Every once is a while a YouTube video gets your attention....This one got mine.

[weimedog]

Logging life on the OTHER side of the planet!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zg7niIecz-w

[sawguy21]

That skidder looks like a bit of an antique. ;D Actually, I was waiting for the bucker to amputate his foot.

[weimedog]

Yea...but what a world, looks like logging heaven right there! And so COLD! Alaska cold...antique or not, it would be cool to have that here on the farm..of course then the concept of putting a cummins four cylinder in it.....

[HolmenTree]

Thanks for sharing weimedog.
Cold just like here in northern Manitoba. 40 below in the shelter of the bush with no wind for a month straight at a time . Easy on the man as he can dress for it, but a little harder on the equipment.

Those Russians probably have a few daily shots of vodka to keep limber working on that landing :D
Stihl sold alot of saws to the Russians, probably more then any where else.

[Hilltop366]

I did not see any name brand or model number on the saw, just wondering why.

Perhaps after market plastic parts, I did notice a chunk broken out of the top cover.

[weimedog]

My bet that saw has a tough life...probably will see many skins....;)

[Albert Beerstein]

That is a chinese copy stihl I'm sure. no elastostart handle, orange centre oil fill plug,no "stihl"cast into starter housing?

[HolmenTree]

That skidder looks like a bit of an antique. ;D Actually, I was waiting for the bucker to amputate his foot.

sawguy21, you don't know your Canadian history.  ;D
That's an old Nodwell track machine.
I had to watch the video again then I recognized it was a Nodwell.

We never skidded wood with them but we used them at our logging camp as a man carrier and to haul fuel into some of our swampy cut blocks.

Bruce Nodwell from Saskatchewan invented the machine for the Alberta Canadian oil industry in the early 1950's.
There's a mountain in Antarctica named after him as his machines have been on the south pole since 1960.

Read his Wikipedia attachment.  It said one of his greatest success stories was selling to the USSR and Russia market.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Nodwell

https://youtu.be/DotV3yMfIpA

[chet]

I put many hours on Nodwells and Go Tracs working utility R/Ws. One thing I will say is,  you never want to git one stuck.   :-\

[HolmenTree]

Yep very true :D
But I never seen one stuck. Some of them with the  full belly pan and box are almost amphibious with a good operator.

[HolmenTree]

Here's a good Nodwell operator in muskeg.

https://youtu.be/DBIQio9bDH8

[HolmenTree]

Fixed the YouTube link..

[HolmenTree]

That is a chinese copy stihl I'm sure. no elastostart handle, orange centre oil fill plug,no "stihl"cast into starter housing?

Yep that 660 definitely has non OEM parts.  Just the way the world is today and has been for decades. One time Taiwan was a big supplier of aftermarket chainsaw parts.

Alot of new OEM Stihl saws are delivered around the world but how they are maintained,  that's  another story.

[chet]

Yep very true :D
But I never seen one stuck. Some of them with the  full belly pan and box are almost amphibious with a good operator.

Key words, "almost amphibious"   :D :D :D

[Spike60]

Halfway through I had to hit pause and put a jacket on.  :D

[sawguy21]

Willard, I have certainly seen Nodwells but I'm not old enough to recognize that as one. Just sayin' ;D

[JB Husky]

I, on the other hand, have just seen but first Nodwell. I'm definitely down with anything that has tracks and a Detroit.

[Fokke]

Hello from Serbia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilIpqcERUcs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZg20dhRoyY

[weimedog]

Loved video number two! I sold my cows in the late fall, and can tell you there was a couple I would have loved to strap a few logs too! They are most likely "McCows" now....

[HolmenTree]

Fokke, very nice videos especially the team of oxen skidding those logs.
My great Grandfather Anderson farmed with oxen and my Grandfather Anderson farmed with oil pull tractors replacing the oxen.
But total respect was given to the oxen for their power, reliability. and easy maintenance.

[Kbeitz]

That poor tractor...

[Ox]

I've said it for years - it seems that the people with the least amount of money are the ones who beat on their stuff the most.  Around here it's the scummy crowd, driving the biggest pieces of crap ever.  Beating the heck out of them.  It's no wonder they never have anything nice - they're always having to buy other vehicles.  I see lots of videos from across the pond of folks beating on their stuff exactly the same. 

I was very poor in my past life.  Now I'm just slightly poor.  I never beat the crap out of my stuff.  I run it how it's meant to be run, but never beat on it because it took me so long to get what I've got.  If I can do it, so can anyone!

Does anyone have an explanation as to why these types of folks do this to themselves?

[Fokke]

Well woodcutters here are traditionally the toughest meanest badest people around and they have to keep the reputation at any cost. Combine that with a strong dose of alcohol and you have the video as a result

Tho I also know people that would hire a chainsaw operator and make them clear the brush around the road all day rather than have scratches on their skidder

[Ox]

Thanks for the explanation, Fokke.  I understand quite well.