# Russian logging



## The Lorax (Feb 16, 2010)

Found this video on Youtube, looks like they are logging in some inhospitable place.
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## JPeterson09 (Feb 16, 2010)

That's just insane!


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## BuddhaKat (Feb 16, 2010)

OH MY GAWD!!!!! I want one of those trucks. Now that's one tough truck. Not to mention the obvious, but the biggest set of stones weren't in the river, they were on the driver. I sure as hell ain't brave enough to cross that.


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## The Lorax (Feb 16, 2010)

Those are Kamaz trucks, they have a good bit of experience building tough trucks. They won the Truck class in the Dakar Rally this year and lots of previous times. But these are the real workhorse trucks not the racers.


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## 056 kid (Feb 16, 2010)

SHEEP ####!!!!
Someone show them a jet boat!!


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## RandyMac (Feb 16, 2010)

Russians, nobody ever said they were weak.

Did you know that Russians were some of the first white men to log Redwoods? Google "Fort Ross"


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## forestryworks (Feb 16, 2010)

vodka makes you a super logger... or just plain nuts


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## Johndirt82 (Feb 16, 2010)

At least someone in russia has a job. You think our economy isn't doin good. Look into theirs. Looks like they got a system that works for them. I doubt Id drive into the river like that but more power to'em for gettin her done. Wonder how many they loose doing that??!
Love the music too, perfect!


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## 056 kid (Feb 16, 2010)

I would like to learn more about the wide variety of people that flocked to the great frontier to get rich on gold & OG wood. I have herd that alot of us east coast rednecks went out there to make chips.

I have some Russian friends, Kolitwenzew is there last name. Great great people, easy going to. If they get steamed though, you had better watch it!!!!


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## dancan (Feb 16, 2010)

All I can say is ...WOW !! I want one of them !

Put a log loader and a front and rear winch on that thing and you'd the Swiss Army Knife of the logging world !
Hats off to the guy that climbs out of the cab to be a human counter balance .


Nice find Lorax


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## 2dogs (Feb 16, 2010)

Here is some more Rusky off-road.
http://www.wimp.com/extremeoffroad/


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## Oldtimer (Feb 16, 2010)

I'm guessing there's no "EPA" over there...


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## Curlycherry1 (Feb 16, 2010)

Those are good Russian workers. Strong like bull! Smart like tractor!


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## 371groundie (Feb 16, 2010)

old fart logger told me once, "wood dont grow where it can't be got."
his skidder didnt have any paint left on the roof it had been rolled so many times. he stopped working alone long ago. he worked with another guy and they each had thier own landing, and divided up the woodlot, each had thier own area. it was cheaper to have another skidder on the job to put the other back on its wheels then to haul one in specifically for the purpose.


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## cuznguido (Feb 16, 2010)

Turned my first skidder over 44 years ago. Figured out real quick where the real danger is and just learned to stay within that envelope, so to speak. Haven't turned over too many since then, but I have managed to walk away from them all. Knock on wood. I have also had the good fortune to meet a couple of real live Russians over the years. About as likable fellas as you ever want to meet. Tough as nails and twice as fearless. Seeing them in action in that video was cool, but not surprising.


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## matt9923 (Feb 16, 2010)

I don't know how they made it with the trucks, i second no EPA


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## BuddhaKat (Feb 16, 2010)

cuznguido said:


> Turned my first skidder over 44 years ago. Figured out real quick where the real danger is and just learned to stay within that envelope, so to speak. Haven't turned over too many since then, but I have managed to walk away from them all. Knock on wood. I have also had the good fortune to meet a couple of real live Russians over the years. About as likable fellas as you ever want to meet. Tough as nails and twice as fearless. Seeing them in action in that video was cool, but not surprising.


They remind me of how tough loggers were in the 'old' days over here in the USA. I'm a tough enough guy, but I wouldn't tackle what they're doing at all. I bet the injury rate is really high in their industry.

