# A Little Bit of Winter Logging



## slowp (Jan 22, 2009)

Cutting started again today. I had previously stumbled around on snowshoes marking trees to cut for skid trails. Here's about the only place I can get pictures of the processor, by the road or on the landing. There isn't much ground suitable for cat logging here, so they won't take long to do it.















And I wore these, just for a while. The spikes were picking up every little chunk of wood.


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## rngrchad (Jan 22, 2009)

:yourock: 
Nice pictures slowp. Damn I wish I was still out in Warshington.


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## Gologit (Jan 22, 2009)

New caulks! What is there, about three days when they're just exactly right...not too sharp and not too dull?


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## ak4195 (Jan 23, 2009)

I know nothing about mechanical harvestors,but that seems like a small machine,short tracks with no counter balance.Seems like they're giving up alot for the sake of manuverability?Purty boots btw

ak


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## 74craig (Jan 23, 2009)

Nice pics,get them boots broke in.


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## Burvol (Jan 23, 2009)

ak4195 said:


> I know nothing about mechanical harvestors,but that seems like a small machine,short tracks with no counter balance.Seems like they're giving up alot for the sake of manuverability?Purty boots btw
> 
> ak



Feller bunchers are a lot more capable than you think. They have a leveling feature in them for steep ground too. Is that what you guys are calling a processor Slowp? I figured that they were all called bunchers and a processor is a dangle head mounted on a shovel with a longer jib. Must differ from area to area.


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## Gologit (Jan 23, 2009)

Burvol said:


> Feller bunchers are a lot more capable than you think. They have a leveling feature in them for steep ground too. Is that what you guys are calling a processor Slowp? I figured that they were all called bunchers and a processor is a dangle head mounted on a shovel with a longer jib. Must differ from area to area.



Down here they'll call a feller buncher a hotsaw...just kind of a generic name. I've never heard a processor called a processor, it's always referred to as a danglehead or a stroker.
One outfit ran Timbcos for years and then switched to something else. They still call the machine a Timbco, though. Habit I guess.

Fallers have a lot of names for mechanical cutters. I can't say them here.


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## Burvol (Jan 23, 2009)

Gologit said:


> Down here they'll call a feller buncher a hotsaw...just kind of a generic name. I've never heard a processor called a processor, it's always referred to as a danglehead or a stroker.
> One outfit ran Timbcos for years and then switched to something else. They still call the machine a Timbco, though. Habit I guess.
> 
> Fallers have a lot of names for mechanical cutters. I can't say them here.



We call wheel saws hotsaws, and barsaw timbcos bunchers. Limbers are strokers here, and dangle heads are processors. Confusing for everyone out east reading along, I'm sure.:monkey:


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## Gologit (Jan 23, 2009)

Burvol said:


> We call wheel saws hotsaws, and barsaw timbcos bunchers. Limbers are strokers here, and dangle heads are processors. Confusing for everyone out east reading along, I'm sure.:monkey:



That's okay...it'll give them something to do. Terminology even changes from job to job. One siderod calls a roadgrader a blade...the guy over the hill calls it a smoother. One guy calls his knotbumper a landing rat and can't understand why some people think that's bad. Another guy, when he asks for a knotbumper, wants a landing saw...he calls his landing guy the chaser, even though it's a grapple Cat show.


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## HolmenTree (Jan 23, 2009)

From my fallers vocabulary: There are "loggers" and there are "backhoe loggers."
When I was a young man of 17 I ran a Drott 40 feller buncher with a model 50 track undercarraige for the company,we had 2 different heads on them, auger and shears. There was a delimber attachment for them but was never used. A Swan River,Manitoba logger last name Stadnyk, invented a flail with chains mounted on the front of a skidder to delimb at the landing ,an idea from when he saw a flail combing for land mines in WWII.
I lasted 6 months on that feller buncher working 2 shifts before I went back and picked up the saw. Most boring job I ever had.


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## slowp (Jan 23, 2009)

I call it a processor because it also delimbs and cuts to length. To me, a machine that just cuts and bunches is a feller buncher, or buncher. I only hope I got the stump marks low enough in the snow. Those machines cut low stumps. I'm having to remind the operators to leave paint showing!


