Page 204 - Peterson 85 Years and Going Strong

CORE VALUE: INTEGRITY
If it wasn’t for Coiner, we wouldn’t be in Caterpillar machines. I’ve had access to him and our
Cat rep almost 24/7 during this process. And that’s a big reason we stuck it out.
– Tony Meline, owner, TRM Cutting
Top left, clockwise: TRM’s 552 Feller Buncher excavator; Spec sheet version of the Timberking; TRM’s Quadco saw head
and the lack of troubleshooting resource materials. Another biggie for Laird was the lack of power-down on the boom. “We use the saw head to maneuver from stump to stump on steep hills and on gravel roads. On the old machines, you only had gravity to work with.” The Timberking was supposed to be different. But with its power-down woes, it was pretty much back to gravity again. Perhaps the most egregious problem was the Parker joysticks. “Even after most of the problems were fixed, Parker still had these two-piece joysticks that would literally fall apart in your hands,”states Laird.“We never paid for any of them because they were always warrantied. All twenty-two pairs. Still, it was a big problem.”
With the inception of TFB-13, things began to change. Caterpillar and Parker both sent engineers out to Meline’s operation in Coos Bay, Oregon several times to see the problems in the field. Theoretically, they knew what the machine was supposed to do, they just didn’t know what it had to do to in order to make that possible, according to Laird. “After riding in the cab with me for a day, I was able to show them what worked and what didn’t.” Laird was pleased with the visits and the chance to voice his concerns directly to the factory. “Most places, if you tell an engineer what you want, you’re not going to get it. But not with Cat. They didn’t just sweep our suggestions under the rug. They made the changes.”
“After that visit, they went back to the drawing board and made lots of changes to the hydraulic system,” says Meline, who also co-owns Riverside Logging. “Then they came back out and put it in one of Peterson’s ma- chines and brought that out for us to try. It was like night and day.” For the next six weeks, the cousins ran both machines—TRM’s and the Peterson upgraded loaner. “That second machine was kicking tail and making me money because I wasn’t paying for it,” says Meline. “We were flat-out putting a lot of wood on the ground,
202 | PETERSON: 85 YEARS AND GOING STRONG