I'm thinking about doing some cutting on land we own, several different pieces, and I'm wondering if I should try to do it with my jd 450c or look for a skidder. The dozer has a winch and arch and moves wood well, just not very fast or smoothly. I'm also worried I will burn up the undercarriage and finals drives doing it. I know something has to wear, either rubber or metal, just wondering if a skidder would be more efficient, especially on longer twitches. There is a early 70'so TF C5D nearby for 7800, I've never run one and I don't know if I could listen to a 353.
Skidder all the way. Burkettville Maine????
Is there another?
I owned a small dozer years ago..think it was a Case 350. It was too slow and small to do much of anything well but I was pulling over half mile..went back to using the tractor. Sold it the same year I bought it. A choppy ride and hearing all that metal on metal didnt help. Unless the woods work was in a small area and maybe had other uses for a dozer I would go with a skidder.
Only time you would consider a dozer is short drags in steep terrain.
Locally the guys might use one to extract logs from a steep gully, where it's impractical to take a skidder, and the better winching capacity of the dozer give it an advantage.
But you want wheels if you are traveling any distance with the logs.
If you already have a dozer, there might be times when you want to use it, in conjunction with other equipment. And they are certainly useful for track building and maintenance, and even extracting a stuck skidder if necessary. ;)
I tend to think this would depend on how much you are planning to cut.
Also how much on each piece of property and will you need the dozer to start with to build roads and landings?
The first piece is small, only 15 acres or so, it's got some big pine, decent red maple and then probably a bit of firewood. It would be feasible to use the dozer on that piece. The dozer undercarriage is in good shape right now and would last me for years. I hate to wear it out prematurely if I'm going to end up with a skidder anyway. It would be easy if I just traded the dozer for a skidder, but I want to keep the dozer too. Oh and there isn't much road or landing work to do.
I guess I'll have to look at the numbers and see if enough money can be made to offset the cost of a skidder purchase.
Woodhauler, is it worth cutting right now or is the market too low in your opinion? Pine is easy, right to robbins, hemlock to Viking, hardwood saw logs?
I guess I pretty much answered my own question, thanks for the input.
I think I would do the first small tract with the dozer and see how it goes. Then you will have a better idea of how things are going.
Sound advice, try the dozer see how it goes, cross ,my fingers nothing breaks.
Problem with buying a skidder, especially a cheap one, is you don't know what problems your buying. Might be fine, might only run for a day. At least with your dozer you know what you've got
Some good advice has been given. There is a reason that logging efficiency went to rubber tires to move wood, but a dozer has its place on any logging job for road building, small tasks that can't be handled by a skidder etc.
I just finished (well, 95% finished) my log arch and delivered it to my property. My logger said "they" used a similar arch to clear an awful lot of timber. Far cheaper. I already have both a 4 wheeler and a side by side to provide power.
I have a dozer and a tractor. The arch will be how I move downed logs. Thursday "we" (my 78yo logger) will be clearing my homesite with the D5. Just a few acres and widen one, one mile road and cut another 1 mile road. He says it'll take a few hours.
Then the log arch will move all the down logs to one location on my place.
My dozer won't be finished for another month or so. Getting used parts takes a while.