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## RPM (Jan 23, 2009)

Burvol said:


> We call wheel saws hotsaws, and barsaw timbcos bunchers. Limbers are strokers here, and dangle heads are processors. Confusing for everyone out east reading along, I'm sure.:monkey:



Finally...someone who speaks the same lingo..... called as above here as well.


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## RPM (Jan 23, 2009)

slowp said:


> I call it a processor because it also delimbs and cuts to length. To me, a machine that just cuts and bunches is a feller buncher, or buncher. I only hope I got the stump marks low enough in the snow. Those machines cut low stumps. I'm having to remind the operators to leave paint showing!



In the lodgepole pine country around here alot of the contractors "process" (fall/limb and top) at the stump. There generally is only one log sort in the pine so it is efficent. The buncher/processor then makes grapple bundles for the skidders to skid to road side. Post harvest, the cut block is machine site preped for planting. Slash piles are burned in the fall with the first rains....fun with fire


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## 056 kid (Jan 23, 2009)

Some east coast lingo, any type of mechanical tree faller is termed a "cutter" there might be more names but i dont see many other loggers except for guys that walk on to the job asking for a job. And telling my boss that 
"your cudown man don't know how to cut"(humboldting) isen't a good way to get hired! anyone with a saw is a "cudown man". the T is missing on purpose..


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## treejunkie13 (Jan 23, 2009)

pretty much the same here, Hot saws, Timbcos, Processors, Bells, but mostly Feller Bunchers. They have there place no doubt, I just prefer hand cutting.


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## ak4195 (Jan 24, 2009)

Burvol said:


> Feller bunchers are a lot more capable than you think. They have a leveling feature in them for steep ground too. Is that what you guys are calling a processor Slowp? I figured that they were all called bunchers and a processor is a dangle head mounted on a shovel with a longer jib. Must differ from area to area.


 

Hi Burvol,its not the capable part Im wonderin about,its the stability.Theres nothing to use for perspective for me,so Im going by the front end of the dozer,which Im guessin is a D5,again no reference.The track length of the buncher looks really short,making it tippy(in my mind),no counterweights in the stern even more so.
I suspect having the boom attached to the rear as apposed to the front might put more tree weight on the rear achieving some counterbalance,but sacrificing reach.
Oh well,turn the radio up and grab another tree...
ak

ak


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## Gologit (Jan 24, 2009)

ak4195 said:


> Hi Burvol,its not the capable part Im wonderin about,its the stability.Theres nothing to use for perspective for me,so Im going by the front end of the dozer,which Im guessin is a D5,again no reference.The track length of the buncher looks really short,making it tippy(in my mind),no counterweights in the stern even more so.
> I suspect having the boom attached to the rear as apposed to the front might put more tree weight on the rear achieving some counterbalance,but sacrificing reach.
> Oh well,turn the radio up and grab another tree...
> ak
> ...



I've seen them go over on their side. It doesn't happen very often but it does happen. Then again, I've seen Cats, rubber tired skidders,road graders, wheel loaders, pickups, and logging trucks on their side too. Anything I left out?


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## Haywire Haywood (Jan 24, 2009)

I saw a brand spanking new "hotsaw" on a flatbed going up the interstate a few days ago. I found myself pacing it getting a good look. That big circular saw on the bottom looks nasty.

Ian


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## Burvol (Jan 24, 2009)

RPM said:


> Finally...someone who speaks the same lingo..... called as above here as well.



I believe from North Oregon Coast up to beautiful BC it's all related. We are more closely related to you guys than back east in our own country with logging stuff. BIG DOUG FIR!!!


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## Burvol (Jan 24, 2009)

ak4195 said:


> Hi Burvol,its not the capable part Im wonderin about,its the stability.Theres nothing to use for perspective for me,so Im going by the front end of the dozer,which Im guessin is a D5,again no reference.The track length of the buncher looks really short,making it tippy(in my mind),no counterweights in the stern even more so.
> I suspect having the boom attached to the rear as apposed to the front might put more tree weight on the rear achieving some counterbalance,but sacrificing reach.
> Oh well,turn the radio up and grab another tree...
> ak
> ...



