# skid steers and tree shears



## stumpjumper83 (Dec 9, 2008)

Looking at setting up a skid steer to do timber stand improvement in North Central Pa. Here is the unit I'm looking at. 

http://www.treeshears.com/timberwolf14/default.htm

Question are as follows. 

Does anyone else own or run one? 

How do they work in frozen hard maple?

What do I need to figgure for maintence and operating costs?

Right now I have a jd 450c trackloader that I could mount it on, but its getting older and it has a nice backhoe that attaches to it, so I wanna keep it around the house / farm rather than on someone else's wood patch.

So I figgured I'd get a gehl ctl80 / tachuchi tl-150 for the feller work. I really would prefer to run a steel undercarriage though. Other options are attaching in to a forestry package small wheel loader, or maybe a rayco forestry machine...

What do you all think?


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## JohnH (Dec 10, 2008)

We run one and like it a lot. We run it on a 4810 ASV and a c87L Rayco. The rayco will cut circles around the asv. Our shear is the older model of what your showing. That one Your looking at works better than our older style. We have cut a LOT of wood with ours with no trouble. 

Hope this helps
John


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## sawinredneck (Dec 10, 2008)

I'd like to add to really watch the weight!! Maples can branch out a lot, and any tree can weigh more than you think! I wouldn't take much top weight to set a skid steer up on it's nose!
Shears can e VERY productive, and I doubt frozen would slow them down a bit.


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## Cletuspsc (Dec 10, 2008)

We run one very similar to that i think its an older model its mounted on an ASV rc100 with the forestry package. does a very good job for what its designed to do. one suggestion i would make is what ever you get make sure you or the manufacture puts a good ROPS/forestry type protection on it. as careful as you can be youll end up smackin in to another tree or snag some time or-another. we also have a three wheeled and a track style bell super T's with an 18in shear on one and a 20 inch dangle head saw on the other. you can find them pritty cheep and they are real nice on flatter ground. but i dont know how long term your work would be as one would be a pritty long term investment


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## JohnH (Dec 10, 2008)

Thoes Bell fellers are great machines. I know a few guys around here use them and love them.


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## 371groundie (Dec 10, 2008)

if you want any saw log quality material i would go with a saw head. a shear will screw up as much as four feet of good wood. if youre just getting pulp, biomass, or firewood it wont make a difference. 

those bobcat type machines really thrash the operator around. i knew a guy who wore a bicycle helmet in the cab to keep from bashing his head off the windows.


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## thansen (Dec 10, 2008)

I run a 14" dymax timber wolf with accumulator on my Bobcat T300 track loader. It has been a great tool for us. Terrian is the biggest limiting factor for us around here, it just gets to steep and rough sometimes to try shearing tall trees. But it saves us a ton of time on the places that we can use it. I have had both types of shears, the ones that just cut the tree letting it fall toward the side of the machine and this timberwolf. You can check my website for some photos of ours in use if you want.
www.firelinefps.com


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## Wiredp (Dec 10, 2008)

You have a real professional website hansen. I liked to see that your pictures demonstrated chap wearing so that home owners might notice and either do their own research or ask questions of you.


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## stumpjumper83 (Dec 11, 2008)

The sites will have slope to them, some significantly, so Bell is out... so are ruber tired loaders. You make a good point, the machine has to stay under operating capacity with head and tree. 

The trees will be used for biomass, so if a shear can do the dirty deed, that will be fine. The chips will come from low grade stuff being trimmed out, and undesirable species, as well as tops from previous log jobs.

Production goals for the set up should be in the 55k ton per year range. 

I have been dealing with an equipment salesman is trying to steer me towards a timberpro feller buncher w/ a quadco saw head. Associated equipment being a morbark 40/36 chipper, and two grapple skidders. He says that setup is capable of 110k ton per year, about twice what I need. His equipment list costs about 1 mil. for setup.

So now I need to downsize his equipment list by 50%. Thats where a rayco cl100 was coming in. for larger trees, I'll just use my stihl 460. Then I still need to skid stuff, so I figgured I'd get one full size graple skidder, then armor up a 90hp 4x4 farm tractor and put a graple on the back of that. As far as the chipper goes, I really like the looks of that table fed morbark drum chipper, maybe i can use a 30/36 or maybe I'll have to find something else, what do you all think?


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## hammerlogging (Dec 11, 2008)

Just a thought, but I suspect that the cutter you propose will not be able to feed the grapple skidder fast enough, except on long drags. Consider this, a harwarder- timberpro forwarder with a dangle head, combined with a small logging dozer for roads, closeout, and winching to as needed. I'm going to always lean toward logging specific equipment though, its tough out there.


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## stumpjumper83 (Dec 14, 2008)

the salesman is telling me that a feller buncher will burry two graple skidders... Not sure on the rayco for productivity...


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## hvy 1ton (Dec 15, 2008)

I have an older Dymax shear(same guys) and I use in thinning and clearing with a JD 260. The shear is really well built, but make sure you keep it out of rocks. The best thing is being able to carry and stack waste wood in burn piles.


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## BERN-TIMBER (Jan 22, 2009)

*biomass in PA*

Hey I am new to the site and all but I have worked around plenty of logging and chipping jobs and I think you need to run some quick numbers. If you want to do 55000 tons a year, at a legal load rate in PA of 25 tons per load, that equates to 2200 loads per year. Now if you work 250 days a year that means you need to be producing 8.8, essentially 9 van loads a day. Now you figure in time lost hunting timber to cut, moving equipment, or mudded out and you really should be averaging 10 loads per day when conditions are good. That is most likely way more wood than you want to be trying to cut with a skidsteer and skidding with one small skidder and a farm tractor. The unfortunate nature of the beast is that biomass is a whole lot of investment, a whole lot of work, and not a whole lot of money. If you had 110k tons a year for the next 10 years in stumpage and a market for all of it and trucks enough to haul a load off of you every half hour take the plunge on that timberpro and the two skidders. Then all of your equipment is properly sized for each other, whereas trying to stay small but wanting to produce big numbers means one piece of equipment will always be slowing down the others.


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## ASD (Jan 23, 2009)

+1


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## MALogger (Jan 25, 2009)

Hi,

I had a Bobcat 873 with a dymax head but I got rid of that a got a morbark wolverine with a shear. The benefit of the bobcat is it is a versatile machine which you can change attachments quickly. With that said it is a jack of all trades, master of none. The wolverine will out shear a skidsteer by a wide margin, work on rougher terrain. Form the production numbers you are looking for I am not sure a shear will do it. You may need to look at a hot saw.
Just my opinion.

Craig


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