# Haulers.



## Kiwilogger (Nov 5, 2006)

Hi there everyone. I drive a TTY 70 yarder in New Zealand. Anyone else here in hauler crews? 

Our TTY runs a 450hp turbo cat motor, 70 ft tower. 600 metres skyline, 700 main, 1400 tail, and a tagline too.

10 people in our crew, running a hot deck skid (no processors) all motor manual. We have a Komatsu D65 tractor for our backline tailhold (where we can) 2 Zaxis 270 loaders on the skid and we pump out about 1200 metric tonnes per week.

All we log is pine. Its pretty good where we are at the moment, running a scab skline system.


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## SWE#Kipp (Nov 5, 2006)

Kiwi some pictures please


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## Kiwilogger (Nov 5, 2006)




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## Kiwilogger (Nov 5, 2006)

The cockpit......


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## Kiwilogger (Nov 5, 2006)

One of the boys posing.... lmao


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## Kiwilogger (Nov 5, 2006)

The cutover......


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## Kiwilogger (Nov 5, 2006)

The tower.....


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## Kiwilogger (Nov 5, 2006)

Here its about 550 metres to the backline. We had the sky out here running a northbend system


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## a_lopa (Nov 5, 2006)

Thats some dangerous stuff!


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## Sprig (Nov 5, 2006)

Hey thanks for the pics, cool. Didn't even really dawn on me that you had forests over there (my duh factor), always sort of envisioned nice rolling fields covered in sheep. So I have a question or three for you. I notice you gents are clear-cutting your sections, is this standard practice there? Is this a tree farm/sustained forest or natural growth? Do you do corridors for wildlife (you do have wildlife?) and how do you deal with things like creeks? What, if any, errosion problems arise, looks pretty dry around there. Do these blocs get planted right away, seed naturally, do they introduce other species when they do plant or stick with what was there origionally? And oh, how big/old are the trees? They are getting used for lumber and pulp?
Dang, now I got myself all curious guess I'll do some googling as well lol, but it would be great to hear your take on things. My little sis spent some time down there a while ago working on Lord of the Rings and was very impressed with the people and over-all beauty of the place and I dream that one day I can travel down that-a-way and also to Tasmania to check out the rainforest there.



Serge


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## John Ellison (Nov 5, 2006)

Hello Kiwilogger, I enjoy your pictures. Very few hi-lead loggers around here.

Never seen a Thunderbird tower, the last one I was around was a swing machine. Is the tube telescopic or fixed? Are you able to use the skyline on a lot of settings? You have got almost all of it out at 550 m, bet you get a kick out of that. More pics if you can, would like to see your North Bend setup and a turn of logs coming in.
Also do they have to tie back the stumps when you cant use your mobil tailhold, or do they usually hold ok? Thanks again for the pics.


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## SWE#Kipp (Nov 5, 2006)

nice pictures !!!
keep em coming 

Most of the logging here in Sweden is done with a harvester and a forwarder !


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## DDM (Nov 5, 2006)

Dang that looks cool we need some video!


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## l2edneck (Nov 5, 2006)

Welcome to the site.Good pics!more more more!!!!!!! 

Stay safe


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## redwood logger (Nov 5, 2006)

*Hello fellow yarder man!*

Yes indeed Kiwi there are other yarder guys on this site. Things are a little different over here. We don't call them haulers, but yarders instead. I am the Hooktender (working foreman) of a seven man yarder crew. We use a Washington swing yarder with a 50ft tower. It holds 4600 feet of line, but I have had to long splice another 2000 feet on that before to reach across a canyon. We run a mechanical carriage, running skyline system. This may or may not make sense to you, since you seem to use totally different logging terms than I have heard before. Our machine is a little smaller then what you are using, but its the same game. I have been working on yarder crews for 10 years now, 8 of which were with Thunderbird yarders. I'm sure you will agree it is a very dangerous job, but when it gets in your blood you can't imagine doing anything else! I have a million other questions for you, but gotta go right now! Here is a picture of our Washington in action!


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## Ianab (Nov 5, 2006)

> So I have a question or three for you. I notice you gents are clear-cutting your sections, is this standard practice there? Is this a tree farm/sustained forest or natural growth?



