Organizing the log landing

[jdatwood]

Hello all,
May seem like a trivial question but I'm looking for ideas on organizing my log landing. I'll walk you through the way I do it now and it works but it seems pretty inefficient to me. Hoping that there's a better technique out there. I log with a cable skidder and what I'm doing is pulling up to my landing and sighting down the logs to find the spot where most of them start to get crooked. I stop my machine and hop off with my tape measure to get a measurement of logs I can cut out, add them all up and cut each log in that one spot and that's my first pile of tops for pulp wood. Next I'll pull ahead a little so there's enough separation between pile's for me to work and square up ends, yes I'm type A! There at the second pile I'll saw all the individual logs 8',10',12' etc. I'll wait every couple hitches to push the pile up. One thing I could probably do to save all the up and down is keep it all on one pile but I would think it would be a tangled up mess for the driver. I try to keep the landing neat as possible so that anyone driving by see's a neat professional looking job that's all 99% of people will see anyway. So I'm hoping you guys can critique my method and help me with the details and save me so much fooling around on the deck or maybe that's just the way everyone does it??

[Maine372]

you got the same basic idea I do.

I mark off my logs and cut off the pulp at the pulp pile. then pull up to separate the sorts. after unhooking I push the wood up whatever length it is and head back for more. when I get back with the next hitch, and already have tape and saw in hand, then I cut up the previous hitch that is already on the pile.

its easier to cut on the pile (out of the dirt) and its easier to push up long wood than shorter wood (I find). if the truck comes while im gone he just sets the uncut wood to the back of the pile and I cut it up after he leaves.

[BargeMonkey]

 Yarding up with a cable skidder is a pain how ever you do it. A landing loader is worth its weight in gold some days. Thats a 440D youve got ? 

 

[thecfarm]

Try it with a loader on a farm tractor.  :
I use to cut the pulp out first too. I was doing it small scale,with a tractor. Most times I would mark the logs where I fell the tree.

[Peter Drouin]

Get a bobcat with forks and thumb. Pull the hitch to the landing over 2 trees going the other way so your hitch is off the ground. Cut the trees to length and take the bobcat and put the logs in the right pile. A pile of hardwood pulp the one for saw logs , one with pine saw logs , A pile for pine pulp.
That way you and the trucker can see if you have enough saw logs to fill the truck. Or a load of pulp . the bobcat is the key to a organize landing.A big loader is nice but the bobcat you can move with a pickup.

[jdatwood]

Maine 372 I'll be using your method for rolling up the logs out of the dirt for sure! Thank you, and yes barge monkey it's a 440D. Keep the tips coming fellas I like constructive criticism that's how we learn better ways to do things. It's a simple sounding task but once you do it awhile you get complacent and don't learn anything just kinda set in your ways.

[jwilly3879]

X2 on Bargemonkey. Even a small loader is worth it when it comes to sorting and keeping the landing neat. I used to run an antique baby husky and loaded a lot of wood with it. We now have an antique Barko 160 with a cab and at least I'm out of the weather and have heat. It's slow but powerful and saves us money by having the wood sorted and decked. I've seen many 8' logs go as pulp and that gets costly so we started cutting 9' so they couldn't go as pulp back before a loader.

The Landowner on this job loves the neat piles of wood and I think the landings can be smaller as well as neater. The only junk we have to clean up is the shorts, lots of 4' pine pulp and shorter. Hope the OWB guy shows up soon, if not they will become fill.

[thecfarm]

My Father always called them logs going the other way bed pieces. If you are dumb enough to saw through a log on the ground here,you better be smart enough to know how to sharpen a chain.  :D

[jwilly3879]

I usually manage to set the "bed logs" at about the wheelbase of the 240 so the skidder op does a lot of bouncing when pulling up next to the loader. It sure does save on sharpening, I've found every rock on the landing.

[BargeMonkey]

Ive seen that, or where a guy will span firewood sticks parallel to the header, about 8 feet apart, sliding the whole drag up on bunks basically. The best place to tip a 440 over is on the header, those 18.4 tires dont take much to become airborne. I would always slash up still hooked up, the pulp always stayed towards the back. If your serious about logging, down the road a small forwarder or loader will save you so much aggravation. Ive pulled more wood than I wanna think about with my 440D, 11,800 hours right now, got it with 3800 hours. Local bank held the note, and I had went in to see about a loan on a skidder, they where repo-ing this one, I jumped on it like a hand grenade. The 440D's hold thier value, an employee of ours has a 440C and theres a fair amount of difference. 

[barbender]

When I pull wood with my cable skidder, I usually sort and pile with my skid steer. It's way easier for me.

