Dirty Dawgz Land Management: Turning dreams into reality with the DML/SSL/BL and Wacker ST45
The forestry business is in Ronnie Kinsey’s blood.
“It’s been within our family my whole life. My [grandfather] owned a logging and grading company and my dad took it over.”
So it was a no-brainer when Ronnie and his brother decided to set up a forestry company seven years ago. They founded Dirty Dawgz Land Management and have been working together ever since. Now his brother runs the tree management side of the business, and Ronnie runs the land management side.
Ronnie purchased a Wacker ST45 track loader and DML/SSL/BL combo from Harco Equipment in November of last year. I spoke to him to learn more. He explained that Harco has been their dealer since the beginning.
“We used to buy our chainsaws from them. Then we bought a flail head for a mini, and then I bought a grapple bucket from them.”
With a number of positive experiences, it only made sense to go back to Harco when he was looking for a new skid steer.
“I spoke to them, and they put this little combo together. Not a lot of people have this combo. It just came out.”
Liam Noonan, Ronnie’s contact at Harco Equipment, explained the process of setting Ronnie up with his new machine.
“I had a long-standing relationship with him and his brother... We had talked back and forth. His brother had some mini skids from another brand and when they were ready to get into mulching more full-time and adding a machine to deal with bigger, heavier stuff they knew they wanted a Wacker. They had seen how easy they are to work on, how well laid out they are, and how they don’t have a DPF regen which is especially important in a mulching application because you don’t have a DPF burning stuff off every so often and getting crazy hot when you already have points of concern with heating when mulching.
So having a machine that doesn’t have DPF is awesome, and the Wacker machines don’t have a regen system at all. They went with the ST45 and the DML head. The FAE machines are available in Wacker’s price list directly from Wacker, so they know that they work well [together]. I told him that, because he went with the large frame 75-horsepower machine, the DML was going to be a better match. And so far, that’s rung true. He’s got a couple hundred hours running it and never had issues with overheating even without an auxiliary cooler.”
I asked Ronnie what kind of jobs he usually handles.
“We clear a lot of lots and there’s a lot of land management. I do a lot of hunting properties. I do a lot of backyard renovations where people have let it get [overgrown].”
He explained that most of his challenges on the job come from terrain.
“We do a lot of backyard stuff. Pretty rough terrain. We do a lot of steep slopes. We do a lot of work towards the Lake Lanier area.”
As for productivity, Ronnie runs his machine 6 to 8 hours per day and covers 3 acres per day when cutting underbrush. He’s typically mulching material at around 6 inches in diameter or less.
How much does it cost to run his machine? He says that diesel runs him about $250 per day.
He spoke about his experience with teeth.
“I run the smaller head, so I don’t have carbides. I have all knives… I try to sharpen my teeth every day … because I like keeping them sharp. The frequent sharpening reduces [the longevity of the teeth] a little bit, but I’d rather keep them sharp so I can keep moving at a good pace.”
Ronnie takes pride in every job he does, but he was particularly enthusiastic about a recent one.
“I guess the coolest one was, recently, Harco came out and filmed a bunch of videos of [the Wacker]. We did a five-acre job and they came out and flew the drone and took a bunch of videos.”
Liam commented on the day filming with Dirty Dawgz out on the job site.
“It was really fun. I've seen some other heads running as well, but seeing somebody that has a couple hundred hours of seat time with this pairing, he's just got it dialed in. Watching him run was so smooth you knew exactly what his next move was. He knew exactly where to keep the RPMs. It was really fun to watch, and it was impressive. The bite limiter head is really cool too, because you get such a clean final product… basically that whole job site turned into carpet as the day went on.”
When comparing FAE with other brands, Ronnie said, “Each one of them is kind of built to do something different, but you cannot beat the end result using an FAE. It has a better product than any of them.”
What does it take to be a competitor in the industry?
“Try to make peoples’ dreams become a reality. If you can do that, the work kind of sells itself.”
With his new Wacker and DML/SSL/BL head at his disposal, it’s safe to say that Ronnie will be doing exactly that.
