Portable Sawmills, Log Loaders and logging equipment- article on Hudson 30" Portable Sawmill

Deal! Now, I will admit that the first bandmill I looked at was the Hudson 30". Being the only mill I looked at I was not convinced that there wasn't something better out there. I had 50 million questions and I needed answers fast cause by golly,I had a mill to buy,and the money that was burning a hole in my pocket proved it.Day in and day out for what seemed like eternity I surfed the web and made phone calls. First thing I did was make a list of the things I wanted on my mill that I could not live with out. Those things included a non-removable transport axle, a V twin style engine with plenty of power and a mill that would cut up to 30" logs. Just these 3 items eliminated quite a bit of the competition. The next question I had to answer was "what can I afford?" Since my budget was squeezed below $10k it consequently eliminated most of the competition left over from the first round. This left one more "critical" question. What type of Sawmilling do I plan on doing and how much of it. I never realized how important that question was until long after I bought the mill but it would have narrow the results considerably. I didn't need a high production mill,the type of milling I would be doing would be more geared for quality custom sawing. I made my mind up on looking at 3 mills. I looked at the TA Schmid, the Timberking, and the Hudson. TA Schmid makes a decent mill for a great price. They are very capable but I wanted Horsepower and Horsepower is what I will get. Also, I had more mills to see and I started thinking more about the Hudson because these mills were bordering my budget price and I had no wriggle room either way.At this time I started seriously contemplating the Timberking 1220.This is a well made mill with mucho power and a rigid 4 post head rig. The one thing it did not have,and this upset me to no end was the non-removable transport axle. I was going to need to take the axle off to saw and put it back on to move it.This is just a little too redundant to me. I wanted an axle that was permanently attached and that was that! I had seen too many mills by now to know that I was not going to buy a sawmill with a detachable axle,no way! Planning on pulling my mill to the job and taking the axle on and off was not in my agenda. I called Hudson and got the numbers to several dealers within 100 miles of me. I decided on one in Royston,Ga. since the 2 in Tennesee wouldn't stock the mill I wanted. The dealer in Georgia kindly let me know he didn't have any 30's on the Hudson but had 30's in a brand I never heard of for a cheaper price so off I went to Royston. Now my biggest gripe about my sawmill isn't even about my mill,it's about the dealer.The only way I was going to test drive the mill I wanted is if I bought it. Lay out the $8200 + and see what happens.Well, I did! I took a chance and it paid off. This coulda gone one of two ways and thank god it went "my way". I would not recommend anyone to use the dealer in Royston as I watched him damage 4 of the 6 mills delivered by unloading the semi-truck with a front end loader.Yeah, he bent those mills up to no end.No doubt, he spent a week welding them back together for the poor unsuspecting future sawyer. Hudson said they were unaware this was taking place but it did happen. My Portable Sawmill ended up with a major tracking issue that took some major "hillbilly" engineering to get fixed but Hudson's view on the matter was this,"your too far away for us to fix it". At least they were willing and yes,they sent me several parts free of charge, and a T-shirt. I use my mill daily and believe I got lucky with my purchase. If any of this story helps you to make a better decision,great! If not please leave it for the next guy. M.J. Moyer