I haven't had a post in awhile do to selling the firewood equipment. But I have a small knuckleboom loader that I want to make a forwarding trailer with. What I was thinking is either building a bar saw into the last stack of the bunk so you could slash the trees into log length material or just build a in woods slasher. I know kinda crazy thinking but I'm just thinking😊 I still hope to be running my own operation full time someday and CTL is the in thing with land owners and foresters these days but you can't beat a slasher for cost and production vs a harvester. So I'm just looking for thoughts or if anyone has seen a similar setup?
Sounds like you need to rig up a grapple saw.
You would be ahead just to hand cut.
Can't hand cut 60 cord of pulp in a day and a graple saw has no measuring system and cuts one stem at a time like a harvester. The purpose of a slasher is the fact you cut a hole bucket full per cut. The crew I'm trucking for has a half cord bucket. So he cuts a half cord of trees. That's 80-120 cord per 8 hour machine. I'm thinking lay the wood out with the feller buncher same as you wood for tree length grapple skidder. Trim it the same but instead of dragging it out. Cut it up and set it to the side like a harvester/processor does. Go to the next pile. While the forwarder skids it. That way it's a short wood crew without dragging trees or the high cost or maintaines of a harvester/processor. It would work I know it would.
I think it would be a good way to go. It all depends on what you would mount the loader to. Depends on if it would be on a trailer or a self propelled carrier. Either way its would take heavy piece of iron to hold a loader down. Even with a 1/3 cord bucket. What size of loader do you have? I ran a G prentice last winter for a while and that struggled moving treelenght. Something I think that would work good for what you want to do is a machine called a hypro processor. There some videos on YouTube of them working. Neat little machine! Have fun
you should check out the slasher someone built on a 664 clark up in Canada on utube. The skidder engine is the power unit . It really looks like they did a 1st rate job.
Sounds like a mobile slasher but scaled down. Wonder if It would be easier to find an old smaller fixed slasher to start with? Start with the frame and customize and cut it down to your needs. Add axles and metal to make it portable. Those slashers require high gpm but you could down size the bar and motor if need be. I like your thinking my friend! There are a lot of those old slasher frames laying around in any pulp country. Like up nort deer. :)
A few years ago Hood Eq made a Mini Moble I believe it was called. The loader half ran on a Skidder axle & tires. The table half was normal slasher table tires. But it articulated in the center like a Skidder. I hired a guy with one a few years back. He slashed at a landing but it could go through almost as much as a Skidder it looked. Also I seen a timber jack shortwood Skidder hooked up to a slasher table on U Tube before. That was on a landing also. But,if there's a will,there's a way. Good Luck & keep us updated :P
Yes I've seen the Clark and the mini mobile. Same concept. The loader I have I know would be weak and wouldn't pull large trees. But I have it. If all worked out someday I was thinking a zero turn escavator with a bar saw table. Not much modifications required. I'll have to keep thinking.
That hypro processor is sweet but I still think a chainsaw trimer and slasher could cut more and uglier wood. But real nice for 20-40 cord of pine or regroth aspen.
Maybe i am missing something here but a single grip would do away with all that gear and accomplish what you want if i under stand what you are trying to do but i guess that doesnt utalize your existing gear .
The cost, the wood can't be large crooked hardwood and mantaince.
I know what your getting at, how much time and money do you want to spend in a "1-off" purpose built machine ? My loader is powered with a 4-239T, the pump for the saw is ran off the gear train so that's not hard. How big is this loader ? I've seen some stretched 540's-640'- that have been used in AG for cheaper money. Its not a bad idea if you mounted the loader, and had a pintle hook to drag the trailer behind you, load the trailer as you slash or slash a pile then unhook off the saw and run the load out. It could be practical on a big job but on a small job I think you would be beating your head against the wall running from tree to tree. I'm running 1-2 skidders, picking up wood after a timbco and slashing 2-3 hrs a day and I'm getting 30 ish cord and a few MBFT day. You would have to be on it pretty hard to pound out 50-60 cord with this system your talking about. There is a Hood mounted on a 350 Jack for sale in ME I see, ???
