A Real Grapple Cat Gets Help

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slowp

slowp

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I came sauntering across the hill in time to see the cat operator standing on the uphill track of a tilted grapple cat. He was smoking a cigarette. Not a good omen. He was pretty close to the road, which was doubling as a landing. This ground is marginal for skidding. It is steep, with hidden boulders to surprise the guys on the equipment.

Up from the road came the loader. The smoke break was over. The loader began pushing on the blade of the cat. The grapples would slip, and there'd be a loud CLANG noise, but it didn't take long and the cat was back in service.

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Next week? The Wonderful World Of Skyline Yarding With A Thunderbird Swing Yarder.
 
I've heard people say that you can't get a Cat stuck. You can. You can get them beyond stuck.

When I first started out in the woods I buried a 6 so bad that it took an 8 to get it out. The guy on the 8 said "Don't worry kid, you're not really stuck until we have to take the damn thing apart and carry the pieces out one by one". That made me feel a lot better.

I've also heard people say that you can't turn one over. You can. You can also flip them over backwards, slide downhill sideways at an amazingly fast clip, and fall through old wooden bridges. Don't ask me how I know. ;)
 
all the above and then some

Gologit said:
I've heard people say that you can't get a Cat stuck. You can. You can get them beyond stuck.

When I first started out in the woods I buried a 6 so bad that it took an 8 to get it out. The guy on the 8 said "Don't worry kid, you're not really stuck until we have to take the damn thing apart and carry the pieces out one by one". That made me feel a lot better.

I've also heard people say that you can't turn one over. You can. You can also flip them over backwards, slide downhill sideways at an amazingly fast clip, and fall through old wooden bridges. Don't ask me how I know. ;)
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I think the worse stuck I seen was a D8 moving a 90ft thunderbird tower buried in a soft spot in a road, they also stuck a skidder trying to pull it from the front, and D6 pushing from the back. I walked the shovel back over and we started unsticking equipment from the rear and had to bring in another D8 before it was over it took almost a day and a half. and alot of road repair as well as not using the short cut to walk equipment to the new landing. I also found out years ago while frozen ground allows access not normaly found in wet spots it get's interesting on good slopes in a buncher when You start swinging the house around to lay you're logs down, best be a fast thinker, and get the tracks straight up and down real quick like, and not be afraid to put you're stick in the dirt, nothing faster than a sideways traveling piece of equipment with loaded tracks on a slope, they also tend to flip a little easier, going sideways, that and it,s nothing but alot of work to upright a flipped piece of machinery.
 
Bouncing around on a big dozer is something I have always wanted to do. Maybe do some of the things Old Bob has done. . .
 
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hammerlogging said:
these are excellent examples that reaffirm why I like the falling part of the logging business.
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Same here but it's always good to have a few skills for the days when nobody needs a faller.

I spend a fair amount of time on Cats and loaders.... and it sure looks good on payday. The only piece of machinery I don't run, and won't run, is a feller buncher. Just seems wrong, somehow.
 
056 kid said:
Bouncing around on a big dozer is something I have always wanted to do. Maybe do some of the things Old Bob has done. . .
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You might want to re-think that. Cat wrecks are noisy, expensive, there's a ton of paperwork to do afterward (especially if you wind up in a river) and listening to the sound of your own bones breaking is never very much fun. :cheers:
 
Gologit said:
I've heard people say that you can't get a Cat stuck. You can. You can get them beyond stuck.

When I first started out in the woods I buried a 6 so bad that it took an 8 to get it out. The guy on the 8 said "Don't worry kid, you're not really stuck until we have to take the damn thing apart and carry the pieces out one by one". That made me feel a lot better.

I've also heard people say that you can't turn one over. You can. You can also flip them over backwards, slide downhill sideways at an amazingly fast clip, and fall through old wooden bridges. Don't ask me how I know. ;)
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Lol I got a D6 H stuck on dry flat ground once... well only kinda stuck a D4 pulled it out :cheers:
 
Dropped a rear wheel of 310A JD backhoe thru a wooden bridge 1x.
Wheel fell off same building road. Concrete culvert replaced that bridge. I had to drag it with the hoe. Too heavy to lift with bucket or hoe.

