log bundle forwarding with a cable skidder?

[amberwood]

wondering if anyone has any experience with this practice? Just looking at the tigercat site and it shows a cable skidder "forwarding"a bundle of CTL log ACROSS the beaver plates. It appears to have been stacked and then pulled up off the ground using two choker chains under the bundle and up throught the fairleads. We normally fell, skid and process on the landing, loading straight off the landing onto the truck. On a current site we can no longer get the truck to the landing due to some fences being constructed, and in the absence of a forwarder need to move the CTL log about a km from the landing to where the truck can turn around. Due to other restrictions we cannot process anywhere other than the current landing.

http://www.tigercat.com/604c.htm#

Thoughts?

DTR

[Bobus2003]

I have done it in the past, When i couldn't get a truck in due to mud..

[bushmechanic]

I have done this for years and still do it with firewood.We (piggy-backed) logs when we didn't want to get them dirty for sawing.When I did it I used the main line and the last choker on the main line and hung the rest of the chokers back up on the rear of the machine.Wrap the main line under the pile and center the cable half of the log pile then hook your choker as low as possible on the backside of your pile.When you winch in this will pull your log pile up to back of the skidder in a nice round pile.You will have to get the feel of when to stop winching,too tight and you will pop the choker and then your nice pile of logs is all over the place.We always picked a big old rotten tree or a blow down to pile the logs on.One more thing when hauling logs like that be careful side cutting hills because the load can shift and swing outside the wheel of the machine and tip you over.On a timberjack 230D or C5D Tree Farmer we used to haul about a cord and a quarter to a cord and a half with no problems at all.   

[Jamie_C]

Around here we always called it "pack-sacking" and it was usually done on the worst ground where the older forwarders couldn't maneuver. Pile sizes varied but the main concern is flipping the machine over if the load swings.

[Frickman]

We did that for years with little John Deere skidders when I was cutting mine posts. We would pull the cable out a ways, pile the posts crossways, and hooked the cable back on itself. Tighten it up with the winch and away we'd go. We would always have a hook on the end of the cable anyway so we would just use it.

[Twig farmer]

Gotta be a grapple skidder you can hire up for a day..

[amberwood]

thanks all. Might hold this method up my sleeve for a later task. We are using a TJ205, or a 208 as it is known in the rest of the world, and carting 3.9m lengths, might be just a bit tippy when you get a decent load on. Looked at hiring in a forwarder but there is only a few hundred tons left and the outlay would be greater than the sale price of the log! Still thinking.


DTR

[nhlogga]

thanks all. Might hold this method up my sleeve for a later task. We are using a TJ205, or a 208 as it is known in the rest of the world, and carting 3.9m lengths, might be just a bit tippy when you get a decent load on. Looked at hiring in a forwarder but there is only a few hundred tons left and the outlay would be greater than the sale price of the log! Still thinking.


DTR

Do you have fenders on the back of your TJ? If not the wood will rub on your rear tires.

[aksawyer]

If you ever look on some of the older machines with large back fenders,youll see a cocker sizer hole with a slot at the bottom.It looks kind of like a keyhole,only the slot does'nt get wider at the base.You would take your first two cocks in line run them under you logs up over to each slot on the fender and winch then in.The newer machines with out fenders,660 TJ,for example, wont work.aksawyer...........