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Portable Skidder Bridge Workshop.

Started by nyforester, May 19, 2006, 09:27:02 PM

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nyforester

I went to a work shop today. We built a 16 foot portable bridge. It is held together with 3/4 threaded rod. It should work out very nice for small crossings.







The guy had a board that was used as a drilling template. Each log was drilled and then fitted into the rods. Nuts and washers hold the 5 pieces togther. Each section weighs about 2500 lbs.



Rob

Hi Forester ,

        My supervisor and I built some skidder bridges this week actually but we did ours a little different , sorry dont have any pics but could get some . We used 16' Hemlock logs , had a guy with a woodmizer cut two side of the logs so they could be pulled together flat with the others , we used to use the cants like in your pic but our skidders would tear them up too fast with chains on . We then made a template on a 2x6 and set it on the flat side of each log and centered the template and drilled three holes in each piece of timber , then we took three pieces of 1" steel rod and put a piece of rod through each hole . Took chains and ratchet binders and pulled all the timbers together tight and had steel plates with 1" holes slide them over the end of the rod and welded both sides inside and outside of plate cut the excess off and beat back through with hammer until tight against log then did the same on the other side and cut the excess rod off .

         Worked pretty good , now we need to get them in the woods so we can use them , well I 'll try and get some pics if I get a chance..Hope my explanation was'nt too confusing..

                                                     Later Rob

Ron Wenrich

We have one that's 20' long and made from hickory.  Its a pretty tough bridge, but we loaned one out and the guys managed to break it.

I like the way you have that one stepped.  I have also seen where they put something on the sides that help to prevent the log from slidding off of the bridge.
Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

Dale Hatfield

Don't forget to   cable them to the bank or a close tree. I had mine leave once,  flood water moved them about   50 yards down stream.
Then we were  sharing the bridges with another logger on same site  we cut hardwood he cut pine. But his crew wouldn't let up at  approach to the bridge just hammer on over. End result were 2 busted bridges  when they left.
So  faced  with iron on one side  logs on the other  and water in the middle. We had to come up with a answer.  Poplar poles   we pushed across the old bridge  and  then pulled it  out.  We cabled 2 sets of them together.     The skidder slipped through a few times till we got just right.  The trick was  to not turn the wheels while on the bridge just drive straight.


Dale
Game Of Logging trainer,  College instructor of logging/Tree Care
Chainsaw Carver

woodmills1

A similar design is found in a New Hampshire coop extension booklet.  It also used a stepped design, though the individual pieces are not as wide, 2 inches I think.
James Mills,Lovely wife,collect old tools,vacuuming fool,36 bdft/hr,oak paper cutter,ebonic yooper rapper nauga seller, Blue Ox? its not fast, 2 cat family, LT70,edger, 375 bd ft/hr, we like Bob,free heat,no oil 12 years,big splitter, baked stuffed lobster, still cuttin the logs dere IAM

jon12345

When I was in college we built one with NELA,  I forget how long but it was made outta 6x8 and 8x8 beech, and burned up a couple drills doing it. At first we had trouble getting the rods through but got the hang of it after a while.  After we got done we set it up on some spare cants and tested it with the 14 ton front end loader.  pm me if ya want some pics and I'll get them to ya eventually.
A.A.S. in Forest Technology.....Ironworker

beenthere

jon (with numbers)
Put a couple pics in your galley, as we'd be interested (always like dem pics)  :)
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

jon12345

maybe I will,  I asked the question before about copyright issues, since I did not take the pictures and the design of the bridge isn't mine,  I guess it'd be ok for educational purposes.  After I get them resized and such, I'll post them and notify ppl via this thread
A.A.S. in Forest Technology.....Ironworker

beenthere

Identify the source if they've been published. Send by JeffB if in doubt.
What is NELA?  Was thinking it might be NE Lumber Mfg Assoc (NELMA) or similar.

south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

SwampDonkey

Good thread here, but I was wondering if it would be too much to have the first two photos placed in your gallery and resized to <30 kbyte and 400 pixels ??? sil vous plez. ;)  ;D
"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)))

David_c

Quote from: beenthere on May 22, 2006, 02:05:48 PM
Identify the source if they've been published. Send by JeffB if in doubt.
What is NELA?  Was thinking it might be NE Lumber Mfg Assoc (NELMA) or similar.


