Pictures Showing Yarder and Lines

[slowp]

The lighting was good, here are some pictures from below showing the two lines used by the West Coast yarder. And, the highly technical spooling of one of the lines. They were hitting it with big hammers to get it to lay right on the drum. Notice the fashions, pants etc. I'm sorry to say, no pastels.
Remember, today was the only day ALL YEAR that the sun came out. It usually rains all the time!:biggrinbounce2:

 

[John Ellison]

Good pics slowp. Did the yarder get a new haulback or mainline?

 

[slowp]

Can't remember whether these guys did or not. They are having to splice more on, the yarding distance is approaching 1000 feet. I think they had a boo boo of some kind as the owner/operator was in front of the yarder undoing the loops. It wasn't too serious. They were in good moods. No bee stings today.

 

[Gologit]

Can't remember whether these guys did or not. They are having to splice more on, the yarding distance is approaching 1000 feet. I think they had a boo boo of some kind as the owner/operator was in front of the yarder undoing the loops. It wasn't too serious. They were in good moods. No bee stings today.

Yup...the crew's mood tells you all you need to know about how the day is going. The worst days are when it's gone beyond riggin fits and nobody is saying anything. Not even cussing. Then beware.

 

[sILlogger]

just had a passing thought...when it rains out there does it lightning? i hear about u guys working in the rain and i do to as long as the wind stays down along with the lightning. just a thought

 

[Gologit]

Nothing but yarders ?

Good pictures but doesn't anybody Cat log up in that part of the world? Yarders, yarders, yarders....I think maybe we're being discriminated against here...or worse yet just ignored. :

 

[clearance]

Good pictures but doesn't anybody Cat log up in that part of the world? Yarders, yarders, yarders....I think maybe we're being discriminated against here...or worse yet just ignored. :

I have recently seen a couple of D6 sized machines with grapples on them, just on trucks or in a yard. Never seen them work, but I have seen pictures of those old D8s with both tracked and wheeled arches (back in the old days). I think on ground thats flat enough to run a cat or skidder they mostly hoe-chuck, on the coast anyways.

 

[RPM]

One of the logging contractors in this area has a couple of Cat 517 grapple skidders - D6 under carrige I think. They're not a supper fast machine although very good on steeper slopes (35-50%). No one uses tracked line skidders anymore here. Most of the production loggers use rubber tired skidders (JD 748) as they are much faster machine and will pull hard on adverse skids.

 

[Kiwilogger]

Must be a bugger hauling through standing trees, setting up rope shifts etc.

I don't know anything else except clearfell logging.

 

[Kiwilogger]

BTW: Looks like that old girl has been around a day or 2!

I learnt to drive yarders on an old tty45. 1982 built, 45' floating lattice tower, 3 guys, 500m skyline. 350 horse V8 cummins. An old 903! What a machine!

 

[slowp]

Nobody skidder/cat logging right now. We don't have enough flat (less than 30%) ground for much. Had a sale a year ago with a processor and they used a hightrack with a grapple. Nothing since. Two sales were originally cat logged, the trails are still showing but the judge said "No ground based systems on the sale." Got one coming up with skidder, yarder and helicopter logging in it. They are waiting/hoping for lumber prices to rise. Might be a while.

 

[John Ellison]

just had a passing thought...when it rains out there does it lightning? i hear about u guys working in the rain and i do to as long as the wind stays down along with the lightning. just a thought

Where I lived in W. Washington and S.E. Alaska there would very seldom be lightning. At least compared to the hotter middle states.

 

[Gologit]

Nobody skidder/cat logging right now. We don't have enough flat (less than 30%) ground for much. Had a sale a year ago with a processor and they used a hightrack with a grapple. Nothing since. Two sales were originally cat logged, the trails are still showing but the judge said "No ground based systems on the sale." Got one coming up with skidder, yarder and helicopter logging in it. They are waiting/hoping for lumber prices to rise. Might be a while.

I guess that's one of the major differences between logging government ground and private ground. We use Cats and skidders on sales where some of the slope is steep enough for a yarder but not enough of it to make a yarder sale out of. The Cats usually pre-bunch off of the steeper ground and the skidders shuttle to the landing. Everything is grapple, of course. Site rehab is spelled out chapter and verse in the THP.
As for lumber prices rising...don't get your hopes up. Since the big housing bubble burst our lumber sales are way off. Log prices are down and nobody I talk to who really knows anything sees an end to it.
If it gets any worse a bunch of us are going to start a work-share program...at Kentucky Fried Chicken. At least we'll get fed.

 

[slowp]

Rain is another reason why there's more cable logging. Rutting in mud is a bad thing. The haul roads are well rocked. And we seldom have lightning except I guess we did a week ago. I slept through it. Our rain is more of the drizzle kind. A constant drizzle. We do get the occasional downpour in the winter. You get used to it or go elsewhere.