# Skidder Accesories and Add-ons



## 371groundie (Oct 29, 2009)

just wondering what cusom mods people have put onto thier skidders. or seen on others. 

ive seen plenty of tree pushers put ontop of the arch so you can back into a tree and knock it over. 

one of the better things ive seen was 1 inch pegs added to the blade corners on an IH S8. when the blade was at ground level they pointed down and a little forward. and were problt 6 inches long. this let operator push wood up without getting dirt in the pile. very handy when you are cutting 8 foot pulp and always seem to have to make a cut in the dirtiest spot. 

ive seen some machines with what looked like half a log grapple on the side of the blade. ive never seen one in person, just in pictures. anyone know what those are?

my FIL has always talked about putting a front bucket on a skidder. anyone ever thought the same, or seen one? i blame it on him being a farmer not a logger.


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## 385XP (Oct 31, 2009)

The grapple your talking about is probly for brush you can also put a root rake on the front of a a skidder. we also build build a frame on top of the blade to protect the grill and raidiator when you push tops. you also weld a steel plate on top of the arch for tree pushing.


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## Meadow Beaver (Oct 31, 2009)

385XP said:


> The grapple your talking about is probly for brush you can also put a root rake on the front of a a skidder. we also build build a frame on top of the blade to protect the grill and raidiator when your tops. you also weld a steel plate on top of the arch for tree pushing.



Yeah we need to weld a plate on the arch, it slips easy on those hard to push trees.


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## tramp bushler (Nov 1, 2009)

Skagit built 3 rubber tired skidders . the one I,ve seen has a double drum winch and a loader bucket and forks attachment . the forks have a top clamp , and the bucket is a 2 or 3 yard bucket ....... It has a blown 4 53 in it last I knew .... I have also seen a John Deere 440 with a loader from a JD rubber tired back hoe , with forks with a top clamp ....... Pretty handy for the small operator who wants to get alot done with 1 machine ... 
.
. I said it before and I,ll say it again . The cuttin crew isn,t supposed to be dependent on the skidder to get their trees on the ground !!!!!!!


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## 385XP (Nov 1, 2009)

tramp bushler said:


> .
> . I said it before and I,ll say it again . The cuttin crew isn,t supposed to be dependent on the skidder to get their trees on the ground !!!!!!!



very true but a skidder sure helps alot in tight spots. also around here its a 2 man crew so the skidder and cutter have to work together.


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## tramp bushler (Nov 1, 2009)

down there who makes more money , the faller or the skidder operator ??????
.. 
. I can,t help but think the owner of the outfit would prefer the skidder to spend ALL it's time yarding trees , or logs , instead of pushing them over ... And just so ya know , I,ve backed a TimberJack 230 D up alot of trees ..... But . I wasn,t a faller back then even tho I cut down trees for a living ....... . I,m not trying to be a prik about this . Rather to show a more professional approach ...... And a safer approach ... I,ve worked in mixed hardwood / softwood forests and I know some of the challenges ...... Where I work now it is a real challenge getting stuff on the ground so I can buck it up . But when I take the time to do my falling right my job is a lot , alot , alot . easier . And in the long run faster .......One easy thing to help with accurate falling is run bars that are as long as most of your trees are wide ....... If you are falling 24" stump diameter timber with an occasional 36" stump , Run a 28" or a 30" bar . If 30" run a 30" bar - a 36" .. If your stumps a20" with some 24-30 " dia trees a 24" will work well . .. Right now I have a stubby 16" bar on my Solo 681 .. It's wierd looking .......Sure does cut like amazeing , but it is a real trick to hit my lays with 24" dia wood ... When you have to squirrel around the tree to get your cuts in, alot of the accuracy gets lost along the way ...


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## hammerlogging (Nov 1, 2009)

tramp bushler said:


> down there who makes more money , the faller or the skidder operator ??????
> ..
> . I can,t help but think the owner of the outfit would prefer the skidder to spend ALL it's time yarding trees , or logs , instead of pushing them over ... .



You're right and in Appalachia there is a serious lack of understanding of productivity, and productive delays and non-productive delays. A skidder has one job, pulling wood. Pushing over trees, pushing brush around, helping a hung faller pinched while topping, all time not pulling wood. Herein lies the frustration, but herein lies a great example of the great opportunity in Appalachia.

The faller still makes more money, usually.


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## tramp bushler (Nov 1, 2009)

You got your work cut out for you Hammer .. You and John .... . It,s like cuttin right of way in Southeast .. I,ll tree the hoe and make him go play for a while while I get some stations cut , then open up and let him in.. then if he pushes too hard but isn,t getting all his work done ,I,ll fire a few trees @ him ... I hate being pushed by iron .. easy way to get hurt or worse .............A good Pioneer operator is a good thing to have work with , but they need to be out of the way so they can do their thing and I can do mine .......... And yes there are times I will have the hoe help push over a few trees when I,m opening up and letting him in ..... Makes them feel important , and gets me on my way ....... It,s best to cut all the right of way before the iron shows up ........ It is a bussiness strategy tho the owners push , Make the iron feel important and screw the fallers ..............


