I'm a glutton for punishment, having several hundred miles of fire/logging roads to maintain ( with County/State funding and permits, but NO help) I find my self in need of yet another piece of equipment. The county/state doesn't have the funds, manpower or equipment to do that job, even though the forest fire risks are super high, so They pay me to do it in my A.O! As such, In the past, I had been using my 5 ton Caterpillar Dozer and lots of pushing and pulling, but no real way to harvest any of the timber, so I bought a Cat 545 double arch grapple skidder which REALLY changed things for me, and while I can now harvest the timber and maintain the roads much more efficiently, I still have the issue of time and shear amount of downed timber to buck, move and stack, and then haul it out and process into cord wood! So,............ I just purchased a 2007 Cat Forwarder with self loader and bunks, so NOW, I can more efficiently handle and move all this timber in a shorter span of time! This thing is awesome! It's faster then the skiddder, has more power, and with the self loader, capable of hauling a pretty serious load in one shot! All the neighbors are jealous and looking to see how useful this rig really is! I need to figure out how to run multiple pieces of equipment for road maint. and constant repairs, normally I have my Cousin helping by running the Dozer, and the neighbors usually join in with their equipment as needed, but dang, I need a Kid or Grand kid here now, and my Kids are busy with their lives, and my Grand Kid is only 2, so I gotta find someone else! LOL
First thing, I gotta have a water tank built for this, it has removable bunks and the self loader comes off super easy, so the tank with a sub frame should be easy enough so if/when we get a fire, I have a highly mobile water tender to get out and in front of things. THIS was the main reason I chose this machine, outside of sticking with CAT as a known and trusted machine! I need to get a bull blade and get that installed on the front, including a root rake, if this thing can bull at anywhere close to the speed the Skidder can, We got a serious tool for high speed fire brake building, much faster then a dozer can, and that could prove a real life saving ability! I really like how this machine is set up, and while not as slick and cool as a Timberjack, it was nowhere near as expensive, so that sealed the deal, and ultimately, I think this is the better machine! I am loaning my heavy haul trailer to the neighbor as he found a Clark Skidder up in Oregon, so he and the boys are going to go pick it up and haul it back down here and start working it before the first snows fly! Other neighbors have dozers and front end loaders, but the Skidders have proven themselves to be a very good tool to have up here! We are our own first responders, the state has stupid rules on who can do what when there is a fire, and the fire companies don't like working private property, so that leaves us hangin out to dry, we gotta fend for ourselves, so all this gives us the tools to do what we need to do, and get ahead of even the state and feds for fighting these fires!
Wish I could justify buying big equipment as it is I am arguing with myself about buying a 1994 Case 580L backhoe/loader. Couple the logging outfits here run the same as yours for bringing big loads of logs out of the shittier terrain. Should work out very well for you.
I have never seen one of these before. I worked the woods as a young man, setting chokers, thinning, etc. but never seen anything like this. Yeah, we used a skidder but nothing like this...
These were mostly an east coast or European kind of rig, here out west, we don't usually worry about pecker wood. I remember seeing a couple of them back in the 70's getting worked over by the crews, but they never really took off out here! Recently, farms and wood lots started using these more, their really good at hauling small bunched wood through the forest to a sorting/loading deck, areas where a Skidder would chew up the ground too much! Most of the timber I deal with is ether serious pine, or lots of scrub/pecker wood, so, while the Skidder is good at bunching, it's not so good at dragging any real distance, hence this new rig!
