# Big Dog's Yarder



## Dennis Gauge

Just watched the re-run of the introduction of Big Dog Logging.

Mike Pihl leased them an old yarder that's on an old Link-Belt chassis with open chain final drives.

The announcer says the machine is 33 years old... Is that for real? 

33 years would be 1979, which I would think is pretty modern. We surely evolved past open chain drives by then, right? There's no way that loader was only 33 years old.


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## redheadwoodshed

Dennis Gauge said:


> Just watched the re-run of the introduction of Big Dog Logging.
> 
> Mike Pihl leased them an old yarder that's on an old Link-Belt chassis with open chain final drives.
> 
> The announcer says the machine is 33 years old... Is that for real?
> 
> 33 years would be 1979, which I would think is pretty modern. We surely evolved past open chain drives by then, right? There's no way that loader was only 33 years old.



I don't know much about yarders, but equipment that old is pretty common, still running.


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## 8433jeff

Dennis Gauge said:


> Just watched the re-run of the introduction of Big Dog Logging.
> 
> Mike Pihl leased them an old yarder that's on an old Link-Belt chassis with open chain final drives.
> 
> The announcer says the machine is 33 years old... Is that for real?
> 
> 33 years would be 1979, which I would think is pretty modern. We surely evolved past open chain drives by then, right? There's no way that loader was only 33 years old.



Not necessarily. Remember who owns the thing, and because the machine is that old doesn't mean he didn't use older parts or gearboxes when rigging it up.

Construction equipment moved quite fast in the period from mid seventies to mid late eighties. Many outdated designs drove parent companies under or into obscurity. Link belt was a minor player then, even less so afterwards, and others like Komatsu were barely known and became giants quickly. Fringe or low unit (specialty) designs like logging equipment would follow major designs like dirt movers slowly unless some innovation obsoleted it all together.


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## Quacker152

Watched the new one last night.
Notice they said over and over about "one" guy cable holding the yarder from "tumbling off the hill".
Then they have a camera mounted on top of the yarder pole watching the "bad" cable. #30 years old?
I would have reworked the cable if it is that important! Then the cable starts breaking, just happened to have the camera watching for it???? Levi in the way to get hit by it??? 
All a bunch of TV bs!!!!
Got to have something happen at each site to make the show interesting for dumbasses,,,,, like me.:hmm3grin2orange::hmm3grin2orange:


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## Jkebxjunke

I think I would have figured a way to put a second cable on there.. for redundancy.... which is cheaper... a life or a cable?


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## Sport Faller

Jkebxjunke said:


> I think I would have figured a way to put a second cable on there.. for redundancy.... which is cheaper... a life or a cable?



I was told that back in the day, around here the Link Belt with one cable was a pretty common and relatively safe setup, they also didn't use cable that looked like it was salvaged off the Titanic


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## 2dogs

You might try asking this question on heavyequipmentforums.com in the Forestry Equipment thread.


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## Wolfcsm

Looked to me that the cable was about half the diameter needed to hold the yarder when it was hauling the size loads they were attempting. They were also putting more and more of a load - seemingly without understanding that there was a limit to what their equipment would hold.

Hal


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## 8433jeff

Which lends a lot of credence to the thought it was done for TV purposes.


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## sawbones

Having worked around those rigs for a few years its obvious the show is done for TV and if they manage to drag a few logs in thats cool too.

You cant just haul out a machine that has sat for 10 or 20 years and go log with it without an experienced crew.

I started logging in 1973 and by 74 I was running a similar yarder-shovel for Simpson Timber out of Shelton wa. about 100 miles south of were Rygard logs.

The yarder I ran most was identical to the pic below. It was a Washington Trackloader but dont remember the model #.

If we did tye it off we used an anchor on the center of the machine so it would still spin to drop the turn to the side for the shovel or skidder to clear the deck.

If we had to load logs we used tongs because it took too long to rerig for the grapples. I spent some time shucking tongs and second loading while working there too.

All our shows with this machine were high lead and not shotgun style like they are doing so it wasnt really nessesary to use a guide wire and the Washington is quite a bit bigger than their link Belt.

They ran about 8 or 9 diferrent sides out of Camp Govey in those days. Most were Skagit towers running shotgun uphill logging sides or slackline down hill. We also had a few spar tree sides with roll around Skagit triple drums . 

Those were the days,, now yur loggin 

ric


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## Jkebxjunke

sawbones said:


> Having worked around those rigs for a few years its obvious the show is done for TV and if they manage to drag a few logs in thats cool too.
> 
> You cant just haul out a machine that has sat for 10 or 20 years and go log with it without an experienced crew.
> 
> I started logging in 1973 and by 74 I was running a similar yarder-shovel for Simpson Timber out of Shelton wa. about 100 miles south of were Rygard logs.
> 
> The yarder I ran most was identical to the pic below. It was a Washington Trackloader but dont remember the model #.
> 
> If we did tye it off we used an anchor on the center of the machine so it would still spin to drop the turn to the side for the shovel or skidder to clear the deck.
> 
> If we had to load logs we used tongs because it took too long to rerig for the grapples. I spent some time shucking tongs and second loading while working there too.
> 
> All our shows with this machine were high lead and not shotgun style like they are doing so it wasnt really nessesary to use a guide wire and the Washington is quite a bit bigger than their link Belt.
> 
> They ran about 8 or 9 diferrent sides out of Camp Govey in those days. Most were Skagit towers running shotgun uphill logging sides or slackline down hill. We also had a few spar tree sides with roll around Skagit triple drums .
> 
> Those were the days,, now yur loggin
> 
> ric




and now adays OSHA would #### themselves seeing a guy ride the logs like that....


