need more production

[Jamie_C]

This is all preschool stuff your explaining to me, i know how it all works. I wanted volume on the landing not laying in the woods. I got payed 80% every Friday on the landing.

The way this is going i could hand fell it and get more wood out, the skidder would never set longer 90 seconds with me hook-en.

I watched all this big equipment ruin the logging industry. I remember hearing it won't be long you won't see a saw in the woods or a man on the ground. It was sad watching everybody losing their job.

But to the original poster i think it is calculus

[jd540b]

TJ-From the constant questions, it seems you are way over your head.  Maybe better off to downsize to you and a cable skidder........may shed some light on the whole game.  Just seems as though these would've all been good questions to ask before hitting the woods with all the iron and guys.  Logging is not an easy racket and the difference between making money and losing (lots of it) is very small.

[snowstorm]

How long have you been in this business TJ97  ???

And how do we know he is actually in this business? Some pictures would be nice.

a lot of us are thinking the same thing

[lumberjack48]

Its common math, take a piece of paper, start with the Gross, and figure where you can Net the most.
TJ97 you have to help us out here.

More equipment doesn't always mean more production or more profit.

I went that route, Trucks, help, Skidders, Feller-buncher, it seamed like i spent more time moving block to block.
I used a lot of paper, pencils and erasers over the yrs trying to cover high stumpage with volume. It gets to be work just trying to make it work, you can only stretch the dollar in so many places.

Jamie_C  i wasn't pointing nothing toward you, i get so frustrated i wish i could jump up an get it done.

[Jamie_C]

lj48 ... don't worry i know the feeling

this guy comes on here with all these questions and never seems to answer ours, if he would maybe we could give him better info ... we are all just speculating with what little info he gives

[timberjack97]

hey guys i have been in  the logginh business since  1995   i have a loader with a buck saw on  it  on the landing a husky 235  loader on a trailer we are doing all the deliming by hand in the woods and using the timbco to just cut down with

[clww]

Since 1995...wow.

[Ed_K]

I don't know?My last big job I had a chopper cutting,limbing and some times helping chock.He worked 8 to 4.My skidder operator with a rented 540 worked 8 to 12.I bucked and sorted on the landing with a 4x4 tractor with bucket and a grapple hanging off it.I work 8 to 6 and we had a trailer load every day.112mbf 320 cords fire wood & 160ton of softwood pulp.
I'm now down to working by myself.Just wish there was a few jobs for a cut,skid & process one man band right now.
What kills me is giving a lot of the $ to insurance.

[treefarmer87]

i second what lumberjack 48 says also. also pay att. to what the vetrans tell you, they have been through it before. more production isnt always better, quailty might be, its according to what you are doing. if you can go to work and not have breakdowns its always a +

[Mark K]

A good friend of mine runs a timco in his operation. We contract for the same mill so I see him often. He runs two cable skidders, a JD 640d and a 640g3. When the Timco starts in the morning it doesnt stop cutting till it is shut off at night. He cuts mainly hardwood. He bunchs with the timco and tops with it where he can other than that its the skidder operators responsibility to top and hook. Machine is to valuable to have just sitting around. He starts cutting at 7 am and stops at 4 to do maintence on whatever needs to be done. The skidders keep running until most of the wood is cleaned up. He has four employees, mostly family. I've seen them skid well into the night to keep up.

[WDH]

I would think that a timbco feller buncher is way too much felling machine for one cable skidder like has been previously said.  An operation that is not relatively balanced is just not efficient.

[chevytaHOE5674]

Years back I limbed and topped bunches and also hand felled the larger saw timber trees that the buncher couldn't handle. Operation was me in the woods limbing, topping, and felling, a tracked JD hotsaw feller buncher, a JD cable/grapple skidder, and a loader/slasher on the landing.

At times it was all I could do to keep up with the buncher with the limbing and topping and also felling. On certain jobs (flat ground, easy timber, etc) the skidder and myself would have to work OT to catch up to the single buncher. That skidder was never sitting around he was going full bore all day.

Therefor with a good buncher operator I don't see how a single cable skidder can keep up, especially with a 20min skid.

[WDH]

Here in the South, the common set-up for clearcuts is one buncher and two grapple skidders.  With that set-up, the bottleneck is still the skidders.

[SwampDonkey]

We were thinning a block with brush saws that was 150 acres in size with 12 cutters. Everyone has a work strip defined by ribbons and when done a strip you just leap frog to the next available. Anyway, we had to drive past a chipper set up on a yard. There was a processor cutting and piling down in bunches for two grapple skidders. This was on a side hill and lots of rocks on the surface, some as big as skidder tires. This was a mixed hardwood (maple-birch) with red spruce and fir. Everything came out whole tree and the chipper cleaned up the top wood and loaded chip vans. The spruce was piled down roadside. They were a 5 day work week cutting 50 acres. The woods in that area run about 24-28 cords/acre I would think. It was a site never cut before, but don't let that fool ya because the average size would not be huge, maybe 10". With 20"-40" hardwood scattered in it. The big hardwood would mostly be hollow or rotten centre. Mostly because the site is a pretty tough place to grow. Up on a wind swept ridge, sand and bouldery glacial till.

[NWP]

According to posts back in June 2010, TJ97 had a cable and a grapple skidder.  I guess he must of gotten rid of the grapple skidder.  The learning curve must be a long one. :D