# When the Logs Are Bigger Than the Grapples



## Gologit (Sep 7, 2008)

Summer of 08. This was North of Hwy 32 above Forest Ranch, Ca. The log was a forty foot Doug Fir that the loader couldn't lift so we bucked it. Even then, the grapples wouldn't hold it so we slung some rigging, got it on the truck, and sent it to town.


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## Idaho Bison (Sep 7, 2008)

I have had to do it one end at a time.


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## slowp (Sep 7, 2008)

Who defaced the last of the ancient forest? I'm talking about the Happy Face on the log. I need to scan a picture from when such stuff was cut here. I watched the loading of it, and the front of the truck was bouncing off the ground, there was lots of yelling and moving of chokers and a skidder, in addition to the shovel. They didn't buck it, just wrasseled it on the truck.


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## Spotted Owl (Sep 8, 2008)

Good look'in wood there. Did you get to work that stand? Or are you running that old kidney bust'in Barko, that machine looks like a rough ride and a long day. Looks good and solid, we haven't seen many loads like that for a long time around these parts.

Read that you were healing up, hope that is going well for ya.

Nice photos, nice to see afew of them old outlaws making it to the ground. Whats left don'tmake and difference and how, other than getting in the way of what you can do. My boy really lkes looking at old wood and big stumps

You might be able to use that last photo to convince Nike to sart making corks, looks to be a good advertizer for them .


Good post. Thanks


Owl


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## RPM (Sep 8, 2008)

You do what you have to do to get em on the truck!.. These are from 10 years ago or so now.....we still had line loaders with pretty big grapples which would take 10' + logs. Lots of big cedar then so the bigger grapples were pretty common.

Nice logs Gologit! Impressive on the stump, more so when you stick a saw into it....even better on the truck.:greenchainsaw:


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## joesawer (Sep 8, 2008)

Gologit said:


> Summer of 08. This was North of Hwy 32 above Forest Ranch, Ca. The log was a forty foot Doug Fir that the loader couldn't lift so we bucked it. Even then, the grapples wouldn't hold it so we slung some rigging, got it on the truck, and sent it to town.





Nice pics. Those kind of loads make me smile, even though they are often slower to load.
We usually keep some old kinked and jaggered chokers and some clevises around for such duties. It is a real shame to hook a nice new choker to a grapple or any thing else with a square edge.


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## urbanlumberinc (Sep 9, 2008)

Good gawd man!!! that's a flippin monster. the pic of the excavator wrestling that baby is one for the office wall.

Nice work!!!!

You can bring one of those babies to my place anytime- The Lucas would love to have a go at that one


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## Mike Van (Sep 9, 2008)

Great pics! - Thanks -


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## slowp (Sep 10, 2008)

Today I had to endure picture after picture of Collyfonia Sugar Pine. Pictures of 3 log loads! I tried to convince the logger that he was much better off working up here in small diameter timber. It must get pretty boring to only load 3 logs on a truck--thud thud thud...drive off....thud thud thud...I don't think I convinced him. 

Then I offered up my pink duck tape to replace a missing hub thing on a log truck. That driver turned down my offer and wasted valuable time to finally scrounge up some bad looking silver tape. Oh well, I give up!


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## joesawer (Sep 11, 2008)

Yeah, Colly foreign ya grows some nice suger pines, ponderosa and jeffry also.


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## Gologit (Sep 11, 2008)

slowp said:


> Today I had to endure picture after picture of Collyfonia Sugar Pine. Pictures of 3 log loads! I tried to convince the logger that he was much better off working up here in small diameter timber. It must get pretty boring to only load 3 logs on a truck--thud thud thud...drive off....thud thud thud...I don't think I convinced him.
> 
> Then I offered up my pink duck tape to replace a missing hub thing on a log truck. That driver turned down my offer and wasted valuable time to finally scrounge up some bad looking silver tape. Oh well, I give up!



LOL...Was that your friend who came down to help us last year? He was on the end of the burn salvage with the really nice wood. We were stuck further south in much smaller timber. The big joke during that time was that the north end guys hauled the logs...the rest of us just hauled the limbs. 

Nothing wrong with pink duct tape. I painted my axe bright purple one time...it was the only paint I could find and nobody ever stole THAT axe.