North Eastern Loggers Assc. You should be able to post them. I read somewhere in there literiture that it is ok to copy pics illistrations. But you need permission to copy the writting word. Or something to that affect anyway.

Jeff

I am going to fix these photos and place them back in the thread. THis time. nyforester, I think we have been over this before but the rules and tutorial for posting photos on the Forestry Forum are available throuth the help link on your menu bar.  These rules go for everyone. Including us as administators.
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

Jeff

The photos are now 1 tenth the file size they were.
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

beenthere

I found a site that includes a short 'movie' of placing skidder bridges that may be of interest. Also may be potential for a member to whip up some of these skidder bridges from sawn hemlock logs into 8x8 timbers. Might be a market.  :)

skidder bridge movie
(find it near the bottom of this page on the Professor Egan from U of Maine)
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Bill H

I built one of the pole bridges as shown on page 20 of the Ky BMP'sKY BMP'sand it worked very well and was cheap.
Bill
love to play in the woods
2 Husky 359's
Timberjack 230D
Cat 941
D7

thecfarm

I sold a load of Hemlock logs to a sawer that was cutting bridges for a fellow.Can't remember how long,but he wanted them to square almost a foot.Wane was fine.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

Jim

Interesting thread.

I have to build a bridge across a stream and have lots of hemlock and a band saw mill. Being the simple guy that I am, drilling the hemlock and using rods may be a bit beyond me.

Is there another way of joining up the hemlock? The bridge will be permanent.

Also would 8 x 8 support the weight of a Case 590 backhoe?

breederman

  Our logger last fall just rodded a bunch of 2x8's together. The bridge was about twenty feet long over the creek and he ran a small skidder over it. I am thinking of doing the same thing. Just drag it off in the fall and chain it to a tree then put it back in the  spring after the water goes down.
Together we got this !

Frickman

I just put together a bridge out of tulip poplar. We sawed 16' long cants 7" thick and as wide as possible. We then layed them out 6' wide, for two halves that will be 12' wide when installed. We used spikes and 10" carriage bolts to attach 2" x 12" cross pieces and diagonal braces, like you would build a wooden door. I haven't gotten to use them yet, but shoved them around with the skidder and they seem fairly sturdy.
If you're not broke down once in a while, you're not working hard enough

I'm not a hillbilly. I'm an "Appalachian American"

Retired  Conventional hand-felling logging operation with cable skidder and forwarder, Frick 01 handset sawmill

Pretend farmer when I have the time

nyforester

I am going to build my own bridge next week. I just got the Hemlock back from the mill. I will take some pics of my progress and post them when complete.

nyforester

Here are some pictures of my bridge construction. It is made out of 10 inch x10 inch x 19 foot  Hemlock. I made a custom drill bit and drilled through the entire width of the bridge. 3/4 Threaded rod was pounded through and tightened with washer and nuts.
By the way - the method you have to insert pitures into this forum stinks. The size limits are way too small also.
These were the largest photos this site would allow me to download. I had to shrink them so small that all the quality is gone.





















By the way...I had some help from my partner and employees.


JimBuis

Good job! :)

By the way, the picture posting on here is a dead horse that we don't beat much. ;)  The chosen method is actually far superior to any other site I frequent.  Others are easier to upload, but in short order the pictures disappear as posters run up against their maximum posting capacity and begin to delete old photos to make way for new.  The result is posts that are more than a couple of months old are worthless as the photos have been deleted.

Thank God......and our administrators.....and THE boss.......that does not happen here on this forum.  Our archives are intact with good photos. ;D ;D

Long live the Forestry Forum!!!!
Jim Buis                             Peterson 10" WPF swingmill

David_c

nyforester one way of keeping pics bigger with good quility is if you resize then compress. If you resize to size allowed then compress to bits or whatever allowed. The pics can be much bigger and not that bad. Your right it is not the easiest forum to post pics on. But once you get the hang of it it isn't so bad.

beenthere

nyforester
You can learn, as the rest of us did.  ;D
Others post decent size pics, and yours are looking like they could be good up to size too. Give it the old 'forester' try. Foresters can do it.  :)

Once I learned how for this Forum, I found I could do a much better job emailing pics to others, that were reasonable size files and still good pics.

