Ive come to find the guys that actually make money do so because they are efficient with what they have, regardless of size. The other thing about the bigger crews is that assuming they are making payments they have a lot more equity built up in iron than I do. I have friends who run a high ball outfit, 3 big grapples, three landing loaders, 5 over the road trucks, and they work with another outfit producing clean paper chips. All told they average well over 2500 tons of logs, pulp, chips etc a week, sometimes its over 3500 tons if they get on the right job and work double shifts. Thing is, they are big enough where they command a better price from the low grade markets because they produce so much. And should they ever want to sell it all, even the used iron they have is 1.5 million or more. I get busted up and cant cut timber, sell my 240, Id be lucky to get 15k for it. So ya, they may not be taking home a lot more, but when they are all done and sell out its worth a lot more than a small one man show. And as for the ***ching, I think it goes with the territory. Ive met a lot of good loggers, but never one that didnt do some whining once in a while. Here in PA its a contract for the mills kind of game, and when mills fill up you always get a busy work job. Im on one now, averages a load of firewood to every load of logs, kinda sidehill, lots of ugly half rotted beech you got to dump but isnt worth the 25 cents in gas you burned to cut it. If it isnt bad wood, its bad ground, if its good wood and good ground and you can produce the trucks dont clean you up or fuel is too expensive. And then, holy cow if you have employees its guaranteed you will have iron to fix because you got to go through ten of em before you find a good one that doesnt crash and bang and beat up your stuff. I think a little BS goes with the job.
Bitz, how do you like your forwarder? There are a few guys here embracing CTL and going with the newer 6 and 8 wheeled versions, but I dont want to have to cut enough wood alone to pay for one of them. That one you are running looks to be decent but not too common over here. The guys Im working for are real particular about sorting everything out nice and neat, and with a cable machine its a PITA to have a pile of different sorts. Spend more time getting on and off the skidder and cutting off pieces in the right pile than you do getting anything else done. Im taking it you pick up logs then wood? Or do you just throw it all on and sort once you get out? And how does it handle hills?