[jdatwood]

Your all right about a a loader but I'm trying to do what I can with what I have. I basically just use the machine for personal use and a little side work. I don't want to spend any  more money on my operation than I already have. If I did it for a living my first investment would be a delimber. Just trying to work more efficient on the landing with what I already have. I appreciate everyone's pointers keep them coming!

[Ed_K]

Put a grapple on the tractor loader or bobcat. There's some cost to plumb it up but well worth it.
I look my saw log tree's over for crooks and straight logs before cutting then mark the logs as I'm limbing. At the landing I drop them. Afternoon I use the tractor to pick each one off the ground cut lengths and stack on appropriate pile.

[barbender]

I've often thought about how one could sort neatly on the landing with just the cable machine. I just don't see how without lots of up and down off of the machine. What if you pre-laid a choker on the ground that you drag your logs across, and when you had say 3 or 4 you could winch them up transversly ("packsacking")? That way you would pick them off of the ground and take them wherever you wanted to pile them, instead of pushing them with the blade.

[lumberjack48]

I did this for many yrs, the best method i found to get wood on the landing and do a neat gob, plus the best productin.
Is saw the logs off in the woods.  If a tree has one log saw it off, two, three logs leave them hook together and cut pulp off. This way your skidding one or the other, this keeps the skidder busy pulling wood, not killing time on the landing. Another machine on the landing to sort with, is just creating another job.

[jdatwood]

That method makes sense to me. I'll give it a try tommorow. I may have to add a few more chokers on to keep my pulp turns heavy but otherwise sounds like a keep it simple approach. The up and down one less time each trip to the landing will be HUGE come the end of the day. If I had a Timberjack it wouldn't matter so much. I broke my back years ago and the up and down the skidder kills my lower back but I love the work so much I can't help but keep doing it.

[tj240]

put it all in one pile push it up tree length with cribs under if you get the trees just right with a jd you can balance them so the pile is neat looking then the truck driver can sort. if you can afford it you cant beat a slasher. i would buy a slasher before  a delimber. good luck and log on

[Ryan D]

I did this for many yrs, the best method i found to get wood on the landing and do a neat gob, plus the best productin.
Is saw the logs off in the woods.  If a tree has one log saw it off, two, three logs leave them hook together and cut pulp off. This way your skidding one or the other, this keeps the skidder busy pulling wood, not killing time on the landing. Another machine on the landing to sort with, is just creating another job.

This is how we do it too. Usually get a few turns of logs out and then go back and clean up a load of pulp. By far the fastest way to do it with only a skidder.

[Skidder Kev]

We use a skidsteer on the landing to do our sorting with just pallet forks.  What we like about it is we can move it with the pickup,  we can take it to smaller jobs where its better for a skidsteer and last we use it in the yard to move logs around the firewood spliter and we have a firewood rack that fits on it to for loading the dump trailer.    Never used a slasher and loader on the landing but they seem handy .
Kev

[CX3]

I didnt read all the replies, but heres what I do.  When you get to the sawlog pile, drop the trees and unhook.  Then push the whole tree up onto the other logs before bucking.  This way they are all laying straight in the pile.  The hardest part is getting the pile started because when you only have a few logs on the ground they seem to push along, rather than stack. This works very well and looks awesome. 

Its hard as heck to keep a straight pile if you buck them, then push.  Actually its impossible, for me, Ive tried a thousound time. 

[barbender]

CX3, wouldn't it be a pain to get rehooked doing it that way with a cable machine? You're running a grapple, right?

[ga jones]

Bucking on the pile is dangerous. Especially when the bark slipping (like now).I used to use a tractor with short forks. That works well. Now I use this.

 

[jdatwood]

Thanks for the suggestions all. I got a lot of good tips here and I appreciate everyone's input. Good luck and work safely.

[BargeMonkey]

Having a neat landing is another selling point to landowners. We tend to keep the high grade logs wedged in by the saw, discourages a few rogue loggers from helping themselves. Had that happen 2x a few years ago. Ive noticed more and more loaders around for cheap money, after you get above a 5 choker machine it makes life so much easier unhooking sometimes.

[jwilly3879]

Being in the loader when the hitch arrives sure makes it easier for the skidder operator to unhook. I then layout the trees with the butts even and spaced out to make marking and bucking easier and safer. Worked for years without a loader and paid the price, slipping and stumbling on the logs with a stick in one hand and a saw in the other. Now I use a tape and paint to layout the logs. It definitely makes it easier to get better grade and yield. It also gives me a chance to look the tree over several times before bucking.