Pretty cool selective logging tool...

Arborist Forum

Help Support Arborist Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
dancan

dancan

Spruce , The preferred wood of the Purgatory !
. AS Supporting Member.
Joined
Jun 24, 2004
Messages
17,686
Location
Nova Scotia Canada
Ah , thanks Joe !! In most places it don,t hurt the ground ,just the humans who look at it

From the studies I have been told about and may have even read about here as well , ground compaction only seems to affect growth in the first year but it will affect humans for several .

:cheers:
 
catbuster

catbuster

Roadbuilder Extraordinaire
. AS Supporting Member.
Joined
Nov 30, 2009
Messages
1,601
Location
Louisville
pushes the limbs over the cab and exhaust (sometimes integrated) you're driving through brush, tops, whatever. Can double as part of roll over and falling object protection.

tramp: the thing is that Astor probably costs as much as a descent used piece of conventional equip. And far less productive. Yes, moving costs, tract size, and "intangible" things like landowner preference, your preferences, and market differentiation, are somewhere invisible in the $/cord equation.

Sounds like you've found a balance in your system and much of any change will demand a significant increase in production. What that does for net profit is the question I guess.


Sweeps look like this: (their the things on the front.)
650H01.jpg


Say, if you were picking high-grade hardwood,had a 2 saw plan (Say 460 and 260 stihl) and a 6-9 ton(maybe even a 12-14 ton?) mini ex for hoe chucking and 1-2 of these (with an op for each and a faller/bucker) you could get some decent porduction of 20-30" max high-grade hardwood.
 
Last edited:
385XP

385XP

ArboristSite Guru
Joined
Feb 18, 2008
Messages
720
Location
IOWA
Sweeps look like this: (their the things on the front.)
650H01.jpg


Say, if you were picking high-grade hardwood,had a 2 saw plan (Say 460 and 260 stihl) and a 6-9 ton(maybe even a 12-14 ton?) mini ex for hoe chucking and 1-2 of these (with an op for each and a faller/bucker) you could get some decent porduction of 20-30" max high-grade hardwood.
what exactly would the 260 stihl be for?
 
Timberjackboy

Timberjackboy

ArboristSite Operative
Joined
Mar 7, 2004
Messages
157
Location
Green Mountain
skidder or dozer

No offense but those little toys wouldn;t mean much if you got to hook onto a tractor trailer and try to drag out of a mud hole or over a patch of ice. just yesetraday I was trying to pull a International Eagle pulling a self loading log trailer closer to the pile and he got his drives down in a hole and I couldn't pull him with the skidder, actually had to pull a head and winch him and he wasn;t even stuck real bad, didn't have rear chains on the skidder either. But if you got a bad spot and have to get a truck in and all you got to work with is a forecat or a iron horse you may as well tell the trucker to stay home. They would be good for firewood harvesting and that's about it. Also what if you got into a really rocky area, tracks just don't compete with rubber tires crawling over rocks. Also you would be a long time getting a truck load of wood out with that iron horse. for the price you pay for those toys u could probably find a good used skidder or even a dozer :dizzy:
 
joesawer

joesawer

Addicted to ArboristSite
Joined
Mar 26, 2007
Messages
2,475
Location
Crestline Ca
No offense but those little toys wouldn;t mean much if you got to hook onto a tractor trailer and try to drag out of a mud hole or over a patch of ice. just yesetraday I was trying to pull a International Eagle pulling a self loading log trailer closer to the pile and he got his drives down in a hole and I couldn't pull him with the skidder, actually had to pull a head and winch him and he wasn;t even stuck real bad, didn't have rear chains on the skidder either. But if you got a bad spot and have to get a truck in and all you got to work with is a forecat or a iron horse you may as well tell the trucker to stay home. They would be good for firewood harvesting and that's about it. Also what if you got into a really rocky area, tracks just don't compete with rubber tires crawling over rocks. Also you would be a long time getting a truck load of wood out with that iron horse. for the price you pay for those toys u could probably find a good used skidder or even a dozer :dizzy:[/QUOTE



When you find a skidder or dozier that he can carry in the back of his one ton, let us know.