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## slowp (Sep 11, 2008)

It was another Oregon Logger that the one guy brought up here with him for this year. The picture shower is a younger guy who loaded logs for Columbia. I asked if he had to use chokers to get the logs on trucks and he said no, he had a pretty large shovel down there. He traded in his big loader and downsized for our more challenging sized wood. They were whining  yesterday that I don't mark their skid trails out perfectly straight. Sometimes they have to steer slightly in order to miss a tree. I told them I was merely helping them to keep their skills finely honed. They're doing pretty good so far. They are in limby hemlock and silver fir. I'd like to carry a hatchet just to get in close enough to measure diameters.


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## 2dogs (Sep 11, 2008)

I like looking at log loads from the hay days of logging. This area exists because of logging and access to water. 3 log loads are pretty rare these days.


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## Gologit (Sep 11, 2008)

2dogs said:


> I like looking at log loads from the hay days of logging. This area exists because of logging and access to water. 3 log loads are pretty rare these days.



True. A lot of what we bring in now, especially since we're doing burn salvage, is pretty puny stuff. 

3 log loads are neat to look at but they can be miserable to haul. Unless your bunk logs are equal size and you can get a good saddle for the peaker it's gonna be a side-heavy bad handling load. Plus, if you're coming up out of steep ground you can strip out of a three log load faster than anything I've ever seen....especially 33' pine. Don't ask me how I know this. They also ride rough. For pure comfort and ease of hauling I'll take a load of 40 foot small white fir any old day. It's not impressive but it's sure easier to get to town.


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## slowp (Sep 12, 2008)

Gologit said:


> True. A lot of what we bring in now, especially since we're doing burn salvage, is pretty puny stuff.
> 
> 3 log loads are neat to look at but they can be miserable to haul. Unless your bunk logs are equal size and you can get a good saddle for the peaker it's gonna be a side-heavy bad handling load. Plus, if you're coming up out of steep ground you can strip out of a three log load faster than anything I've ever seen....especially 33' pine. Don't ask me how I know this. They also ride rough. For pure comfort and ease of hauling I'll take a load of 40 foot small white fir any old day. It's not impressive but it's sure easier to get to town.



May I use this as a whining rebuttal?


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## NDtreehugger (Sep 12, 2008)

*Brings back memory's*

I haven't seen wood like that since HWY 162 many many years ago


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## Gologit (Sep 12, 2008)

slowp said:


> May I use this as a whining rebuttal?



Yup. Waiting a minute...Who's whining? And who does the rebutting? And is that even a word. Sorry....it's been a long day. You know the kind...when it finally makes sense why they don't let you bring guns to work. :censored:


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## RPM (Sep 12, 2008)

Gologit " _Tourist...."Is that old growth ?"
Logger.."Not now_". 

Perfect!


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## Gologit (Sep 12, 2008)

RPM said:


> Gologit " _Tourist...."Is that old growth ?"
> Logger.."Not now_".
> 
> Perfect!



LOL...That conversation actually happened. We were cold-decking big red fir close to a heavily traveled state highway and some tourists stopped to watch. It was all bug salvage but all the tourists could see was the size of the trees. They got pretty agitated.


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## John Ellison (Sep 12, 2008)

Nice pics, I think that size sticks will get everyones blood racing.

Bob, how did you get them out? Must have been a dozer.


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## Gologit (Sep 14, 2008)

John Ellison said:


> Nice pics, I think that size sticks will get everyones blood racing.
> 
> Bob, how did you get them out? Must have been a dozer.



The Barko has a drum on it. They rig a block on the boom and pull cross-track. Sometimes it's like trying to land a whale with a fly rod. It takes a lot of technique and some fancy rigging but that old machine will move pretty good sized wood if you're patient with it. This tree wasn't too far down the hill and the slope was fairly gentle so it came up nice and easy. I wish we could have sent it in as a long log but there just wasn't enough saddle in front and the machine wouldn't pick the whole thing up.


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## widtink1 (Sep 20, 2008)

Great pixs nothing that big here i scotland


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## scotclayshooter (Sep 20, 2008)

widtink1 said:


> Great pixs nothing that big here i scotland



There are a few if you look hard enough!
3 Redwoods in Drumnadrochit in one garden







Courtesy of flashearth.com its better than googleearth for this area!


