Can't believe the prices people are asking for used skidders

[ehp]

Red, around here we got the pickup dealers phoning us trying to buy our pickups back off us cause there sending them to the USA, I guess you guys are paying more than us plus with the dollar difference they are making pretty good money on that deal, I know if you got a skidder in good shape guys are offereing real high dollars for them , I got a guy that lives about 1 mile from me that offered me $45,000 for mine . I paid $14,600 for it 3 years ago and told him no , Yep thats big money for my machine but what can I buy to replace it , the only skidder I think would be a newer 540 cable like 2008 or newer so alot more money and will it make me more money maybe abit more but not a huge amount but cost alot more

[ohiowoodchuck]

Where would a person look up north for one of these reasonably priced skidders. I feeling the waters for to use on my farm.

[Firewoodjoe]

Price of parts,tires, new machines, the demand for wood and there are no small new machines. These smaller skidder will only go up more. Heck a lot of these skiddes have $6-8,000 worth of rubber on them!

[RunningRoot]

10k buys you a " it runs and drives " cable skidder around here. But then again, you can't use a grapple machine around here too much, a man can an I would love to have one but haven't made that leap yet, but getting closer. What I need around here and would love to have is a good shape,solid,  grapple/cable TJ 240A.
This is my (realistic) dream machine. A worn out 240a with slick tires gos for 40,000 here 😕. A worn  JD 440a needing tires and a transmission your looking at 12k listings. Crazyness....

[David-L]

I wish the border stuff was easier for the Canadian skidder buys but it is not. You need the broker, taxes, duty payment and trucking which makes it a pain. Machines in the north do seem to be priced way cheaper than in the U.S. Everything is so expensive here, tires are $1,400.00 a piece for 16.9x30 Forestry Specials and only five years ago they were $750.00. People keep mentioning in this post and I agree, they don't really make small cable machines anymore and if you have one in good condition it will hold it's value strong.Matter of fact I'm selling mine, any takers.

[Nemologger]

I had a 1995 548E I had owned for 9 years. I wasn't even thinking about selling it until a guy offered me $45,000.00. I paid $42,500.00 for it 9 years ago. So I sold it. Another guy offered me 30,000 for my 1986 440d, but I turned him down. I take real good care of my machines and guys know I do. I have had a few of the 10k timberjacks...but like I tell guys you get what you pay for. Do you want to spend 10k on a machine that your working on all the time or do you want to spend more for a machine that will start making you money right out of the box?
Are you in the wrench turning business or the logging business?

[David-L]

X2 Nemologger. Nice post.

                                              David l

[BargeMonkey]

 My 450C just sold tonight for 37k, there was no hesitation from the kid when he pulled out a deposit and will be back at noon tomorrow to pick it up. The good stuff doesnt sit. Had the kid call at 3pm, met me at 5pm, i was shocked. Was out in syracuse today, that will be home monday. New toys for christmas.  :D

 

[Firewoodjoe]

 Barge monkey that will plow the general store out! 😄

[BargeMonkey]

Barge monkey that will plow the general store out! 😄

;)  My parents had to spend the money before the end of the yr. Thank you Mr Obama.

[Dave Shepard]

That 644J would just about do it for me. :D

[drlewis]

when i was looking for a small skidder,they were around 12 to 15.000. and needed work, i found a c4d with 4 new firestone tires a recent 4bt cummings with full set of chains for 10,000 ran it for 400hrs then did winch bans. put 500hrs on it this summer pulling firewood,it was a lucky find i think and a hr from home .

[David-L]

DrLewis, sounds like a good deal. Any pic's for us to gaze at.

[drlewis]

ill try ,  someone had a picture of it this spring on here  .the machine was for sale on craigs list last winter, ill see what i can do.

[logman81]

That c4 sounds like a good buy.

