The mixed breed dog run­ning around the Vie­remä vil­lage would not have gues­sed that its name would be remem­be­red for deca­des. The first forwar­der deve­lo­ped by forest mac­hine ent­repre­neur Einari Vidgrén was named Ponsse after that dog.

There was a stray mixed breed dog in the vil­lage at that time. It had a long body and it was grey and quite ugly. It was cal­led Ponsse. But it was a good har­rier and never gave up when hun­ting. No mat­ter the weat­her, no mat­ter the place – heaths, swamps, clumps of spruce or thick cop­pices – it would hunt. When hun­ters went out with Ponsse, they never came back empty-han­ded.

Kauko Väi­sä­nen, the hus­band of Einari’s sis­ter, and a skil­led local blacks­mith, lent his forge. It was there, in the ordi­nary vil­lage forge, that the first “forest mac­hine fac­tory” was establis­hed.

The sounds of ban­ging and clan­ging iron and wel­ding noi­ses could be heard from mor­ning to night from the vil­lage forge. Abso­lute exper­tise in wel­ding was repre­sen­ted by Lauri Uuk­su­nen. The days were fil­led with plan­ning and buil­ding dif­fe­rent alter­na­ti­ves. The axles were taken from an old wheel loa­der. A power­ful engine was attac­hed to the frame. A Wärt­silä loa­der was ins­tal­led on top.

The vil­la­gers were eager to see how the work was going, and when see­ing the mac­hine they won­de­red, “What kind of a ‘Ponsse’ is that going to be?” “Now it even has a name. It’s going to be a Ponsse”, laug­hed Einari.

After months of hard work, in the late win­ter of 1969, a grey – and many thought ugly – load-bea­ring forest trac­tor was dri­ven out of the vil­lage forge. It was the first Ponsse. It was put into use at Tehdaspuu’s log­ging site. After a year of ope­ra­tion, the people from Teh­das­puu cal­led and said: “Why don’t you make more of these forest trac­tors? It has hau­led twenty-five thousand five hundred cubic meters of piled wood, and it has nee­ded the least ser­vicing.” Hea­ring that request, Einari jum­ped up and said to his wife, “I’m going to start a fac­tory!” “A fac­tory!” said his wife surpri­sed. “That’s right, a fac­tory,” said Einari and left. He set off in his car towards the vil­lage.

Test dri­ving in Nis­silä

News­pa­per article, 1970 / Iisal­men Sano­mat

GOOD EXPE­RIENCE GAI­NED FROM THE FOREST TRAC­TOR PRO­TO­TYPE FROM VIE­REMÄ
The manu­fac­tu­ring of forest trac­tors has kic­ked off in Vie­remä. The first Ponsse forest trac­tor that Einari Vidgrén has had built has been tes­ted for some time already at a Met­sä­liitto site in the forest of Viljo and Martti Sahl­ström forest in Nis­silä. The test dri­ves in dif­ficult ter­rain have been success­ful, even bey­ond expec­ta­tions.

”We will start buil­ding two simi­lar mac­hi­nes imme­dia­tely, and a lar­ger pro­duc­tion series will be star­ted when the industrial buil­ding of the town is comple­ted,” says forest mac­hine ent­repre­neur Einari Vidgrén.

“Through the years, I have come to the conclusion that forest trac­tors built using farm fac­tor parts and models are not durable enough for dif­ficult con­di­tions. This is a natu­ral fact, because the parts used in farm trac­tors are not desig­ned to withs­tand dri­ving in the forest. The­re­fore, we have desig­ned a mac­hine which is so robust that it can be used in the forest wit­hout any wor­ries. A forest trac­tor really has to be a forest trac­tor,” Vidgrén says.

In district fore­man Sauli Piispanen’s opi­nion, the test drive was a success. In dif­ficult marshy ter­rain, 50 stac­ked cubic met­res of wood per hour has been moved from 0 to 200 met­res, which is an impres­sive amount. There have been no days off, the mac­hine has endu­red well.

Far­mer Viljo Sahl­ström told us how surpri­sed he had been to see how cleanly the forest trac­tor can move in the forest.

“This test has been done in a stand mar­ked for cut­ting, and when the fel­ling is orga­ni­sed well and sui­table trails of around three met­res wide and 40 to 50 met­res apart are ope­ned up for the mac­hine in the forest, it won’t trample
the forest floor much. Forest owners still have inaccu­rate pre­sump­tions against this.”