GARRETT ENUMCLAW COMPANY / GARRETT SKIDDERS

[Original Garrett]

To all,

This forum was mentioned to me by a customer recently and he suggested I sign up and let people know what is going on with the Garrett Enumclaw Co (Garrett Skidder's ).

So Dwight Garrett (who founded Garrett's and invented the Garrett Skidder) was my Great Uncle.  My Dad (Don Garrett) basically took over the company when Dwight passed away as he'd been working there since high school.  My Dad passed away very unexpectedly in 2009 and with him went a vast knowledge of Skidder history and know how.  I have stepped in to fill the role of selling off inventory and scrapping metal and basically getting stuff cleaned up for the LLC owned by the family. 

So as of right now July 2011 we (Garrett Enumclaw Co) are still open for business.  We are not ordering any parts etc to maintain old levels of inventory.  I will apologize right now for my lack of knowledge on the intricacies of the Skidder models and/or how to work on them or fix them.  I am getting very good at looking at pictures in the manuals and finding parts on the shelf (it just takes me longer than it would have taken my dad). 

So right now we still have parts for Skidders and Gearmatic Winches.  However we do not have any re-lined or new brake or clutch bands for the winches.  I have parts available for the following Skidder Models (but off the top of my head I don't know what parts and how many).
#15, 21, 21A, 25, 25A, 30, 30A, 30B, 30C. 

I have copies of manuals for the following Skidder Models, Gearmatic Winch's and Ford Engines

#10,15, 21, 21A, 25, 25A, 30, 30A, 30B, 30C; Gearmatic 8A, 9, 19 and 119, Ford 172 and 134 engines. 

We don't have a lot left for the 15's, I found quite a bit of misc parts for the bigger machines in a trailer and have pretty much got them all sorted out.  No full machines are left at the business and I don't have any good winch drums. 

Here is the good news and bad news.  Some of the parts are still listed as NEW INVENTORY, so on those parts I have to go by what the price book says.  Some of the other parts are used or not listed as new inventory and I am pretty flexible on those prices.  I have given 15-20% discounts on larger bulk orders for a few people who actually wanted me to dig through everything to find parts for them.  And I know I have a lot of stuff for the bigger machine because I found an order worth about $12,000.00 for a guy that he never showed up to pay for.  I also have some misc diesel engine stuff but you would have to come look at that stuff to tell me what it is.   

So if you are interested in seeing if I have parts for your machine etc please give me a call at (360) 825-2500.  I work another job full time so just leave me a message and I will call you back when I come in.  I am usually there to check messages 3-4 days a week so if I don't call back right away don't worry.  I am open to meeting people on a date and time to let them come in and look at the parts as people familiar with these machine are better at identifying something than I am.  If you want to come and look at anything just give me a shout on the phone and I will set up a date and time to meet you.  As I said earlier I also have copies of the original manuals available if they are needed and I also have a bunch the original promotional fliers when the machines came out. 

Thanks

Adam Garrett
Garrett Enumclaw CO.
(360)825-2500

[Dave Shepard]

Welcome to the Forum!

[Steve]

Adam

Nice to meet you. I just have to tell you how much I loved owning a Garrett 15 that had forks instead of a blade. The canopy served as the framwork for the forks and pivoted from behind the seat. I owned a Mobile Dimension Mill at the time(early 80's) and lived near Port Townsend, Wa. The mill and skidder were practically made for each other. A perfect "small is beautiful" setup. I could skid logs, load the mill and load lumber on a flatbed truck two stacks high all with the same machine. And the parts were generally easy to find. A really neat machine. 
Just had to tell you.

Steve

[Original Garrett]

Cool,

I know that a lot of people are really wishing they still had their Model 15's for just the same type of backyard/small yard stuff.

Adam

[John Woodworth]

Adam, glad to hear from you, I delt with your dad from 1980 till his last days in the shop, every year he would say he was going to retire but next time I called, guess who answered. He was a walking parts book and I never had to ever give him a part number as he had them in his head and at one time he ever sent me over the original brake caliper mount plans for the 21 for me to copy so I could build them for one of my 21's. I at times would go out and do winch work and other repairs for people over here in Jefferson and Callam county for people who had called him with their peoblems.

I haden't been over to the shop for quite a while but always enjoyed the trip as he always had something different parked in front of the shop, machines I never new exhisted until I saw them.

He looked up the serial numbers for both my 21's and my 10 and gave me year made and with the 10 who sold to.

Are you going to have a E-mail at the shop? if not will be calling as there are some things i'm short on and usually try to keep spares.

Hope to talk to you soon.

John Woodworth.

[Original Garrett]

John,

Yeah it made me sick when he used to go on vacation and I would cover for him in high school and after when he called I would start explaining a part to him from someones description and he would be like "that is part such and such go to this shelf and it is three boxes from the right hand side". 

Calling is the best way to get in touch and I will return calls (sometimes its hard for me to get in there every day).  Dwight didn't like computers so everything is still on a type writer (hahahahahaha).  I have to go through hand written inventory cards to find stuff and that sucks.  I probably still have the inventory cards with your machine's on them someplace in the office.  But if you need something just give me a call and I will do my best to try and help you out.  I have a couple of guys to call in the event of a parts emergency that usually know where to tell guys to find skidder parts.   

