Koller yarders, K 300

[northmanlogging]

So I found one for a what seems like a decent price, not that I have the money to get it right now...

Any way wondering what all yer thoughts are on them, this ones the little trailer version single axle, 25' tower, main/skyline and I think 3 guys.

For the kind of work I'm in it would probably be more then enough machine.

 

[slowp]

Like this except no extension on the tube? This was run by 2 or 3 guys. That depended on whether they were trucking. Usually one on the landing and one in the brush. The guy in the brush would run up when the landing got plugged up and run trees through the processor. They did OK and I was surprised because they bought it and had no yarder experience amongst them. They had moved over from NE Warshington and found out that we didn't have much forwarder ground. They used the forwarder as a guyline stump.

The Koller was pretty reliable and didn't have much downtime. I think they took good care of it and their other equipment. They pulled it with their log truck.

Note the Acme carriage.

One local guy said he didn't like any yarder that didn't have a cab. That seems to be the bad point, or good because the yarder engineer doesn't have to climb up and down to go unhook logs. They cobbled together a tarp affair for the bad weather.

It was two brothers and their dad. Their dad was the rookie of the crew and ran the yarder only. The boys did the falling, processing, loading and trucking. They did all right.

 

[northmanlogging]

Like that but smaller. Towable by a 1 ton truck or maybe less.

The plan is to just keep to a very small crew, me, the War Dept and maybe one other. Probably end up felling and bucking by hand as I'm doing now, then just yard the logs, maybe use the skidder to clear the chute, and deck (sort of, have to maybe rig up some of those chain ended chokers?).

This is still in the realm of pipe dream, but if it where to work out, then it would open up a whole new area of logging for me. Lots of steep ground is privately owned.

 

[northmanlogging]

Like this only blue

 

[treeslayer2003]

northy does that still work with a carriage? i benn playing with ideas of some thing not useing one. just for deep gullys and such for high value sticks.
i didn't know they made one that size........

 

[northmanlogging]

yeah they come with a mechanical carriage, like the old Christy but Austrian and weird, lots of vids of them on youtube, the deluxe versions even have shackle passers and tree jacks, All the groovy toys just like the big boys play with only smaller... and therefore more mobile. The larger 500-600 series koller's have an option for a motorized carriage and wireless remote control.

 

[northmanlogging]

They also make them PTO driven so you could mount them to a mid to large sized farm tractor, among other options

 

[slowp]

I don't like their whistle. It is wimpy sounding.

The model you show looks like the one OSU had has? Only they mounted it on the back of a tractor. It had a wimpy whistle too.

 

[northmanlogging]

Talkie tooter is only about 40mi from here, I'm sure they can fix the whistle...

 

[KiwiBro]

Sorry, a little off topic but when my baby operation grows up a little (well, a lot), it'll morph into something like this to make daddy proud:

 

[KiwiBro]

sna

They also make them PTO driven so you could mount them to a mid to large sized farm tractor, among other options

Snap. There's also a smaller (yes, it's true) version.

 

[Gologit]

I think 2dogs has some experience with those small yarders.

 

[treeslayer2003]

i am thinking of just mounting a block up a tree for lift and running alot of cable on the old clark......just use her to get um up to flat ground. i need a monkey to pull the cable down lol.

 

[northmanlogging]

Or... hang a second line and rig a pair of snatch blocks to a heavy butt log about 6 feet long use the log as a Gyppo shotgun carriage, taught line as a skyline, skidder line as a mainline/haulback. Mainline runs through a third block attached to log.

Still need a brush ape to hook chokers and drag a little line around but it works ok... second winch for the skyline would be better. It can be a real pain to rig up and make work but not impossible.

 

[treeslayer2003]

i wonder how much 5/8 that drum would hold..........
your meaning use the log as weight to pull the cable back down the hill.....hmmm.........

 

[northmanlogging]

I have a formula somewheres to figure how much they will hold...

If you manage to get some kind of lift you can use much smaller cable, and therefore fit way more on the drum.

Yeah kinda like having your really dumb brother hang on to it until it stops moving... without the whole accident investigation and potential murder charges...

 

[KiwiBro]

Or... hang a second line and rig a pair of snatch blocks to a heavy butt log about 6 feet long use the log as a Gyppo shotgun carriage, taught line as a skyline, skidder line as a mainline/haulback. Mainline runs through a third block attached to log.

Still need a brush ape to hook chokers and drag a little line around but it works ok... second winch for the skyline would be better. It can be a real pain to rig up and make work but not impossible.

$ permitting, I'll be adding a small tower for some lift (about 15') and a small hydraulic haulback winch to my lil' tractor skidding winch. For haulback, I looked at lewis winches (too slow), portable capstan winches (too cumbersome and too easy for loose rope to get caught on every damned thing in the brush). Also, whilst it is good in some ways if the winch is with the choker rats because then the line won't need to go through a block most of the time, I'd still prefer it was operated by the landing as they are the ones who will be first to know when the chokers are free and they want to move them back down/up the hill.

 

[2dogs]

This is the one I worked under and ran on a few jobs.

Same job,

Another pic.

 

[northmanlogging]

Looks to be about the same vintage as the one I've found,

How big a wood could it pull? is really the question of the day...

Reliability from all I've heard has been good.

 

[slowp]

The most frequent problem on the family run job was, and see if I 'splain this correctly, forgetting to set the brake and having the line unspool. That happened a few times. They were on some pretty steep ground.