The Radiata pine is an introduced tree thats plantation grown over a lot of NZ. I believe the biggest man made forest in the world. It would be grown on about a 25 year rotation, and often on land thats marginal for farming. Hence the use of the cable logging machines to harvest it in many areas.

NZ native wildlife is basically birds and bugs, no native land mammals, so wildlife like deer and goats are noxious pests and generally shot on sight. Native forest is mostly confined to parks and reserves, and a few privately owned areas of forest. The native trees are pretty low growing, long lived trees (400+ years to mature) so not many are harvested for timber any more. 

The land is generally replanted in pine right away, they get established and form a new forest quick enough that the old stumps hold the hills in place for long enough.

The trees would be 2-3' dbh after 25 years. Logs would be graded out and sent to various mills, pulp factory or exported, depending on grades and location. Logs from one tree could end up in 4 or 5 different mills, some 1/2 way around the world.

It's a different style of forestry to what you guys are probably used to, has more in common with growing corn as a crop, just takes a few more years to get to harvest.

Cheers

Ian


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## Sprig (Nov 5, 2006)

Thank you for the answers Ian, yes its certainly a bit of a different show up here in the North West, a lot of mismanagement over the years, entire mountain sides collapsing (our terrain is for the most part much steeper and higher by comparison), trashed fish bearing streams, massive habitat destruction, and appalling amounts of wastage. Forestry companies have been taken to task over much of this but in some of the northern areas away from people it continues, pretty sad what greed can do, our illustrious leaders have recently gutted some of the forestry practices codes and opened up areas that were previously protected, a real shame but for the most part it is all swinging around to sustainable yields management, too late in some places. I noticed from the posted pics is how amazingly clean the operation seems to be (could just be the mild blur of the images) which leads me to believe that you folks are a lot more conscious about waste, good on ya. In many spots around the province, including the region where I live, they are logging 3rd and 4th growth, mostly fast growing hem/fir varieties, 35-45yrs old seems to be optimum size wise. After several bouts of massive forest fires over the years people are starting to wake up about leaving so much slash on the ground, about time too but unfortunately many of our laws lack real teeth and will continue that way as long as the gov't gets its cut. Oh well, blathered enough here for now, thanks again for the information.



Serge


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## Kiwilogger (Nov 6, 2006)

Sprig said:


> Hey thanks for the pics, cool. Didn't even really dawn on me that you had forests over there (my duh factor), always sort of envisioned nice rolling fields covered in sheep. So I have a question or three for you. I notice you gents are clear-cutting your sections, is this standard practice there? Is this a tree farm/sustained forest or natural growth? Do you do corridors for wildlife (you do have wildlife?) and how do you deal with things like creeks? What, if any, errosion problems arise, looks pretty dry around there. Do these blocs get planted right away, seed naturally, do they introduce other species when they do plant or stick with what was there origionally? And oh, how big/old are the trees? They are getting used for lumber and pulp?
> Dang, now I got myself all curious guess I'll do some googling as well lol, but it would be great to hear your take on things. My little sis spent some time down there a while ago working on Lord of the Rings and was very impressed with the people and over-all beauty of the place and I dream that one day I can travel down that-a-way and also to Tasmania to check out the rainforest there.
> 
> 
> ...




Hiya Serge. The pines we are harvesting are 25 years old with a piece size of 2 metric tonnes. That means we are getting 2 tonnes of logs loaded out per stem dragged up the hill. We waste nearly nothing here, our pulp goes down to 100mm (4") cut face on SED and as bent as you like. We also have "binwood" which is the rubbish etc that we cut out to get a higher grade log. A lot of our higher grade stuff is local trade, pretty much all the pruned logs, and all of the sawlogs with a SED >12" and knot size <3" go to a local mill.

In terms of environmental stuff, our creeks have to be cleaned out, and signed off as "ok" by a certified person. We aren't allowed to do any earthworks etc because of erosion.