Russians are an extremely practical people. Reminds me of the story about how NASA spent millions of dollars on developing a pen that would write in zero gravity. The Russians just brought a pencil. The guy that jumped on the front of the truck appeared to just take it in stride.


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## 056 kid (Feb 16, 2010)

I spend some hours running some TJs a 380 & a 450. I remember the first time I ever sat in one was cause my boss had his 450 about 10 degrees from vertical, he went off the skid road trying to bring up a healthy red oak. I was pretty tense there to say the least. since then I have gotten comfortable doing regular skidder stiff. but i have also done stuff that made my heart beat too fast. Dropping the blade even with the road, cranking the wheel, & getting that crazy feeling when the cab tilts hard own the hill. I had to drop off a road in order to get to a bunch of timber that the ####er that had my place skipped over. im sure it was the skidder driver that told him to skip over that cause "he couldnt get it" so It is not entirely his fault. I would drop off the road, shove/slide my way down a distance, hoot to the rimber to the right, pull it across the hill, try & track across & down the hill then drop down in to the FS road which the landing was on. Dropping on to that road was pretty much like driving the skidder off a ledge and landing on the blade & front tires to of the blade was all the way up, well, it was, bout a 9 foot cut to accomodate the road.. I have NEVER been that scared running my saw, & the adrenaline high is no where near as good as when falling timber.

Bosses brother told me a story about the boss man rolling a skidder down the hill only to land right side up on a lower road. He said that he never let off, just kept on. haha I could see him doing that kind of stuff. i have seen him do so mucn crazy stuff on a skidder & a D5l that I could fill 6 pages.


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## Wilson_tree (Feb 17, 2010)

That video makes me wonder what it would be like to work in a less developed nation. What has more value, the load of logs, the truck, or the human being driving it?


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## joesawer (Feb 18, 2010)

BuddhaKat said:


> They remind me of how tough loggers were in the 'old' days over here in the USA. I'm a tough enough guy, but I wouldn't tackle what they're doing at all. I bet the injury rate is really high in their industry.
> 
> Russians are an extremely practical people. Reminds me of the story about how NASA spent millions of dollars on developing a pen that would write in zero gravity. The Russians just brought a pencil. The guy that jumped on the front of the truck appeared to just take it in stride.





Just in my life time in the south east it has changed drastically. There used to be a lot of rough people in the industry. 
I remember short trucks, C-60 or F-600 with a dead tandem welded on them. Sometimes loaded with as much as a tractor trailer can legally haul now. I have seen several tipped up.
I have seen one logger leaving the wood yard and another going to the yard stop their trucks get out and fight for a while and then get back in their trucks and go to work.
We used to play rougher than a lot of people fight. But we used to laugh and have a good time often also. I can clearly remember the last time I was on a job that we laughed much. It is memorable because I can't remember the one before.
I don't think I like this kinder gentler world. It might be safer for more people but the quality of life sucks.


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## Beaver eager (Feb 19, 2010)

I'm not sure what the big deal is....thats considered a "class 6" road over there.


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## Slamm (Feb 19, 2010)

Neat stuff. I'm amazed that the logs don't just fall off of the trucks. Notice that they don't even strap them on the trucks.

I too wonder about the value of logs vs truck vs human?????

The logs can't be worth more than $1,000 to maybe $3,000 TOPS........ so what is the truck worth??? You got to figure they screw up truck parts say every 20-30 trips?!! Surely.

What is the distance traveled to get those logs??

Do they go bankrupt if the truck flips over in the river and is a complete loss?

I would rather go across that river with a full load and be heavy, than empty and light.

I would like to see some numbers behind the economics of that particular logging operation, I believe I would have passed on that job, LOL, but then I'm 50/50 German and Swedish, LOL.

Sam


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## Turkeyslayer (Feb 19, 2010)

They are just washing the trucks in the river after driving through all that mud, way to keep'em lookin good boys!!


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## Curlycherry1 (Feb 19, 2010)

There is a logger in CNY with the nickname "Mudd McKetrich" because he will take on some really wet places. I watched him once log a woods near me where it was pretty wet and so the forester set it up so old Mudd could use the farm paths along the sides of the woods to enter, pick up his logs and then make one haul out down the center of the woods pulling load, out across about 1000' of pasture and stop at a landing next to the road. 