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## RandyMac (Sep 21, 2008)

*Back in the day*


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## goatchin (Sep 22, 2008)

Wow be nice to see a load of logs like that 

BTW whats the cuttin torches for? (other than the obvious of cuttin metal LOL)


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## RandyMac (Sep 23, 2008)

The torches are for cutting cable, to the right of the torches is a pile of inch and a quarter arch lines, after you are finished with tying a knot in it, you cut off the pig tail. We also cut up dead chokers, saving the buttons and bells. Cutting cable was fun, it's full of some sort of grease and can burn for several minutes.

Arch line in use.





RandyMac


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## Dok (Sep 29, 2008)

Nice pics Gologit, thanks for sharing! We have a lot of logging trucks on US 50 around here this summer. Big logs too! Lots of 5 log loads and I saw one three log load, with the big log taking almost all of the bottom and two small logs on top. That truck passed right by the Camino mill, where can they handle a log that size? 
Brad


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## Gologit (Sep 29, 2008)

Dok said:


> Nice pics Gologit, thanks for sharing! We have a lot of logging trucks on US 50 around here this summer. Big logs too! Lots of 5 log loads and I saw one three log load, with the big log taking almost all of the bottom and two small logs on top. That truck passed right by the Camino mill, where can they handle a log that size?
> Brad



Lincoln. We have two mills there, a small log mill and a big log mill. I forget what the max diameter is for Camino but all the big stuff goes automatically to Lincoln.


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## Ivan H. (Oct 6, 2008)

I know there's some loader operater who could have loaded that log without the cable. nice job though.


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## pdqdl (Oct 6, 2008)

*Those are just twigs. Here's a real load:*

Not that I have ever done anything like this, here is a pic of the genuine old growth harvested the old fashioned way.

In the absence of modern power equipment, how do you suppose they got that log onto the truck ?


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## Gologit (Oct 6, 2008)

pdqdl said:


> Not that I have ever done anything like this, here is a pic of the genuine old growth harvested the old fashioned way.
> 
> In the absence of modern power equipment, how do you suppose they got that log onto the truck ?



A lot of times they'd dig a hole for the truck to back into, set up a brow log and roll it on. There was also steam power, spar poles, maybe a double crotch line with tongs or slip rigging. All kinds of ways to load that big stuff.

As for "modern power equipment"?....in those days what ever you had was modern.


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## Gologit (Oct 6, 2008)

Ivan H. said:


> I know there's some loader operater who could have loaded that log without the cable. nice job though.



LOL...You're right, Ivan. Every loader that's seen that picture is probably thinking the same thing..."I could have done it"...thats what makes them loader operators.

All I know for sure, and I was there, is that the kid running the Barko is one of the best I've ever seen and we fought that log as a long log for almost an hour before we gave up and bucked it. It wasn't the operator that was lacking...it was the machine.


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## slowp (Oct 6, 2008)

Look closely. I'd have had to make them park that load. The chaser missed painting and branding it.!!!:greenchainsaw: No load ticket either!!


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## Bushler (Oct 6, 2008)

Somewhere in my 'drawer of pics' is a pic of a three log off highway load I took when I worked for Weyco, North Bend, OR in the mid '60's. The angle I took the pic is bad and the load isn't very impressive, until you consider we had 12' wide bunks on the trucks. Maybe they were 14'. I can't remember for sure. Big trucks.

Those old boys running the cable grapple machines had some moxy.

The logs were hauled down to Delwood where they were dumped into the Coos River and rafted down to Coos Bay/North Bend where the Weyco Mill was located. 

The old mill site is now a gambling casino.


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## Ivan H. (Oct 6, 2008)

pdqdl said:


> Not that I have ever done anything like this, here is a pic of the genuine old growth harvested the old fashioned way.
> 
> In the absence of modern power equipment, how do you suppose they got that log onto the truck ?



Thanks for the response. I'm new to this site and enjoy the conversation. I've seen guys pick up 80 inchers with heel boom loaders.I'm not taking shots at you. You do what gotta do git the job done. love this picture, those old timers had a lot of enginewity.


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## joesawer (Oct 7, 2008)

Check out this link for a lot of pictures of modern equipment in that era.
http://www.steaminthewoods.com/
My favorite is the Hume-Bennett/Sanger LCo. I have been to Hume lake, it is a beautiful camp/retreat area now. It is located in some of the most awesome country I have ever seen.


