# Yo-yo-ing a Cat



## Gologit (Sep 25, 2007)

This is definitely a left coast thing but I don't have all the details. I overheard two old time Cat skinners (and I mean from the old hand crank pony motor era) the other day, both retired and both a little drunk, arguing about the best way to yo-yo a Cat.
From what I could gather between the beer slurs and the Sandinavian accents it involves two Cats hooked together with a long bull line. They take turns dropping each other over a steep bank or a sidehill. One Cat hooks his winch line to the other Cat's blade and lowers him down. The downside Cat grabs a turn of logs and the upside Cat helps pull him back up. I've never seen this done but I sure would like to.
Maybe John Ellison or 'Slingr or some of the other left coast loggers can tell me more about this. 
I didn't get to hear the whole conversation because they got 86ed from the VFW for being too rowdy before I could get all the details.


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## John Ellison (Sep 25, 2007)

Can't say anything there. I never been around much cat logging.


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## joesawer (Sep 25, 2007)

I have seen it done back east on private land.
Here in CA they wont let us put a tractor on ground that steep.


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## IchWarriorMkII (Oct 4, 2007)

Have not seen it done with skidders, but I've seen a D9 or two chained off to an excavator and lowered over a hill. Not sure at all what sort of math goes into that... but if I was the goon in the excavator, I'd sure have a steady hand on the controls!


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## cantcutter (Oct 16, 2007)

He is talking about dozers.....catskinners are dozer operators..... big dozers are used out west because the can cut the roads in and skid the trees out.

Never seen it done, but I used to drive a 6x6 concrete mixer and had a job once on a hill side that they had to put a dozer behind me so I could back straight down the hill.....when I was done pouring the footer the dozer pushed me back up to the street.


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## slowp (Oct 30, 2007)

This isn't yoyoing, and I think somebody already mentioned it. I just read an article in Timber West magazine about a Forks, WA logger flying his cat across a creek or river? using a Berger Mark VI yarder. I guess the alternative was helicopter log it. He said they saved $60/mbf by not going helicopter and using the yarder. It is supposed to be on You Tube somewhere but I only have dial up so can't stand watching it. They also said they only found one stump big enough to tie back on. That might be a problem nowadays.


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## 2FatGuys (Oct 30, 2007)

Here is the video mentioned above:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ex_PJCPI49w

Enjoy...


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## mysawmyrules (Oct 30, 2007)

Your old guys speak the truth. We used it to pull oilfield equipment up and lower them down hills that you almost couldn't walk down or pack enough winch line to do it in one shot so line from the back of one cat to the front of the next and his line tied to the truck truck drives over ledge and gets winched over until he runs out of line then the 2nd lets line out and lets the other cat down tied to the truck and when they both run out of line the two cats start walking down. Repeat up the other side. We used wide pad 6's and 7's. All winter ice roads.


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## Old Monkey (Oct 31, 2007)

My Grand father used to be a catskinner. I've heard it told by my mom that he kept it hush hush when they did yoyo cat work so my Grandma wouldn't get angry. I'll ask my mom about it next time I talk to her. As I understood it they used that technique working on the steep ground making some of the reservoirs in California. Grandpa worked on the Bullards bar dam and the Oroville dam.


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## BMO (Oct 31, 2007)

It's been 30 years since I worked in the oil fields or pipe lines.I had seen some pretty amazing things done by the cat skinners to get a job done. Pipe liners were to me anyway, the most professional ,courageous and most drunk operators I ever worked with. ( maybe not drunk, but certainly drank all workday long.) This tread brought back a lot of memories


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## Al Smith (Oct 31, 2007)

boboak said:


> This is definitely a left coast thing but I don't have all the details. I overheard two old time Cat skinners (and I mean from the old hand crank pony motor era) the other day,


 Geeze the only Cat's I have are pony start.

I've never done,don't have the seeds for it plus live on level ground.I ve heard but never seen using a huge snatch block ,tied on the blade ,anchored to an immovable object,such as a 4 foot oak .Run the winch line to the pulling machine via the block ,and anchor.Gives an additional 2 to one pull. Most of the early machines such as a 2T series D4 or 3T series D7 didn't have enough guts to pull themselves let alone a heavy load up a real steep slope.

