Powerhand EX40 grapple saw (tiltrotator and tree-care)

“EX40” is not a specification

Every other Powerhand saw head in this family can be quoted by its number and understood. This one cannot, and that single fact is what the page exists to explain. The EX40 is the largest grapple saw Powerhand makes, but it is absent from the rigid forestry excavator range, which stops at the EX36. It is offered in two other architectures only: the tiltrotator grapple saw, which is the build the figures on this page describe, and the tree-care grapple saw with worm-drive positioning, which is heavier by an increment Powerhand does not publish.

So a quotation, a tender submission or a float booking that says “EX40 grapple saw” has not said enough. Weight, hydraulic demand, control integration and price all move with the architecture, and two quotations using the same model number can describe materially different machines. The EX28 and EX25 exist in all three architectures too, which is why the grapple saw buying guide treats architecture as the first question rather than the last. For handling without a saw, the EX40 forestry grapple shares the 0.40 m² capacity and 2,137 mm opening.

Why there is no rigid EX40

The absence is not an oversight. A rigid head is held wherever the boom and stick put it, which is efficient for clearance and cross-cutting, where the timber is coming down anyway and the head only has to grip, sever and place. The rigid range covers that work to 650 mm with the EX36.

The work the EX40 is built for is different. Controlled sectional dismantling means holding the head at a chosen angle relative to the trunk, taking a section, and lowering it along a planned path clear of a fence, a road or a building. A rigid head cannot present itself at an arbitrary angle, so the positioning system is not an accessory bolted onto this size, it is the reason the size exists. Powerhand builds the largest head only where the work justifies that control.

Tiltrotator or worm drive

The two architectures solve the same problem in different ways and suit different fleets.

The choice is usually settled by what else the carrier does. A machine that will use a tiltrotator with buckets and other attachments should have the tiltrotator build, because the unit earns its cost across the whole tool set. A machine dedicated to urban removals and dangerous trees is better served by the worm-drive version, where the orientation is held mechanically. The quick couplers and attachment changeover guide is relevant if the tiltrotator will carry other tools.

The figures, and the one that is not fixed

The 0.40 m² capacity is the bundle the closed jaws hold, and the 2,137 mm opening is what those jaws reach around, which is what lets the EX40 get behind trunks a 1,641 mm or 1,928 mm head cannot. In dismantling that reach matters more than it does in cross-cutting. The bar is 1,000 mm, the same as the EX36, but the maximum cut rises to 700 mm, and 700 mm of green eucalypt is a heavy cut that belongs at the ceiling of the plan rather than in the middle of it.

Attachment weight is approximately 1,180 kg in the tiltrotator configuration, and it is the one specification here that is genuinely unsettled. Ask what that figure includes, because on a tiltrotator build the rotating and tilting unit may or may not sit inside it, and the tree-care version adds its positioner on top. Until that number is in writing for the exact build, the lift arithmetic cannot be done: the consequence for this model is that over a tonne of attachment leaves a 20 tonne carrier little for the timber at reach, so much of the 700 mm rating is theoretical there, while a 25 to 30 tonne machine has real margin. Work it through with the lift capacity calculator and the lift chart and attachment mass guide once the delivered weight is confirmed, allowing for Australian hardwood density.

What the control is bought for

The EX40 is bought for precision rather than throughput. In storm damage and dangerous trees and council parks and urban vegetation work, the positioning system lets the operator hold the head square to a leaning stem, cut and lower the piece away from a structure. In powerline and transmission easements the same control keeps the section where the plan said it would go, and in subdivision and civil clearing it handles trees near boundaries that a rigid head must work around.

Piece planning is the whole job. Estimate length, diameter, density and centre of gravity, then take the section the chart supports with margin rather than the largest the saw will pass.

What to compare it against

If the work is clearance and cross-cutting rather than controlled dismantling, the rigid EX36 gives a 650 mm cut with a simpler hydraulic and control package and no positioning system to service. If controlled positioning is the requirement but the carrier is under 20 tonnes, the EX36 or EX28 in tiltrotator or tree-care form is the right conversation. For urban removals where ground access is poor, a dedicated crane may beat any excavator-mounted head. There is nothing larger from Powerhand to step up to.

Support and consumables

Saw consumables are the recurring cost, and the EX28 page explains how chain pitch changes all of them. What is specific here is the positioning system, which brings its own service items: rotator seals on the tiltrotator, and the worm drive itself on the tree-care build. Ask what the service interval is and where those components are held, because a positioner out of service takes the whole head out of service. Machinery Specialist is the Australian distributor and the wear parts guide gives a pricing checklist.

Confirm before ordering

• Architecture written on the quotation, the tender and the float booking: tiltrotator or tree-care worm drive
• Delivered weight of that exact architecture, stating whether the positioning unit is inside the figure
• Chart at the working radius rechecked once that weight is confirmed, not before
• Carrier control channels and system integration for the chosen positioning system
• Whether the tiltrotator will also carry buckets, which changes which build makes sense
• Saw motor displacement matched to measured auxiliary flow and pressure
• Positioner service interval and Australian availability of rotator or worm-drive components
• Transport stand and float arrangement for a head over one tonne

Frequently asked questions