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## Kiwilogger (Nov 6, 2006)

redwood logger said:


> Yes indeed Kiwi there are other yarder guys on this site. Things are a little different over here. We don't call them haulers, but yarders instead. I am the Hooktender (working foreman) of a seven man yarder crew. We use a Washington swing yarder with a 50ft tower. It holds 4600 feet of line, but I have had to long splice another 2000 feet on that before to reach across a canyon. We run a mechanical carriage, running skyline system. This may or may not make sense to you, since you seem to use totally different logging terms than I have heard before. Our machine is a little smaller then what you are using, but its the same game. I have been working on yarder crews for 10 years now, 8 of which were with Thunderbird yarders. I'm sure you will agree it is a very dangerous job, but when it gets in your blood you can't imagine doing anything else! I have a million other questions for you, but gotta go right now! Here is a picture of our Washington in action!



Hi there redwoodlogger, we use a motorised skycar carriage on occasion too, and a shotgun carriage as well. I learnt to drive haulers on a tty45 Thunderbird, a similar size to your Washington,- 45ft lattice tower. I have never driven a swinger before, but, the reality is that they aren't as versatile for our terrain, and the distances we reach to. Although where we are at the moment running scab skyline, it would be absolutely cream with a swing yarder and interlock.

I love haulers, they are great, I love the sound of that 6cylinder cat turbo screaming, pulling 3x 3tonne logs up the hill in 3rd gear, full throttle.... yeeeeeeeehaaaaa....... :hmm3grin2orange:


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## Kiwilogger (Nov 6, 2006)

John Ellison said:


> Hello Kiwilogger, I enjoy your pictures. Very few hi-lead loggers around here.
> 
> Never seen a Thunderbird tower, the last one I was around was a swing machine. Is the tube telescopic or fixed? Are you able to use the skyline on a lot of settings? You have got almost all of it out at 550 m, bet you get a kick out of that. More pics if you can, would like to see your North Bend setup and a turn of logs coming in.
> Also do they have to tie back the stumps when you cant use your mobil tailhold, or do they usually hold ok? Thanks again for the pics.




Hiya John. 

The tower is telescopic and we use the skyline on almost all of the settings. At 550metres out, we had to have a 50 metre extension on the sky so we can get slack and bridle it across for line shifts. We tie back (almost) EVERY stump for the skyline, its just simple, no mistakes and dragging 1 1/4 steel rope up the hill if a stump pulls. Its only an extra 15min work to put 4-5 wraps of strawline on as a tieback. Its anything up to 2 hours to remedy a pulled stump. Not to mention the blood and sweat lost. The tailrope stumps are only ever tied back if they are suspect. Hardly ever tie back the non working side of the tail.

I will post some more pics in a week or two. Just getting a camera. The ones you see are taken from my phone, so thats why they are pretty poor quality.

Cheers....


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## Kiwilogger (Nov 6, 2006)

a_lopa said:


> Thats some dangerous stuff!



nah, dangerous is relative mate. 

Use your head, play by the rules and you're safe. We have not had a LTI (lost time injury) in our crew since I have worked there.


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## redwood logger (Nov 6, 2006)

*Logging In Redwood Country*

I could not agree more pulling in heavy turns is a great high. here in the redwoods we get to pull real hard, as its not uncommon to pull in a log 8 feet in diameter and 20 feet long. we have the same cat turbo engine in our Washington. Its common to have a single log that you cant pull in 3rd gear. On a few occasions we have used 1st gear to move a big one, but if 2nd gear wont move it you are better off ripping it in half, since im sure you know 1st gear will break any, and every cable you have. Thats action! Our log trucks haul 40 tons legally. On a good day we will log 20 loads or 800 tons as you would say. We have clickers in the yarder cab to count the cycles and number of logs brought in per day. We average 300 pieces, and around 80 to 100 cycles. I love swing yarders for the shorter skidding distances. I find them very versatile since you dont even need a landing, you can yard right from the truck road. this allows us to attack the cut block from more angles, and keep the skids short with maximum lift. I am not a fan of the motorized carriage, they are to fragile. our mechanical carriage is bullet proof. Do you guys work year round? What is your winter weather like? We work year round rain or snow, 54 hours a week in the summer and 40 in the winter. Do loggers earn a decent living there? Here it is a good paying job, but they cant find young guys that are willing to do the hard labor anymore. My crew works short handed all year (5 or 6 guys) because they run adds in the news paper only to get applicants that cant pass a drug test! Here is a picture of one of our winter days! LATER!