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## axeman73

Dennis Gauge said:


> Just watched the re-run of the introduction of Big Dog Logging.
> 
> Mike Pihl leased them an old yarder that's on an old Link-Belt chassis with open chain final drives.
> 
> The announcer says the machine is 33 years old... Is that for real?
> 
> 33 years would be 1979, which I would think is pretty modern. We surely evolved past open chain drives by then, right? There's no way that loader was only 33 years old.



Yes thats a modified crane based on the linkbelt speeder line an LS98 and most cranes still ran outer drive chains till almost the end of the 80s early 90s the speeder combinations were a crane, cable hoe, dragline, mag crane,clamshell,log loader and some others I operated an old speeder and they were great machines


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## Sport Faller

Jkebxjunke said:


> and now adays OSHA would #### themselves seeing a guy ride the logs like that....



riding in on the turn pretty much means that your nuts are big enough to where you have trouble walking...... and that your brain is small enough to where you have trouble feeding yourself and wiping after you take a crap


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## Winchester356

What was wrong with Big guns yarder last night? They called the mechanic out and he looked at it but I didnt hear what he said to them.


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## russhd1997

Winchester356 said:


> What was wrong with Big guns yarder last night? They called the mechanic out and he looked at it but I didnt hear what he said to them.



The fuel tank was empty!!! The idiots were putting the fuel into some other tank in the yarder.


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## c5rulz

russhd1997 said:


> The fuel tank was empty!!! The idiots were putting the fuel into some other tank in the yarder.



So where did the fuel go they dumped into it. It certainly can't be good.


Second, if they ran the diesel out of fuel. Wouldn't it be difficult to start since the old ones weren't self bleeding? I believe it would require a mechanic to bleed the lines and get it going.


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## powerking

...what were they doing ..adding a gallon at a time somewhere's else on the machine? Cmon, There just getting silly now!


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## c5rulz

powerking said:


> ...what were they doing ..adding a gallon at a time somewhere's else on the machine? Cmon, There just getting silly now!



Exactly,

The tank must hold enough to run at least a whole 8-10 hour shift. So if you dumped 60 gallons in the wrong place, something would have to happen. Besides, there is nothing remotely resembling a fuel fill on a motor.:rolleyes2:


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## 8433jeff

powerking said:


> ...what were they doing ..adding a gallon at a time somewhere's else on the machine? Cmon, There just getting silly now!



You could fill the hydraulic tank, once, with enough fuel for a day, if the level was really low. That I could see, once. I haven't seen the new weeks show yet, and I wonder how many more I will watch.


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## sawbones

c5rulz said:


> So where did the fuel go they dumped into it. It certainly can't be good.
> 
> 
> Second, if they ran the diesel out of fuel. Wouldn't it be difficult to start since the old ones weren't self bleeding? I believe it would require a mechanic to bleed the lines and get it going.



 
But did you hear when they said the motor was knocking and maybe they blew it up ?


Thats means they hit it with Starting fluid when it was out of fuel.


BAAAAAAAAAAD news....... 

I would fire guys for using go juice especialy if there is no blue smoke out the exaust first.

You can also use WD40 to fire a cold deisel and wont seize a motor trying.


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## c5rulz

sawbones said:


> But did you hear when they said the motor was knocking and maybe they blew it up ?
> 
> 
> Thats means they hit it with Starting fluid when it was out of fuel.
> 
> 
> BAAAAAAAAAAD news.......
> 
> I would fire guys for using go juice especialy if there is no blue smoke out the exaust first.
> 
> You can also use WD40 to fire a cold deisel and wont seize a motor trying.





I never thought about them giving it a shot of ether. I would imagine that is a real no no on a warm motor that had been running.

None the less, Knocking can't be good.

So do we have to watch another week?:jester:


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## powerking

I really didn't hear any "out of the ordinary" knocking...I did a quick shot of the side of the block and I did see something wet there.......Good Call on using the WD40!! We used to use that on a lot of a large diesel Gen Sets


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## Winchester356

russhd1997 said:


> The fuel tank was empty!!! The idiots were putting the fuel into some other tank in the yarder.



