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Timber Harvest Methods & Equipment

Started by Ron Scott, March 24, 2002, 02:14:52 PM

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Ron Scott

A 3 wheeled Bell feller buncher was used to salvage the many acres of burned over jack pine after the Mack Lake Fire of May 1980 on the Mio District of the Huron National Forest. It did a good job on the flat burned over areas, but I haven't seen one at work since.
~Ron

Meadows Miller

Quote from: Weekend_Sawyer on August 03, 2009, 09:06:34 PM

Saw this harvester sitting out by the road in Southern Maryland along 301. No one was around so I didn't get any information. It says BELL on it. looks like a fun ride.





Here's a front view. Looks like George Lucas would like one for his movies  :)





Gday This is a great thred its taken me nearly 12 months to read it  Its a BELL Super T fellerbuncher  ;)Have have been built in africa since the mid 60s and where built in NZ also and under licence buy Morbark in the US untill the mid 90s you can still get new ones from Bell in Africa they where pretty popular here  they come in the Super T ,120 and 220 teli loggers like in the second clip  ;) they are  Easy to drive and a 1000lb counterweight helps on the rear  ;)

Il add some pics of my own and dads from the 80s when i cget them scaned  ;)

Chris
4TH Generation Timbergetter

Ron Scott

Manufacture of Forest Products is active in Craigsville, W VA, 6/09







~Ron

Ron Scott

Colunbia Veneer Mill Log Yard. A result of all the logging truck traffic makes for a full log yard. Craigsville, W VA, 6/09.



~Ron

SwampDonkey

Ron, I'll have to drive up to the Columbia yard in Presque Isle, Maine and see what's up. I was just up by there last weekend to, but not over in the Industrial Park. We could see it from the Route 1A coming down from Caribou, actually I could pick out the airport. The folks and I came over from Perth, NB to shop and went back over the line at Bridgewater by my place (below the wind mills).
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

semologger

That pine wood that bell is cutting is what i like. You guys can have all the oak trees. I would like to have that saw head on my hydroax seen inthe first video. Mine just having the shear makes it a bit slower putting the wood down. But then again the Skidder still cant keep up with me now. Also i hated shelling out the money to replace those Teeth on the saws.  Ive only had to buy 2 blades for my cutter in 10 years.

The bell in weekends post has a chainsaw bar that comes out and cuts the tree once you have gotton ahold of it. You cant carry the trees around with that one like in the video. You still directional fall the trees then pull them around.

Chico

The only thing I dislike about a shear is fiber damage esp  when they get misaligned I've seen it so bad that 2-4 ft deductions were made on logs
Chico
My Daughter My sailor MY HERO God Bless all the men and Women fighting for us today If you see one stop and thank them

SwampDonkey

They probably stopped using shears here 20 years ago. There was a lot of prototyping here in the 80's and many things came and went. Most everything now has a chain on the felling head, sometimes a slasher on the yard. Not a whole lot of delimbers, leaves huge piles of brush on roadside that takes away forest acreage until it is rotted away. They don't burn slash here anymore. I see them some on woodlots and sure is an eye sore to see all that roadside slash or worst strung in rows or piles in the landowner's field.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

semologger

Ya the fiber damage is the only thing i hate about my shear. The places we sell to have cut off lines so they but the ends off Around 5 inches or so. I am in the process of setting in a post yard for the type of pine trees seen in the video. Will be useing a buck saw to cut to length. I Will be butting off the ends of the the trees at the mill before i make post out of them. I hate having The extra mess but its wood and money for me. 

As far as the  delimbers go we use ours and spread the slash out in the rows left behind after cutting and skidding. I dont like to see a pile of slash no taller than 2 foot or the landowner cant get over in a 4 wheeler. My skidder driver dont like it when i come back through and see a pile left in a row thats to high for my standards and make him go find it and flatten it out.