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## John Ellison (Nov 6, 2006)

Hey Redwood logger, looks nice! Every day is a picknic in the woods.


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## redwood logger (Nov 6, 2006)

*yarder logging*

Its funny you would say that! We always say two moon light rides and a picnic in the woods, how could it get any better! When times are tough I always say "if it were easy there would be a bunch of women and kids out here doing it". Theres seldom a dull moment logging.


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## Kiwilogger (Nov 7, 2006)

*Logging in snow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*

Heck redwood, that looks like FUN, logging in the snow...  We log all year round, all weather except lightening, we had a guy badly hurt hooking up a drag when the lightning hit the skyline a couple of years ago!

I agree with you about the motorised carriage being fragile, they dont like hitting the ground, or being rammed into the backline if the hauler driver has a "momentary lapse of reason." But, they are pretty awesome for pulling wood, we run up to 4 strops off ours. At $100,000 a pop, you gotta have a top notch operator

300 logs and 80-100 cycles is bloody good going, but I guess a swinger would have a bit faster cycle time? We would pull 180-200 butts (whole stems) plus 50 pieces (broken/part stems) per day, with around the same number of cycles of 75-100, depending on terrain, height and all the other things sent to try us loggers out!

Pay is reasonable, not fantastic, but an experienced feller would take home NZ$1000 per week (US$700), an average skiddie would take home NZ$750 (US$550ish) Its hard getting good men here too. We work 60 hrs/week all year. But we don't get the snow. lol.

Pretty much we dont use 1st gear on the thunderbird, like you say, it'll rip a main in half in a heartbeat. Been there, done that. I dont like long splicing that much.  

I'd love to see those big redwoods being dragged up the hill. That would be a sight! Our pines are 3ft diameter for a BIG one, but up to 100+ ft long. 

Catch ya round...........


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## redwood logger (Nov 7, 2006)

*Hey Kiwi!*

Sounds like you guys are moving the wood at a pretty good pace to get that many cycles when you are dragging them that far! You must keep that riggin smokin up and down the hill! You say you run 4 strops off your carriage, im guessing that a strop is what we call a choker (the cable that actually goes around the log)? We run 3 at a time presetting 3 while those 3 are going up the hill. That way when the carriage gets back you just hook the other 3 up and away you go again! Around here a logger can make between $ 35,000 and $80,000 depending on what job you do. The operater of a swing machine makes about $50,000 a year. The cost of living is a little high here, with a starter home selling for $300,000. You can rent a 2 bedroom house for $1,200 per month. Sounds like you guys are putting in lots of hours for your money. Do you work 5 or 6 days a week? I have got some more pictures for you, not huge logs but nice ones!


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## redwood logger (Nov 8, 2006)

*More Pics*

Here are a couple more for you, I am the guy on the right side in the first picture, and up in the tree rigging it for a tail spar.


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## Kiwilogger (Nov 8, 2006)

yeah, we give it heaps, cycle times are the key to pulling tonnage. We only get up to the 100 drag mark on shorter settings. On our rigging, or the carriage, we run chains, not chokers. It would only be in smaller wood that we run 4, normally only 2, or 3. Where we live, the cost of living is quite reasonable, a starter house will set you back around NZ$250,000and rent a nice house for arond NZ$1000/month. 

I made a mistake in the hours we work too, a standard 5 day week is 47 & 1/2hrs, but we work every 2nd saturday.

Nice wood you guys have there mate.

back soon.....


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## Kiwilogger (Nov 8, 2006)

*man, thats big wood........*

wow, just looked at your other pics. That is some awesome wood there. We used to have stuff like that here 100 years ago. Native stuff. Kauri, rimu, totara, but pretty much all the big stuff is gone. There is a bit here and there, but bugger all really. Its all protected now, its illegal to cut down any native timber. HUGE fines.

As to tailspars, I have never seen one done, let alone rigged one. Hardly any tree climbing is done here, except for specialist residential felling and the like.

We had an american guy over here a few years ago teaching us a bit of stuff. He was pretty good. Brian Tua was his name (dunno about the spelling of the surname)


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## CaseyForrest (Nov 8, 2006)

Great pics, thanks for sharing those.


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## Ryan Willock (Nov 8, 2006)

Red Wood, what does a faller make out there? How about a cat skinner?


