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Clambunk skidders

Started by quilbilly, August 28, 2017, 08:35:42 PM

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quilbilly

I was fooling around on the interwebs and saw tigercat and a couple others make or have made clambunk skidders. I've never seen em out west here. What is the benefit? Increased payload or less drag? They look neat but surely must have a limited scope since they don't pop up much on the used market
a man is strongest on his knees

kiko

Quilbilly,  the clam bunk works well for situations where the skids are long and mostly straight.  They don't do technical maneuvers well when loaded, but nor do I.  I have seen some clam bunk machines with a self loader, but most require a shovel to load them.   In a swamp type operation the landing must be set up on high ground for load out ,  and the knuckle boom can't be moved closer the wood .  The shovel will pull the mat as I goes and load the clam bunk with nearly a truck load per turn.   This method is also used with grapple skidders with the shovel pulling the mat and pilling bunches.

quilbilly

In other words it must be a clear cut and no tight turns. The benefit would be more wood per turn?
a man is strongest on his knees

kiko

Yes more wood per turn.   Logging water must be clear cut in order to create the floating mat.   The longest skids will come first as the mat gets pulled.   Many of the clams and skidders are dualed on the front and have bogeys on the rear. 

mike_belben

Is it fair to say more wood per twitch equals less trips and thus less damage to the trail, or does the extra weight offset this and tear things up just the same?  Basically, im asking can a clambunk be considered "environmentally friendly" in any way or is that a joke in itself?  Not that im a greenie.
Praise The Lord

Riwaka

The North Carolina  bottomland swamps have been harvested for 200 years. (so logging appears fairly sustainable)
http://ncforestry.info/ncdfr/managing_and_regenerating_timber_in_bottomland_swamps/
The maintenance of the log haul road in a swamp is a key. Logs get pushed down, put some more on top.
https://youtu.be/f0MTZSzN4oE

quilbilly

Are they used much outside of the swampland? That's a huge amount of wood on that tigercat.
a man is strongest on his knees

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