new skidder

[David-L]

Ready to see the orange beast. We are also back in to the cold in the Northeast again this week. I am down right sick of 5 degrees every morning.

                                                             David
                                         

[rockwall]

Of course you are crazy! You don't know that by now? The second you thought of buying a skidder you went over the edge. Embrace it!! There is no turning back. It is amazing what a new day will do for you. We have all had many days like your day, disappointed with what happened that day. Warm that baby up somehow(there are many suggestions in a thread on here) my latest one since I'm close to electricity is directing a space heater on the motor for a while. She'll start and you'll hear that sweet detroit singing to you and all will be good. Then you can dig in and tinker to your heart's delight. Who knows you might even get some work done with her!! Good luck!

[plasticweld]

Wow that's an impressive restoration project on that 240 plasticweld...very cool, inspirational.  Well, my tj arrived on friday, it was 20 below.  Poor choice on my part to have it delivered in winter I guess.  The trailer almost slid off the road, skidder and all, we blocked the road for two hours while we tried to straighten it out.  Finally tried to unload, but it would not start, couldn't get it off the trailer, too heavy...had to haul it to the local mill where my neighbor (owner) was kind enough to have a giant loader pull it off...where it sits right now waiting for warmer weather to try and start it and drive it home.  The tj is older that i expected...maybe mid 60's...and a bit rougher around the edges as well.  But it ran when they loaded it. Right now pretty discouraged and wondering if the whole thing was truly crazy...my wife and kids certainly think so.  So do the neighbors. Just shaking my head right now.

I am sure you could part your machine out and make a profit. Every restoration as different levels of completion. I compare every thing to what a new machine costs, how much money it would cost me if it is in the field and looses a day because I cut a corner. I also have a full time mechanic that when he is not putting out fires is repair and rebuilding a skidder for me. I figure I am paying him anyway. My rule with him if you think it might need it replace it with new. I know if I was just trying to have something that worked I would save a lot of money short term. Where your skidder only has to perform on weekends or a few months out of the year you can be a little more discerning than I. Good luck with you project, I took pictures of all of my steps as I went so if I ever sold the machine I could document the work with the receipts for the parts. The only draw back to that is I know exactly what I have in the machine and I would rather not know

[sandersen]

Thanks for the help guys, later this week it'll be over 32 degrees and I'm gonna take a run at getting it going...hopefully anyway.  I'll post pictures asap.

[sandersen]

https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/35364/TJ4.jpg[/img]

[thecfarm]

sandersen,this is how you post your pictures from your album.

I like to go to whatever post or start a new topic first to include a picture.Go to your gallery,it will open in a new window.Click onto your album,then click onto whatever picture you want,it will get bigger,than scroll down a little to find,Insert Image In Post,click onto that,click Yes and that is it. Some have to copy/paste the link to work.I like to hit the enter key at least once or twice to move the picture down away from what I am typing. The enter key really helps to leave some white space if posting more than one picture. Somewheres I think it says to add 10,000 to your user number or something like that to make a clickable icon to your gallery under your user name. Use the preview button to see how it looks and modify it if needed.

[sandersen]

Thanks for the help on the photos, much obliged.  I actually posted a few in one spot and then screwed up in another post with only one.  But I'm trying.