Koller yarders, K 300

[hammerlogging]

For the timber you seem to cut based on the pictures, I think you'd be doing most of your bucking at the stump with a yarder that size. Not that this is undoable or not ok.

 

[slowp]

If you google Oregon State University Koller Yarder, you'll get this link which will lead you to an old paper written up. I can't figure out how to link PDF documents. Ooops, I guess I did! Click on the blue and you have it.
Our class rigged up an intermediate support, which collapsed on the third turn over it...class over.

[PDF]
NCREASING THE PRODUCTIVITY OF A SMALL YARDER: …
ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1957/7925/RB_no...
School of Forestry, Oregon State University, Corvallis. 52 p. Lucas, A. 1982. ... a small yarder (Koller K-300) operating under variable conditions: the

 

[northmanlogging]

Whole tree yarding with a Deere 440 is less then optimal... I don't see the little yarder being much better at it. Not to mention to make whole tree yarding profitable ya pretty much need to have a processor or pay someone to limb and buck on the landing, for me both are kinda pointless, though it would be nice to not have to bump knots ever again...

Ms P thanks for the PDF, I'll have to read through it when I'm more awake, lots of numbers and long college words... (I have to run a mental thesaurus on to translate most of em to Capt. Dummy talk which to my mind is the problem with college in general, lots of big words and charts to say... yeah it works or no it don't, and here's why... If you use supercalifragilisticexpialadotius in a sentence do you instantly get a doctorate in umbrella flying?)

 

[OlympicYJ]

I ran our schools Koller (University of Idaho). Ours was the tractor mount. It pulled pretty good. Can't move the Skyline up and down with a normal shotgun carriage. The Koller carriage takes a little getting used to but not too bad. Id recommend hanging about 30 or so pounds on the end with a slider so you don't have to pack it to the log. Might of been because of the brush and the fact it was a short yarding distance and we couldn't get much carriage speed to shoot the chokers out but they did not want to hit the ground. They use a brake master cylinder type affair to engage the drum and the one we were running was out of whack or something because you had to pump it up a little bit to get the drum to engage. Pulled pretty good on some smaller logs. Might of had a few at 20" on the butt. The way you tighten the skyline is pretty sketchy (use a bar to engage a dawg or something like that) but if ya keep your fingers out of bad spots you shouldn't lose any.

Slowp - I think OSU has a newer Koller now. Looked exactly like the one you posted. Also running an eaglet on it. My buddy worked on their logging crew this summer. They pulled some pretty nice wood with it. Weren't pecker poles nuther!

Koller says it holds 2250' of 5/16" on the skyline.

Wes

 

[northmanlogging]

Suppose it could pull a 30" 36' log? Even one at a time I could work with. If its not up to that I'll figure something else out.

 

[OlympicYJ]

Suppose it could pull a 30" 36' log? Even one at a time I could work with. If its not up to that I'll figure something else out.

Gosh I don't know. Probably have to be pretty short. The one Slowp posted a pic of could I think. Koller NA K300: "Mainline winch: up to 3970 lbs (18kN) at average drum" They said on the current K300 trailer mount its full hydrostatic so maybe it doesn't have that goofy master cylinder gitup, which would be a major improvement in my opinion.

So doing the math. 30" 36' without trim scribner is 1480 bf x 144 in^2 / 1728 in^3 = 123.33 ft^3 googled Coastal DF and it's 38 lb/ft^3 so 123.33 ft^3 is 4,686 pounds. So I guess to answer your question no it wont.

Now if you made it a 26' with trim so 27' it would come in at 3,515 pounds so could then be doable. And probably by the time you factor in the weight of the carriage even that might be iffy. Although I think the carriage isn't anymore than 300 pounds.

 

[northmanlogging]

Thats what I was thinking... but most of the weight would be taken by the skyline, which has a much higher capacity? All the mainline has to do is move the log... Granted most of the work is done by the mainline, since these little yarders are set up for thinning.

 

[2dogs]

Suppose it could pull a 30" 36' log? Even one at a time I could work with. If its not up to that I'll figure something else out.

Not the one we had. IIRC the carriage had a 1,500lb capacity though the yarder could out pull that. At that point it is all about getting enough lift.

 

[OlympicYJ]

Thats what I was thinking... but most of the weight would be taken by the skyline, which has a much higher capacity? All the mainline has to do is move the log... Granted most of the work is done by the mainline, since these little yarders are set up for thinning.

That is true the skyline is rated much higher; 9700 pounds to be exact. Small carriage has a load capacity of 3300 pounds and weighs 330 pounds itself.

 

[northmanlogging]

wonder if a shotgun or north bend would maybe get more lift, although a north bend would be tough without a third drum (read impossible). After all if I'm pulling wood that size its most likely a full clear cut anyway, and setting a new road is just a matter of moving the skyline a few feet over. Rather then trying to side yard and miss all the leave trees.

I've seen pics of em with a motorized carriage as well, but them things is heavy, so it would almost be a moot point.

 

[Humptulips]

I hooked on a Koller for like a year. It was truck mounted and not sure the number but seems like it had 3/4 main and 1/2 skidding. It wasn't a bad little machine for the price. We had the Koller carriage and was impressed by it. Motorized is better but the Koller carriage has everything else beat for ingenuity. Not anything like a Christy carrage. We did brake a hose (actually a steel pipe like a brake line) on the carriage and parts had to come from Austria but they had great service. Only were down two days.
Side note, that carriage in the picture looks like an eagle to me.
One thing you have to look out for when running one of them is that you cannot drop the skyline if something starts to go, at least the one I worked on. Sky line was dogged instead of brakes holding it. You also can't drop a turn fast so if the turn is in the air and things start to go bad things can happen. Make double sure of your guyline stumps because if one starts to pull the tower is likely going down.
We had no problem pulling a turn of 3 18" hemlock. I was surprised what it would pull with that small skidding line.
We had a 25' tower and if you have the same get used to climbing. I rigged more trees then I care to think of. Usually a tail tree and a support tree on every road but often two supports and a tail tree. Even did a couple roads with three supports. Makes me glad I'm retired!

 

[KiwiBro]

Another option here.

 

[Skeans]

Another option maybe a skidder mounted tower once in a blue you'll see one for sale in the area


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[northmanlogging]

There are several tractor mounted towers in Europe, Koller and maybe one other are the only ones available here.