tigercats new skidder

[Skeans1]

Yes and no, anytime you can make your turns are short and as fast as possible the production you can do but rock costs a lot of money.

[mike_belben]

Dude rock has gone waaay up in the last 2 years here.  Shotrock now costs what 1.5" minus used to.  I honestly believe its cheaper to put down geotextile at this point.  I have a section of rock on clay 12" thick thats not as solid as the patch with barely three inches of 3minus over fabric.  The stuff is a miracle. $500 a roll. 

[teakwood]

Posted by: DPrest
« on: Yesterday at 07:27:55 AM »



Thanks for the feedback, ehp.

Teakwood, I agree, its hard to justify. Here in the Maritime Provinces we just don't have the quality wood to run one steady and make the payments. Without driving your woodlots into the ground, you'd have to be into a prime run of wood.

Interesting considering they're installing crane loaders on these in Europe already. Says a lot of the quality of wood and wood prices that they've got over there compared to ours here (NB, NS, at least).

Tigercat DWC602 preview - YouTube .

Supporting payments on a $400,000 + skidder in selection treatments is no simple task.

Thats a nice machine, the perfect combination i would need. The video is just rubbish, no close up details, who cares about 10 birdviews, i get it, the guy loves his drone but the video is just bad.

the prices in europe aren't any different than in America unless you have oak. I can't opinion about the rest of europe but in Switzerland the wages are just so high that any price on a machine is justified. The absolute minimal wage for a woodworker is starting at 4500$/month and that is right after apprenticeship at the age of 20. after that it just goes up and up.

[mike_belben]

Aha!  So that explains it.  Entry level logging pays $10 here.  So does equipment operator. 

About a month ago i had someone ask me to climb and top some yard trees for $8 an hour.  Said thats the goin rate.  

[teakwood]

8$ for such dangerous work, that's just crazy

[teakwood]

A good operator with experience will earn at least 6k+ a month. and that's on a 42h week. 8.25h per day, monday to friday. every hour overtime is payed extra.
4-5 weeks payed holiday a year, around 8-10 days of legal holidays (eastern, new year,...) also payed, insurance payed 50/50 (employer/ employee), a 13. salary end of the year,  did i forget something..???  

But: there is no coming late to work, no missing days, no half speed working, there is much pressure to get the job done, lots of responsibility and for a good boss you would do anything.
if your a bad employee you get fired real quick.

Here in CR i'm just glad if somebody shows up at work in the morning and we just don't loose another day. The salary isn't great around here but if you pay them more they won't show up for work anyways because they have more money know so they need to work less 

[Skeans1]

The good money is out here in the PNW in the fir I'm not sure what they're paying down in the redwoods in Southern Oregon and California. Here's the kicker a machine like that would never sell new out here you have to produce decent, our export fir is at 900, cedar last I heard was 1500+, and alder was going up past 900-1000 range all are real easy to find here.

[lopet]

Thought the same thing about the video. Somebody explaining the machine would be more interesting than listening to music.
World population grew about 1.5 billion in the last twenty years and now we have too many people chasing the same things and the fewer jobs due to automation.
Don't see what the point is taking on payments on a piece of equipment like that. You have to have steady work to keep up with all the expenses and have to be willing to travel and not be home for days.
That's just my thinking and I may be stuck with it. :D

[mike_belben]

For my region Its another unexpected consequence of the prescription painkiller epidemic. 

Every pill and needle addict who can steal a handsaw and bum a ride is in the tree business.  They drive around knocking on doors looking for that little $30 labor job. When you hire em theyre looking at whats behind your garage to grab later.

[teakwood]

Switzerland has the highest wages of the world, that's why you see them Swiss people (i don't have the big salary anymore) vacationing all over the world because everywhere they go its cheaper than in Switzerland ! You can go wherever you want and you will find a Swiss traveling. and we are just 7.5 millions habitants of which 2mio are foreigners   

[lopet]

But CR must have something Switzerland doesn't have, right. ;) ;D

[teakwood]

Of course and i was expecting that question.

