Contracting mechanical felling?

[bkellyvtme]

Anyone ever contract out felling only? Pros cons? ???

[Maineloggerkid]

I jut read an article in the Northern Logger about a guy from Vermont that does that. He has his own skidders, trucks, loaders, and stuff, but contracts the felling and limbing. Seems to work out for him. I think that the hard part would be finding someone that would do it reasonably. I personally would lease a feller-buncher or limber if I could get contracted, but right now in this market isn't the time. Oh well, some day down the road maybe...... :-\

[bkellyvtme]

What do you think the price would be? Probably by the hour?? It might almost be feasable at a decient price if it can produce.

[chevytaHOE5674]

A crew I know did it a few years back... They said they would never do it again, because the landowner (also the skidder driver) wasn't there when the crew was felling (because he had a day job). The feller buncher would get so much wood on the ground that he had a hard time maneuvering in the bush, before the landowner was able to skid the wood out.

But if you have an operation that can keep up with the feller, then its possible to find a crew.

[Maineloggerkid]

If you were going to be there all day everyday working, I don't think that is a problem. If you are thinking of doing this, I assume you have a full time skidder and operater??

I think around here contract cutters/limbers get paid buy the cord. Not sure though, never had much to do with it.

[bkellyvtme]

No I sold this skidder this past spring (but always looking for another ). Alot of people around here don't have a buncher and I figured that might be a good way to go. Drop and buch would be the extent of what I was looking to do.

[Maineloggerkid]

I don't see why not, just find a good reliable source for work, and then your all set.

[bkellyvtme]

Now I just got to find a good cheap machine... if there is such a thing :

[chevytaHOE5674]

Now is the time to by machines. Lots of guys getting out of the business, lots of machines on the market.

[tw3006]

I run a track feller buncher, working with my father, but i know this crew with 2 grapple skidders that came from up north to work near me, they hired a buncher to come and cut, the guy came cut the job then left and we immediately got 2 and half feet of snow, the pull was up hill and the grapple skidders couldn't pull. between the wood and tops all frozen together and not being able to drop the wood then winch it up, they ended up hiring a few cable crews to come and skid the wood. Not to mention having to limb softwood when you cant find the limbs because its buried in snow. I cut with the buncher and also limb the wood by hand, and also skid when im way ahead. If you lay a ton of wood down and its not limbed off especially in softwood unless you are delimbing with a delimber, then you can find yourself if a huge mess, i know from experience, haha. A guy i know hired a guy with a timbco to come and cut for him, his rate was about 100 an hour, that was last winter.

[Maineloggerkid]

I wonder what the operating costs of that Timbco are per hour ? I would kinda like to know , as I am doing some research on a couple of things of my own. Thanks.

[tw3006]

loggerkid, the guy who owned the Timbco had a hired guy to run it, and the job was right near the other guys job, so it seemed like they were just looking for something for the guy to do. As for operating cost, you prolly got to figure around 6 Gallons an hour for fuel, insurance, in his case paying an operator, initial cost, mantinance, wear and tear, Think about this, a new machine is say 350,000 and say it lasts 10,000 hours with no problems at all, which is highly unlikely. that means 35 an hour. you pay a good operator 20 an hour. your up to 55. 6 gallons of fuel an hour at 4 bucks =about $25, and your up to 80.... saw chain or teeth, bar and chain oil, undercarraige because it prolly wont last 10,000 hours, insurance and breakdowns... and who knows what else.... maybe hiring someone to cut is a good idea after all

[Rick Alger]

A couple years ago a friend of mine hired a buncher with operator for $120 an hour. It averaged about a hundred cords a day.

[Maineloggerkid]

Thanks for info.

[SwampDonkey]

I know some guys that own the trucking and road building equipment and hire the men and machines to cut and skid the wood. When times are tight on private as far as logging, they go trucking on crown land.

[spencerhenry]

i subcontract for felling and limbing. i do it all the old fashioned way, chainsaw and hard work. i get paid by the tree. working in knee deep snow stumping less than 6" can get old. some days i do real well, other days, i just get tired. $5 per tree means that you have to be fast and good. not an old mans sport, i am getting to the end of my ability to lay down and limb 100 trees a day.

[Ron Scott]

A lot of subcontract work is done here on the logging jobs. Yes, some of the chainsaw fallers and buckers want to get at least a 100 trees/day even during heavy snow cover. It's a good days work for them, but don't know how they do it; no time is wasted. ;)

[Dom]

A few contractors in this area will either own a forwarder or harvester, and will team up with the other.
Harvesters set the pace, so they need to be well matched.

[thompsontimber]

We used to cut for a few local loggers on occassion with a 843 Deere sawhead...we didn't charge by the hour but by the cord.  The last time we contracted out the cutter we were charging between $6-7/cord to put it on the ground, but we haven't done that in a few years and fuel costs have risen since then.  A good operator can put a lot on the ground in a day.

[Arich]

There is an outfit in VT that does just that, I think they payout 130$ per hour to the feller buncher. I know for a fact that the time it takes to put two weeks worth of work in front of a pair of grapples and a loader/slasher is minimal. With the right operator and good communication I bet it can be a good, productive set up.