Building road with a backhoe you say? Yup I owned it & it was on my place.

It went down the road after being split 2x. First time they they forgot the tach drive O-ring. Don't know what they forgot the second time.

---

Bet those boulders left a mark on the way down the hill.
 
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I have very little time on a dozer, a bit more on a skidder but I ran a tractor mowing for several years. I also used it pulling a hay baler and various other attachments. My last major stuck...I was draggging a dead cow to dump her in a canyon. It had been raining off and on for weeks so I walked the route to make sure there was no soft spots. I sure did a good job at that too. 50 yards from the canyon the tractor sunk. I unhooked from 1200lbs of dead cow but I still couldn't get moving. Then it started to rain. And rain.

My dogs were fighting over who got to eat the cow. My soon to be x-wife was telling me how stupid I was, and it kept raining. It took all the wire rope I had plus a trip to the rigging shop to buy 200 feet more to drag the cow back to the road. By now she was bloated and very stinky. The dogs loved it. I didn't. The tractor stayed in the hole for 3 weeks till I took all the counter weights off and jacked it up little by little and filled in under the tires. There is still a big hole in the field where I was stuck. I make a pilgrimage there to this day.
 
Gologit said:
The guy on the 8 said "Don't worry kid, you're not really stuck until we have to take the damn thing apart and carry the pieces out one by one". That made me feel a lot better.
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Yeah, that must have made you feel all warm and fuzzy...kind of like the sound of old wood crunching & splintering...

Gologit said:
...You can also flip them over backwards, slide downhill sideways at an amazingly fast clip, and fall through old wooden bridges. Don't ask me how I know. ;)
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YIKES!!!


.
 
056 kid said:
Yea a seat belt, instead of getting thrown while it is rolling, you can ride it. .

no?
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Seat belt? Oh, okay, you mean that big greasy strap with the buckles rusted into immobility? The big strap that lays over on one side of the seat and has been soaking up oil, diesel, snoose, dirt, dust, and probably some things I don't want to even think about for however many years the Cat has been in operation?

That the one? I was wondering what that thing was. Thought maybe it was some kind of rigging to keep my lunch box from falling out on steep ground.

We're supposed to wear those?
 
Gologit said:
Seat belt? Oh, okay, you mean that big greasy strap with the buckles rusted into immobility? The big strap that lays over on one side of the seat and has been soaking up oil, diesel, snoose, dirt, dust, and probably some things I don't want to even think about for however many years the Cat has been in operation?

That the one? I was wondering what that thing was. Thought maybe it was some kind of rigging to keep my lunch box from falling out on steep ground.

We're supposed to wear those?
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Bob are you back? We sure have missed ya.
 
Gologit said:
Seat belt? Oh, okay, you mean that big greasy strap with the buckles rusted into immobility? The big strap that lays over on one side of the seat and has been soaking up oil, diesel, snoose, dirt, dust, and probably some things I don't want to even think about for however many years the Cat has been in operation?

That the one? I was wondering what that thing was. Thought maybe it was some kind of rigging to keep my lunch box from falling out on steep ground.

We're supposed to wear those?
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So they are like that out west too huh? The belts in boss mans equipment is the same. There have been times where I considered strapping myself into the timberjack, but opening the door and being ready to bail felt better. . .
 
Stuck equipment, so many stories

As I surveiled the right of way shovel the operator had insisted he needed help getting out I noticed the mud was about two feet above the bottom of the house. Then he said "I lost a track in there"

In AK the son-in-law of the owner paked the shovel in a muskeg. Luckily it was a high rise cab so he could still open the door. Had to bring in a backho and a load of logs for puncheon.

I know from personal experience you can slide a mini-madill that the tracks won't turn with a D4 if you put two blocks phurchase on it. I'm sure the lubrication effect of a couple feet of mud didn't help.

I also know that a D6 with mud up to the top of the seat is hard to run and even harder to get unstuck.

I've never really rolled a cat. They always stopped when the canopy was resting on the ground. As an aside this is not a good thing when the foreman has warned you not to try to take a shortcut across that nonmerch flat you logged over.

And seatbelts don't work when you have to stand on the dashboard on the steeper downhill parts.
 

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