As for the weird machines you are correct there.  The original Garrett Tree Farmer #1 was in the Buckley Log Show Parade this year and was donated to the Buckley Logging Museum several years ago.  My uncle got to drive it and it sure looked neat next to all the new stuff.  Several of our bigger skidders have been re-fitted with sealed/snorkeled engines so they can launch large fishing boats right off the beach in Alaska.  They switched to old Garrets because there were no computer's to get messed up by the salt water. 

Adam

[mad murdock]

Adam,
Welcome to the forestry forum.  I cannot say enough good things about your family.  Dwight, knew what he needed in the woods when he built the first articulated skidder!  I love my model 15A.  I recently did extensive repairs to the engine and am using the machine now currently on my neighbors place, it never ceases to amaze both of us how well that thing will pull for it's size!!  Still need to get after the winchdrum, to get things full operational.  I will have to give you a call to see about a few things I need.  Thanks for posting here!!  Got to keep these machines working

[Original Garrett]

Just a note to all who are interested. 

I set up an email address for Garrett Skidders (listed below).

garrettskidders@hotmail.com

Also you can check out the page I created on facebook with a bunch of cool old photo's its listed as "Garrett Enumclaw Co. (Garrett Skidders)

Thanks

Adam Garrett

[mad murdock]

Thanks for putting up all of those pictures!! That is one heckuva photo archive!! It is amazing to see all the things that your family has come up with over the years to make the woods work better   That Ecologizer looks reeeeeaaaally interesting!!  I would really like to see one of those contraptions in action.  You have a treasure trove of logging and lumbering history there.

[Original Garrett]

Yeah, unfortunately the only thing I have regarding the ecologizer are the original pamphlets and pics.  I may have the blueprints or design buried in a file cabinet someplace but have not found it yet. 

I would love to actually talk to someone who has owned one or still has one. 

[mad murdock]

Yeah, unfortunately the only thing I have regarding the ecologizer are the original pamphlets and pics.  I may have the blueprints or design buried in a file cabinet someplace but have not found it yet. 

I would love to actually talk to someone who has owned one or still has one. 

If you can find prints on that puppy, with today's technology improvements thrown at Dwight's forward thinking ideas, you would have an instant win, IMO.  Maybe you should quit your day job, if you can get enough data together to build some of this stuff again?? From what I see, it looks like you inserted a log in the "start here" side, and it spit out boards on the other side?  what a concept, a towable canter/gangsaw!!

[WH_Conley]

WOW, some neat old machines there. I agree, I can see where there could be a demand for some of those machines today. Especially the ecologizer.

I would also suggest putting those pictures in the Forestry Forum gallery. We don't know how well Facebook keeps pics, but, the forum has a proven track record.

[Original Garrett]

I will try to upload some of those photos to the forum.  Just gotta navigate my way through it.  Will post if they get on here. 

[John Woodworth]

Hi Adam, I don't know if you still have the sales records for the ecologizers but I ran the one originaly sold to Bill Anderson in Chimacum, he sold it to Bill White who had it, we were cutting Cedar cants with it and re-sawing on  band saw. We didn't use the re-saw blades because of the kerf for what we were doing. That big old Cummings sure had a sweet sound to it and Bill Bishop of at the time Bishop Logging used to come over and watch and would always say he loved the sound, was the sound of work and the sound of money. we made a lot of money with that machine. It ended up going to Fi Gi to cut hardwood.

[Original Garrett]

Oh i am sure there is a sales record for that machine in one of the umpteen file cabinets still at the business.   I will see if there are any of the stock cards for those names with records for the sales. 

Thanks for the info.

[twobears]

 i know where theres a ecologizer mill sitting right now..a friend of mine owned it was totally rebuild just before he passed away..it,s less then a mile from here.

[mad murdock]

A Garrett Ecologizer woiuld be an AWESOME find!  Where  is "here" twobears?  Are you in the PNW?  I would love to find one to restore and get running again.  With all the new technology in hydraulics, electronics, etc, you could really make a board spitting machine!

[twobears]

 i live in northern new york and the mill is within sight of me and it should be on my property soon.i,ll be learning how to running it this summer.you feed in a log and lumber comes out the other end.the logs get squared up without making slabs.theres cutter heads that plane off the sides then a bank of saws on one shaft cut the cant into lumber.you have to soft your logs and set the mill up for one size..like say 2x4,s.you can,t switch while cutting like a regular sawmill.the one here can take a 14 inch log but because of sweep they limited it to 10/11 inches..so your limited to no more then 2x6,s..but,this mill will bury you in lumber without breaking a sweat.it used to belong to a friend of mine but now belongs to his son.his dad passed away a few years ago from cancer.the mill was totally rebuilt just before he passed..diesel motor,hyd motors,hoses,ect.

[mad murdock]

It would be great to get some pics of that thing in action!  Can't wait to hear the news of how it goes for you!

[twobears]

 once i get it going i,ll get some video.