The catskinners that do pipeline work comment about it .They are as nutty as timber skidders.


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## mysawmyrules (Oct 31, 2007)

We work on alot of muskeg and to drop a cat or a camp shack through was something that happened. The first 7 I ran had a sling on the canopy and that was no big deal but when I asked why the 3, 5 gallon pails tied to the center eye I was told it was to keep the sling floating so they can get tied onto it, made for an uneasy first time on muskeg but this problem led to latching two cats back to back by there winch lines. The operator with the biggest stones walked his cat first and winch your way out onto the questionable ground and if it starts to sink both winches and cats in gear and get the heck out. It's a shame we never had a camera around I'll try to find some pics.


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## Al Smith (Oct 31, 2007)

On one forum that I visit I've seen crawlers swamped up the stack.The worst I ever did was put one into to the floor boards.When the fan was throwing water on me I decided I must have kept at it too long.Two days,another dozer,300 feet of cable and a wrecker later it got retrieved.I decided at that point in time that a crawler really won't exactly go everywhere.Life,they say,is a learning process.


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## LarryTheCableGuy (Oct 31, 2007)

We do it here with our SnowCats for grooming the ski slopes. It's standard procedure for some of the steeper runs - a single cat with a winchline to an immovable object.

I remember a night a couple of winters ago when it was snowing like a MoFo and yes, we were _making_ snow that night. Not quite sure why, but we were. It was a pretty tough night for everyone on the hill.

The grooming supervisor BURIED his SnowCat halfway down our steepest run on a flat area, was running out of diesel and the batteries on his handheld radio were going dead and he was getting coooold...

Meanwhile, we are making more snow for some friggin reason. The intake air filters on our six Centac air compressors (1500hp EACH) kept clogging with snow/ice so we were out there on icy ladders in the dark, changing out eight filter panels per compressor while getting hammered by snow slides off of the roof.

The General Manager, who gave the order to make more snow, was warm and cozy in bed at home...

 


.


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## Gologit (Nov 1, 2007)

Al Smith said:


> Geeze the only Cat's I have are pony start.
> 
> I've never done,don't have the seeds for it plus live on level ground.I ve heard but never seen using a huge snatch block ,tied on the blade ,anchored to an immovable object,such as a 4 foot oak .Run the winch line to the pulling machine via the block ,and anchor.Gives an additional 2 to one pull. Most of the early machines such as a 2T series D4 or 3T series D7 didn't have enough guts to pull themselves let alone a heavy load up a real steep slope.
> 
> The catskinners that do pipeline work comment about it .They are as nutty as timber skidders.



LOL...The 3T 7s could have used a little more grunt but they sure sounded good. If you wanted to know where the skidding was going on all you had to do was listen. If noise was a measure of horsepower they could have pulled anything you hooked them too. Probably why most of the oldtime Catskinners were deaf as posts.
The new Cats sound like oven timers going off.


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## Al Smith (Nov 2, 2007)

You think those old duffers are loud pulling heavy,swamp one sometime.That big ole 4 banger will run so slow you can count the rpm's.Spin the tracks about one full revolution and the dozer sinks about a foot or more.

I'm a slow learner,it took several lessons of cross chaining ties to the tracks to walk them out before it dawned on me.


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## turnkey4099 (Nov 2, 2007)

boboak said:


> LOL...The 3T 7s could have used a little more grunt but they sure sounded good. If you wanted to know where the skidding was going on all you had to do was listen. If noise was a measure of horsepower they could have pulled anything you hooked them too. Probably why most of the oldtime Catskinners were deaf as posts.
> The new Cats sound like oven timers going off.



Ah yes, that sound. Best heard from a distance. I loved the 'bark' as the governor opened. You are right, the new ones all that is heard is turbo whine. 

As for yo-yo: There was a couple good shots of it on, I think the History Channel, about constructing the Alaska pipeline, particulary the segment of going over the Chugach mountains.

I got to watch it done from a HS classroom in Orofino Id while they were logging the canyon wall across from town....hm, maybe that was the cause of the F in that class?

Harry K


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