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## Ivan H. (Oct 7, 2008)

joesawer said:


> Check out this link for a lot of pictures of modern equipment in that era.
> http://www.steaminthewoods.com/
> My favorite is the Hume-Bennett/Sanger LCo. I have been to Hume lake, it is a beautiful camp/retreat area now. It is located in some of the most awesome country I have ever seen.



I trying to figure out why you didn"t call bull#### on that 80 incherThat is neat site I remember my grandfather about logging with those old a-frame loaders,I also enjoyed the historic pictures of the old saw mills.


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## Gologit (Oct 7, 2008)

slowp said:


> Look closely. I'd have had to make them park that load. The chaser missed painting and branding it.!!!:greenchainsaw: No load ticket either!!



 And that, you Fed you, is one of the pure unadulterated joys of logging on private ground. If the weight is right, if you can tie it down safely, if the driver thinks he can make it...you just go.

And it was branded...didn,'t you see the smiley face?


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## slowp (Oct 8, 2008)

Gologit said:


> And that, you Fed you, is one of the pure unadulterated joys of logging on private ground. If the weight is right, if you can tie it down safely, if the driver thinks he can make it...you just go.
> 
> And it was branded...didn,'t you see the smiley face?




A SMILEY FACE? Who is in charge? What with the price of paint going up, and the price of logs going down, a smiley face is a waste of that precious yellow paint! That chaser ought to be fired! I have actually heard this complaint before.


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## Ivan H. (Oct 8, 2008)

They probably don't have a chaser.My bet it's a mechanical side,and the loader operator had bump his own knots


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## Humptulips (Oct 8, 2008)

joesawer said:


> Check out this link for a lot of pictures of modern equipment in that era.
> http://www.steaminthewoods.com/
> My favorite is the Hume-Bennett/Sanger LCo. I have been to Hume lake, it is a beautiful camp/retreat area now. It is located in some of the most awesome country I have ever seen.



Thanks for that link. Great pictures. I spent all afternoon looking at them.


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## clearance (Oct 8, 2008)

Humptulips said:


> Thanks for that link. Great pictures. I spent all afternoon looking at them.



Me too, thanks a lot.


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## Gologit (Oct 9, 2008)

slowp said:


> A SMILEY FACE? Who is in charge? What with the price of paint going up, and the price of logs going down, a smiley face is a waste of that precious yellow paint! That chaser ought to be fired! I have actually heard this complaint before.



Some old guy was in charge but he was too busy rigging and taking pictures to pay attention to little things like brands and such.

The paint? I think we borrowed that from somebody in a green pickup while he was busy watching the show. I'll make a note to return it...one of these days.


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## slowp (Oct 10, 2008)

Bet that truck has no spark arrestor and no fire tools on it either. Oh, remember, we use white pickups up here. My replacement was delivered yesterday. It has highway tires on it and something called Vortec, and something else called an Allison Manual thingy, and I tried to read up on the latter, but can't understand it so will just have to push buttons and see what it does. Oooops, the coffee must've kicked in. 

Would that old truck have a spark lever thing on it like a Model A? I drove a Model A flatbed truck a few times. It was the only thing that we could get started when it got really cold. I would drive it and tow my Mom or Dad so they could get their cars started. The Model A heater was a hole in the floorboards that the exhaust came through.


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## Ivan H. (Oct 10, 2008)

slowp said:


> Bet that truck has no spark arrestor and no fire tools on it either. Oh, remember, we use white pickups up here. My replacement was delivered yesterday. It has highway tires on it and something called Vortec, and something else called an Allison Manual thingy, and I tried to read up on the latter, but can't understand it so will just have to push buttons and see what it does. Oooops, the coffee must've kicked in.
> 
> Would that old truck have a spark lever thing on it like a Model A? I drove a Model A flatbed truck a few times. It was the only thing that we could get started when it got really cold. I would drive it and tow my Mom or Dad so they could get their cars started. The Model A heater was a hole in the floorboards that the exhaust came through.



No California department of forestry would come glued if that trucker didn't have a shovel and axe.All trucks have to pass inspection by highway patrol every year or they don';t get a sticker,and shut down


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