Originally invented in 1990 to aid in forest road development and maintenance, the Forester C-2000 from FAHR Industries has since been used for low volume road resurfacing, asphalt and rock crushing, concrete crushing and crushing aggregate on abandoned railroad beds for use as bicycle and pedestrian pathways.

In August 1997 the Plumas National Forest used the Forester C-2000 crusher for three weeks to process 4.9 lane-miles of the Dixie Mountain Lookout Road.

Built in 1920 as an access road, it was upgraded in 1970 from a four-wheel-drive road to low-standard passenger vehicle use. The road is narrow, between 10 and 13 ft wide with few turnouts, steep side slopes, tight (less than 50-ft radius) curves and road grades in excess of 12%.

The crusher mounts on the front of a Cat 950F front-end loader; is powered by a Cat 3208, 255-hp diesel engine; and consists of eight hammers bolted through a solid steel rotor. The rotor spins opposite the direction the loader travels.

An estimated 4,467 cu yd of material was processed using the Forester C-2000. The total cost was $84,150 with an in-place unit cost of $18.83 per cu yd. A five-person road crew and three-person crushing crew was used on this project.

The 15,000-lb Forester C-2000 crusher can process about 940 to 1,050 cu yd of material per mile, depending on the amount of in-going material, while traveling at approximately 1,000 ft per hour. Wider roads will often require more than one windrow in order to process enough material to significantly recover the road surface. The finished product creates an outflow dimension of about 10 Yen 80 in., with a vertical profile.

Rocks are crushed between rotating hammers and steel anvils bolted to the top of the crusher rather than the rocks being pushed out as the loader moves forward. When the material is crushed small enough to fit through the spaces between the hammers and the anvils, the crushed material is passed under a flexible belting screen on the crusher into a new windrow.

The crushing operation begins with the motor grader ripping the road surface. The ripped material, along with loose rock on the shoulders and ditches, is windrowed. The water truck wets the windrow for dust abatement before the crusher processes the material. The crusher then travels over the windrow crushing the material. A second motor grader follows, spreading the crushed material on the roadway and watering as needed.

The crusher is designed to process most types and hardness of material if these materials can be windrowed and the rock's maximum diameter is 16-in. The crusher works best on hard cobble or boulder rock that is angular or rounded. It can operate on most roads without interrupting traffic, according to the manufacturer.

Hammers for FAHR Industries' Forester C-2000 crusher last for six to eight hours and then must be replaced, according to the manufacturer. Under normal operating conditions this task must be done daily and takes about 30 minutes. Anvils, depending on wear, usually need to be changed once a week; this process takes about two hours. The crusher must be lubricated several times a day, and the air filter must be cleaned once a day and replaced when necessary.

Crusher box liner packs, designed to protect the crusher liner, are rotated and replaced when they are worn out. The amount of wear depends on the type of rock and the amount of material crushed. The hammer rotor shaft has to be hard-surfaced every two to three months. The main bearings on the rotor have to be replaced every two to three months.