Small excavator in the woods

[mike_belben]

Maybe we are kin.. My people are from up there.   ;D

[Tin Horse]

Maybe we are kin.. My people are from up there.   ;D

Wait now! Are you saying your kind of Canadian? That may change everything. ;D

[Quebecnewf]

I'm afraid I'm not from NFLD and Labrador . My great grandparents were . I'm a born and bred Quebecer . An English speaking one but like a lot of Quebecers we speak both English and French . Mind you my French is not as good as I wish it was . 

Now back to the subject at hand .

I have used some of those self releasing snatch blocks but never got them to work as good as I wanted . 

In this area ( not to blow my own horn ) but we are masters of moving things with winches , block and tackle. This comes from a lifetime spent moving things with no heavy machinery around . 

I have been using the capstan head winch now for many years and the step up to mounted on an excavator is going to be a learning curve for sure . 

I'm quite sure it will work as I see it but there's going to be adjustment along the way . 

Quebecnewf 

[Walnut Beast]

When you get creative you can do some amazing things with what you have or what you want to do. You don't always have to conform to the way it should be done ✅ 

[bushmechanic]

Well I've been just reading this thread and am interested in the ground your on. I am wondering how soft this ground is??? Your timber is identical to what is on the island but we have either rock or bog here. Would a J5 work in your area? Hate them myself but it may work perfectly for you. A tracked machine comes with it's own problems in snow. You will need to have reliefs in the track pads or snow will build up and stall the hydraulic's. This comes from years of steel tracks winter time, not sure how rubber tracks will work in snow conditions! Did the skidders sink in the soft ground? Does your ground not freeze up in the winter time? I was in Labrador and it was all sand, is your terrain like that?

[Mattjohndeere2]

Thanks for all the info guys it's making me think about it more .

I need to explain a bit more maybe how I see this working .

The trail and the cutting will be all done by chain saw .

We would open up say a 50 ft long section just a bit wider than the machine . The machine then goes forward and stacks the fire wood logs and good logs on each side that this cutting has produced . The slash is placed on the ground and used as a bedding to smooth the trail .

The machine backs out to a safe distance and we start working blocks on each side of the trail . Taking down some (log trees ) and older scrap ( firewood ) trees . The machine moves back in and pulls these trees to the trail where they are processed ( logs cut of and tops cut into 8 ft lengths as firewood . )

At no time will we be pushing over trees or clearing a bunch of hang ups that could fall on the machine ( an excavator cannot run) . We will use the machine to dig out stumps as needed but the ( road) will be mainly made of a bed of limbs .

As Iwawoodwork said . These are small trees mostly . The ground is soft and uneven but not rough in that sense . We will have lots and lots of small wood to fill in and make the " road" level .

The excavator does not forward the logs this is done with snowmobile later . The excavator will then be used to load the logs and the firewood into the sleighs .

As soon as the spring breaks and the thaw starts the excavator will be parked next to the log piles by the shoreline and used to place the logs in the water for rafting home to the mill .

Quebecnewf

Ah, I see better now what your into. For that much road building and log handling, an excavator with a log grapple seems like a better choice all around. I guess I'm used to getting big stuff outta the woods, not stuff a snowmobile would handle

[DDW_OR]

......Spend your money and spare your spine.........

best advice.

you can always get more $$
you only have one body

[DDW_OR]

here is the ripper tooth

we welded triangle teeth to the back edge of the tooth to help break through big roots
It did not work



 

[sprucebunny]

I have a 17,000 pound excavator that I've used in the woods quite a lot. Mostly to build trails or smooth out the mess the loggers left in my soft ground. I've used it mostly in predominately softwood forest. Hardwood is sneaky and after your windows.

While I have ripped off a hose a couple of times, you learn where the vulnerable things are and pay attention so as not to snag them. I was only detracked once and the tracks were very stretched out/old steel. It was a mixture of rocks that got me. I bought new steel tracks.

I don't have a thumb or any desire to try to do much in the way of logging with it. It is very useful for clearing trees up to about 8-10" diameter. Just push them over and often I can do a lot of limbing with the hoe. Most of the time, the stump comes up too. I just pile them up and make firewood later or mash them down to decompose.

[mike_belben]

Maybe we are kin.. My people are from up there.   ;D

Wait now! Are you saying your kind of Canadian? That may change everything. ;D

Both my parents and their parents were boston based.  Before that youve got russia, poland, nova scotia.. All dead before my time.  If you go back several hundred years it appears we were western europeans who settled in labrador, thunder bay, st johns and those coastal areas.  All salt water fisherman until my dads teens.  I was born inland.   There is one strand on my mothers side that seemed to be frontier folks leaving a trail from virginia to TN, MO and TX.  Dont know much about any of them.

[Hilltop366]

Lots of Nova Scotians ended up in Boston to work, there was a ferry boat(s) that left Yarmouth and went direct to Boston, it started in the late 1880's and ran with various boats and companies until the late 1950's. My grandparents on both side of my family had moved there and my parents were born in the Boston area and moved back to Nova Scotia as children. Then back again to Boston as young adults.  I still have lots of relatives over there but have only met a few.

