For more than a decade, Först has built a reputation for producing some of the industry's best-known woodchippers. Designed and manufactured in Britain, its machines have become a familiar sight on forestry, arboricultural, and land management projects across the UK and overseas. The tracked TR8, in particular, has earned the trust of contractors looking for a reliable, high-output chipper that can leave the roadside behind and get closer to the work.
Even so, every tracked machine has its limits.
Across the forestry sector, access is becoming just as important as productivity. Wetter winters, peatland restoration, woodland management, and tighter environmental expectations all present challenges before a tree has even been cut. It is often the ground beneath the machine, rather than the work itself, that dictates how efficiently a job can be done.
It was exactly this problem that brought Lampeter Trees, based in West Wales, to Devon engineering company Loglogic, and the question was a simple one:
Could a Först TR8 be mounted onto Loglogic's proven Softrak undercarriage to create a machine capable of travelling across ground that would stop a conventional tracked chipper?
The answer was yes. The project has since become a great example of what can happen when two British manufacturers combine their individual strengths to solve a genuine challenge faced by contractors.
A Contractor's Challenge
Lampeter Trees works on some of the most demanding sites in Wales. Wet woodland, boggy ground, and environmentally sensitive areas are all part of the day job. Waiting for conditions to improve is not always an option, and moving timber long distances by hand or with additional equipment quickly adds time and cost.
The company already knew what the Först TR8 could do—its chipping performance wasn't the issue. The problem was getting the machine onto sites that pushed the limits of the standard tracked undercarriage.
Rather than asking Först to redesign an already successful machine, Lampeter Trees approached Loglogic, a company whose reputation has been built on solving access problems.
Thirty Years of Experience
Loglogic's story began in 1992 with computer-controlled timber harvesting systems. Since then, the business has grown into a specialist manufacturer of ultra-low ground pressure vehicles for forestry, conservation, utilities, and environmental management. Although the range has expanded considerably over the years, the thinking behind it has remained remarkably consistent: build machines that can keep working when ground conditions stop everything else.
That philosophy led to the development of the Softrak and Tooltrak range. Rather than adapting an existing vehicle, Loglogic developed an undercarriage designed specifically to spread weight, reduce ground pressure, and maintain stability across exceptionally soft terrain. Decades of refinement have turned the Softrak undercarriage into a proven engineering platform in its own right, supporting not only Loglogic's own machines but also a growing number of specialist applications.
The Först TR8 presented another opportunity to apply that experience.
Not Just a Set of Tracks
From the outside, it would be easy to assume the project involved little more than fitting wider tracks beneath a woodchipper. The reality is rather different.
Marcus Frankpitt, co-founder of Loglogic, explains that every integration begins with the host machine. Hydraulic flow, operating pressure, and available power all have to be understood before any design work starts.
"We look at the hydraulic flows and pressures that are already available. We want to use the standard hydraulic system that's already on the machine. From there we design a track system that works with those requirements."
Motor sizes are selected to achieve the right balance between torque and travel speed, while a bespoke subframe is designed specifically for the machine. The undercarriage itself clamps into place using Loglogic's proven mounting arrangement before being connected into the existing hydraulic system.
It is a straightforward installation in appearance, but one backed by a considerable amount of engineering.
Just as importantly, it allows the Först TR8 to remain exactly what it was designed to be. Operators still have the same chipper, the same controls, and the same servicing arrangements. The difference is the range of sites it can now reach.
Built for Soft Ground
The undercarriage fitted beneath the TR8 is based on the same Softrak system that Loglogic has spent years refining across wetlands, reedbeds, peatlands, and other sensitive environments.
Wide rubber Bridgestone tracks, a carefully balanced chassis, and fully floating bogies work together to spread the machine's weight over a much larger footprint than a conventional tracked arrangement. The result is extremely low ground pressure, allowing the machine to travel across ground that would challenge many tracked vehicles while reducing disturbance to the surface.
Marcus estimates that the adapted TR8 produces less than one psi of ground pressure—around a fifth of the original tracked configuration.
Those figures are impressive, but the practical benefit is even easier to understand: contractors can reach jobs that previously involved delaying the work, bringing in additional machinery, or finding another method altogether.
Eight Years Later
Engineering projects are often remembered for their launch. The real measure of success comes years afterwards.
The adapted Först TR8 has now been working with Lampeter Trees for almost eight years. Known affectionately by the team as the "Bog Chipper", it is brought out for the jobs that really demand it.
"It doesn't go out too often," explains one of the operators. "But when it goes out, you really need it."
It is a simple comment, but it captures the purpose of the machine perfectly. This was never intended to replace a standard TR8. It was designed for the handful of contracts that would otherwise prove extremely difficult, or simply impossible, to complete efficiently.
Marcus is equally pleased with how the project has stood the test of time.
"Seven or eight years later, we've still got a machine that's working perfectly."
That kind of longevity says a great deal about both the design and the quality of the engineering behind it.
Two Companies, One Solution
The success of the project comes from the fact that each company has focused on what it does best.
Först continues to build woodchippers that have become a benchmark for performance and reliability.
Loglogic continues to develop specialist tracked systems that allow machinery to operate on ground that would stop conventional equipment.
The adapted TR8 combines those two strengths without asking either company to compromise. The chipper remains unmistakably a Först. The mobility comes directly from Loglogic's proven Softrak engineering.
It is a partnership built on complementary expertise rather than overlapping products.
Looking Ahead
Although the Först TR8 is perhaps the best-known example, it is far from the only machine to benefit from Loglogic's undercarriage technology.
The same engineering principles have already been applied to drilling rigs, conservation equipment, utility vehicles, and other specialist machinery requiring ultra-low ground pressure. Each project begins in much the same way: understand the application, design the undercarriage around the machine, and create a solution that allows it to work on terrain that would otherwise be off-limits.
That approach is becoming more relevant as forestry continues to change. Ground conditions are less predictable than they once were, while expectations around protecting sensitive habitats continue to rise. Contractors need equipment that can keep projects moving without leaving unnecessary damage behind.
The collaboration between Först and Loglogic shows that progress does not always come from designing an entirely new machine. Sometimes it comes from taking proven technology and applying it in a different way.
For Först, it extends the capability of an already respected woodchipper.
For Loglogic, it demonstrates how more than thirty years of specialist engineering can help other manufacturers unlock new possibilities for their equipment.
For contractors, it is another tool available when access is the biggest challenge on site.
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