Machine and felling head
Damage to the base machine, guarding, tracks and the saw or shear head fitted.
Feller Buncher Insurance
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Feller Buncher Insurance
Cover for feller bunchers and harvesting heads in plantation forestry.
Fire is the dominant feller buncher claim. Hot exhausts, hydraulic leaks and dry slash packed around the machine start fires that can take the machine, the coupe and the neighbouring plantation with it. Add remote coupes where recovery takes days, steep terrain and a saw head that regularly meets rock and steel, and the risk is unlike general construction plant.
What is it?
A feller buncher is a tracked or wheeled base machine fitted with a felling head that cuts and gathers standing trees, usually with a disc saw or shear. Tigercat, John Deere, Komatsu Forest and Ponsse are the makes most common in Australian plantation work, alongside excavator-based conversions with purpose-built heads. Heads are high-value items and are usually scheduled separately.
What does feller buncher insurance cover?
Fire and total loss
Machine and vegetation fire, the leading cause of total loss in forestry plant.
Recovery from remote coupes
Costs of recovering or repairing a machine in country a service truck cannot easily reach.
What affects the cost?
- Machine and head values
- Terrain and slope of the coupes worked
- Fire season and total fire ban practice
- Fire suppression and daily cleandown routines
- Distance from service and recovery support
Worth raising on the call
- Onboard suppression, cleandown routines and a fire cart on site all affect how the risk is viewed.
- Fire that escapes into standing timber creates a third-party liability far larger than the machine value.
- Recovery and salvage costs from remote coupes are often sub-limited, so that figure is worth checking.
Claims we are commonly asked about
Machine burns in the coupe
Dry slash packs against a hot exhaust and the machine is well alight before a fire cart can get to it up a steep snig track. These are frequently total losses, and the next question is always whether the fire escaped into the surrounding compartment.
Fire runs into standing timber
A machine fire spreads into an adjoining plantation compartment and takes standing timber belonging to the forest owner. The value of lost timber and the cost of suppression can be many times the value of the machine, and that sits with the liability section rather than the plant schedule.
Saw head meets buried wire
A disc saw head hits old fencing wire, a star picket or a rock hidden in regrowth, damaging teeth, the disc and the head drive. Whether this is treated as impact damage or as wear on a consumable component depends on how the head is described in the wording.
Worth confirming in the wording
- Worth confirming whether cover continues on total fire ban days and during harvest bans, and what cleandown, fire cart, water supply or onboard suppression conditions must be met for the policy to respond.
- Worth confirming whether liability for fire that spreads into standing timber, neighbouring plantations or grazing country is covered and at what limit, since that exposure can dwarf the machine value.
- Worth confirming whether recovery, transport and access track construction costs for a machine stranded in a remote coupe are covered, and whether those costs carry their own sub-limit.
Common questions
Does my plant policy cover timber that burns in a fire my machine started?
Standing timber generally belongs to the forest owner, so damage to it is a third party liability question rather than a plant damage one. Liability wordings vary in how they treat fire, and some restrict or sub-limit it specifically. Where you work under a forest manager's contract, that contract may also set the limit you have to carry, so the two are worth reading together.
Is onboard fire suppression required on forestry machines?
It is not universally required by law, but forest managers and principals commonly require it by contract, and insurers frequently make it a condition or price for it on forestry work. Daily cleandowns, a fire cart on site and blower routines are usually assessed alongside it. It is worth asking how those measures are reflected in the terms before renewal.
How much does feller buncher insurance cost?
It depends on the machine and the country worked, and no figure is honest before underwriting. Machine and head values, the terrain and slope of the coupes, the fire season and total fire ban practice, suppression and cleandown routines, distance from service and recovery support, and claims history are the main drivers. The liability limit needed for fire escape is often the larger part of the conversation.
Does my cover change when I subcontract to a forest manager?
Usually yes, because the forest manager's contract commonly specifies minimum liability limits, requires them to be noted as an interested party and may add cross liability or waiver of subrogation requirements. Those requirements frequently exceed what a standard plant and liability package carries. Have the contract's insurance clause checked before mobilising rather than after the first coupe.
General information only. Cover, limits and exclusions depend on the PDS, TMD, eligibility, underwriting and the policy terms. See mobile plant machinery insurance for the wider picture.
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