Considering A skidder

[whatscooking]

I live on 48 acres that is hilly. I have gone around the edges cutting firewood but cannot reach alot of firewood trees with the equipment I have. I started looking at what is advable as far as A skidder and have come up with some that has my interest. I drove one, fourty years ago, when we logged the family farm and got along with it. I know to respect all types of equipment and especially something like A skidder. The blade would be handy.
Do some of you use A skidder for firewood? Will an older machine that isnt beat to hell and maintained hold it's value, helps to convince the wife if I need to sell it later.

 

[Patrick62]

I would wager that the "older machine" would already have been beat to hell. Logging is hard on equipment, and some of the guys are not the most respectful of equipment. In a similar thread, there is a discussion of using tractors for logging. Might be a option. My reply in that thread was that I got a skidsteer. with your "hilly" terrain, that would not be the best choice. Tractor might be better, and yeah, a genuine skidder has off road ability way past common sense.

if you have a trail, or road into the area, then you could fabricate a boom and put a short winch in the back of the 4x4 truck. Not as maneuverable as others, but it would work.

 

[whatscooking]

I agree and know it's A pig in A poke deal when your looking at something online / Facebook. The skidder does look good, JD 440A in Rocky Mountin VA. If anyone wants to take A look but I am leaning towards A Farmi winch, 5 year warranty and pulls 14,000 pounds.

 

[woodfarmer]

I used a Farmi 501 on a Caseih 90hp fwa tractor. An excellent set up.
I have 8 miles between woodlots so driving a tractor vs floating a skidder is a no brainer.
I pulled many beech and ash logs over 32” dia. With no issues.

 

[mesupra]

A skidder is a purpose build machine, completely designed to perform 1 task, pull wood. with 48 acres of wooded land it wont take long to pay for itself. Benefits over a tractor are a safety, speed, efficiency. I can spend ,more time pull wood then building perfect roads. I sold my 3 point winch for more then 1/2 what I paid for my timberjack 230. I will say its really hard to find a clean older machine that doesn't need a pile of work. By nature skidders get thrashed on, and being that most cable machines are from the 70's finding one that was cared for is no easy task. However if you are patient for 8-15k you can score a nice unit.