operate at peak performance levels. Given how much work Wolfco has planned for this Sisters, Oregon worksite, that 250 hours will be coming up quick. At the end of June, the Wolfco team moved into the summer phase of their work cycle, taking on a lot of "dirt work," building the logging roads throughout the region's timber-cutting areas. Then, when the rains begin to fall in October, Bob and the boys will be back up in the Sisters area, looking forward to another season of timber harvesting. Their skidder has some cold weather work ahead of it, because, according to Bob, the best cutting and clearing conditions involve a deep snowfall and a bracing 16° day. "You don't leave a lot of impact on the ground because of the deep drifts and the operators can get it all done from inside the CAT's heated cab," he says.

Bob and his family know just what it takes to keep a successful forestry operation up and running. Bob is a native Northwesterner and grew up working in the lumber industry, leaving it as a young man for a career as a pilot. He spent a number of years flying a private plane for a large retirement community corporation, before retiring himself and returning to forestry work. Now he and Ryan are focused on the success of their joint forestry enterprise. Bob's son Rich is a quiet young man who's not afraid of a hard day's work. He enjoys working with his dad and brother up in the mountains, but will be starting college courses at Linn Benton Community College in the fall. Even Emma, the family dog, has a role to play, carefully supervising all that work from the comfort of the skidder's cab as she rides around the site with the crew.

Bob calls his experience with Peterson Machinery a positive one. "It was easy working with Pat and also with CAT's financing," he says. After a last check over the machine, and few more biscuits for Emma from the stash in Pat's truck, the Peterson guys packed it up and headed back to the valley floor, leaving Bob and the crew to get that skidder back to work. And, whenever he needs them, the team at Peterson Machinery will be ready to assist Bob in getting the most out of his CAT equipment.