Hayden Flutey has built HF Contracting into a six-strong team working Kaingaroa Timber blocks from Kawerau to Taupō
After inheriting older Hyundai excavators a few years ago, a combination of Porter Equipment’s bulletproof backup and new machine value-for-money has led him to reinvest in two new Hyundai HX220L excavators.
Things have come full circle in the last few years for Rotorua forestry contractor Hayden Flutey. As we turn off State Highway 5 just north of Taupō and enter one of Kaingaroa Timber’s immense forest blocks through the familiar gated High Level Road entrance, he tells of his first machinery memories back when he was a kid.
“My dad has been in forestry his whole life. During the school holidays, I’d come to work with him and just watch the machines working the blocks all day long and ride along when I could,” he recalls. “I loved it, and I think from that moment on,
I always wanted to work on forestry machines and drive and own them myself.”
Eventually, after a spell in dairy farming, Hayden would end up working alongside his father, Bryce, back in the forest, for the same contractor.
“Dairy farming was okay, but I just love being in the forest, like my dad. You can look back at a day’s work out here and think, ‘Yep, that’s progress. That’s what we achieved today’,” he says.
It’s a common path for plenty of father-son contracting duos. But in a bit of a twist, it’s now Bryce who works for Hayden as part of HF Contracting.
“He’s still going strong, working for us over in the Tarawera Forest at the moment. I don’t think you’ll ever get him out of the forest,” Hayden smiles.
The same, he admits, could definitely be said for himself.
Hayden has been in forestry for 15 years and has been running his own team – currently numbering six – for the last seven. Contracting primarily to Kaingaroa Timber, the HF Contracting crew covers plenty of terrain, effectively from Kawerau to the southern end of Lake Taupō.
Over the years Hayden has also been fortunate enough to amalgamate other operations into his own. It was through one such company buy-out a couple of years back that he first acquired two Hyundai excavators. And he hasn’t looked back since.
“I’ll be honest, when I inherited a couple of ‘dash 9’ Hyundais, the brand wasn’t really on my shopping list – they were just the machines that came with the contract, so we just got on with it,” Hayden says. “But as it turns out, they were solid machines and didn’t give us any issues. And the big thing I could see with Hyundai straight away was the back-up support that Porter Equipment provides.
“Honestly, it’s a cut above. I don’t think there is a distributor in the country that can match them for promptness, parts availability, or communication… you really feel like they are in your corner. You feel like they genuinely care about your business. Believe me – that’s not a given with some suppliers. But with Porters, if there’s ever an issue with one of their machines, they’ll do everything they can to get you back up and running as fast as possible.”
This experience, matched with the value-for-money Hyundai’s latest HX range of crawler excavators represented for Hayden, meant it became a no-brainer for him to reinvest in the brand when the time came.
“The older machines had between 14,000 and 16,000 hours on them, which, for me, is at the top end of things. I’m looking to get to a stage where I’m trading machines in before they reach those sorts of hours – it just makes sense to the bottom line,” he says.
With one of the older Hyundais sold and the other moved to backline duties, HF Contracting recently invested in two new 22-tonne Hyundai HX220L crawler excavators. When we visit them on-site today, they’re busy side-by-side prepping a harvested block for future planting, with operators Timothy Iorangi and Cruise Tehiko at the controls.
“The salesman will always sell you your first machine. But it’s the company that sells you your second,” says Hayden. It’s a maxim that he has taken to heart, as he has gone from not really considering Hyundai for his fleet at all, to now looking to slowly transition all his frontline machines to models from the Korean manufacturer.
“Porters makes it easy to get the right machine. James [Adlington, Bay of Plenty territory manager] is a great guy and always answers his phone. He knows his stuff but, because he also knows our business, he knew exactly what we needed when the time came to upgrade. It was an easy conversation to have, and everything just kicked into gear straight away.”
Hayden reckons the 8000-hour warranty his new machines are covered by is the best on the market, and when it came to getting each machine’s build underway, there were no surprises or delays there either.
Through trusted engineering firm Active VMA, Hayden’s Hyundai HX220Ls were kitted out with standard ROPS and FOPS cages and strengthened undercarriages. Hayden favours high and wide chassis set-ups on his machines – a feature that’s especially handy in the environment we’re watching them work in today, with plenty of big stumps and hidden sub-surface pumice rock making it tough going for Timothy and Cruise, and the excavators both arrived on-site sporting all the necessary operator comfort, convenience and safety features.
In addition to standard equipment such as a revised cooling system, improved attachment pump flow rates, better wear resistance and lubricity for moving parts, a more spacious cab design and Hyundai’s impressive multi-camera Advanced Around View Monitoring system, Hayden says he’s been particularly impressed with the new machines’ Variable Power Control system.
Standard on Hyundai HX series excavators, Variable Power Control optimises power input and output control to improve fuel efficiency, depending on what the machine is being tasked with. Its three-stage operating mode (Power, Standard, Eco) automatically ensures the highest performance in any operating environment, essentially meaning the excavator is never underpowered and never overstressed.
“Obviously these days we want to keep an eye on our fuel burn, but it is what it is,” says Hayden. “But to be honest, we rarely need to run these new machines in anything other than Eco mode. They have more than enough power even in the Eco setting, so that’s better for our pocket and good for the reliability of the machine.”
Before we leave the HF Contracting team to get on with their day, Hayden reveals that Timothy’s father Roi also works for HF Contracting – yet another father-and-son pairing. And that’s not all: Hayden’s son, Cohen, has been working with his dad – and grandad – in forestry for three years now.
“It gets in your blood working out here,” he affirms. “It’s the best office in the world.
“But the further off the beaten track you get, it’s good to know you can rely on your gear and know that if anything goes wrong, you’ll be looked after. Porter Equipment has the ability to do that wherever we are. Yeah, I’m a total convert to both them and the Hyundai brand.”
