CTL advice

[Ken]

Good evening

Although I have been working in the bush since I was a wee lad I've only been around cut-to-length equipment for the past 10 months or so.  As I basically learning as I go it is inevitable that there have been many things that have cost me far more than necessary.  Does anyone know of manuals or other books that may outline simple methods to make this learning experience easier and more efficient?  Although things have been going quite well and production is adequate I am sure that we are not maximizing our productivity.  To date my only training has been you-tube videos and the "school of hard knocks".

Cheers
Ken

[snowstorm]

youtube worked for me well it helped. at the equipment show in bangor last spring john deere had a simulator there. i watched for a while it was way different than my setup. from the pictures you had on here i would think 5cd per hr. is it the harvester or the fowarder that is slowing things? are you running the head in full auto mode? or holding the button ? try asking 1270d think hes in the up. he runs a 1270 jd should be close to your tj. they bolth have waratah heads. waratah is owned by john deere. anything i can do to help let me know you got my #

[Jamie_C]

Time in the seat is about the only way to get better. Sure there are a few tricks that everybody has but like in everything else the longer you sit in the seat the more productive you will become.

Here's a few little tips:

Work in close to the front of the machine .. save your reach for the sides don't try reaching way out in front to cut trees
Let the computer do the thinking .. set up all the species sorts in the computer and run in auto mode .. saves a lot of time when you only have to press the species button
Keep your sensors calibrated properly .. it will maximise the value of each tree

Feel free to message me with any questions ... track harvesters are a different beast than wheeled machine for production and i have run both

[snowstorm]

kens is on tracks 608 tj. mine is on tires. whitch do you prefer?

[Jamie_C]

I enjoy both tracked machines and wheeled machines ... preference depends on wood type for me. If i am cutting mostly softwood with an average dbh under 12" then give me wheels ... If i am cutting mostly hardwood or larger softwoods then i prefer tracked carriers. From my experience the tracked carrier has more muscle when dealing with larger wood and has the added ability of full boom rotation to deal with those big ugly hardwood tops that can be difficult to move around with wheeled carriers.

I have run TJ/Deere wheeled harvesters and Tigercat tracked carriers ...

[Ken]

Thanks guys.  That is the kind of advice I am looking for.  I realize that time in the seat will make me better but it is easy to develop bad habits when you are learning as you go.  There are tricks to every trade!

I do run the harvesting head on auto mode most of the time.  I do however use manual mode when delimbing very bushy trees to allow me to open the grab arms to get over hard spots on the stem. 

Is it best to only cut a narrow trail as you move forward?  Although cutting wider swaths makes much better forwarding I'm not convinced that the harvester can process more as there is extra time wasted moving the extendable boom in and out.  I also see that the amount of time trying to make neat piles takes a lot longer than just processing the trees and letting the pieces fall more randomly. 

Any other suggestions to help production would be appreciated.

Ken

[snowstorm]

if i am cutting 8' i try to get the piles as neat as i can. on longer wood if the butts are within 2to3' its good. they will butt up when they are loaded. either beat them against the head board or i prefere to stand them up in the bucket. looked like you were in ideal conditions. i would cut as wide as i could reach. do you pile on the rite or left? with that tj i would think you could see more going to the left. i prefere the rite that way i can see what the chain is cutting. at times i end up cutting some pretty ruff pasture pine. so the big limbs i saw off with the head if there are 3" it will limb them. hemlock is the hardest to limb. trying to get 5or6 3" limbs at once can be a chanllage. oak lims easier than hemlock. dont worry about making big piles . like they say it takes at least a year to get the hang of it. dont know if deere has a trainer or not. have heard that valmet dose he is out of quebec and gets $1200 a day

[Jamie_C]

Ken, you should be able to leave it on auto all the time. When you get a limby tree you can still feather the knives while in full auto mode. As a worst case just override the full auto by pressing one of the feed wheel buttons ... If the whole tree is fairly limby then pre-limb most of the tree before you start processing.

Taking as wide a swath as you can will really boost forwarder production plus with the increased brush mat under the machine you get almost no ground disturbance and will make your ride much smoother too.

Another trick when taking a wide swath is to pile on both sides of the machine ... but believe it or not the trees are piled on the side opposite they were cut on ...  you cut a tree on the left and take it to the right side of the machine to process, when done cut a tree on the right and take to the left side to process. It is kind of hard to explain in print but you can get up to a 25% volume increase by cutting this way as you never have the head travelling very far "empty".

One more thing ... although the bill might be high get somebody from Wallace Equipment or whoever has the JD line in NB to come out and set up all the pressures and flow on the carrier. You would be surprised how much boom speed/power you can gain by having everything set up properly. Also you will burn less fuel with everything working right.

[Jamie_C]

Ken, a few more things.

Don't try the piling on both sides with big softwoods or hardwoods as it will pull the piles apart and make a huge mess.
Neat piles come with time in the seat, as long as you keep your sorts seperated for the forwarder then don't worry about it too much at first.
If there is much more than 3' between the edge of your tracks and the edge of your wood piles ( as you are driving by them ) then you are likely travelling too far with the tree in the head.
If you are able to multi-stem with your head then try to do some when in smaller wood like those darn 4" barely merchantable trees.
Do not, do not, do not and i repeat do not try to rush in order to get production numbers up. You will break more hoses & chains, bend bars and generally frustrate yourself. Pick a comfortable pace and stick with it.
If your computer has the settings for boom speed then adjust the settings to where they are smooth for you and increase them gradually as you get better.

Are you working through spring this year ? I will likely be in Dieppe for the big sport fishing show the end of the month and if i had time and you were close i would pop over to see you.

[Ken]

Thanks again

Jamie I had not thought about piling on both sides of the machine.  I could certainly see the possibility for production increases but unfortunately most of the time I do not have large enough areas to make that work.  As I work mostly private land we end up cutting smaller polygon shaped stands for the most part.  We did have a larger area of decent sized swd this winter that would have enabled me to do that.  I have had my hydraulics set up a couple of times since I bought the machine.  That is also a good way to find out which hoses may be weak as they are sure to blow shortly thereafter.

I am hoping to work through spring this year but markets may dictate otherwise.  This is the last week for pulpwood deliveries and I am a little leery of stockpiling any not knowing when it may be purchased again.  I am about 2 hours north of Dieppe.

Cheers
Ken

[Jamie_C]

Ken the piling on both sides works best in smaller wood as it keeps your swing time with those little trees to a minimum. You dont need large areas to make this system work it will work on any size block, it is just simply a way to boost your stem count per hour.