You are right tracks are in a whole different class than rubber tire tractors in steep rocky places. LMAO
 
tramp bushler

tramp bushler

Addicted to ArboristSite
Joined
Feb 3, 2007
Messages
3,376
Location
Interior ,Alaska, Copper River Valley,, Coastal Al
No offense but those little toys wouldn;t mean much But if you got a bad spot and have to get a truck in and all you got to work with is a forecat or a iron horse you may as well tell the trucker to stay home. They would be good for firewood harvesting and that's about it. :
. This week I grossed $ 1285.00 cutting ,yarding, loading and delivering , FIREWOOD .. Thats what I do !!!!!!..... Since I,m the trucker , and the truck is also my crummy , and there is only me , I better NOT GET IT STUCK .. My yarder is an Arctic Cat 440 Panther . with a sled I built on my deck from a 55 gal drum some 2x4 s and at first a pair of down hill skis with the bundings taken off ... They only lasted 7 cord .. I put P Tex plastic on and have since brought out 70 cord on that 1 sled ....Still works great .......
..
. This little logging business of mine is an exercise in what 1 man can do with the help of God , and alot of hard work ,starting with a pickup and a couple power saws ............... . You are right that a skidder or dozer can be got on the used market alot cheaper than a ForCat . But as Joe brought up . I can,t move it in the back of my pickup .......The Forcat is a half to 3/4th cord skidder .. My sno go and sled is a 1/3 rd - 1/4 th cord , manually loaded forwarder ...Hi , I,m Manual ................. ..... I do not know if I will be able to afford a Forcat . But I hope to .. actually the Forcat 2000 is what I would prefer its lighter ....... There ain,t any rocky ground in the Copper Basin that I have found yet .. But some nearly bottomless thawed permafrost sink holes .......I would be scared as a cat on a hot tin roof taking a dozer some places I will need to go in the summer .. Not the Forcat .......
I appreciate your knowledge and experience , but I really did find the perfect machine when Tarzan posted the vid link to the Forcat ....
 
Timberjackboy

Timberjackboy

ArboristSite Operative
Joined
Mar 7, 2004
Messages
157
Location
Green Mountain
well all the power to yah then ole boy, if you are just sticking to firewood and doing the hauling your self then yes a forecat would be the cats behind. I was just saying if you were ever thinking of cutting big truck loads of wood and had to buy a truck or hire a trucker, because a lot of places if the ground gets a little slimy or even you get ice thrown in there the truck will need a little tug every now and again. Plus I could see the forecat having problems getting over large rocks and things, when I was running grapple we worked in an area where there was rocks the size of volts wagon beatles and halftons and somtimes you would have to get out of the skidder and scratch your head and try to pick the smallest rock to get over. hard to find a nice handy little machine now adays you ever look into this one

http://www.argoatv.com/utility/recdetailvehicles.aspx?x=wEKEkIx3MKc=
 
tramp bushler

tramp bushler

Addicted to ArboristSite
Joined
Feb 3, 2007
Messages
3,376
Location
Interior ,Alaska, Copper River Valley,, Coastal Al
Ya , I can double my weekly income if I can tripple my logging to the landing . To do that I have to stop picking up the wood by hand where I fall it .... If I had a sustainable market for more than that , someone else would have moved in before me ....... I like where I,m at and thanks to Osama ,I mean Obama I don,t have to worry about having any employees ..So I can enjoy working alone .. A small dozer or better yet a skidder would work very well , but the Forcat would be perfect ........Someone gets stuck , well they can get themself unstuck ......The timber industry in Alaska is very different than where you are ... I,m not feeding a mill , There is more money in me selling firewood .. Plus my timber sales are for beattle killed spruce ... Salvage logging .....
 
385XP

385XP

ArboristSite Guru
Joined
Feb 18, 2008
Messages
720
Location
IOWA
It sounds like you have a prtty good thing goin for ya.That forcat looks a better every time i see it on video.Have you herd anything about the durability of them?
 
joesawer

joesawer

Addicted to ArboristSite
Joined
Mar 26, 2007
Messages
2,475
Location
Crestline Ca
It sounds like you have a prtty good thing goin for ya.That forcat looks a better every time i see it on video.Have you herd anything about the durability of them?

I like the looks of it also. It makes me want to build something like it with a grapple and a winch, for small parcels.
 

Latest posts

Top