The Descriptive Process

[northmanlogging]

gotcha


no ya dinnit

 

[northmanlogging]

Bid a job tonight,

Private ground.

Big timber, real big at least fer me.

Steep though... and some property line issues so we shall see

 

[madhatte]

Best o' luck to ye

 

[northmanlogging]

Not sure the Ole Missus is going to pull em...

luckily its mostly downhill, just that initial grunt to the "road" (2nd gear low 4x4 in the mighty crummy and I was getting concerned about surviving and that was on the road)

might have to find a cat to drag em

 

[Skeans]

Sounds like good wood for a D7 sized machine. There was a 748 for sale down here for a reasonable price with a cab and grapples if that would fit the bill.


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[northmanlogging]

Define reasonable? remember 7 years ago when you could get dozers for a couple grand? Those same dozers ******** are trying to sell for 30,000 today.

keep in mind I paid less then 20k for the essavator, including delivery.

One of the self loader jockeys I work with has a d6 I could probably rent for cheap, has a winch and log arch.

Also i wouldn't have a use for a D7, most of my clearing work is excavator ground, or D4 type stuff. Dozers have their place, and this project would surely by one of em, but honestly its not the norm for me. Mostly a dozer for me would be for regrading roads, pushing brush, very occasional road building and the rare log skidding project. All of which can be accomplished with an excavator, though a dozer does a slightly better job of holding a grade. And a skidder is just better at skidding than anything else on flat ground.

 

[Skeans]

That 748 was around 30k, I looked this morning it wasn’t on Craigslist out of Portland anymore but you might keep your eyes open.
20 years ago we bought a D7F for 35k with 3500 hours on it original undercarriage still on it today, it’s not used much but when you need it you need. For most of our brush work it’s what we use with a pin on brush rake and the fun old stump splitter that size of machine is hard to beat or a D8.


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[northmanlogging]

30k for used iron is stupid, unless its in incredible shape just not worth it to me, I will gladly let the folks that are kneeling to the banks spend that kind of money.

while a big ass dozer would be fun, comes down to economics of scale, I generally don't clear and stump anything larger then an acre, and a big machine will make light work of it, but it comes with more overhead (trucking, fuel, etc) where as a smaller machine can be easily moved, less fuel, less collateral damage... I'm repeating myself, but i stay busy and for the most part have happy clients when I'm done (to date only 3 unhappy clients, 2 were crooks the other expected miracles, well one of the crooks wasn't so bad... just kept pushing for more then I was offering the other well... I do the job, and then I get paid...)

While where at economics of scale, been a couple jobs around me I've been watching, big crews, big machines, big messes, but they don't really work any faster then I do with my little machines and no crew?

 

[Skeans]

How many loads a week on how big of projects though?


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[northmanlogging]

2 to 4 loads for me per week

The other guys gettin 2 a day ish crews of 3 or 4, then spending weeks clearing a few acres of stumps. Then another couple weeks putting in drainage.

One crew took the better part of a month just to off load 3 acres of stumps, with 3 300 sized excavators.

Then keep in mind these folks are charging 150 to 250 an hour per machine.

 

[Skeans]

2 to 4 loads for me per week

The other guys gettin 2 a day ish crews of 3 or 4, then spending weeks clearing a few acres of stumps. Then another couple weeks putting in drainage.

One crew took the better part of a month just to off load 3 acres of stumps, with 3 300 sized excavators.

Then keep in mind these folks are charging 150 to 250 an hour per machine.

That’s beyond slow, thinning we shoot for 3 to 4 a day clear cutting hand falling its 2 to 3 with a 3 man crew including driver.

The last mechanical clear cut we did 8 to 9 a day.


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[northmanlogging]

Yeah I know...

The folks I know that have been at it awhile do pretty good, this seems to be out of the area crews, or sumthin, don't recognize any of em or their equipment, but they are here and getting jobs so?

The building and construction industry around here and from the sounds of it, nationwide is off the charts. Lots of new faces making a go of it.

 

[2dogs]

Man! I'm probably not going to be doing any project until July. Well except for poison oak eradication. Spraying mostly.

Our backhoe and excavator are trapped down a public road deemed to hazardous to travel by the County. $100,000.00 worth of equipment just gathering dust and losing battery power. I don't even know if I can drive there since the last storm of March was a doozy. The road could have slid right off the map. Too far to legally fly a drone.

Cody has lots of tree jobs lined up I can be his groundie on. Better than nothing.

Just rambling. The rest of the family is out of town. Oh I am cooking at the family spring lamb BBQ on Saturday. Should I make a macaroni salad or roasted Brussell's Sprouts?

 

[northmanlogging]

both? as long as the sprouts are made with bacon...

Just how bad is this road? and could you sneak em out while no one is looking? cause... **** the county

 

[2dogs]

Matt there is nothing I would rather do than just drive down the county road past the bad spot and drive into camp. I want to start up all the rolling stock and generators, pull out two trailers, one of which is loaded for wood destined for a project on Highway 101. Heck I'll even drive our contractor's 966 around just to get its fluids moving. But no. We are Boy Scouts and we believe in the rule of law and doing our duty to the County.

Now if we had a sky crane I would first one saying "Let's go!".

 

[northmanlogging]

Matt there is nothing I would rather do than just drive down the county road past the bad spot and drive into camp. I want to start up all the rolling stock and generators, pull out two trailers, one of which is loaded for wood destined for a project on Highway 101. Heck I'll even drive our contractor's 966 around just to get its fluids moving. But no. We are Boy Scouts and we believe in the rule of law and doing our duty to the County.

Now if we had a sky crane I would first one saying "Let's go!".

Call it a good deed, you know saving the machines from looming destruction.

Also could wait for fire season, and maybe get on on the return trip? 1 bird 2 stones?

 

[Gologit]

Matt there is nothing I would rather do than just drive down the county road past the bad spot and drive into camp. I want to start up all the rolling stock and generators, pull out two trailers, one of which is loaded for wood destined for a project on Highway 101. Heck I'll even drive our contractor's 966 around just to get its fluids moving. But no. We are Boy Scouts and we believe in the rule of law and doing our duty to the County.

Now if we had a sky crane I would first one saying "Let's go!".

 

[2dogs]

Thanks Bob! I have never seen that video before.

Here is an old vid.

 

[Skeans]

Thanks Bob! I have never seen that video before.

Here is an old vid.

If i remember right the skidder was a Wayne Stone from up around Portland.


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[northmanlogging]

FYI

Fire extinguishers are expensive, taste terrible and make a huge mess...

But I sure am glad I have em.

On a lighter note, no real damage, just a slightly less square battery, and a very, very clean radiator...