Beautiful Ground, Beautiful Wood. No Music, No Talking, Just Cutting! "Tigercat LX870D" 

Yeah, it was a treat! Worked well to cut that easy ground while it was wet. Thanks!

You bet. Thanks for the suggestion!

Hey, thanks Erik. Yeah, we thought we'd give it a shot. Glad you like the videos, and the ones with commentary too. Plenty more of those to come. I enjoy the challenge of trying to explain what it is that I'm doing. For something that looks so easy there's actually quite a bit to it! It helps that I love what I do. We appreciate the support, definitely the lions share of the credit goes to my wife, she takes the endless footage and turns it into something interesting. Thanks!

@@thedailylogger it definitely helps to have a job that you truly enjoy. It never actually feels like work. I’m in the same situation. I love operating heavy equipment. The more difficult the task, the more enjoyable it is. Everyone needs a good challenge. You both do an excellent job. Thanks again.

@@erikcourtney1834 I agree. I've often said that liking logging isn't enough, you've got to love it. And I do. Even when I'm not liking it all that much, if that makes sense. I understand what you mean about the challenge, when it requires all your focus and accumulated experience to figure out a situation and the steps necessary to successfully complete the project. It asks a lot but for me the reward is a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment that is exceptionally rewarding. Unfortunately the idea of hard work being anything but drudgery has pretty much gone out of favor in today's world, that's part of the reason we're doing these videos, trying to show other parts of the equation. Although there is hard physical work involved in what you and I do, the rewards are well worth it. I can't help but look at the problems in today's society and feel that some of them are linked back to the lack of meaningful work and the satisfaction it provides. Appreciate the comment, thanks!

Thanks, glad you like them. Appreciate it!

You bet. That was Buncher candy for sure. Thanks!

Thanks Craig. I know it, a 635 would probably log that block quicker than I cut it wouldn't it! I was thinking more about the outfit you work for, how many loading shovels are on site? After you cut out a right of way does it get stumped with a roadbuilder and then push grade with a cat or does a cat do the whole thing? Seems like you must have a grader running pretty steady too in that country with the snow you get. Hope you're having a good winter, things are going good down here right now but there are some signs of tightening up too. Yeah, cutting like this is really about as good as it gets! Good cuttin to ya!

@@thedailylogger good morning Jason. When it comes to using a 635 the cost per ton goes way down due to the fact, you’re moving so much more volume…ie check out contontop videos. We do it different than they do beacouse we have more road space On a large site 6 grapple skidders there is one loader with a clamp stacking the wood 3 grapples feeding him. After that processors cut wood for load out. Loading machine is 880 size loader 16s and 24s and does 25 plus per day, so up to to loaders loading out. Building grade after I go through with the buncher is done with a D8 size machine. And builds wonderful grade fast, perhaps 2 kms a day, small hoe for culverts. Road maintenance is done with a few graders like the cat 14m with a wing. Shovels pretty much never happens as it’s far to expensive way to move wood…unless there’s a bad hill or corner Also when the stacker stacks for skidders he determines how far the piles go so as to keep the limbers going steady If we were down where you are I would think we would not be using a heel boom but use clamb attachment as it’s much faster. Thanks for all you do Jason

@@craigtjen9130 Sounds like a pretty well oiled machine you're a part of there Craig! Thanks for the details. I appreciate the obvious advantages of machines such as a 635, but at the same time recognize the risk inherent in investing in a system which doesn't have widespread acceptance in our area. As an employee but with my background as having been a business owner I try to be careful not to presume to much, I don't take the sharp point of the payments home with me at night anymore! I guess my hope is that by doing my part of the project profitably and successfully implementing what innovations I can directly be responsible for I can help my Boss continue to move towards more innovative systems from a good financial footing! I have always been interested in how other loggers from other places get it done, some of those ideas helped me be successful in my own business. Even though we may operate in different places with different challenges and different advantages, when it comes down to it there are many things we all face that are very similar. Always good talking with you, have a good week!

