“I bought an OS35 with 2 extensions and the mobility kit and the hydraulic kit. It was about $18k not including financing costs.
The saw head so far is good and it is simple. The carriage is a good.
The issues are with the assembly of the hydraulic kit onto/with the trailer kit.
With an extension, you need to move the hydraulic kit more towards the middle of the track assembly.(the manual says nothing about it and there are no bolt holes to do it, drill baby drill)
The hydraulic kit adds a lot of weight to the trailer assembly. I have not weighed it yet, when putting the weight of the saw mill onto the tounge of the hitch, the hitch flexes about a foot, I will not tow it on the highway the way it is. I do think it is to heavy for the trailer kit the way it is from the factory.(I will share weight if I am allowed to update, I will wait to do other reviews (like google) until I can share the weight)
The manual (I have two different editions) says,"If your sawmill is equipped with the optional mobility package: See "Operation Instructions: Towing the mill with the optional Mobility/Support Leg Kit". There is no additional information, the section that is referenced does not exist in any of my manuals.
If you read other reviews for Frontier Sawmills, the manuals are quite bad. I actually drilled over 100 holes making the track carriage and trailer kit and the hydraulic kit work. I welded extra supports onto the trailer frame because of how much it flexes. A few other things: the nuts and bolts are a mixed assortment of SAE and Metric sizes, the paint affects the assembly of the hydraulic kit, I had to dissasemle and grind. I had a few bolts that were too short, the plate that holds the trailer hitch was just off and I just welded it together. I received different hoses from what the manual said and Frontier did ship fittings to correct.
The hydraulic kit is very new, so there are early product issues that all companies must correct. The people I spoke to are nice but you can tell that the management isn't really thinking this product out very well; the manuals and the lack of thought with the hydraulic kit and the trailer kit is very evident.
I have seen reviews for the smaller sawmills and people are happy. I am over all satisfied with the mill but I have a welder and a shop and a tractor to help with assembly and so I could make the necessary modifications and some later.
Would I buy it again? Yes. What will I do for my next mill? I will build my own. I will get more experience using this one and I will build my own. You can't finance a homemade sawmill or any other type of machine, so I had to buy a factory made one that I could afford and it needed to be big.”