[ehp]

there was a couple 664's around here that the owner wanted $7500 for them, I donot know if they sold or not , 1 had a 4bt in it and the other had 353 in it , both ran ok but both needed brakes . If you get up north above me you can find skidders for a good price but have to check them over very well, Alot of rock up there so if used real hard they get beat up quite bad

[ehp]

On average what is a 540 JD worth these days say a 2008 and newer , just looking and would like to know , not very many of them up here

[timberlinetree]

We a testimony to skidders being obsolite in certain areas. Our cable came from Va. Where they use mostly grapples now. It's our most used piece of equipment. 81 230 super e for 6k working condition. Up north it would have been 10k.

[HiTech]

I hear John Deere is doing away with the 540's size machines. The 440's are already history. They quit making 350 dozers and I also hear the 450,550 dozers are going to be put out to pasture also. Case quit making 350, 450, and 550 dozers already. Others have quit making small dozers or skidders or have gone out of business altogether. What machines are left are it. This certainly increases value. I can remember when you had a 450 size dozer you had the cat by the tail. lol Many roads and landings were made by these machines. Now they use D5 size machines and 40,000 lb. track hoes or bigger. Today a skidder new has to be at least $200,000, that is a lot of sticks on the landing to pay for that.

[David-L]

Got a friend who just bought a new Cat, 200K $ and then some . yes High tech , thats alot of sticks on the landing.

[brendonv]

Its really to bad they dont do small machines anymore.

In my type of work the push for bigger machines is noticable every year at the trade shows.  Mini loaders went from 1200 lbs to 2500 lbs, its crazy. Just not mini anymore.  I went bigger on two of my machines last year and still wish sometimes i had the small stuff. Life was less stressed.  :-\

[Maine logger88]

We a testimony to skidders being obsolite in certain areas. Our cable came from Va. Where they use mostly grapples now. It's our most used piece of equipment. 81 230 super e for 6k working condition. Up north it would have been 10k.

Here it would be closer to 15k

[Mooseknuckle]

I looked for a good 8 months on Kijiji to find my Timberjack 230 in southern Ontario. Got it for 5K and I've put 1k into it so far. I have two pinion seals to do and I'm going to change some hydraulic lines and maybe one of the front hydraulic blade rams.  Now a lot of the stuff I am doing doesn't  really need to be done so 6k and your logging.  With the condition that its in now i could probably sell it for 10 to 12k.
Most of the cable skidders for the 5k price usually had a major component down like transmission, transfer case etc.
Theres a decent looking  Timberjack 520 posted on Kijiji 3 hrs ago for 10k!! It has a 6-53 Detroit and a 10ft Root rake on the front.  I think its a 1981.  Now if all is in working condition then i would say thats a cheap price for that machine.  Now thats at the large end for cable skidders.  Its around the Ottawa area.  If anyone wants the link I'll post it just let me know.

[longtime lurker]

Unless you've got some serious long term contracts in front of you its nigh impossible to justify the price of a new machine, and the only guys I know in the industry with that sort of resource security are softwood plantation operators. In that game bigger is better, which is why there are so few late model smaller machines out there. Trust me - I have been looking and I'm not afraid to pay the freight to bring a machine from the other side of the world if its the right machine.

What constitutes a fair price is of course buyer dependant. For me I don't worry so much about years as i do about component history. Given a choice of a "cheap"machine with a good frame (say below ten or so thousand dollars), and a 40k+ machine thats ten years younger unless i know/trust the seller I will nearly always take the older cheaper machine. My rationale is that I depend on my gear to put food on the table and a 10k machine thats had 30 thousand dollars worth of rebuild in my workshop is going to be a hell of a lot more reliable then a 60 thousand dollar machine of doubtful history. 30k can go a long way around a skidder.

Whats expensive is also subject to need, by which i mean how badly do you need a skidder? If you're just chasing a part time job or something to play with and maybe drag a bit of firewood for yourself spending 20k on a machine looks expensive. When your income depends on having a couple of skidders then its not so much expensive as just another business expense, and you have to factor in downtime on cheaper machines against higher repayments on a new one.

[logman81]

Hey this is all good info, seems their is some good points to consider when buying a small used cable skidder.