A 578 Bruunett destined for the scrap yard has been painstakingly restored to its former glory by Kenny Campbell, a forestry worker from Lairg in the Scottish Highlands.
Social media can be a great platform at times and when I saw I had received a message from Kenny Campbell with some photos of his restored 578 Bruunett I was over the moon that he had taken the time to send them over.
This was far too interesting just to post as a few photos so after contacting Kenny for more information I thought it would be a remarkable story to share with other forestry enthusiasts.
Kenny Campbell is a second generation woodsman, who like many of us, could not wait for weekends and school holidays so he could go out to the forest and help his dad felling trees
Growing up with forestry Kenny had gained a wealth of experience (and some bad habits along the way lol) but getting a start in forestry wasn’t that easy and was quite a costly process.
After self-funding, his felling courses and assessments for his certificates Kenny was able to embark on his career as a chainsaw operator. He found he could keep quite busy between felling work on local forestry estates and harvesting contractor Roland Forestry where he was felling large edge trees that were too rough and oversized trees that were too big for mechanised harvesting.
Kenny soon recovered the cost of the courses and started looking at other forestry work. He was also felling for for SLK Forestry and they offered to put him through his forwarder test and this added a further string to his bow. Several months later he was offered the position of relief forwarder operator for Roland Forestry, covering operator holidays and sicknesses etc.
This gave Kenny a broad experience as he was becoming familiar with an assortment of forwarder makes and models including John Deere and Komatsu.
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Kenny was really enjoying the variety as between felling for the estate, Roland Forestry, and his forwarding career no two days were ever the same.
While searching for ways to make his job easier he decided to purchase an international tractor and adapt an Igland double drum winch (which had been used on a county tractor) to fit his tractor, he would use this for winching the edge trees back into the felling coupe.
He loved the simplicity of the international as the electrical system was basic and trouble free, Kenny realised he was born out of time as having modern chainsaws his favourite one was a Husqvarna 254 from 1990 which had been his dad’s saw.
Kenny realised he had a real passion for older and simpler forestry equipment and one day a chance conversation where one of his friends had spotted an old Bruunett 578 which had been laying for the last 10 years and was destined to be cut up for scrap ignited a real interest in him.
He understood that to restore this classic would take considerable time and money, but Kenny was not daunted by this he was excited.
The 578 Bruunett was a groundbreaking modern lightweight compact thinning forwarder. With 8 wheel drive, an eight tonne tare weight and load capacity of seven tonne and at just under 2.4m wide it was perfect for working in tight crops and selective thinning with the additional bonus of the rear wheels tracking the front. The hydrostatic/ mechanical transmission offered a smooth delivery of power to the wheels with high and low gear ratio available depending on the ground conditions.
It was fitted with a roof mounted Cranab 4115 crane with a 5m reach, an International D246 4 cylinder engine and the electrics were all twelve volts.
Once he got the 578 Bruunett home Kenny could see that this was going to be a bigger project than he had first imagined, the engine was completely sized as one of the liners had burst into the block.
Kenny did not want to incur debt or take on any finance for this project, so he was happy to take a bit longer and fund it through work.
Getting parts was not proving too difficult as it was an international engine, and many other bits and pieces were readily available from local tractor dealers’ shelves.
Some of the restoration is not back to the original specification, the hydraulic spool block is of a more modern type with 360 controls and a different hydraulic pump. This system is still being tweaked as the dipper is operating a bit too fast, s Kenny is adding flow restrictors which will help to balance the crane.
The International engine will soon be fitted with a turbo which will help to increase the power from the standard 74hp.
It has taken 9 months to get the forwarder up and running and Kenny has loved every minute spent on this fantastic project, he loves the simplicity of the 578 Bruunett. There is no complicated electrics or sensors to worry about, once running there is little besides hydraulic hoses to worry about, Kenny acknowledges all you need is a box of spanners to keep it running.
It is heartwarming to see people like Kenny taking the time to bring these important pieces of forestry history back to life and to work.
Kenny has wanted to be in a position where he could run his own forwarder without having the burden of finance on his shoulders and this project has allowed this to happen.
He has been testing the water and has generated a lot of interest due to the 578’s smaller size, manoeuvrability and superb weight distribution, the only other machine in recent years to match this has been the smaller Gremo’s/EcoLog’s but they were expensive and no longer in production.
Kenny has about 6 months estate work in front of him with the Bruunett, he is a one man band and will be extracting timber he has felled and crosscut himself.
It is fantastic to find a younger operator who has a real passion for the industry and older equipment, if all goes to plan, he will be looking to take on another restoration project sooner rather than later
If you require any low impact extraction in the Scottish Highlands or are a forestry equipment restoration enthusiast looking for a good blether or advice please contact Kenny on 07496810450 (Phone signal can be sketchy so possibly an email is better) email kctreeservices888@gmail.com
Forest Machine Magazine is written and edited by a forest professional with over 40 years hands on experience. We are dedicated to keeping you informed with all the latest news, views and reviews from our industry.
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