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## 385XP (Nov 1, 2009)

tramp bushler said:


> down there who makes more money , the faller or the skidder operator ??????
> ..
> . I can,t help but think the owner of the outfit would prefer the skidder to spend ALL it's time yarding trees , or logs , instead of pushing them over ... And just so ya know , I,ve backed a TimberJack 230 D up alot of trees ..... But . I wasn,t a faller back then even tho I cut down trees for a living ....... . I,m not trying to be a prik about this . Rather to show a more professional approach ...... And a safer approach ... I,ve worked in mixed hardwood / softwood forests and I know some of the challenges ...... Where I work now it is a real challenge getting stuff on the ground so I can buck it up . But when I take the time to do my falling right my job is a lot , alot , alot . easier . And in the long run faster .......One easy thing to help with accurate falling is run bars that are as long as most of your trees are wide ....... If you are falling 24" stump diameter timber with an occasional 36" stump , Run a 28" or a 30" bar . If 30" run a 30" bar - a 36" .. If your stumps a20" with some 24-30 " dia trees a 24" will work well . .. Right now I have a stubby 16" bar on my Solo 681 .. It's wierd looking .......Sure does cut like amazeing , but it is a real trick to hit my lays with 24" dia wood ... When you have to squirrel around the tree to get your cuts in, alot of the accuracy gets lost along the way ...


I dont have the skidder push trees unlees absoluttly nessary.I dont have time to fool around all day as it seems some have. The skids around here arent usualy that long anyways. As far as bar length i use what ever bar is the right size for the wood. when theres buildings involved theres no room for mistakes. If i need to i can put the trees on the ground with wedges but why waste alot of time with wedges when ican have a couple skids set up and ready to push when the skidder gets back.


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## tramp bushler (Nov 2, 2009)

It,s hard to explain long distance .... Beating wedges isn,t the way to put alot of wood on the ground . Not beating over every tree . But occasionally wedging over a driver , or mostly giving a tree a little bump into a dutchman will get things on the ground without involving diesel power ........


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## hammerlogging (Nov 2, 2009)

When reviewing the timber, part if deciding how you're going to cut it is how and in what direction is the extraction. Another huge consideration is the tendency of the timber, to work with the general lean so that you are wedging the fewest trees.

385 might be working small woodlots on flat ground, here you will tend to have trees leaning ever which way, and big bushy tops and shorter timber, resulting in a greater tendency to look to the skidder for help. One log trees. One big ol veneer butt log. Just a guess.
Skidder add ons? my favorites are take-aways. Like the floor pan on a 440, a place to put your shoe laces while that driveline is spinning! those were the days.


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## 385XP (Nov 2, 2009)

hammerlogging said:


> When reviewing the timber, part if deciding how you're going to cut it is how and in what direction is the extraction. Another huge consideration is the tendency of the timber, to work with the general lean so that you are wedging the fewest trees.
> 
> 385 might be working small woodlots on flat ground, here you will tend to have trees leaning ever which way, and big bushy tops and shorter timber, resulting in a greater tendency to look to the skidder for help. One log trees. One big ol veneer butt log. Just a guess.
> Skidder add ons? my favorites are take-aways. Like the floor pan on a 440, a place to put your shoe laces while that driveline is spinning! those were the days.


We have alot of flat ground here with ditches but we also have some rough spots along the missippi the timber in the back ground on my picture is about average around here. The trees tend to lean down hill here. i do use the domino methed when i can but some spots the trees are to far apart.We dont do much clear cutting mostly select cuts. remember im in farming country so there are fences every wear and we work around a lot of buildings too.


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## 385XP (Nov 2, 2009)

tramp bushler said:


> It,s hard to explain long distance .... Beating wedges isn,t the way to put alot of wood on the ground . Not beating over every tree . But occasionally wedging over a driver , or mostly giving a tree a little bump into a dutchman will get things on the ground without involving diesel power ........


I understand what you saying i do cut 99 percent of my trees with out awedge or skidder but there are spots that pushing trees is the fastest and best way to be productive . where i cut and were you cut are like to different worlds.


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## 371groundie (Nov 2, 2009)

look what i found!





i didnt take the picture so i cant explan the presense of kermit. but i found that just searching pictures of skidders online. 

this gives me bad ideas. now if i just had a skidder a loader and a welder.....


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## 371groundie (Nov 2, 2009)

this shows the little grapple thing i was talking about. see the hydraulic cylinder on the blade? it moves a little arm that looks like it would pinch a log against the side of the blade. is it there to get "the one that got away" when you come back through with the next drag?


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## 380LGR (Nov 3, 2009)

They are used as a delimber


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## tramp bushler (Nov 3, 2009)

371groundie said:


> look what i found!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 That is a Franklin , or Tree Farmer isn,t it ..... I have a welder !!!! This is a perfect size skidder for me !!!!!! What site did you find this on ????


