"I was always raised with the idea that you go to work to get out of debt, not go into debt so you can keep working," says Don Frickel. "But things have changed, and people want a feller buncher on the job. It can speed up production as much as 40 percent, so loggers insist on having a feller buncher where they can have one."

Don started out logging for his dad as a youth, and was determined to one day have his own logging crew. That ambition became reality in 1984.

As an independent contractor, Don started cutting for his dad and eventually began cutting for Rainier and Weyerhaeuser in western Washington. Don Frickel Contract Cutting has primarily used hand fellers in the past, about a dozen or so during the slow season and up to twenty or more during busier times of the year. Don always wanted to stay with a small hand felling team, but after twenty or so years of running his own crew, he realized that getting a little more mechanized would be a good investment for his business.

The addition of a feller buncher was a big move for Don. He had already replaced his first buncher with two more when Calvin Dahl, of Papé Machinery in Tacoma, Washington, convinced him to try the brand new John Deere 959J feller buncher. It would be the first one sold in the Pacific Northwest, and Don was reluctant. He didn’t want to risk getting the first of anything.

"I wasn't going to buy the John Deere," Don begins. "I had made my mind up that I was going to buy another machine. What basically persuaded me was when they sent the John Deere representatives from back east out. They all sat down with me… They guaranteed me that they'd stand behind the machine, and they have. There haven't been many problems at all, and they stood behind everything like they said they would and even more."

Moving Forward
It’s been over a year since Don took that chance with the new John Deere 959J feller buncher. Today he says it was a risk worth taking. Don’s operator, Dale Stokin, agrees.

"Dale's run bunchers for ten years now," Don explains. "He said he doesn't care if he runs any other buncher now than the John Deere 959J. He wasn't that impressed with it at first, but he said he's never ran a machine like it – the stability, the way it travels around, the dependability, the lifting capacity of it, the swing power, leveling – everything on it. He says every day he runs it, he likes it more and more."

The four-way leveling system of the machine has helped the overall productivity of Don's operation, allowing the ground crew to focus on more specialized areas while the buncher handles the rest. The 959J is capable of leveling to 26 degrees forward, 7 degrees rearward, and 14 degrees to either side, and is easy to maneuver on rough ground. Don is amazed at just how flexible the 959J is, even in a tight, rugged stand.

"Because of the leveling, I'm able to get on steeper ground that you wouldn't be able to get on to with other bunchers. I can get more work done with the buncher than having to have hand fellers in there. It's more productive.  For as big as it is, you would think it would be a little harder getting around, but it goes places that our smaller machines in the past wouldn’t have gone."

Today Don is glad that he took that chance with John Deere, and he's reaping the benefits of owning a new 959J buncher – the first purchased in the Pacific Northwest. "I'd like to thank John Deere for standing behind their word and standing behind the machine," Don says. "They said they would make sure I was happy with it, and I have been."

Don Frickel Contract Cutting is serviced by Papé Machinery, Tacoma, WA.

Back to Stories from the Woods