Since then, Elvis has grown into a proud and tall man who is well respected in the timber and other industries where he is steadily growing a diversified enterprise.
Now celebrating its twenty-first year in business, Elvis Shabangu’s Kanyi Ilanga Trading started off small, working initially in silviculture and contract timber harvesting, and has now grown into short and long-haul businesses. His latest addition to the timber industry is a timber treatment plant.
“Since I started out in the timber business in 2004, my teams – whether working in silviculture or in timber felling, extraction and haulage – have always relied on yellow timber-handling machines made by Bell Equipment, and this is not about to change,” Elvis says. “We’re still using Bell 225A Loggers that now boast seriously high hours and even with rebuilds, these machines still deliver solid mechanical availabilities each day.”
Kanyi Ilanga Trading has explored the full range of Bell Equipment’s timber-handling offering over the years with them initially using a Bell 1756 Haulage Tractor-Trailer combination for short-haul applications before acquiring Bell T17D and T21D Timber Forwarders. Sometime later, a Bell B25D Articulated Dump Truck (ADT) carrier was converted into a timber forwarder and added and, in the following years, two modern Bell TF302E Forwarders joined the fleet. In 2020, Kanyi Ilanga Trading put a new Kobelco SK210LC Wheeled Excavator carrier fitted with a Bell MT800 grab into service.
“We’ve stayed with equipment from Bell due to the longevity that the equipment promises and delivers,” Elvis adds. “Our Bell T21D Forwarder now stands at 38 000 hours and has had two new engines fitted. In the six years that we’ve enjoyed the two Bell TF302E Forwarders, they’ve given us 18 000 and 15 000 hours respectively with only a sandwich block needing to be replaced on one.”
Elvis is adamant though that the backbone of his company’s timber-handling fleet is the Bell 225 Logger in both the older A-series as well as the newer F-series machines. “We have 24 of these machines evenly split between the older A- and newer F-series machines,” he says. “We recently bought new Bell 225F Loggers to replace older A-series machines that had generally clocked more than 17 000 hours in the eight years that we owned them. During that time our four qualified mechanics had performed rebuilds on them in our well-equipped workshops.”
He expands on the Bell Logger’s many uses within Kanyi Ilanga’s operations which start with silviculture, working in tandem with felling teams, extraction, indexing and unloading and loading timber at roadside depots. They are also used in conjunction with cable yarders and skidders, loading timber trucks which transport to mills and export facilities. Without them Elvis believes his timber treatment facility would not function.
“We keep on using Bell Loggers for a few very simple reasons,” he says. “Our company and our people have grown while using Bell Loggers and while there may be cheaper options on the market, they aren’t as durable as Bell Loggers when you consider that their application in the timber handling environment is a tough one.”
Elvis tells of an unusual use of their Bell Loggers when they had to figure out a solution to an environmental issue on an important access route to one of their sites.
“We had a problem with a section of road that had a high clay content. When it got wet our trucks skidded and couldn’t gain access to, or exit, the area with full loads,” he recalls. “We then bought 16 000 used concrete railway sleepers from Transnet and used our Bell Loggers to unload these sturdy sleepers from trucks before the same Loggers placed them in the excavated section of the road, which then created a paved area that was solid underfoot.”
To own more of the timber value chain, Kanyi Ilanga Trading recently bought a timber treatment facility where gum poles of varying lengths are treated with either creosote or chromated copper arsenate (CCA). This facility, situated at Hemlock, which lies between Ngodwana and Watervalboven, lies adjacent to large forestry tracts that Kanyi Ilanga owns and which provide sustained gum-pole feedstock to the facility. Here Bell Loggers are used to load and unload the timber that is treated in large pressure vessels and, when treatment is complete, the machines place the timber bundles on drying racks. Once dry, bundles of treated poles are loaded onto trucks for delivery to customers and the Bell Loggers are used again to ensure quick turnaround times.
The treatment is designed to extend the lifespan of timber by making it resistant to decay, rot, and insect infestation.
“While not taking anything away from the reliable service we’ve enjoyed with our original Bell 225A Loggers, we’re enjoying the frugal fuel consumption that the new F-series Loggers are delivering,” Elvis adds. “We’re saving at least 1,5 litres of diesel an hour with the new Yanmar watercooled engines and considering the price of diesel now this is a huge saving.
“And I should add that no machine can survive without diligent maintenance and, with this in mind, I want to commend the service we’ve received over the years from Bell Equipment in both Mbombela (formerly Nelspruit) and eMkhondo (formerly Piet Retief),” he concludes. “We have many points of entry into Bell Equipment as we know the branch managers, product support representatives and mechanics, but our most valuable contact has been through Bell Equipment’s knowledgeable Sales Representative in our area, Daniel van Huyssteen.”
