Elec-trick chokers

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northmanlogging

northmanlogging

The gyppo's gyppo
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Anybody have much experience with em? Have to admit all a I have with em is watching the hacks men whine about em, thought it might be a good Idea behind a skidder, no more crawling out of the cab to unhook, still need to pull string to hook em up but that's a given with a line skidder, my nephew isn't big enough to pull chokers yet, besides mom would kill me...

Anyway what I have seen on the boob tube was not encouraging, lots of jams with the mechanism, batteries going kaput, and I hear they are kinda spendy, and you would need some kind of controller in the cab yes? might not last long in an old open cab skidder, especially come brush fit time...
 
They're getting more and more popular here under yarders but I've never heard of them used on a skidder before. That would definitely save some time and energy if you were unhooking your own drags.

Gotta wonder how they would hold up bouncing around on the way back out though, they'd be a lot closer together than on butt rigging and I'm sure they don't like being smacked together
 
I don't think I would use them, To much things to worry about going dead/breaking. The old ones never fail and work good!
 
From what I've heard the new generation of electronic chokers are more reliable than the original ones. Just like anything, they'll break if there's no regular maintenance or they are abused.

Regular chokers jam and break jut like the fancy ones do, they just cost less. The increased productivity and safety should be able to outweigh any mishaps I suppose
 
need a skidder first, got the go ahead from the war department today though :msp_w00t: now I just have to find one that isn't sold or junk(I called on three today)

regular chokers I can beat into submission, that and I have been playing with em since I was 11, they are an old hat to me... Its the electronic stuff I have trouble with, tend to throw stuff when it quits working for no apparent reason, like dirt or water inside it, or the batteries died twice in an 8 hour day. Mechanical stuff I get and I am usually patient with, circuit boards and micro switches I can't see whats wrong, therefore can't fix that bothers me and I go hulk on em and have to buy new ones, its embarrassing but its true

p.s. war department = wifey
 
I used to set chokers on a tower side....

under a madill 071. we used a mix of both conventional chokers and the electronic ones. i love regular old chokers they are reliable and easy to un-####. that being said. the electronic ones we used were pretty #######ed reliable. you just have to grease them every so often, batteries lasted several weeks, and they're pretty easy to work once you get used to them. i think they're awesome and would do well behind a skidder. you'd rarely have to get off to drop a turn. good luck.
 
northmanlogging said:
need a skidder first, got the go ahead from the war department today though :msp_w00t: now I just have to find one that isn't sold or junk(I called on three today)

regular chokers I can beat into submission, that and I have been playing with em since I was 11, they are an old hat to me... Its the electronic stuff I have trouble with, tend to throw stuff when it quits working for no apparent reason, like dirt or water inside it, or the batteries died twice in an 8 hour day. Mechanical stuff I get and I am usually patient with, circuit boards and micro switches I can't see whats wrong, therefore can't fix that bothers me and I go hulk on em and have to buy new ones, its embarrassing but its true

p.s. war department = wifey
Click to expand...

I know you guys work some steep ground, but take my advice, and get a Grapple / winch combo.
This one isn't so far away that it would kill the wallet with delivery..
Another out your way...
 
I like the idea behind the combo skidder, but unfortunately they are still very expensive for me. I can pick up a deere 440, garrett 15, international s11, s9, clark 666, and the occasional timberjack for under 5k and they are within an hours drive of here. Problem is that someone else out there wants em too and they are faster on the phone than I am. Once the ball starts really rolling and the skidder is paid off and working more or less full time than I can think about getting a track hoe a dozer and then consider going with a grapple skidder, until then all I've got is the gypo yarder, and it works ok but its slow, very slow. Baby steps is what I'm doing here, trying really hard not to go into debt while I do this, hence still working full time as a machinist, and logging most weekends.

Despite the common place use of Yarders out here a whole bunch of outfits run the grapple cats on pretty steep terrain, lot steeper than any skidder would be comfortable on.
 