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## brian660 (Nov 8, 2006)

hey redwood where do I sign up, i`m drug free and hard working, I may not know much about dropping giant trees but I can probably fix any piece of equipment out there


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## redwood logger (Nov 8, 2006)

*Big wood*

These logs you see in my pictures are not what we log every day. those are old growth redwoods that are the better part of 1000 years old. All the old growth forests are parks now,but we still come across the occasional tree that the old time loggers left behind 80 yraes ago. Back then they would walk right past one of these 6ft dia. trees to get to a real tree 20ft in dia. These trees you see in my pictures are on privately owned timber lands.

Kiwi I have never heard of anyone using chains instead of chokers, I cant even imagine such a thing! What advantages do you see in using chain?

As for the timber fallers around here, they get paid by the board feet they cut per day. A real hard working faller can gross $80,000 per year, but thats contracting on your own. you are responsible for your own insurance and all that. A mechanic in the woods will make around $18 per hour. Timber fallers and mechanics are not in high demand here,they have a hard time finding entry level guys (choker setters for the yarder operations). A choker setter around here will make between $14 and $17 per hour depending on what company you work for and your experience level.

Here are some more pics for you guys!


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## redwood logger (Nov 8, 2006)

*I forgot one Ryan!*

Sorry Ryan I forgot about a cat skinner, they make $15 to $18 per hour, but it is hard to find year round work since our forest practice rules dont allow the use of tractors in the winter period oct. 15 thru may or so. They dont use cats as much as they used to around here, the governing agencies dont like to see bare dirt. they say it promotes erosion. It is too bad since it is one of the cheapest ways to log. LATER!


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## redwood logger (Nov 9, 2006)

*Any More Pic's Kiwi*

I would love to see more pictures Kiwi! How about some of those chains and riggin you use. How about your names for different jobs, who does what and so on. Around here you have the Hooktender (lead man) the Riggin slinger, Yarder engineer, choker setter, 2 landing men and the loader operater. This would be cosidered a full crew. We seldom have that many people. 

By the way, how do you post your pictures so they pop right up instead of having to click on a link? Later


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## Kiwilogger (Nov 9, 2006)

redwood logger said:


> I would love to see more pictures Kiwi! How about some of those chains and riggin you use. How about your names for different jobs, who does what and so on. Around here you have the Hooktender (lead man) the Riggin slinger, Yarder engineer, choker setter, 2 landing men and the loader operater. This would be cosidered a full crew. We seldom have that many people.
> 
> By the way, how do you post your pictures so they pop right up instead of having to click on a link? Later



Hiya redwood. Yep. I will get some pics done. I just bought a new camera and am waiting for it to turn up. OK, our lead man is just called the foreman, we run 3 skiddies (the guys on saws trimming and "bucking." 1 logmaker, he grades and marks the logs for cutting. 1 poleman who unhooks the logs, coils up strawline etc. We have 2 (sometimes 3 if we are running 3 chains on the butt rigging) breaker-outs , these guys hook the logs up, set up the backline, move the ropes, tractor etc. Both carry talkie tooters and a radio. We have 2 loaders going on the skid. And a hauler driver. The foreman "manages" the breaking out, sets up stumps etc for the hauler organises our next settings and skids. What do you call your tailrope pulleys? Ours are called "blocks." We have the "working block" and the "non-working block" Pretty self explanatory. When we have the sky out and are running Northbend we have the fallblock which the mainrope goes thru and the main is attached to the rider block on the sky. Ill post some pics soon.

As to the photos I have my photos stored on http://www.photobucket.com

and they have this "thing" that you click on that you just copy and paste into here and it comes up automatically. Its free to register and use.

Catch you later.....


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## redwood logger (Nov 10, 2006)

*It's me again!*

Thanks for the photo bucket tip! We call our pulleys blocks also, seems to be one of the few common words between your logging lingo and ours. Thay does'nt suprise me though, I changed jobs 3 years ago, and although I was only 50 miles away the lingo was a little different. We only have 1 tail block since we use a running sky line system, with a 130 feet of drop line. Our blocks are 15 inch young blocks. we have 10 inchers for hanging in lift trees. How big is the company you work for.? how many Haulers do they run? How many employees? Does anyone over there log with a running sky line system? Are there any swing machines around? Later!


