Tong Thrower???

[RJE]

I've seen pictures and video or yoders, but never a tong thrower . I understand the concept lol!! but i am curious as how common this is south of the border. it doesnt look very safe haha! also, ive never seen a yoder in b.c., i was told it was a WCB thing, but i dont believe everything im told. Is it just not up to par with the availability of larger yarders and LL's on the B.C. coast???

 

[hvy 1ton]

The lack of yoders in BC might have something to it. It's hard to make a rear entry cab with the winches sitting where the steps should go. :yup

There should be some video of melvin from Ax Men "Jammer" logging floating around the internet, but hell if i can find it. If i remember correct he hit the tong setter at one point. It is fun to watch, even if it is a bit of a questionable practice. What man wouldn't like fishing with a 35 ton fishing pole? :lmao

This is one of the better ways to start a morning.

 

[HCF]

There's an outfit in fall cr Oregon who has a Komatsu set up to throw tongs. I've never seen them working but it looks extremely interesting.

 

[BDFT]

There's the odd one in BC but for the cost of the conversion you might as well yard the long settings and hoe chuck the wood that's in close. Of course, on the coast you have super snorkels, the ultimate yoder.

 

[Jumbo]

I worked as a second loader under a Washington Trackloader picking up right of way, we had a 30 or 40 foot wooden snorkel to toss the grapples. When we would get the odd corner where the shovel runner could not toss the grapples, we would pull them off put an old set of tongs on (4’ spread) and he would toss them. I am not sure how he was at fishing, but casting those tongs, he could get them within a few feet of what ever he wanted me to tong. All I had to do was duck behind a tree and wait for them to hit. It was a good thing he was so catty with them, they weighed about 120 pounds. This was in the early 70’s at Snoqualmie for Weyerhaeuser.

 

[John C.]

I saw a video one time of a unit in Idaho throwing a tong a heck of a long way. I think it was a manufacturer's promotion but it was impressive to see what they said was way out there. On film you can't tell how fast things are going but it looked like they were moving plenty of small wood in a hurray.

I've never seen them used in the Cascades. Maybe CL has some comments on that.

 

[Contract Logger]

Only comment I have is that they scare the hell out of me! Most shovel operators I worked around showed up to work still half drunk and this is the LAST thing they needed! I never ran one but lots of people did. Jerry Debraie even had one on a Madill 2850 and it worked really well.

Jim Kirkpatick of Jewell designed and sold these things and he sold ALOT of them for awhile. Wish I had more to add.

Kind of strange cause usually I say way too much.......

 

[JTL]

Most shovel operators I worked around showed up to work still half drunk and this is the LAST thing they needed!

:lmao God if that aint the truth!!
I've seen shovel operators stumble out of the bar at 2a.m., stand on the corner and wait till one of his trucks went by and hop a ride to the woods!

 

[natemcmurtrey]

There are quite a few of them around in the northwest if you just took the time to look. Most of the time we think they're just another shovel when we drive by at mach 3 running from the dust.
They work pretty good at picking up the strays from a shovel side. In a thinning operation you could use the single winch with a couple chokers if need be. Some times the single winch saves bringing in the yarder for a couple hours of skidding. If the shovel has the ability to spend 4 hrs doing the same job. We know quite a few outfits that have them or have had them. Not all tong thowers have yoader capabilities and not all yoaders have throwing ability.
Thats about the extent of my time with them.

 

[Gyppo Logger]

I spent some time bumping knots under an old Skagit SJ-4 ran by one of those good old boys. I did alot of tong chasing cleaning up along the road and old landings. For odd corners we would use a set of skidder sliders and chokers and run the "human haulback". Oh to be young and dumb again!!!!!!

 

[JustLogIt]

We actually have two tong throwers - both on CAT 320s. They work real well in the intermountain region because the ground is so broke up. We can run up the ridges with the "jammers" and toss the tongs down into the draws. We can go as far as 350 feet, but it is pretty slow. We try to keep our skidding distance around 200 - 250 feet.

As for operators - it is a heck of a skill. Takes perfect timing to get the tongs going in a loop and them release them. It is pretty amazing how accurate they can actually get.