You sure those weren't grapples or maybe you're a lot older then I thought. LOL
I know what you're talking about those towers wiggling a lot. Didn't worry me until one time we broke the telescoping line on a Mark 5 Berger while it was standing. I had to climb up the inside of the tube to take the guard off the bottom of the top section so we could rethread. Burgers have a hole at the bottom of the tube you can get in. After looking at the welds on the inside it worried me to be around them after that.
Stood on top of a 90 foot Madill once while the crew yarded a turn. It moves around a lot up there. Think I already told that story so I won't repeat myself.
I was trying to figure out whether they were grapples or what? I must've goofed. They weren't hydraulic, that's for sure. I spent most of my time on the run, there was only time to go to a unit, approve a landing, maybe do a quick walk down and up, then off to the next one, and was pretty cowed by all the stuff going on. Got run off the road, etc. and trying to learn stuff but too scared to ask many questions cuz the loggers were scary. Now, I ask questions.
I think I drove by that place yesterday. Mind you, a lot of the yarders didn't look that great when they were operating. One scary time, I went out to the sale with a guy, and we went down to check stuff. I noticed the line looked pretty frayed, and a guyline was buried in a deck (which is all right to do) and the deck was moving and shaking, and we knew the hooktender was a druggie. They were trying to get a monster up, high lead, no deflection, and it wasn't going. There was a deep ditch that they'd plowed up earlier and I kept sidling to it, and he kept sidling to it and afterwards we found out we both were getting ready to jump in when the line broke--which it didn't. He said he was wondering how bad I was going to get hurt, because I obviously was going to beat him to the ditch bottom, and he figured he was going to land on top of me. He was a big guy and I was not.
The budget here was planned for one totalled pickup every year and we always made that target....not me. A different world.