barbender

I have some pics from the last few years in the woods, thought I'd post them and bring this subject back up top 
Too many irons in the fire

barbender

Here's some of a loblolly thinning in central Georgia. My friend Jake moved down there from MN and bought a Ponsse Ergo processor.
Too many irons in the fire

barbender

Too many irons in the fire

barbender

Too many irons in the fire

barbender

I think Loblolly kind off smells like lemon.
Too many irons in the fire

barbender

Now, here's some from Northern MN where I've been hauling the last couple of winters This is the Jarden woodyard in Cloquet, my truck being unloaded.
Too many irons in the fire

barbender

This is my oldest daughter, Kiara, and Ron, one of the loggers I hauled for. About 8 months after this Ron was ran over by this skidder and severely injured, was within an inch of his life. But he pulled through and is back out in the woods again.
Too many irons in the fire

barbender

This is a TJ 1270 working a black spruce clear cut
Too many irons in the fire

barbender

Too many irons in the fire

Ron Scott

Nice photos! Can you tell us more about Ron's accident with his skidder?
~Ron

barbender

A rock or something had scraped off an inspection cover underneath the machine. Later, a stick made its way through the hole and jammed up a linkage. Ron got out, WITHOUT shutting down the machine, and tried to remove the stick. When he pulled on it, it pulled the machine into gear and it went right over the top of him. Now Ron and his partner, also named Ron, have a time limit of I believe 10 minutes. If you haven't returned to the landing within 10 minutes the other guy comes looking for you. So, Ron went to find Ron and found him laying in a hole and the skidder up against a tree. He was able to call 911, let me tell you they were in the middle of nowhere too. They ended up airlifting him to Duluth, when they were putting him in the chopper he was still responsive but couldn't see because his blood pressure was so low. Partner Ron figured that was the last time he would see him alive. But they got him to the hospital and he made it through that first night, I think they put around 16 pints of blood in him before they finally got the bleeding stopped. His liver had been ruptured, broken pelvis, tore up his colon, in short he was in real bad shape. But by the grace of God Ron made a quick recovery, from being in a cast for his pelvis where he couldn't even get up, to a wheelchair, to a walker, and finally a cane. If I remember right, the accident happened the end of September 08, he was back in the woods (with cane) running his feller/buncher and slasher mid Feb 09, so like 4 1/2 months later. Pretty amazing recovery, considering he had to relearn how to walk and the extent of his injuries. Good lesson to everybody about being in a rush, Ron knew better, he was finishing up a job and looking at getting ready to move equipment etc. I really didn't think he would make it through that first night, I know my family and a lot of others spent a lot of time praying for Ron, just that he would live- we weren't even thinking about walking or working again at that point. The Docs said that if he would of had one thing against his health, smoking for instance, he wouldn't have made it. It was that close. Everytime one of us that know Ron go to do something risky, this incident pops into our heads and we step back and THINK. Sorry this has gotten so long, the moral of my story is be safe, there is nothing so pressing that it means chancing not going home to your family at night.
Too many irons in the fire

barbender

This ASV has a grapple that was taken off an old pulp loader attached. This set-up was used on the landing to sort and stack.
Too many irons in the fire

barbender

This is a common view for a wood hauler in Minnesota that Gary C will recognize- sitting in line at Sappi Fine Paper in Cloquet, MN. These trucks are being unloaded into the woodroom, which basically eats the wood as fast as the Liebherr crane can throw it in. It takes a good crane operator about 3 minutes to unload a rail trailer, probably 4 with a bunk trailer.   
Too many irons in the fire

barbender

This is Sappi's Scanlon woodyard, I don't remember how much wood they pile up there in the winter, seems like it was around 10,000 cords, in addition to the Cloquet woodyard, which is probably around the same capacity. The sequence for getting unloaded with the centermount loader is 1. Run the loader straight up in the air, as you see in the pic. 2.When the loader finishes the front half of the trailer, you get out of the truck, reach up for the pedal on the loader that controls your swing and spin the loader around to the back so the crane operator can reach all of the wood. This is because all of your hydraulics etc stick out the back of the operator platform. So you have to spin it around so the crane doesn't risk hitting all of that with their grapple. 3. Say "thank you" on the radio, pull up to the sweepdown area, set the loader down, sweep the trailer off, get in and scale out.   
Too many irons in the fire

barbender

 A bucket of wood soaring into the Sappi woodroom. That is about 1 cord of wood in the bucket. Thats all of my pics for tonight, I'll see if I can find more or try to take more of the CTL operation I'm hauling for now.
Too many irons in the fire

Bobus2003

440 John Deere Cable Skidder Working in Ponderosa Pine & Tending Slash Piles


Link Belt 1600 Excavator, Fitted With PATU 410 Processor (Stroke) Working in Ponderosa Pine


Peterbilt Log Truck Loaded with Ponderosa Pine, Black Hills So. Dak.

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