I have been looking for an all terrain vehicle (Mostly for winter) for a year or so for pulling wood out for the bandsaw. Now a neighbour has given me access to his cedar in exchage for some posts and wood for a deck. I have a tractor and winch and can creatively get to most of it but the pulls are 200 to 300 feet with the final 20 feet or so up a fairly steep hill. It is very swampy, and too steep to safely get down with the tractor. Would a muskeg skidder speed up the job considerabley? I know there are some folks here who have experiance with these machines. If I go to look a one, what should I look for? The only catch is he would like the posts and deck sooner than later, and now is vegitable growing time so I need to get the wood out quickly. Here is the link to one that is for sale close by. Any thoughts would be great
http://toronto.kijiji.ca/c-cars-vehicles-heavy-equipment-heavy-equipment-bombardier-muskeg-skidder-W0QQAdIdZ198373247
Copes
Things to check are the outer bearings on the sprockets and all the other bearings ( there are lots ! )
Track rubber can look pretty bad but as long as it's not delaminated or broken it will still last awhile.
Check for oil/water in the differential.
It will have a Chrysler flathead 6 cylinder. Most parts are still available.
How well it works in a 'swamp' will depend on the swamp..... are there big sticking up stumps?, how deep?
With much weight hanging off the back, going up a steep hill might get exciting.
This model will do OK in snow because it has a center, gas engine and air tires (= lower weight than many Muskegs)
It is not very fast over the ground.
Thanks for the reply. He said the motor and track system were rebuilt less than 100 hrs ago. Are these vehicles generally expensive to run? I would like to to get more use out of the mill and make some money to subsidize our farming operations which are not all that profitable. Just not sure if a bigger tractor is the answer or one of these track machines. Again thanks for your input and I have really enjoyed this site and sharing in so many others experiences.
If your cedar swamp is like some up here, I wouldn't take no tractor in it. Most of the time they never freeze in winter unless it's very cold and the first pass will be lots soft even when cold out. That new trail will freeze up over night. I prefer the cedar ground with hard bottom like my woods ground has. It's more perched and not down into a big bowl. I do have 1 bowl that is about 2 acres and the beavers moved in and killed it out mostly. Always used an old Tree Farmer here on this lot.
If it's a solid machine to start with and you maintain it, gas and grease should be your only expenses. Track rubber and cleats can be expensive but last well. Relining the steering brakes is not very expensive ( around $350 ) tires are $125 each and there are 16 but they last well also.
Some snow conditions do not work well with the machine but if you keep your trails packed, you will get more use out of it in the winter than you would a tractor. But a tractor may be more useful overall ......
You should weigh the values as to whether it's worthwhile going into the cedar/muskeg swamp. Check the soil types in regards to the height of the water table to the surface. If you're in a Hydric soil type, it's best to stay out of them. ;)
Thanks for the replies. I went to look at the machine today and was pretty inpressed. It was larger than I expected. It ran nicely, started easily, there are a few tires that are toast, but the thing I wasn't sure about was the steering. He said the bands were in good shape but you could not lock one side to spin around. Instead you would have to go back and forth to turn around in a tight spot. It would steer just fine when moving down the trail in the bush, but it would not spin around like I was hoping it would. I think I may go for it. I don't have much flat land around to work in which has made working with the tractor difficult and sometimes a little dangerous. It really feels much more stable than my tractor on uneven ground. And safety is a big part of this business.
As for soil conditions in the swamp, I would not know how to identify and classify them. I certainly do not want to disturb the eco-system. I am going to winch most of the logs out of swamp then take them up the hill. But I will have to cross it a few times here and there.
You could always corduroy it if you didn't want to hurt it passing over.
You can obtain copy of your local soil survey at the National Recource Conservation Service web site or at your local county office.
http://websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/
I don't know the situation in each state. But, it seems to me the sampling that goes into those maps are too course (10 km apart maybe? )to be real reliable at the local site. They tend to show the general soil type. Kind of like using contour maps. If you want to mark out roads on a hilly ground on the west coast you had to measure the deflection all over the harvest block to find the blind knolls you couldn't yard over from an upper road. They don't show up on a small scaled map too well. ;)
Only a hydrostatic driven machine will spin around in it's own length because one track goes into reverse.
On a stick-steer machine the brake on one side of the differential causes braking on that side and increased speed ( via the gearing ) to the other side. The ratio from side to side is one third/two thirds.
The steering brakes will not cause one of the tracks to stop while the machine is moving.