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## SWE#Kipp (Nov 11, 2006)

One of the best logging threads in a long time 
keep it coming


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## Kiwilogger (Nov 11, 2006)

The company I work for are pretty big, they have 2 TTY 70's (tracked), 2 TMY 70's (wheeled) a TTY 45 (old & in retirement at the moment) And they run 2 forwarder gangs and another 2 groundbased gangs with skidders and tractors.

At the moment we are using a running skyline we call it "scab skyline." We run 2 blocks at the back but not far apart. The tail runs through them and joins to the rigging which has a strop (chain) at each end and in the middle of the rigging is a block on a short chain which runs on the tailrope. The mainline is joined to the rigging, on the opposite end to the tail. Damn simple system, great for shorter settings where there is good height. Hard on ropes, and brakes though.

We have 15" ropemaster blocks. Pretty similar to the youngs.

The boss just asked me today if I want to learn to drive the harvester!! Might just give it a go. It has a computer in it and does the logmaking too. Pretty cool machine. 

We do have swing yarders over here, but they tend to get the smaller easier terrain settings. I've never seen a swinger up close. 

Oh yeah, we run a tag line on our hauler, its a smaller rope, a bit bigger than strawline, it attaches to the rider block (on the sky) and you can stop the rider block anywhere on the skyline to make the gear split off (we call it bridle) from the skyline. We use it to straighten up the lines of wood, and also to widen the haul path, ie: reach more wood off the one line. Handy when good stumps are in short supply.

Later........


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## redwood logger (Nov 11, 2006)

*More Logging Talk*

Well kiwi, ive got to admit, Idont really understand what kind of riggin set up you guys are using.(looking forward to some pics) Your running sky line system sounds different then ours. Seems like every where you go people log a little different. Sounds like you guys know what your doing.
The company I work for owns timberland in 3 states, CA,OR, and WA. There are two divisions in CA. The southern being the one I work for. In this division we have 3 working yarders, 2 washingtons and 1 madill (all swingers with mechanical carriages) The madill can also run grapples, which the company did a lot of in the past. They have 7 other ground based sides, but no cats or skidders, They do all the logging with the loader out in the brush. We call this shovel logging. The loader goes out in the brush and swings all the logs to the truck road, covering his tracks as he goes to make it look like no machine has been there. When he gets them all to the road he loads them all out. This is not as efficient as cat logging, but we have really strickt regulations on our logging. The company also has 3 mills here, and about a dozen contractors logging on their property. There are only 2 or 3 tower yarders working around here, that I know of, and maybe 25 swingers. There are alsoa few of what we call yoaders (a loader with winches on it to make a small yarder) These are a cheap way for logging real short ground. We dont have very many harvesters,since our ground is steep and it rains a lot here the governing agencies only let tractors on the mild terrain, and only in the summer. I think running something like that would be a real fun challenge! They sure look cool! Let me know how it goes. Well iv'e typed to long the trees are gaining on us (they never sleep,just keep growing back) 
Catch up with you later


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## redwood logger (Nov 11, 2006)

I am glad some people are enjoying this thread, I never get tired of talking about logging. My wife can only listen so long. Bless her heart. I have been doing it for 10 years now, and can not imagine doing anything else!


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## Kiwilogger (Nov 11, 2006)

redwood logger said:


> I am glad some people are enjoying this thread, I never get tired of talking about logging. My wife can only listen so long. Bless her heart. I have been doing it for 10 years now, and can not imagine doing anything else!



haha redwood, my wife gets her ears thrashed too.  But I haven't been logging for as long as you. I was a dairy farmer up untill a couple of years ago but always sold firewood on the side. I had an old cat 944 traxcavator that I logged some pretty decent eucalyptus with for a year or 2. I am actually building a new log splitter now. It will tie in nicely with the forestry work. 
Catch ya round......


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## John Ellison (Nov 11, 2006)

KL, your scab skyline sounds like what we call a Gravenski or Polack. A rider block fastened to the butt rigging and riding on the backline(haulback) 
Both tailblocks are close together. Helps get more lift. Have you ever floped it over and got a wrap in it?