The freedom i have here and to be my own boss, that's priceless.  I have different projects going on and i do so much different work around my place it never gets bored.
you grab a profession your not qualified in, study it a little bit, make some trial runs and pretty fast you do a better job than the locals.
i'm licensed construction worker (stone, concrete) in Switzerland, i could not work as a woodworker there. Here i make furnitures (and pretty nice ones also) i charge twice what the locals charge and i have a list of costumers waiting for 6-8 month to get their furniture because i'm occupied in my teak plantations now for 4 month. so they just wait because they know they'll get a supreme quality piece of furniture.

and then there are the girls and the beaches      

[thecfarm]

Aha!  So that explains it.  Entry level logging pays $10 here.  So does equipment operator.

About a month ago i had someone ask me to climb and top some yard trees for $8 an hour.  Said thats the goin rate.  

  And one more.
That is minimum wage in the state of Maine. As I asked before,how much is fuel,price of a saw,equipment? I don't do that type of work,but I would probably just walk away from someone that said that to me. The area I live in has only the paper mill for a good paying job. Nothing here for money in this area.

[mike_belben]

I told him if i was ever gonna gaff up hourly, it wasnt gonna be for less than $30 so hide your stuff and call your favorite pillhead. 

Another guy, neighbor of someone i did a job for, waits until ive bobcat loaded and chained down and driving away, to flag me down and say hey you wanna look at a "quick little job."  Yeah sure what is it.  Wants me to move probably 15 loads of woodchips across his yard to a garden.  Its raining, yard is very soft and hes got a nice lawn and driveway i have to go over.  I said i have to go home and get boards to drive on.  I need the work, tell him $500.  He says how about a hundred.   

Buddy its a hundred for me to unchain it.  If i wanted to waste my day and burn up fuel i got plenty of stuff to move around my own yard.  I told him every pile would take 50 trips, what, no way.  

Go rent one yourself and find out.  It bet it takes you 3 days.  

[teakwood]

i respect that a lot mike! if they don't pay your price they can look for somebody else, period!

A job well done has its price.

[pinefeller]

the sad part is that there is another idiot that will practically pay you to do the job (yeah i meant to say that) its absolutely ridiculous. of course they are just bored and getting a free government paychecks (that we funded) and living off food stamps so this is just cigarette money for them.

[lopet]

and then there are the girls and the beaches  

I knew there has to be more than snakes, scorpions and teak.  8)

You sure do some nice wood working.  

[teakwood]

 Hahaha, there is always more in a man's life than just work!

Don't forget the beer and rum also!

[Riwaka]

TC 602 - Ohio in the snow - drone   (168hp - approximately 28K lbs, 13 metric tonnes?  https://www.tigercat.com/product/602-skidder/ 
Tigercat TV 602 Winch Skidder in Ohio - YouTube

[teakwood]

If it's a promo video why do they haul just half a load??

[Riwaka]

The skidder's engine is probably still in the break in phase for a brand new engine. (A 'let's see how much this machine can pull' in the first few hours can have consequences later on)
i.e running the engine up to 70-80% only during the first 150 hours.
Breaking in a Diesel Engine - Wolter Group LLC

[coxy]

i was always told to brake things in like your going to run it all the time  i have rebuilt  diesels mostly Detroit and ran them hard from the start and no trouble  ;D

[mike_belben]

I built race engines full time for a few years. I can confidently say that it takes high cylinder pressure to push the rings out against the fresh hone tooth to file down the ring high spots so that the low spots are able to come up to the bore edge and make a full seal.  You can only do this while the hone peaks last which is not long at all.   Once theyre worn off the hone stops shaping the ring. Static ring tension is not enough, it takes load.  Gentle breakins have been a sure source of oil consumption in my experience.

My race engines got broke in at the burnout box and would have 1% leakdown from that moment, getting looser therafter.  Street motors id run through a cycle about 20 mins long.  Lots of letting off hard to pull high manifold vacuum which would collapse the ring into the piston and spare some crosshatch on the intake stroke.  Diesels dont have that option but i still break in with a pulsing heavy foot that gets progressively harder.

I dont know why thats still a conventional wisdom but i cant ignore evidence when i see it or im just lying to myself.   

[longtime lurker]

I tell ya after the run I've had with logging equipment in the last 6 months that new thing with warranty is starting to look cheap at the end of the month. The only questions are dual arch or swing boom... and where to find a quarter million dollars. :D

[coxy]

the bank they have millions you haven't got yet  :D :D