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G.P.S. In The Logging Industry

Started by Autocar, May 16, 2014, 06:49:56 PM

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Autocar

I was at a meeting this past week and one of the loggers there told about having G.P.S. on his skidder ,loader and semis. It blew my mind but guess it makes sense he said he can look at his cell phone and see if every machine is moving. One thing Ive learned sence we started the N.W.Ohio loggers chapter theres alot bigger fish in the pond and for alot of companys it all about production. The east side and south side of Ohio its saw logs and pulp wood chips but here on the west side it saw logs only . There working year around and here we get cropped in and have to wait for wheat harvest or even later when the corn and beans come off.
Bill

landscraper

Not logging, but I had satellite tracking on a machine that traveled from job to job, often a couple hundred miles from home for weeks at a time.  I could go and look at either real-time or historical data (engine speed, temp, fuel consumption), whether the unit was mobile or stationary, when it was last turned on or off, all kinds of stuff.  I used it to back-stop some of my billing, and to track fuel costs, other stuff.  It came on the machine with a free year subscription, we renewed for one year, then sold the rig.  Very cool, especially if you were managing a big fleet of equipment.
Firewood is energy independence on a personal scale.

Firewoodjoe

I can understand it to a point but I don't think I could work for someone if they had that much lack of trust. I don't know I'm sure I'll see a lot more crazy things before I retire

chevytaHOE5674

Plenty of processor/forwarder combos out there running GPS and GIS. They can have maps of the sale boundary over top of an aerial photo or topo map. As they move along they can map where they have cut and what they have left to cut. Actually pretty neat to have and use in the machine.

barbender

UPM sets up a lot of their sales with GPS now, and it is loaded onto our processor computers. A lot of sales they have the skid trails and everything laid out. The processor operators have a pretty favorable opinion of the system. That's different than having your moment by moment movements tracked, though ;)
Too many irons in the fire

redprospector

No GPS or anything like that in any equipment, but the State Forestry uses GPS for area calculation around here. I try to keep a GPS identical to what State Forestry uses, just so I can have a legitimate argument. They like to pay by what GPS says, and that can vary a lot just by weather conditions at the time of use. I always walk out the area I'm billing for at least twice on a nice clear day before they come to inspect. If the day they show up to inspect my work is overcast, I've had it make as much as a 2 acre difference on a 15 acre tract. That's huge when you're paid by the acre.
1996 Timber King B-20 with 14' extension, Morgan Mini Scragg Mill, Fastline Band Scragg Mill (project), 1973 JD 440-b skidder, 2008 Bobcat T-320 with buckets, grapple, auger, Tushogg mulching head, etc., 2006 Fecon FTX-90L with Bull Hog 74SS head, 1994 Vermeer 1250 BC Chipper. A bunch of chainsaws.

GuyInHuntsville

Quote from: redprospector on May 17, 2014, 01:07:08 AM
If the day they show up to inspect my work is overcast, I've had it make as much as a 2 acre difference on a 15 acre tract.

I first got a GPS about a year ago and was really suprised at how inaccurate it is depending on weather and time of day. It's pretty accurate between 11am and 1pm on a clear sunny day but later in the day/evening it can be off by 75yds. I use GPS Visualizer when I want to view my saved tracks.

Black_Bear

Quote from: Firewoodjoe on May 16, 2014, 10:02:57 PM
I can understand it to a point but I don't think I could work for someone if they had that much lack of trust. I don't know I'm sure I'll see a lot more crazy things before I retire

Our fellers are equipped with GPS. It is not so much for tracking the equipment, but for helping the operator determine where he is in the block. I've had numerous operators, who had never run GPS before, tell me they wouldn't want to run feller without GPS again. GPS helps in determining layout, trail placement and at a glance the operator can tell exactly where he is, which is very handy in a large block. I also use the track log to help with my cut maps, and the operators could care less if they are being tracked. Their primary benchmark is how much wood they have down. If they don't have any wood down the GPS will be the last of their worries. It's hard to be lazy in a feller for too long.

Black_Bear

Quote from: GuyInHuntsville on May 17, 2014, 07:07:31 AM
Quote from: redprospector on May 17, 2014, 01:07:08 AM
If the day they show up to inspect my work is overcast, I've had it make as much as a 2 acre difference on a 15 acre tract.

I first got a GPS about a year ago and was really suprised at how inaccurate it is depending on weather and time of day. It's pretty accurate between 11am and 1pm on a clear sunny day but later in the day/evening it can be off by 75yds. I use GPS Visualizer when I want to view my saved tracks.

Among all the GPS courses I have taken, one focused on signal strength of GPS. Long story short, the GPS signal is degraded the most in wet pine canopy and somewhat degraded in wet hardwood canopy. We run external antennas on our fellers. This helps with the signal, but the life of an external antenna on a feller, as you can imagine, can vary from one day to two years. Signal degradation during a certain time of day may be due to poor satellite configuration, which is rare these days, given the amount of satellites we have. 75 yards seems excessive, but I can't attest to the signal strength in the U.S. southwest. I hate to throw a percentage on this, but I'm willing to bet that 99% of the time my error circle is less than 30 feet with a handheld/navigation grade GPS.

Ken

Having GPS in a machine can be a big help when working after dark.  My new harvester will come with jdlink allowing me to check in on machine remotely as long as it's working in an area with phone reception.
Lots of toys for working in the bush

GuyInHuntsville

Quote from: Black_Bear on May 17, 2014, 07:23:10 AM
75 yards seems excessive, but I can't attest to the signal strength in the U.S. southwest. I hate to throw a percentage on this, but I'm willing to bet that 99% of the time my error circle is less than 30 feet with a handheld/navigation grade GPS.

I agree...This amount of variation only happens in one section of the National Forest (dense pines) where I'm at. Anywhere else it's usually within 30' like you said and in the middle of a clear day pretty close to be dead on. Garmin eTrex 10.

mad murdock

Differential GPS is used by all the big timber co's out here. We also have to use it in the helicopters when we do herbicide application and fertilizer application. We generate an application record that can be layered on their GIS. It is actually part of SFI compliance.  DGPS receivers are more $$ but accuracy is sub meter, survey quality- usually less than 10cm.
Turbosawmill M6 (now M8) Warrior Ultra liteweight, Granberg Alaskan III, lots of saws-gas powered and human powered :D

SwampDonkey

Like mad murdock, the machines here on crown land and even block layouts (even PCT thinning by hand) are using GPS with corrected data (real time or post processed). I mark out several hundred acres of thinning with GPS with onboard GIS with an aerial photo layer. I've been using GPS for 14 years. Although we do not need sub-meter grade here, we use 1 m accuracy GPS, which is still pretty pricey. If you look at a Garmin website, it says those things are good to within 17 feet or more. Not my words, theirs. They are using WAAS, which as far as I recall is coast guard related.
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

luvmexfood

Quote from: Firewoodjoe on May 16, 2014, 10:02:57 PM
I can understand it to a point but I don't think I could work for someone if they had that much lack of trust. I don't know I'm sure I'll see a lot more crazy things before I retire

Sort of off topic but when my father was in the hospital 2 years ago all the nurses, and I don't know who else, had to wear what they called "slacker trackers". Basically it provided a history of everywhere they went in the hospital down to the patients room to make sure they were where they needed to be.
Give me a new saw chain and I can find you a rock in a heartbeat.

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