Tigercat to discontinue 2 skidders

[timbco68]

 I saw the tigercat salesman today and he mentioned that next year they will discontinue the 602 and 610 skidders. Not enough demand for the smaller models I guess.He also said that he hasn't sold any 620's for at least a year and that the 630 is selling instead. Kind of crazy that the smallest skidder people are buying is over 270 hp.

[OH logger]

Wow. Everyone wonders why no one makes a small skidder anymore. I guess that's why.. no one buys em. 

[BargeMonkey]

 The big guy working down the road here has 4x 632Es, 2 track shovels and a newish 745D Timberpro. Local kid down the road from him with the 2 cable skidders is in horrors as they strip the side of a mountain down to 6". I never thought I would consider a 648G3 to be a "small skidder" 😆. 

[timbco68]

Man , I bet that fuel bill is terrifying when 4 632's are on a long skid in deep snow.

[BargeMonkey]

 The guy had a fuel truck sitting on the last job. I would lay you odds he's 20-25k+ gal a month on / offroad, and getting it directly from the port, that saves you .30- .40 right there. The on-road cost is 3.4055 tonight delivered and typically offroad is .08-.12 less, straight trailer load I bet its even less. The company I work for runs 70+ boats, typically each average over 25,000gal a month EASY, that's 2mil gal a month, that's where the #'s get BIG. We just passed a VLCC tanker in the harbor that was drawing 46ft, has a capacity of 2.2 mil bbls of crude oil, that's 92,400,000 gals. They just want the working class driving electric cars and all electric homes so we are easier to control when the blue helmets show up. 

 It's changing, not saying it's for the worse, always be the small work but I think the days of the small iron are gone, guys can kick, scream, reminisce the "old days", I'm just at the 100 mile line from the pulp mill and it's coming down here more and more. The new 602 @ CJs that sat next to my poverty 620C tigercat was 285 ? 305 ? And it was a single arch toy, have to be retarded to buy one unless your a clearing contractor that needs a tax right off. 

[timbco68]

It's getting to be really a big boys game isn't it? There will always be stuff for the small operator to do , however, what equipment will be on the used market when all the 648 deeres and 525 cats are ground down to scrap level. Deere quits making parts for their stuff after 20 years. There is always the boneyards but they get picked clean too. My trucker has a perfectly decent Deere grader that he did township blading with but he had to park it because of some transmission parts he could no longer find at Deere or anywhere else for that matter.

[rdobb13]

Just sat in a new 602 grapple at the dealer. Kinda started daydreaming a bit until the salesman said $285,000. I said I'll be back in 20 years.  

It was however the first time I had seen one. Really just about the right size if you wanna save the woods. 

[timbco68]

Yeah , if you sit in one, you start to get crazy thoughts. I do anyway.

[Firewoodjoe]

I wish I could get a brand new forwarder for $285,000. 

[barbender]

Right!

[ehp]

Oh you can just make each payment $285,000 .  Its just that easy or just be like Barge . It's a one time payment for him.. $285,000 is pocket change for that man .  

[ehp]

602 is still a big skidder for here and yes I have been in them and at the factory when being made .  Its a shame no one is making a small new skidder any more thats a good machine 

[ehp]

If things keep going we will be back skidding with horses lol.  No newer machines and once the older ones are beat there is mot going to be much left

[barbender]

Nah Ed, we'll all be running monster iron for the biggest logging conglomerate in North America, BargeCo.😁

[Firewoodjoe]

I think there's only two ways if your independent. Really small, one man band or monster of the neighborhood. 

[Walnut Beast]

Guys that are doing multiple services have  a advantage to have equipment like that. 

Just like different cycles in everything that they or somebody will make a smaller one someday 

[Firewoodjoe]

I've never got big into multiple things but have tried a little. For me it don't work. I'm better off putting all my time into one main thing. Get spread to thin and you start having to make more per endeavor. Steady at one through the good and bad pays for me. 

[Peter Drouin]

A nice big one is cool, but, to find someone to run it and show up every day is the hard part.

[BargeMonkey]

 20% down, 5% ? 4300 on 60 worst case. Pocket change to Ed. 😆. Alot of money for a toy. I paid 85 for mine, for 18 months.
The work is changing, half the reason my father and I have it out sometimes is because they still believe we need this small work to keep going. Another BIG phase of clearing work / 3-4Mil yard mass excavation job coming out local again, 40 acre paid clearing job to go walk I get home, 3k an acre to rip and tear, keep what I want and 150hr for the poverty shovel to feed the grinder, 8hr work days 🤦‍♂️😆, hit that harder than Piper Perri on MLK day.  Another customer is getting serious about the campground, I can't justify buying well used CTL to stare at it, when I'm ready buy a low hour Timberpro. 

[ehp]

Barge .  Nice Try .  We all know your the money Guru .  Hell your beer money is more that what most of us make a week . .   I honestly believe they have to change here .  Machines most use are 40 plus years old here.  I know guys want to try cut to.length but they are shoving back so far on that .  I'm old so sitting in a cab sounds good to me but to get a machine that is small but cut 36 inch plus trees all the times is going to be hard to find I think

[barbender]

 I think the reality of the available equipment will force them to adapt their rules, or they just won't be getting any wood cut. The only harvester that can fit between those narrow rows and cut that big timber wears boots and is named Ed😁

[ehp]

And Ed is dam old and slow and lots say mentally handicap 

[Mountaynman]

Ed we had a jd 653 cutter that had a hultdins super fell head with a 39" 3/4 pitch bar would cut anything you wanted to had a live heel on it so you could jockey yourself around think of a giant bell head its now made by wartah. That machine was originally from quebec and ended up in the upper up of michigan when we traded it did modified ctl with it still had to get out measure and buck the limbs off but bucked and piled the logs for the forwarder. That set up would be about the only one that will help you in your timber.

[Firewoodjoe]

In good hardwood you don't need a processor. All you doing is felling and measuring. Not really any delimbing. Any of the big 360 rotate fixed head bar saw heads would cut 30-40 in hardwood. You just rotate the head backwards and use the height of the tower like a measure  stick. I do it even with my harvester. 

[Firewoodjoe]

Prolly even bigger once you got good. I cut 20-30 inch all day. Good logs to. And mine is a "18 inch"head. So they say.