The loader I have is small but it's a start to try it. And the only differance between the crew I'm hauling off and what I'm talking would be the fact the wood will be getting cut at the feller piles and a forwarder. From what I can see the slasher would be a little less productive do to it moving but our shear piles are 2-3 cord and in a row. Tops are on the butts of the next pile. I'm thinking the mobile type slasher should still be faster then a processor because it's cutting multiple stems vs one. Processor are great. Most all crews around here have them. We're old school. But a $600,000 processor don't cut what we cut with $250,000 barko and 60" saw. There's bad a$$ but I do not like the tree length dragging damage.
I've got a "little" loader -160 Barko and yeah doing FW 8-16" stuff I drag 2-3-4 trees thru at 1x but anything of real big size -24-26" plus your getting 1 stick per bar stroke. Your cutting mostly aspen and lowgrade ? I recently watched a big CTL guy working and was impressed, but even he had a grapple skidder on the job for the poles.
Yes low grade aspen hw would be the norm. Occasionally red pine. I just don't see where I could afford a processor to start with. If I found one that was cheap enough it would be a headache. I've ran many 160s we still have one. It works as good as out 295 magnum. Both have half cord buckets. Our serco 170 is faster but don't have near the power. If want a real small short boom anyway. Being "in woods" all you'd have to do is pull the tree in for each cut and swing it just off the trail. Even a backhoe would work I think. They have lots of pulling power. A 580 case a used to run would pull a big tree. With the hoe. Driving was another story!
Using your 250k slashed number for a reference here. This amount will buy you a pretty nice used harvester. You mentioned having a man on a saw limbing if you were in big ugly hardwood. You could do the same with a harvester.
In almost any kind of wood a harvester can merchandiseas much or more wood per hour than a slasher.
If you do end up building your rig, I hope you take a lot of pictures. I really enjoy fab projects.
I don't own the slasher. I truck for them. I want to produce my own wood someday.
Anything ever happen with this project?
I have been collecting parts for an 8x8 articulated machine using rockwell 5ton axles and the AM General walking beam suspensions on 54" XMLs. I bought a scrapped aerial lift to make the boom out of but then part of me thinks a small old barko from the rotec up on the front half, and bunk on the back half would be a much more potent machine.
Even a forwarding trailer would be a real springboard for me right now. I am a one man handfaller with a dozer and gooseneck in TN hardwood. Limbing and loading are my slowest points, and im finding slow is bad in low grade stands.
You could always go back to logging horses or mules.
Skidder with logging trailer for easy terrain.
https://youtu.be/962papek9bQ
Ponsse 10 wheel machine at Elmia Wood 17
https://youtu.be/xmV7Tnbwqx8
I can see the logic behind this, but what about if you end up cutting a tighter hardwood thinning? Don't those slasher loaders have a lot of tail swing? Seems like it'd be kind of tough to maneuver. Like 1270 said, I think with the amount of money it would take to build that sort of rig, you could get a fairly decent used harvester.
Horses makes no sense, unless they can limb and load logs
A used forwarder will never be in my budget and im finally debt free, never going back into it. I can build anything cheaper than most, and ive got the rest of my life to do it.
Im bigger than a draft logger and smaller than a semi truck operation, and i want to stay here, just more profitably and with less physical effort.
With no payments or payroll to make, i can just chip away at my own pace or close up shop for a few weeks if i want.
Why oh why can't I teach myself that mentality? Maybe then I could retire before I keel over.
Has Darpa made a robot logger (chainsaw robot) yet that can limb and load logs?
(loading logs with mules)
https://youtu.be/Yrsl7jbHcqM
(Timberpro tf830 combo) in snow, Obviously big dollars even a 30 000 hour timberpro forwarder is $80K, (and potentially big age related issues) but it is a one man/ one machine - cut, process, load and carry, unload system
https://youtu.be/sLIq67Tc7TQ
2 home made machines T-Bear - Torbjorn t- bear adjustable width axle.
https://youtu.be/6Ws4UgLy5vU
Lars - pendulum 'axles' (one way of levelling a crane on a wheeled machine on a slope)
https://youtu.be/BHcejJaQyNY
The t bear harvester is an interesting concept with the voice controls. Wonder if he has developed it further?