skidder

[BargeMonkey]

New lexan and floor mounted heater in my 230 forwarder makes it somewhat bearable. Yrs ago I always swore I wouldnt have a cab dozer, been around 2 recently and it's so nice. 

[ehp]

ya my skidsteer has a/c and heat and its nice when its snowing or when its 100f outside

[ehp]

so has anyone ran a TJ 360 , one with cummins in it ?, just thinking about trying to make my job easier on me and my old body

[dnash]

I ran a 360c for a guy 10-15 years ago. I remember it being awful on fuel and the climb to get on was definitely a "climb". It did have a radio though which kinda neat. I don't really see much benefit for you if you are trying to make things easier.

[ehp]

well the 3 of us had a talk today, me , myself and I . Were thinking we should up grade to abit bigger skidder . By-law said no problem if its 120 inches wide as long as Im driving it cause I watch real close on what Im doing . Now big question is what do I get. I honestly like the clark or pretty much timberjack of the same design, cummins motor , clark tranny , clark winch . I have not been around the newer johndeere stuff and the price on stuff like the last 540 or 548 is just crazy

[quilbilly]

I know where a couple really big Clark's are. Good shape too.

[Firewoodjoe]

648 glll torque converter. Fast light on its feet easy to operate. You can put someone from there car in it and be fairly productive.  Never ran a Clark but like the simplicity and power shift is a must. Costly but nice.

[ehp]

I looked at a timberjack 360 yesterday, single arch grapple and winch, heat and air. I passed on it , it had 28l tires on it and was 123 inches wide . Just going to keep looking

[mike_belben]

How much longer before the epa tells us "you can't use that skidder till a tier 5 motor is in it" ?

Realistic question.  California wont allow any truck older than 2010 in the state and is in the process of outlawing owner op truckers being leased onto carrier MC #s due to wage classification.  

Insanity is only gonna spread.

[Skeans1]

Remember they paid owner operators to update Mike
@mike_belben

[mike_belben]

Im not too familiar but my understanding is most of the money went to out of state city slickers with the ability to position themselves.. and most normal little guys got nothing.   I could be wrong, just repeating what i was told.  I have zero concern with california and its self created problems. 

[BargeMonkey]

 Theres a nice 360D / 540G3 with 7500hrs @ Sharps in NH for sale, 23.1 rubber, about as close to a "small" skidder as your going to find. Nothing wrong with a 360/460 jack, guys take the windows out and cry when they start having electrical issues, a shifter is 2500 bucks now. 

[ehp]

Im thinking 2 ways right now , 450C or buy a frame and build what I want . I got about 2 weeks left where I am then its fixing time for my machine , depends on how much rain we get. I might be done abit sooner

[mike_belben]

I am of the opinion that if youre a keep and hold for lifer, building your own has a decent ROI and maintenance will never retire the machine.  A man will always build what he can figure out easily when it acts up.

Up until carb/epa got involved, a simple man could maintain all this simple iron.  When engineers fill them with electronic gizmos and proprietary parts, its service life becomes much shorter.  Olivers, cletracs, 8Ns..  Theyll be around forever, maintained by mere hobbyists.  But barney rubble probably cant troubleshoot the blinkie beepy problems on a new ponnse, nor afford much downtime.  Its all getting too advanced and too expensive.  The tech on a new skidder is far beyond the 1970s helicopters i worked on, just to drag wood.  Much smaller wood than in 1970 i may add.

[Skeans1]

Wouldn't an Awassos skidder fit the build about perfect?

[thecfarm]

Build what you want,good idea. Than it's just the way you want it.