[Hilltop366]

Back to forestry, I always thought those little 8x8 Alstor forwarders would be the cats behind for the kind of area were talking about. I notice they mount their boom winch back on the first section of the boom and have a block further down the boom to winch from after setting the grapple on the ground. The winch is operated by a remote so you can be on the ground while running it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vu9fSzRoxh4 

[Quebecnewf]

Well I've been just reading this thread and am interested in the ground your on. I am wondering how soft this ground is??? Your timber is identical to what is on the island but we have either rock or bog here. Would a J5 work in your area? Hate them myself but it may work perfectly for you. A tracked machine comes with it's own problems in snow. You will need to have reliefs in the track pads or snow will build up and stall the hydraulic's. This comes from years of steel tracks winter time, not sure how rubber tracks will work in snow conditions! Did the skidders sink in the soft ground? Does your ground not freeze up in the winter time? I was in Labrador and it was all sand, is your terrain like that?

I think a J5 would be an excellent machine to have around . They are hard to come by up my way . I may be wrong but I'm thinking they are no longer made so maybe on there way out . 
Our ground is very soft . The area where I'm cutting now is clay underneath a bit of topsoil . If you move too much in one place it can get real tricky . Lots of bog around as well . 
I foresee logging prime time to be . From Sept to dec . Mainly nov and dec to be the best of that . . Ground starting to freeze but little snow . 
My biggest problem to solve is moving the machine on site . I have to barge it in . Very shallow bay ( dries out at low tide ) . It's all clay flats and rocks in the bay so not good . Maybe 6 ft of water tops at high tide . Special barge needed for this type of operation . It's going to be a tough nut to crack .
Quebecnewf 

[Dom]

I think a small excavator will work well for you. Especially with a winch like Mike mentioned.  We sold 11 tonne thinning harvesters with levelling cabs. They were productive, but expensive to buy and parts were a challenge. I did see a fellow in BC purchased one from NS and placed another loader for chucking. Awesome looking machine.

Since someone mentioned the Alstor, I did find this 8x8 made in Quebec.
https://youtu.be/-z2JJxPNGOc

[Quebecnewf]

 

 
This is pretty much what I need . 

Quebecnewf 

[Satamax]

My biggest problem to solve is moving the machine on site . I have to barge it in . Very shallow bay ( dries out at low tide ) . It's all clay flats and rocks in the bay so not good . Maybe 6 ft of water tops at high tide . Special barge needed for this type of operation . It's going to be a tough nut to crack .
Quebecnewf

Have you thought hovercraft? Kind of, buy any old barge hull. Fit a skirt and two fans to it, and you're set! :D 
http://4wings.com.phtemp.com/tip/tlift.html

[Dom]

That's a nice barge. If the engine dies the excavator can paddle to shore.  ;D  looking forward to seeing pics of what you end up with.

This is the excavator that was built with a shear. Not what you need but it's cool. https://www.heavyequipmentforums.com/threads/building-a-custom-excavator.68631/page-14

[mike_belben]

Man, You folks are determined.  Will you be leaving it there or moving it back and forth?


What if you sledded this thing over the ice on a stone boat? Could it be safely left somewhere, hidden and pickled?

[pwrwagontom]

Last year I bought a new Kubota KX018-4, and purchased an aftermarket Work-Brau 24" grading bucket and hydraulic thumb.  Been very happy with both by the way- the grading bucket gets most of my use with the thumb.

Smaller than I would have purchased if it was just for forestry use, but it was purposely spec-ed for single track trail building.
I use it for sorting and stacking, logs at the landing and brush piles in the woods.  It works adequately for both of those things, and can handle large logs although it gets a little tipsy.  I guess my main suggestion (based off my experience) is that using one of these are a forwarder will be extremely slow and unproductive.
What I would suggest is using a nice 40-60HP farm tractor with a winch of some sort, and this for stacking as I do.  Probably would get a few sizes larger if you're buying it special for forest use- I get that.  But as a side note, if you have a small one you may be able to haul it to the site on a trailer behind your tractor/winch.

One other thought...I would look at machines advertised with zero tail swing.  I thought my machine was pretty compact, but have gotten wedged pretty tightly a few times.  Using it as you say you'd want to I picture losts of weaving in and out, and this would be an obvious advantage.

I'm a young guy, but have had a recent back surgery so I definitely get the desire to lessen the strain on the body as you age!

Just my two cents.

[Tacotodd]

@mike_belben your thinking is the reason why I have 2 electric winches on my trail buggy pickup. The normal up front and 1 in the rear, because you don't always want to go forward. I've even had to use it 1 time on myself, because it's either back or go through the RIVER! It's also come in handy for using on my self-righting deer stand that I can easily move from 1 clear cut to another. That's a lot less expensive than making 2 permanent.

[Bruno of NH]

In my area it's 2 makes of mini ex
Bobcat or Kabota a Hataci or 2

[DDW_OR]

.......I don't have a thumb ........

my 2 cents
get the thumb.
think of it this way, how useful is the thumb on your own hand?
same holds true for the excavator.

[DDW_OR]

 
This is pretty much what I need .

Quebecnewf

OK, but get a little bigger than you think you need.
a cab is good, has heat, A/C, and protects you when a bee hive or yellow jacket nest is disturbed

[PoginyHill]

Both my parents and their parents were boston based.  Before that youve got russia, poland, nova scotia..

Now back to @mike_belben 's ancestory. And all this time I thought he was Australian. Wasn't Mad Max / Road Warrior his biography?

[Hilltop366]

Somewhere I had a picture of a barge with a small excavator on it that was making its way out to some local Islands. Not having any luck finding the picture but I can tell you that it looked like it was made from large propane tanks like you will see outside of a restaurant.