Does Harvester Crane Tip Control increase production?

Harvester crane tip control– it has the potential to save time but the performance varies between operators

When using harvester crane tip control, the operator controls the crane tip directly from its original position (A) to the final position (B) instead of controlling the individual parts of the crane separately.

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Harvester crane tip control can save time in the forest, but not for all operators.

According to existing literature, crane work (including simultaneous machine moves) accounts for 80-90% of the harvester’s effective working time. Therefore, it is natural that there is an interest in technical solutions that can make crane work smoother and more productive. One such solution is crane tip control, where the operator controls the crane tip directly instead of controlling each joint individually. This type of computer-assisted control, which requires sensors and special software, has been on the market for over a decade. Despite this, there is still relatively little research on how technology affects forest machine work, especially for harvesters.

Consequently, we conducted a field study in two final harvest stands in Ångermanland to investigate how John Deere’s crane tip control system, Intelligent Boom Control (IBC), affects harvester performance. Two experienced operators, with decades of experience in harvesting work with traditional crane control, participated in the study, which ran in the second half of 2023. The operators had significantly shorter but fresher experience of using crane tip control because they had had crane tip control activated from the first day the machine was procured at the end of 2022. The machine model was the John Deere 1470G.

The results differed between the drivers. One driver neither lost nor spared time with IBC. The other driver, on the other hand, reduced the total time consumption by 10% with IBC. This saving occurred exclusively during the felling and reprocessing work phases. There was no difference between the crane control systems during other work phases.

Our conclusion is that crane tip control can significantly streamline harvesting work, but that the effect is likely to vary between operators. It is not a given that all operators will be faster with crane tip control. In addition, the results underline the need for further research with more drivers and machine models as well as different types of stocks. Above all, studies in thinning are of interest. In thinning, the operator must make decisions regarding forest management and control the crane and head between the remaining trees. In this mentally taxing work environment, crane tip control can possibly relieve the operator and thereby make work more efficient.

Read the full report here Manner J., Lundström H. (2025) The effect of boom-tip control on harvester time consumption in <i>Picea abies</i> dominated final-felling stands: case study