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Skidders- Tracks ot Tires, Lines or Grapples- Lets see what you've got!

Blk prince

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 2, 2014
Messages
1,021
Location
Ladysmith bc canada
Occupation
Truck driver semi retired
Reg,still here but no posts. My friend has a small collection of CZ pictures. I was set to go pick them up but he took a fall and ended up in hospital with broken ribs. Once he heals I hope to have Camptramp do more posting for me. Good morning to all.
 

Hank R

Senior Member
Joined
May 28, 2014
Messages
2,067
Location
Princeton B.C. Canada
Occupation
Retired Truck driver and School bus driver
Spring time here so the logging equipment is coming to town for oil changes and repairs. This Tigercat 635D is 2 years old and goes in some pretty tough ground.

 

hillbillywrench

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 14, 2014
Messages
49
Location
Ozarks, USA
My dad and grandfather logged in the Missouri Ozarks in the late 70's-early 80's. Small tracts, selective harvesting hardwoods. Our skidder was a 1941? International 2-ton with a Tulsa winch and gin poles. (Also our loader). 6-cylinder gas that only hit on 5 cyl. on a good day. A big turn was 2 18' logs. Turning radius was 40 acres, smoking exhaust was insect repellant, reach thru the tiny rear window to operate winch lever, and the gin poles would catch on limbs when backing up and slam down on the headache rack (HEADACHE). Next skidder was a 1946? Int. with a welded boom. Same operating specs. Upgraded to a Minneapolis Moline ag tractor with forks welded to the bucket (roll the big logs up skid poles to load them on the Int. Loadstar 2-ton truck). Old, heavy Poulan saws. Two men. Supported two families every winter. Hauled hay on the log truck all summer. Worked their butts off. Dad has a few pics somewhere. Poor folks got poor ways, but I thought we had quite an operation.
 

hillbillywrench

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 14, 2014
Messages
49
Location
Ozarks, USA
Just remembered. I saw a little Bell? skidder while I was combining soybeans last fall. Three wheels, rear wheel was small "crazy" wheel. Cable and Chokers. Two drive wheels chained up. Only one I have ever seen, looked scarier than crap to drive. Looked like it had spent more time on it's top than on it's wheels. Anybody ever heard of one of these? True Skidders are a fairly recent innovation here. Starting to see a few small cable skidders around these days. A BIG oak tree will scale 35" at the little end of a 9' cut but that's about all the small equiment around here will handle. We have some good, clear hardwoods, but it all has to be snaked out between small trees without too much collateral damage. Lots of small family logging outfits just getting by.
 

Vigilant

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 8, 2011
Messages
953
Location
Eastern NC
Occupation
Attitude Adjuster at the Graybar Hotel
I believe it wan in the early '80s when I first heard of Bell skidders. In fact, a contractor who worked for my father had one back then.
 

hillbillywrench

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 14, 2014
Messages
49
Location
Ozarks, USA
At one point my family was logging with another crew that used a small cat dozer to skid logs. The boss put a brand new saw up on the dozer track, got sidetracked with something else, fired up the cat and proceeded to run the saw off the end of tracks and then under them. Apparently, even one of the old, heavy McCullough saws is no match for a tracked machine. That same crew burned up their skidder/winch truck engine by backing as far down a hillside as they could, getting against a tree or stump, and winching logs out of the holler below them. The No. 1 Main bearing wasn't getting any oil. Also heard stories of them using a big bar to pop the log truck springs back after putting on a little too much wood and pushing the springs down over-center. I wonder what a 2-ton truck has to gross to do that to the springs!
On the subject of the Bell skidder, I have driven some ag equipment with crazy wheels on the rear and it can be interesting. Would probably turn on a dime. The 3-wheel arraingment would seem to be a little unstable, especially while skidding a turn out.
The timber in this area supplied a large portion of the railroad ties used to lay tracks from the Mississipi river to the Rocky Mountains. 9' cuts, hardwood, minimum of 10" dia. on little end, anything over the minimum was just extra wood that had to be cut off with an axe. In the 20's and 30's the men hewing ties by hand got 10 cents a tie, the top hands could hew about 10 ties a day (IF i remember correctly, saw a documentary years ago about it). The ties were hewed, put in a river (usually), floated down in rafts or booms, and then hand carried up a springboard into boxcars. I don't believe I would have wanted to pick a fight with the men that loaded the ties.
 

Stang51d

New Member
Joined
Aug 10, 2015
Messages
1
Location
Indiana
My grandpa sold Pettibone Cary-Lifts and skidders back in the 60's. This is a Master 5 that he sold new in 66. I just brought it home and it will be restored to like new.master 5.jpg
 

BDFT

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 12, 2010
Messages
265
Location
Northwest BC
The clam is directly above the rear idler. Its not very clear in the picture. The clam and the headache rack are mounted on a fifth wheel type swivel. All the hydraulics for the clam are underneath. You loaded the clam with the grapple, squeezed it shut and down the mountain you went. I seem to remember these things had a reputation for rolling over at the drop of a hat. The drag pushed the back of the machine sideways and over you went.
 

John C.

Senior Member
Joined
Jun 11, 2007
Messages
12,865
Location
Northwest
Occupation
Machinery & Equipment Appraiser
This project might interest any who had to install chains on skidders or forwarders. A dealer for chains had the problem of people getting them and not knowing how to install then so that they would stay on. One of the trainers from Scandinavia showed some of the dealer mechanics here and we put the project together. The install of the new chains took about three hours as I recall. It seems the camera person kept asking questions and getting in the way or the project would likely taken a hour or so less.


https://youtu.be/nMXZLtiaXFY
 

old-iron-habit

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 22, 2012
Messages
4,233
Location
Moose Lake, MN
Occupation
Retired Cons't. Supt./Hospitals
The clam is directly above the rear idler. Its not very clear in the picture. The clam and the headache rack are mounted on a fifth wheel type swivel. All the hydraulics for the clam are underneath. You loaded the clam with the grapple, squeezed it shut and down the mountain you went. I seem to remember these things had a reputation for rolling over at the drop of a hat. The drag pushed the back of the machine sideways and over you went.

Now i see the grapple. What i thought was one side of the grapple was the pivoting headache rack. Now it makes sense.
 
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