Lol


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## K7NUT

Dennis Gauge said:


> Just watched the re-run of the introduction of Big Dog Logging.
> 
> Mike Pihl leased them an old yarder that's on an old Link-Belt chassis with open chain final drives.
> 
> The announcer says the machine is 33 years old... Is that for real?
> 
> 33 years would be 1979, which I would think is pretty modern. We surely evolved past open chain drives by then, right? There's no way that loader was only 33 years old.



Regardless of how "old" the Yarder is, if it's anchored with a cable to a D-8 or 9 for support, so you can get logs to the landing and make money, wouldn't you use a NEW cable to hold it?
Now I'm not a logger, I just cut for fire wood, but I think I would want MY backbone to be new, not old and freyed!?
But that's just me, I guess?


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## Redwood Climber

*It's all set up for dipsticks!*

You can believe very little of what you see on axemen. It is made for tv, for entertainment purposes. It is not a fact based show.Why do you think they had a camera on top of the boom, showing the guyline? Anyone with an experienced eye can see that the line was already stranded to begin with. Osha violations abound on that show, no one operates like that and makes money.

I love the show for the peeks at the equipment, but it is so far from reality, you can't call it reality tv. I could go on and on, but just beware of what you believe when it is on tv, much of it is not real...........


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## mryb

I'd like to see the Gieco pig go sliding down their guide line screaming "Weeeeeeeeeeeeee" to lighten up their day...


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## fubar2

I would have never followed the fuel lines to see which tank they led to when it is so much easier to pour it into the crankcase.


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## blackoak

I'm not much of an axman fan but did see the episode where they hooked a saw on the cable to haul it back up to the landing and it came loose and crashed to the ground and was destroyed and the fat guy threw a fit and started bashing what was left of it on the ground cursing and throwing a fit. Did anyone notice the saw was an old beat up Stihl junker 032 saw instead of a newer Stihl or Husky saw that is usually used. They are a bunch of dumb a$$'s making reality TV, but they were smart enough not to use a new MS 660 for that scene.


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## Dennis Gauge

mryb said:


> I'd like to see the Gieco pig go sliding down their guide line screaming "Weeeeeeeeeeeeee" to lighten up their day...



I just had a mental image of Loud Mouth Jimmy Buffoon sliding down the sky line holding two pinwheels screaming "WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Thanks, I must now gouge my eyes out.


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## brisawyer

If its an old 2 stroke detroit its very easy to get restarted. No hi pressure lines to bleed it has plunger style injectors. Lift pump supplies fuel around 50 psi to injectors. Cam pushes plunger on injector and hi pressure spray is made.


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## OlympicYJ

sawbones said:


> Having worked around those rigs for a few years its obvious the show is done for TV and if they manage to drag a few logs in thats cool too.
> 
> You cant just haul out a machine that has sat for 10 or 20 years and go log with it without an experienced crew.
> 
> I started logging in 1973 and by 74 I was running a similar yarder-shovel for Simpson Timber out of Shelton wa. about 100 miles south of were Rygard logs.
> 
> The yarder I ran most was identical to the pic below. It was a Washington Trackloader but dont remember the model #.
> 
> If we did tye it off we used an anchor on the center of the machine so it would still spin to drop the turn to the side for the shovel or skidder to clear the deck.
> 
> If we had to load logs we used tongs because it took too long to rerig for the grapples. I spent some time shucking tongs and second loading while working there too.
> 
> All our shows with this machine were high lead and not shotgun style like they are doing so it wasnt really nessesary to use a guide wire and the Washington is quite a bit bigger than their link Belt.
> 
> They ran about 8 or 9 diferrent sides out of Camp Govey in those days. Most were Skagit towers running shotgun uphill logging sides or slackline down hill. We also had a few spar tree sides with roll around Skagit triple drums .
> 
> Those were the days,, now yur loggin
> 
> ric




Good ole Govey... Ric did you stay on with Simpson or move on? Govey aint exactly my stompin grounds but Grisdale sure is!  That country between Govey and Grisdale is pretty rough. Heard tell guys from Alaska said they were never comin back when they left lol


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## Gologit

bigskyjake said:


> riding in on the turn pretty much means that your nuts are big enough to where you have trouble walking...... and that your brain is small enough to where you have trouble feeding yourself and wiping after you take a crap



Yeah, but it beats walking. :msp_smile:


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## Winchester356

mryb said:


> I'd like to see the Gieco pig go sliding down their guide line screaming "Weeeeeeeeeeeeee" to lighten up their day...


Would rather see the Geico cave men out there working with some stone axes.


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## sawbones

OlympicYJ said:


> Good ole Govey... Ric did you stay on with Simpson or move on? Govey aint exactly my stompin grounds but Grisdale sure is!  That country between Govey and Grisdale is pretty rough. Heard tell guys from Alaska said they were never comin back when they left lol





I spent about a year and a half at Govey, 74-75, then came back north and logged a few years local before switching to dirt work.


Found this cool book about Simpson Timber Shelton opp's shutting down in 85.


An identical shovel yarder like I ran.







Camp Govey, 1985






Book cover.


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## OlympicYJ

Right on. Yea my old man has the Grisdale book too. Grew up readin that lol


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