This past weekend, we assembled a quilting machine without the company instructions (they forgot them). So to help, the owner was going to email some pics. They were 1.3 meg and his internet connection kept telling him they didn't send. So he'd send again. After 4-5 tries he stopped trying to send each one of the 6 pics. Problem on this end was every one of his attempts was being sent. So I'm downloading about 25 emails with these huge files. I needed a screen the size of my wall to see them, so I quickly resized them (even sent a resized one back to him and tried to help him learn how to work with his photos, but he was a bit confused so don't think I helped).

Anyway, getRdun for us please.  :)
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

nyforester

Thats the problem. I tried to send larger size pics but the gallery only takes small pics no larger than 30 something kb. After shrinking them, the pixels are so compressed that they look distorted and you can't see any detail. I am sure there is another way like using zip files, but I am unfamiliar with it and it takes way too much work. I also use --Photos MUST be in the Forestry Forum gallery!!!!!--. I sent some nice big pics from that site but the administrator had a cow about that.

SwampDonkey

Here is your first picture with 30 % less compression and size doubled.  ;D ;)




I bet I could get better quality if I had the original photo and I could post it the same size as above. I think it's all in the optimization software. I tried using Fireworks and I couldn't get as good results as with Photoshop. ;)
"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)))

Tom

In our defense, the uploading and storage of pictures here really isn't too difficult, it's just that there is a procedure and some sites have none.

Saying the forums procedure stinks is paramount to saying that government in New York stinks.  It's statements like that that hurt the feelings of guy who provided the procedure.   This isn't a big, noname, corporately owned organiztion.  When you condemn the design, you're condemning one person.  When you condemn the management, you are condemning seven people, world-wide, all volunteers, who have lives elsewhere.

There are instructions for uploading pictures that can be found by clicking the Help button or by going to Behind the Forum.  If your software is difficult to manage, there are suggested products that are proven.  Why re-invent the wheel?


We used to build dragline mats like you are building bridges.  One inch threaded bar every 4 feet through 12x12 pine timbers.  They would hold up pretty good out in the saltwater swamps of Coastal S. Florida.

SwampDonkey

There are still alot of us on dialup and the service will probably never get here unless the government subsidizes it.  With 1 meg photos on every thread alot of us just couldn't come here.  :'( Go to the Tree ID thread and click on the first thread with dialup connection and it's slow enough as it is.  ::)

So follow Tom's advise as well as other admin's advise on photos and we can all get along better. There are alot of bloated sites that make you wait on dialup for all the fluffy and frilly stuff to load, then once it loads it's a big disappointment because there isn't much worth sticking around for. ;)
"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)))

Jim

I still can't figure out how you are able to drill the holes for the rods.

SwampDonkey

One big wood boring drill bit with extensions. ;D

I've done it with cherry wood to make tall bed posts and then shove a wooden dowel on two adjoining pieces, when you have a 32 inch lathe and you want a 65 inch bed post. ;)  ;D
"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)))

Tom

We weren't so sophisticated. 

We used a carpenter's square to determine where to drill each hole and drilled each timber separately.  We tried to be as accurate as possible.   

Then we put a nut on the threads to protect them and drove the 1" pins through all of the timbers, with an 8 lb. sledge, by starting each timber separately.  The holes didn't match exactly and the pins probably were bent as they went through, but it worked.  We then pulled them up tight with an eight foot piece of pipe for a cheater on a power handle and open end wrench.

The long drill bit probably works a lot better.  :D

nyforester

Hi Jim
I bought a 7/8 inch diameter wood auger drill bit. They cost about $40.00 . I then welded a 3 1/2 foot steel rod to the end of the bit. It took several attemps to get it strait and not wobble. I have a very large drill gun and just drill all the way through. Works excellent.

Sorry if I offened anyone with my comments.
This is a wonderful site. Keep up the good work !!!

David_c

I myself liked the idea of making and using a template. Seems like it would be easiest and most accurate.

nyforester

We tried using a template. It was very difficult. The holes had to be drilled very accurate in order for all the holes to line up. I was using 10 inch square timbers with 7 rods holding them together. If the drill did not go through perfectly, all the rods would not line up. The best way would be to use a drill press.

Using my way, I held it together with a large rachet strap so it would not shift around. After drilling the hole, the rod was tapped through with a hammer. We put a nut on the end so the thread would not get damaged. 

David_c

The only thing you need to do with template is keep drill straight when drilling. Never had much of a problem with that. So still think it would work best. But everyone is differant what might work for one isn't always whats best for everyone.

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