Skidders

[Hilltop366]

Each piece of equipment in the woods requires an operator to get it there, unless one wants to do a lot of hiking back out to get the second one. 

But then, the hike does leave small footprints.   ;D

Never thought of that, of course me being a bit on the lazy side, I was thinking to do the cutting & winching first then drive the tractor back to get the porter to pick up the logs, which got me to thinking that an "all in one" machine might be better.

[Ed_K]

I just had my taylor skidder worked on,they rebuilt both diff all 4 axle seals and bushings in the planataries,then rebuilt the 4-53,all for around 6k.I haven't seen a bill yet,will have it and the skidder middle of next week.Merry Christmas to me :(.
I use the tractor to haul the saws and gas-oil to the cut, and use to winch to bunch.sometimes cutting for 2 days,then use the skidder to move the logs to landing.I then process the trees to logs and use tractor to sort and stack.Works for me, and when I get behind I'll hire a chopper to catch up.

[dsgsr]

With the poor wood market here in Maine and the Large # of wood cutters out of business, I for One would opt for a Larger Tractor. As has been said, there's only one thing you can use a skidder for. There's a number of things you can use a tractor for.
In the summer I use my tractor to dig a few holes with the backhoe and till a few gardens, mow a few fields for extra money and too pay for maintenance. In winter (if we have any frost in the ground) I cut my own firewood and some pulp for extra $$. I'm lucky that I have my own land too do this on. Having that said, If you are cutting for someone else on their land you have to share the profit so having a piece of equipment that can move the most wood at one time is better.


David

[rfm7fxfox]

if i were you i would take a trip up to nash equipment in colebrook and look around. he has alot of inventory and you can see what you like and dont like. even if you dont buy there you can learn alot.

All i can say about this is watch out for Nash equipment, he buys equipment from private owners and jacks the price way up look for single owner private sellers with low hours, good deals are out there just have to be found, nash isnt the place to go trust me..

[northwoods1]

It's interesting to see how many people use the farm tractors for logging I was not aware so many people did. Me I would love to have a nice 4 wheel drive tractor, a New Holland or John Deere maybe, with a nice loader that would be ideal,  but I would be so busy with it around the farm and sawmill that I would not have time to take it in the woods. Not to mention I would be very worried about wrecking it.
And you guys out East that are looking for skidders or any other type of logging equipment , don't be afraid to cast your nets a little farther out. Pick up some trade papers from the lake states or down south. It is not that difficult to arrange trucking for not a lot of money sometimes. One time when I was in the market for skidders I got to looking down south, finally ended up in Alabama. A friend and I drove down to look at a nice John Deere which I ended up not buying, but he ended up buying a morbark 24" whole tree chipper from the guy. It was a real eye opener looking at the equipment places down there, this one place called Warrior equipment  was amazing they had 40 acres of used machines. There had to be 20 acres of just burnt machines I never saw anything like it. Sometimes it really pays to travel, for a used or even new machine purchase.

[oldseabee]

Warrior was Clark dealer for a while and I called on them as service rep. There is so much pulp wood logging in the south that there are a lot of smaller older machines there. When you have a lot of choices prices tend to be a little lower, also machines haven't been exposed to 20 and 30 below zero weather which is hard on equipment.

[chevytaHOE5674]

I can go out and cut some timber and take the skidder right out, load up 3-4 cords on there and head back out to the landing and make real nice pretty piles any trucker would love to haul off of that is nice...

UP here the only way to deck wood for a Michigan truck is with a forwarder or loader of some type because the truck drivers don't like climbing down and moving any more than they have too. And I have never seen or heard of a skidder being able to high pile wood to 15-20+ feet.

Now many of the small jobbers that pile with a skidder also hire Wisconsin sized trucks as they don't have high enough production to fill a Michigan truck in a timely fashion.

[Ed_K]

Northwoods 1, I finally bought a landini for the guard on shaft to front x and the fuel tank up on top of the engine.Just didn't trust the ones with plastic tanks on the sides.And don't let them deliever w/o forestry tires  :(. 60hp is power enough but not enough on weight,mines 7k with loader and winch,grapple hanging off the buchet.


wow it loaded,tried 8x on the nice logs thd.

[logger t]

went through smyrna mills maine in aroostook county there was a 540-b grapple with winch for sale at rc logging supplys

[timbuck2]

Do yourself a favor and stay away from "Smashed" Equip.  in Colebrook.   Sure you could find a decent skidder there but price is 2x what it's worth.

[SwampDonkey]

That's par for the course if you go shopping in those places in NB. They want big money often times for worn out iron.

[nhlogga]

Do yourself a favor and stay away from "Smashed" Equip.  in Colebrook.   Sure you could find a decent skidder there but price is 2x what it's worth.

When the old man was alive, you could show up w/a paper bag full of cash and the prices would drop considerably. They paint a machine worth $5k and then put  $25k on the price tag.

[mr T]

Maineac  Theres a 72 440b JD  for 10500 in the Uncle Henrys this week There a good skidder