[ehp]

I have seen those small skidders and talked to the guy that makes them in person, I honestly feel they are way to small to pull the timber size I seem to cut normally , a 230/240 TJ is very close to being to small and its kind of hard on them. I had a 450 TJ short frame but it had a 4-53 in it , that was a great skidder and would work well here I feel. Ya I do abit of long skidding but most times Im around 1/4 of a mile , A mile is a real long skid here cause there is always a cross road . I want cummins and want clark winch, I guess the newer jd winches are good as well. , the 450 had 23.1 by 26 on it and I fine with that as I will not be pulling huge hitches with it . ?The 450 really was not that much bigger than what I got but enough it pulled timber easy . I would like to stay away from any computer stuff on the machine so that's why Im thinking mid 90's or earlier . Now 99% of that kind of skidder is going to be beat to death already so I will have to build it up from there . I guess the biggest thing is my idea of wood's ready and every other person skidder I looked at are not on the same page . Their idea is if it starts it woods ready, my idea is I want it to go at least a year with zero problems other than say hdy hoses or stuff I break

[BargeMonkey]

I know where there are 2x 450Cs, both factory cables with 24.5s and deere winches, things keep going downhill with wood prices they can be bought for under 25k I bet. 
 450C wasnt friendly to work on, I'm telling you once you buy a skidder that the cab tips you wont ever want to go back. 

[ehp]

my plan is not to work on it but put it to work ;D

[Ed_K]

 I just replaced the master brake cyl. on my taylor other than couplings for the blade to frame an new tires the skidder is all rebuilt. only took 15k and 10yrs to do. now I'm to old to put it to work  ;D .

[mike_belben]

Build it once.  P pumped 6BT, off the shelf electric PTO central hydraulic pump run via serpent belt, cheapest style of spin on filter heads and all straight simple hoses. With no stupid access issues! Color coded wire and terminal strips in easy location for circuit probing, and nothing more complicated than a solenoid or relay.
...  Covered in LED floodlights.  Anderson jumper plug and a pair of coolant quick connects sitting right there. 

 6BTs start so good in the cold, and grid heaters are so reliable that i cant believe anyone stays with a ford long enough to go through more than one set of glowplugs. [Or GP harness, or controller, or batteries.. Or any of the other seasonal superduty maintenance.  Im stirring the pot now!] :p

[barbender]

6BT's only start good in the cold IF they have a grid heater. I've ran ones that didn't, below about 30 degrees the one wouldn't start without ether. The 4b in my Case skid loader doesn't start very well in the cold either. It will start down to about 15°, but the starter and battery get a real workout. Once it gets below freezing it is always parked where I can plug in the block heater.

[mike_belben]

I dont think ive dealt with a cummins that lacked grid heat yet.  The biggest challenge i always had with old junk in winter was getting it to crank fast enough.  Weak batteries, crummy wires, arc'd up solenoids and worn down starter brushes/commutators all contributed but thats the life of a working poor guy i guess.  

I made a little chimney out of a stub of pipe with some standoffs and would use sawdust+oil in an old frying pan to make a low fire under the frozen machine of the day.  Then i relocated to cure it once and for all!

[Mountain_d]

Does a grid heater heat the intake air and sit in the metal elbow on top the engine? My Cummins 4B has the housing but no heater. I should add one if that is what it is. With a grid heater and two good batteries, how cold do you think I could start my TJ230 with the 4B? Mountain. 

[barbender]

Yep. They make a night and day difference- I've thought about retrofitting one on my skid steer as well. My 97 Dodge Cummins will start down to -20° if you cycle the grid a couple of times. I would expect similar performance on your TJ, being that it doesn't have a tremendous amount af hydraulic drag. Our Ponsse machines are Mercedes powered and have grid heaters as well. Same thing, they will cold start at temperatures that you wish they wouldn't😬 We have a couple of forwarders (new machines)that start really hard, even with the engine coolant preheaters. I suspect they might have malfunctioning grid heaters, I'll be suggesting the operators get them checked out. One of my buddies has an older Ponsse Ergo harvester, it came from Georgia originally. It has always started super hard- the engine preheater will run, coolant temp is 180° but it just doesn't want to fire. One day he was fighting with it, and I asked him if he cycled his grid heater a couple of times. He asked "how do I know if it's cycling?". I explained the procedure- turn the key on, the grid heater yellow light illuminates. Wait for it to turn off and repeat, then crank engine. "I don't think I have that light, nothing comes on." He got looking into it, he had an older "starting aid" that apparently injected and ignited fuel into the intake, sounded crazy but it was disconnected regardless. So he had Ponsse install a grid preheater, this was at the end of the winter so he didn't get to really put it through the paces- I suspect life will be easier this winter though!😁