He started that job in the dead of winter and by ~day 2 he was through the snow and frost and into the mud on that center road. By the third week he was so far down with that skidder that when he came out across that field all you could see was the top of that skidder cab. He had a rut ~15' wide and ~6-10' deep. The bottom ~2' was filled with soup mud and he would just push a big tidal wave of the soup in front of him and his load and it would splash up onto the field and freeze. He ran a trash type sump pump in there at night to keep it from filling in with too much water.

When he was done that road became a stream in the spring and the woods dried out considerably because all his paths in drained into that main straight path down the center.

His skidder looked like someone poured a bucket of mud over it from one end to the other. Whoever bought his logs must have been pretty desperate because they were all solid brown on the outside.


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## Pierreg (Feb 20, 2010)

*Waterlogs*

Typical Russian showoffs.


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## ihookem (Mar 2, 2010)

No EPA there, but there was an EPA there. Those are deliverence boys out there and EPA can't figure out why half don't come back and the other half won't talk about it. Can't figure out why they don't cut in summer and haul in winter.


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## skyhigh (Mar 3, 2010)

alot of illegal logging going on in russia from what i hear. i wonder if those boys are legit?


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## Curlycherry1 (Mar 3, 2010)

ihookem said:


> Can't figure out why they don't cut in summer and haul in winter.



They do. A few years ago the winter was particulary mild in that part of the world and that kept them out of the woods. The price of baltic birch plywood went through the roof. BB plywood is made in that part of the world and is used in cabinet cases here in the US. The price went from about $38/sheet to around 70 for a while.


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## fatjoe (Mar 3, 2010)

Bottom line.Awsome video, them dudes got some big cojones.Very impressive.I wonder if Vodka is drunk during working hours.I know in some cultures, drinking during the work day is no big deal.I`ve heard that some of the steelworkers who use to build skyscrapers back in the day use to drink during their work day.I`m not sure if it`s true or not, but them dudes had some big ones too.Real men.


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## Slamm (Mar 3, 2010)

cuznguido said:


> Turned my first skidder over 44 years ago. Figured out real quick where the real danger is and just learned to stay within that envelope, so to speak. Haven't turned over too many since then, but I have managed to walk away from them all. Knock on wood. I have also had the good fortune to meet a couple of real live Russians over the years. About as likable fellas as you ever want to meet. Tough as nails and twice as fearless. Seeing them in action in that video was cool, but not surprising.



I own 2 540B's and I have never flipped one in 5 years of steep hill work. I have had to use the winch to "bring' R back" from just about flipping. That being said I get these machines on 2-3 wheels all the time in the "right" ground.

Keep your blade low.

Sam


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## JDCOMPACTMAN (Mar 3, 2010)

:jawdrop::jawdrop::jawdrop:


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## Gologit (Mar 3, 2010)

Slamm said:


> I own 2 540B's and I have never flipped one in 5 years of steep hill work. I have had to use the winch to "bring' R back" from just about flipping. That being said I get these machines on 2-3 wheels all the time in the "right" ground.
> 
> Keep your blade low.
> 
> Sam



There's two kinds of skidder drivers...those who have laid one over, and those who will. Don't ask me how I know this.


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## wvlogger (Mar 16, 2010)

I would love to say i would do that, But i would be scared as #### if i got in that water and my truck started floating. Raising front ends off the ground is no new thing to me. My hats off to them boys


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## logging22 (Mar 16, 2010)

Flippin skidders and hauling logs. Only way to get it done. Hats off to those Ruskies.


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## J35 (Mar 17, 2010)

*WE Don't care*

I believe the song with that vidio says it all , "WE Don't Care"

Neat stuff all around.

Have fun--- Jim


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## ryan_marine (Mar 17, 2010)

More than a set of stones. We do some crazie stuff on our John Deere tractors but I would never attempt that one.

Ray


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