They are invading that's for sure. They seem to be pretty reliable as lots of tower loggers I know are going to them. Saves having a chaser and or having a guy under the lines. Some of em still have chasers especially the bigger tubes. I talked to one of the loggers about em and he said overall he was happy with them and thought they worked pretty good. The catch for you I think will be getting the necessary slack to get them to release. If I remember correctly they have to be free of tension to release once the release button has been pushed, that way they can't be released overhead if the button is hit accidentally, this could be a problem with a skidder by not having enough of a drop to get them slacked off. I would definitely call fortronics and inquire if guys have been using them behind skidders and cats successfully.
 
pulling forward a bit and then a quick backup should be enough to slack em you'd think? My biggest worry is the control box in the cab not a whole lot of places to hide that thing out of the weather and out of the way but where you can still get at it, without putting size 12 caulks through it from time to time
 
northmanlogging said:
pulling forward a bit and then a quick backup should be enough to slack em you'd think? My biggest worry is the control box in the cab not a whole lot of places to hide that thing out of the weather and out of the way but where you can still get at it, without putting size 12 caulks through it from time to time
Click to expand...

I was thinking that would work, just like normally slacking off. I have seen and been told occasionally they will hang up and not release. Shovel clearing the chute just grabs the stick and pulls it out of the way, that's the usual snafu I guess. Allot of guys are going to them so they must work otherwise they would throw em in the canyon and say to hell with it :laugh:

How big is the box? I literally have no idea. Maybe build a weatherproof box out of steel so it affords the spendy lil bugger some protection and mount it behind the cab or back where the winch is?

I also don't know the cost, think I've heard some numbers once, how much are they? Per bell and how much is the box and controller? I think they sell them as a package deal but be good to know how much the individual replacements are.

If they will work with a cable skidder it cuts your turn around time by half so they could be worth it in the long run.
 
OlympicYJ said:
I was thinking that would work, just like normally slacking off. I have seen and been told occasionally they will hang up and not release. Shovel clearing the chute just grabs the stick and pulls it out of the way, that's the usual snafu I guess. Allot of guys are going to them so they must work otherwise they would throw em in the canyon and say to hell with it :laugh:

How big is the box? I literally have no idea. Maybe build a weatherproof box out of steel so it affords the spendy lil bugger some protection and mount it behind the cab or back where the winch is?

I also don't know the cost, think I've heard some numbers once, how much are they? Per bell and how much is the box and controller? I think they sell them as a package deal but be good to know how much the individual replacements are.

If they will work with a cable skidder it cuts your turn around time by half so they could be worth it in the long run.
Click to expand...

I thought they were around $2500 NZ per choker over here, and a set comes with a couple of chokers, the control box, a remote control, maintenance kit and a tracker so you can find them if they break on the hill

If you had a set with a handheld release remote you could leave the control box in the truck and just keep the remote on you during the day. That would solve the issue of protecting the box on an open cab skidder
 
The controller box on our yarder was slightly bigger than a power strip. I never used them. Seemed like a pain though because you had to paint them everyday because if you broke a choker everything comes to a stop while you go look for this expensive bell.
 
wowzers said:
The controller box on our yarder was slightly bigger than a power strip. I never used them. Seemed like a pain though because you had to paint them everyday because if you broke a choker everything comes to a stop while you go look for this expensive bell.
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Many of the new ones come with choker locators tat pick up on the radio frequency for that very reason
 
Sounds like the control box is practically a non issue then. I did forget to mention the paint thing lo

Hows things goin Preston? Gettin any snow where you're working?

StihlKiwi whats the conversion to USD on that and how much extra for the import tariff you guys have? Per bell I don't think they are that much.
 
It's about $2k US. The price I found was from a presentation that is at least a year old, so no doubt they've got cheaper with time. The fortronics chokers I've used as an example are made here, so no tariffs to deal with. There's bound to be a couple of US made brands with all the same features, the name Johnson seems to ring a bell
 
StihlKiwi said:
It's about $2k US. The price I found was from a presentation that is at least a year old, so no doubt they've got cheaper with time. The fortronics chokers I've used as an example are made here, so no tariffs to deal with. There's bound to be a couple of US made brands with all the same features, the name Johnson seems to ring a bell
Click to expand...

Gotcha. Hmm don't think I've heard of Johnson but fortronics are here. You guys seem to make quite a bit of stuff there on the Island. I've heard its for job creation?
 

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