They just have a self leveling feature, that levels the cab and boom up, the tracks stay down. You should see a three wheeled hot saw in action, holy crap! My buddy says he's put it over 7 times. He turns the key off and holds on when he knows it's coming....


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## slowp (Jan 24, 2009)

Gologit said:


> I've seen them go over on their side. It doesn't happen very often but it does happen. Then again, I've seen Cats, rubber tired skidders,road graders, wheel loaders, pickups, and logging trucks on their side too. Anything I left out?



People, elk, deer, etc.  

This machine was on some steep ground last fall. He came close to tipping over. That ground had a few rocks on it, and the rocks were hidden by a little layer of duff, so he'd get on a rock and start to slide. He can level the cab, but that doesn't do much for the tracks, which are not level. What drives me crazy is that it has a backup alarm that is going no matter which way the machine goes. He can't hear it in the cab. That's a good thing.


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## thejdman04 (Jan 24, 2009)

great pics


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## wilbilt (Jan 24, 2009)

Burvol said:


> You should see a three wheeled hot saw in action, holy crap! My buddy says he's put it over 7 times. He turns the key off and holds on when he knows it's coming....



It must be like riding the Tilt-A-Whirl (aka Spin-N-Hurl) :drool:


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## dancan (Jan 24, 2009)

Great pics , realy nice boots , I'll post mine soon but they're not as fancy as yours , where 's the winter part ?


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## johnzski (Jan 24, 2009)

ak4195 said:


> Hi Burvol,its not the capable part Im wonderin about,its the stability.Theres nothing to use for perspective for me,so Im going by the front end of the dozer,which Im guessin is a D5,again no reference.The track length of the buncher looks really short,making it tippy(in my mind),no counterweights in the stern even more so.
> I suspect having the boom attached to the rear as apposed to the front might put more tree weight on the rear achieving some counterbalance,but sacrificing reach.
> Oh well,turn the radio up and grab another tree...
> ak
> ...



If I remember right those Timbco's weigh about 55,000 lbs.on flatter ground like up here they are pretty stable. worst thing is sinking them in a supposedly frozen swamp


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## treejunkie13 (Jan 25, 2009)

Burvol said:


> You should see a three wheeled hot saw in action, holy crap!



We call those Bell's here. Talk 2 any one who works with them and they all have a story of flipping one or seeing one go over.


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## 371groundie (Jan 25, 2009)

a little machine lingo from the northeast. 

an excavator like machine that cuts trees and lays them in bunches is a FELLER BUNCHER, or BUNCHER for short.

a machine that cuts the tree and processes at the stump is a PROCESSOR or HARVESTER, both FIXED HEAD and DANGLE HEAD are used but those terms usually only come up when you are equipment shopping. the firewood guys get confused when you call it a processor and anyone who grows corn gets confused when you call it a harvester.

anything that takes limbs off is a LIMBER. mostly used here is a STROKE BOOM DELIMBER or a PULL THROUGH DELIMBER. i assume you all know what a stroke boom delimber is cause you talk about strokers. a pull though delimber is usually mounted on the goose neck part of the trailer that the landing loader is mounted to. the loader operator can open and close a se of knives, lay the tree in there and give it a good yank.

a skidder is a skidder is a skidder. it picks up the wood by one end and the other end drags on the ground. its a skidder. 

the machine that picks up wood behind a processor is a FORWARDER until you get close to the canadian border, then the operators start speaking french and they call it a porter. ive never seen one carry my luggage, but i cant argue with them cause i dont speak french. 

on the landing if you have a loader it usually has a saw attached to it for bucking out products. the whole unit is usually refered to as a slasher. 

a log truck that is a semi is usually just called a log truck. a straight truck that has its own loader is called a wheeler or a tri-axle, interchangeably. a couple old guys insist that tri axle is a truck with a lift axle behind the tandems, and a wheeler is one without. but that distinction is hardly made anymore.


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