FFE in NCW

[Alusium]

Falcon forestry equipment in north central Washington.

 

[Alusium]

More pics.

 

[Alusium]

More pics.

 

[Shop Dweller]

About what percentage do you start needing tether? I have a dangle head excavator conversion. I can usually surpass 60% before I worry about sliding, depending on how dry it is. Im on the other coast in Appalachians. Totally different terrain. Our slopes are short and pitchy, not long and constant from what ive seen out west. Therefore yarding type operations don't work here. Also a lot of this hardwood is too heavy for yarding. Although I primarily cut white pine. The dangle works good because I can shovel so easily and we use skidders. Cable skidders half the time. And I can cut 38 inches in a single pass, and if I need to hit 2 sides on steep ground I can sit still and do it without having to track. It's also really easy to trim and top with in hardwood. Did a job once right next to a crew with a Timberpro 755. It was good size timber. Near the bottom where it wasn't so steep he could out pace me because he could cut the smaller trees so much faster, but as it got steeper and he was having to move around and hit trees by 2 or 3 sides then I definitely had the upper hand. He couldn't shovel the trees near as well on that steep ground either. His leveling cab seemed nice though I must say, and it did make him more stable as far as machine rocking. But im so used to mine I don't even think about it.


Its a 2019 Link-Belt 210x3 with Ryans DS3550 dangle, 24" single grouser severe service. Built my own forest protection all from 3/8" thickness, which added 8,500 pounds. The head weighs 5,500 pounds. So the machine comes in at about 66,000 pounds now. Not heavy as some but heavy enough. I also had dealer increase track power 25%. I been waiting to shell a planetary but hasn't happened yet.

 

[Shop Dweller]

Top of highest point in Allegheny County NC, not all that high but timber won't grow here much higher.

 

[Alusium]

60% sounds about right, depending on the ground. I agree with pretty much everything you said. I’d like to have a directional felling head on ground over 60%. Neat work on the forest protection.

 

[Shop Dweller]

You don't see many true tracked cutting machines around here. The mills make sure that loggers can't afford them and it's way out of rubber tire range here. Pulp is about dead here since Louisiana Pacific shut down the hardwood chip mill. Weyerhauser is about 40 minutes away, from my house. It's an OSB plant, they buy soft hardwood too, but we are covered with Oak, Ash, Hickory, Locust, etc. that is worthless now. You are lucky if pulp brings 30 bucks a ton. Noone takes tree length either. Every saw log is worked down to 8, 10, 12, or 16 feet. Most all cutting here is still done with a Husqvarna or a Stihl. That's how I did it 26 years before getting in the A/C. A couple of the mill crews have tracked cutters. Woodgain Inc. , who are actually based in Idaho, has the one I mentioned earlier, and Pack Brothers has one with an intermittent head. They cut Duke Energy Timber so they have been set for years. At one time they ran over 20 skidders on multiple jobs. And Sale Lumber had one but I think its gone. If you do see one though it will usually be a Timberpro because John Woodie is right down the road and he is a dealer. We had a 522 Cat for a while but It was intermittent and I hated that head. I imagine a hot saw would be much better.

 

[Alusium]

I started logging in Oregon.

Most of those folks had a clue about what they were doing.

I moved to ncw almost 10 years ago. I haven’t found a logger yet that has “a bear ass whisper” of a clue about what they are doing.

Most don’t understand scale.

They get paid by scale, but they cut for the ton.

Unbelievable.

They throw away my days pay in an hour.

I’ve tried to tell my boss, but he says they can’t load 40’ ters because they just break.

LOL.

 

[Alusium]

Pretty happy with the timber pro.

Nice machine.

 

[Hallback]

I bought a falcon winch 5 years ago and loved it. Problem is they don't pay you to have them anymore.

 

[Shop Dweller]

I started logging in Oregon.

Most of those folks had a clue about what they were doing.

I moved to ncw almost 10 years ago. I haven’t found a logger yet that has “a bear ass whisper” of a clue about what they are doing.

Most don’t understand scale.

They get paid by scale, but they cut for the ton.

Unbelievable.

They throw away my days pay in an hour.

I’ve tried to tell my boss, but he says they can’t load 40’ ters because they just break.

LOL.

If you can haul tree length thats a big plus. Here we have to process everything down to 16, 14, 12, 10, and 8 feet. It's always been like that. I imagine we could do twice as much tree length. All processing is done with knucklebooms at landing too. Its too steep to process in the woods here. People have tried it and lost their butts on their processing machines. Too much hardwood too that can't be ran in a processing head.

 

[Plebeian]

Cat posted a youtube commercial for the 528 log loader. Western Mississippi - they showed a logging operation with (on the same landing) a knuckleboom trailer and a Cat 528 track log loader (fixed heel & dangle grapple) paired with a cutting systems? self-powered delimber, looked like the delimber was powering the ground bunk saw too.

"Cat® FM528 A Game Changer for Eddie, Inc."​