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## Kiwilogger (Nov 11, 2006)

John Ellison said:


> KL, your scab skyline sounds like what we call a Skivenski or Polack. A rider block fastened to the butt rigging and riding on the backline(haulback)
> Both tailblocks are close together. Helps get more lift. Have you ever floped it over and got a wrap in it?



Yep, thats it alright...

As for flipping it over...... well, a couple of weeks ago as I was sending the gear back using the "polack" system, I had just hooked the hauler into 4th gear when the rider block flipped over the tail, so that both sides of the tailrope (going in opposite directions) locked together and snapped the tailrope in half in about a quarter of a second. Right in the middle of a 2 week old 1400 metre tailrope. :bang: :bang: 1 and a half hours down putting in a short-long splice.....


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## John Ellison (Nov 11, 2006)

What size is the haulback 7/8" Oh, I remembered it wrong, Gravenski or Polack is what they call it here.


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## Kiwilogger (Nov 11, 2006)

*ropes*

The tailrope (haulback) is 7/8", Main is 1" swaged, sky is 1 1/4" swaged. Thats no fun to splice!!!

Using the scab system you do get a bit of linewrap, but it comes unwrapped of its own accord if you just ease the throttle back a bit. What you do need to watch for is the chains going over the top, or the gear flipping over. I don't really like scabbing much, its too hard on the ropes and the brakes. Let me put the sky out any day..... Northbend.....


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## Kiwilogger (Aug 10, 2007)

*Old thread gets bumped up.*

Hiya all. Is redwood logger still around? Hiya redwood, if you are.

Big changes at my job. Our company has bought 2 more haulers, a 50ft Thunderbird tracked swinger, and a 90 ft Thunderbird tower.

We're all in one forest now except for the 90. 2 70 ft tower yarders, the swinger, 3 forwarder crews and a tractor/skidder crew, all in one forest. Theres 8 yrs in this bush for all crews!

The 2 poles, and the swinger have been set up for the logs to be carted to a "super skid" via a couple of Bell stem trucks. A 626 bigwood waratah processes the wood out of the chute, straight onto the stem trucks, down to the super skid and into stacks, then straight out on log trucks. We are currently processing 800 tonnes of market logs per day!

Export log prices have crashed over here and a lot of our wood is being sold locally which is still giving good returns.

OK. Enough of my :spam: 

Later all. Happy logging....


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## sILlogger (Aug 10, 2007)

8 yrs on the same job.....wow!!! how big is that patch of timber?


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## Kiwilogger (Aug 10, 2007)

sILlogger said:


> 8 yrs on the same job.....wow!!! how big is that patch of timber?


I'm not sure of the acreage, but I will try and find out. 
But, I do a bit of pig hunting out there, and last week after chasing a pig for about 3 miles we came out on in a rocky clearing atop one of the highest peaks in the bush. As far as the eye could see in all directions, was pine trees.

:greenchainsaw:


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## redwood logger (Aug 11, 2007)

*Still kicking!!*

Hey Kiwi,
Yes indeed Redwood Logger is still around!! Just haven't had time to even touch the computer in a couple of months  Still logging non-stop, longer hours because it is summer time. Sounds like you guys are really moving the wood. The company I work for got a Madill 124 swinger on tracks but I am not impressed with it. I like the Thunderbirds better! The Washingtons we use right now are good machines but old and lacking some of the modern day conveniences. Good to hear from you again.


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## Kiwilogger (Aug 11, 2007)

Nice to read you redwood. I'm not really a fan of the madills, although I have not seen one of their swingers, I prefer the floating pole of the Thunderbirds in the Tower yarders. I'm still hanging out for a drive of our swinger, gotta train up a new operator on the 70 first...


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## Ianab (Aug 11, 2007)

> 8 yrs on the same job.....wow!!! how big is that patch of timber?



The thing is there is another crew following him, planting more trees.

He's not ever gonna finish that patch of timber  

Cheers

Ian


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## Kiwilogger (Aug 12, 2007)

Ianab said:


> The thing is there is another crew following him, planting more trees.
> 
> He's not ever gonna finish that patch of timber
> 
> ...


Dead right Ian.