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## Cletuspsc (Nov 3, 2009)

tramp bushler said:


> That is a Franklin , or Tree Farmer isn,t it ..... I have a welder !!!! This is a perfect size skidder for me !!!!!! What site did you find this on ????



Thats an old JD440 that needs to be pushed off a cliff


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## Meadow Beaver (Nov 3, 2009)

Cletuspsc said:


> Thats an old JD440 that needs to be pushed off a cliff



I agree


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## 056 kid (Nov 3, 2009)

I bet that low down sucker will track like nobodys buisness with some good tires.


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## redprospector (Nov 3, 2009)

Cletuspsc said:


> Thats an old JD440 that needs to be pushed off a cliff



Won't do any good to push it off a cliff. I tried that with mine. When I drove the truck around to the bottom, there sat the old 440, and it had picked up a turn of logs on the way down. Durn thing just won't quit. 

Andy


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## tramp bushler (Nov 4, 2009)

Well I would sure like it !!!! I don,t need a great big skidder , and really don,t want one .. But a nice little line machine like that is just the cat's meow ..


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## 371groundie (Nov 4, 2009)

i just searched google images of 'skidder'

it was on some site where kermit was in every picture, talked about how cool he thought it was to drive uncle so-and-so's skidder. it takes all kinds i guess

yes that is an old 440. not sure how to differentiate between 440, 440A and 440B. but C is when they changed the body style. 



i delimber huh? that i wouldnt have guessed.


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## mercer_me (Nov 4, 2009)

371groundie said:


> ive seen some machines with what looked like half a log grapple on the side of the blade. ive never seen one in person, just in pictures. anyone know what those are?



That is a delimber. You get the tree nit and the top of the tree will dig into the gound and you drive the skidder foward and it will delimb the tree.


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## 385xp9106 (Nov 4, 2009)

we have built chainsaw boxes behind the blade on one side and on the other made one for the gas and oil


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## Curlycherry1 (Nov 6, 2009)

Cletuspsc said:


> Thats an old JD440 that needs to be pushed off a cliff



Hey don't be knocking those old JD440s! My step mom's brother had one that he used for specialty logging to supply his hobby mill. Darn thing was so light on its wheels with him in the cab you would be hard pressed to find where he skidded in a woods. He could pull some big timber out and barely leave the leaves turned over on the ground. He got a lot of prime timber off of fussy landowner's land because he was so careful with that skidder. Kept him in beer money in the off season of construction. I would love to have a little pokey skidder like that for funning around with.


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## Industry (Nov 17, 2009)

Probably not what you were thinking of, but


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## tramp bushler (Nov 18, 2009)

That is seriously awesome !!!! . A forwarder is really the best addition Tho .


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## 371groundie (Nov 18, 2009)

i want one of those. 

actually i want a matched set of 540Bs a cable skidder, forwarder, and skidder bucket. i cant justify it really, but thats what i want. next time id better marry for money.


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## Curlycherry1 (Nov 18, 2009)

I gotta say I have worked around some of those skidder-man-lifts and I really never understood the idea of taking a good skidder frame and mounting that on it. I have never heard of them being used in really rough terrain. They were always used in tree farms which were nice flat as a pancake hunks of land with no wet spots at all. There are plenty of other 4WD or even crawler frames that could be used to serve as a support and those frames would be a lot cheaper. That just seemed like skidder abuse to me.


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## 056 kid (Nov 19, 2009)

Curlycherry1 said:


> I gotta say I have worked around some of those skidder-man-lifts and I really never understood the idea of taking a good skidder frame and mounting that on it. I have never heard of them being used in really rough terrain. They were always used in tree farms which were nice flat as a pancake hunks of land with no wet spots at all. There are plenty of other 4WD or even crawler frames that could be used to serve as a support and those frames would be a lot cheaper. That just seemed like skidder abuse to me.



Asplundh Loves them...


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## Industry (Nov 19, 2009)

Curlycherry1 said:


> I gotta say I have worked around some of those skidder-man-lifts and I really never understood the idea of taking a good skidder frame and mounting that on it. I have never heard of them being used in really rough terrain. They were always used in tree farms which were nice flat as a pancake hunks of land with no wet spots at all. There are plenty of other 4WD or even crawler frames that could be used to serve as a support and those frames would be a lot cheaper. That just seemed like skidder abuse to me.



I've used mine in some pretty nasty ROWs, but you definitely have to know your machine. if you don't you WILL have it on it's roof. It's WAY more top heavy than a normal cable rigged machine. I'm told they are only slightly more tippy than a grapple rig when you have to keep your load up high for some reason. I had some fun with mine.


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## HorseShoeInFork (Jan 31, 2010)




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## 371groundie (Jan 31, 2010)

too bad the first doesnt lift quite high enough to load the second! without any mirrors it must be a pain to backup that timberjack. no way you can see around that dump body.


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