I forget, plantation forests are not the norm over in the USA. I don't know if you know the area Ian, but we are out in the Pipiwai Forest, 35 miles (haha) out of Whangarei. After 8 yrs of harvesting that forest, the next block is the Mohaka block which stretches non-stop all the way to Kawakawa. :jawdrop:   

Amazing stuff. May as well say that our company will never get out of the area! Makes for a secure employment situation for sure.


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## sILlogger (Aug 12, 2007)

all the cutting is done by chainsaw? how big are the trees at the end of thier rotation when they are ready for harvest?


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## Kiwilogger (Aug 12, 2007)

At the moment, all the felling is done by chainsaw, but, a new self leveling timbco harvester is due to arrive by the end of the year, so _some_ of it will be done by machine soon. Still plenty too steep for the timbco, so plenty of work for chainsaws still.

The trees are around 28yrs old at the end of the rotation and will average approximately 2.5 tonne piece size. ie: 2.5 tonne of logs out of each tree. They will get up to around 30-36" across at the stump and 100' + tall.


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## 1I'dJak (Aug 12, 2007)

cool thread....though i do get lost with the yarding crew lingo....i don't work on a yarding crew, but i have worked around them...i do know the yarding crews here have gotten alot smaller...much of what i see is grapple yarded with a big yarder and the closer stuff is done with a super snorkel... i think it was called a yoader by someone here...they're kinda cool.... its almost like fishing for logs....buddy casts out his grapple and yards her up...don't see so many towers anymore...a lot has to do with the fact that they have to log around 'leave patches' and riparian zones...which is good for me cuz we 'windfirm' these patches...basically climb and spiral prune or top the edges of these patches... keep the pics coming!


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## Kiwilogger (Aug 13, 2007)

*Hey 1I'dJak*

Lots of difference between USA logging and Kiwi logging huh!

In NZ, its pretty much illegal to log native timber. Theres not many decent patches of big native left, so what is left has been protected by law. Thankfully.

So, correct me if I'm wrong, what you do is prune/top some of the outer trees to protect the stand from wind/weather damage? Nice job!

I love talking about haulers/yarders, so any of the lingo you don't understand, ask, and I will explain it better. Also, the Kiwi vs The States hauler lingo is somewhat different too. 

The swinger we have runs a grapple to, and once the self leveller (fell and bunch) comes, the wood it pulls in will be amazing I'm sure. Its a pretty creamy forest, nothing too hard that I have seen yet.

1st Kiwi hauler lingo lesson:

*Creamy* also, *Cream* Adjective. Easy logging!


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## Kiwilogger (Aug 13, 2007)

Kiwilogger said:


> At the moment, all the felling is done by chainsaw, but, a new self leveling timbco harvester is due to arrive by the end of the year, so _some_ of it will be done by machine soon. Still plenty too steep for the timbco, so plenty of work for chainsaws still.
> 
> The trees are around 28yrs old at the end of the rotation and will average approximately 2.5 tonne piece size. ie: 2.5 tonne of logs out of each tree. They will get up to around 30-36" across at the stump and 100' + tall.


Might be a bit light on the piece size estimate.

I just worked out from the tonnes out the gate divided by the stem count which = 3.1 tonne piece size. Pretty good size timber for hauler country!


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## 1I'dJak (Aug 13, 2007)

yeah that's right...basically pruning the edges so they don't blow over...windfirming.... to avoid climbing up and down all day, we have a rapelling line and and another thinner line with a grapple, or 'claw'...so you chuck it into the next tree you're going to...tighten your claw line with and ascender, so that when you rappel down, you swing over to the tree that you;re 'clawed into'....pretty wild... my father in law did logged a lot on the coast here...mostly on vancouver island....did everything, ran yarder, loader, fell....had some pretty wild stories....worked on the biggest cutblock on the island here....said it was huge...could see it from satellite...national geographic got a picture of it and had an article about BC logging in the 80's... called it the Brazil of the NOrth....He actually said that clearcut was pretty big and ????ty...went up one side of the mountain and down the other... lot of slide action cuz its right on the coast and had lots of rain... said as he was yarding, one log went on him all the way down the hill towards another smaller logging outfit below him that was logging along the water (hand loggers they were called)...said they looked like ants scurrying around once they saw what was coming!


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