@@thedailylogger “yes I understand putting the investment is a lot for anyone and the state forestry my have there own policies. I think you trying the tethering process is huge. I look forward to this Jason. I would sure hope there is some sort of allowance for this up and come machine. You always do good work and love every minute of it Thanks for your comments Craig

@@craigtjen9130 Yeah, sometimes it's a delicate balancing act! I'm definitely looking forward to getting the line machine on the hill too. Sounds like it should be taking shape in mid February so I am planning on taking some time to film there at Summit as many times as I can to show the process of it coming together. Eric Krume gave me a tour of the facilities a while back, it's an impressive operation that they have going there. I'm ahead right now with wood on the ground so I was walking units all day. Saw some ground that I am definitely going to have to work up to as far as comfort level with the winch assist! I was thinking again about your operation, with 8 processors working that must give you guys a little bit of buffer, or redundancy, so if one goes down there still will be wood ahead of the trucks? Sounds like, a good system. Talk with you later, be safe.

Thanks! I appreciate the comment. Ground and wood like that unit make it easy but I'm a firm believer in making it as easy as I can on the machine and me. I've seen too much stuff get torn up and either had to figure out how to deal with it or pay for it to tear stuff up myself if I can avoid it. Thanks for the comment, good cuttin to ya! Be safe.

@@thedailylogger No need to dump the head all the way to 90 degrees and hold onto the tree all the way down...especially with conditions like that where it's a cut 1 and dump. You are putting an incredible amount of unneeded stress on every pin, bushing, grab arm, boom and the swing bearing. A good operator would be able to tilt the head 30 degrees, open the arms and have the tree land where in the right spot 90% of the time. I could see if you are cutting for a skidder where your piles have to be straight and the butts even but if you are cutting for a processor...open up those arms and let gravity do the work. Also, I notice how you don't drive the saw full speed into the tree...very well done. I have seen too many guys drive the head way too fast into big trees and not give the saw time to cut. I do the same as it dramatically lessens the stress on everything. Also noticed how you don't track back and forth for every tree...seen this way too many times with other operators. I've spent 25 years in various bunchers (Prentice 630, Tigercat 822, 870C and my current 855E) and the amount of unnecessary wear and tear makes me shudder every time i see it.

Yup, it's that time of year, everybody's getting worn down, and we still have to go like a sonofagun to get off the hill before snow. Some tethering vids in the works, hope they'll let us put them out. Best

@@thedailylogger Been there! In Montana and NE Washington we’d run super hard before spring breakup, loading trucks at night to get the wood out. Stay safe!

@@bobmartin6055 Copy that. I just took a week off, a road trip around NW WA. If you don't mind me asking, what work are you doing now? I'm getting more time under my belt with the line machine cutting both yarder and steep shovel/skidder ground, wish I had a free hand to show it. It's an interesting learning curve. Thanks for the comment!

Nice! It’s a long story but I left the woods up in NE Washington and went to school in Spokane to be an industrial electrician. From there I went to work in the federal hydroelectric industry, worked on the Columbia River for 13 years and then moved down to the Colorado River for the past 9 years. It’s been a journey but I’ve never forgotten the lessons I learned in the woods and am glad for the work ethic it in instilled in me. I would still love to get back into the woods after I retire from hydropower. If you feel the need to warm your bones up this winter, I’d be happy to show you around southern Utah and share some of the sunshine! The trees are shorter and the dirt is red but it’s pretty amazing country. Good talking to you! Best wishes.

@@bobmartin6055 Interesting where life takes us all. Thanks for the brief snapshot. Hydroelectric and Logging share a strikingly different public perception from our parents generation. I think it would be hard to imagine support for removing dams from rivers in their times, just as it is difficult for me to understand the rationale for not practicing sound management on previously harvested lands in our state and federal forests. But both are easy targets for avoiding the harder choices involved in addressing ill-considered growth and consumption. But we sure are fortunate in this country to have so much wealth in natural resources and beauty. I haven't spent much time in Utah, you make it sound pretty nice! Always good to hear from you.

I aim for about an inch above the highest point of the ground. It depends a lot on the soil I'm working on though. If it's real rocky or bad visibility I have to give myself a little more height consistently to protect the teeth. The butt is the business end of the stem so I want every inch of it I can get. As long as there's consistently a little bit of flare on the stems for the processor to take off to zero out I feel like I'm getting good recovery. I figure that in decent going I cut around 200 stems or more an hour so even leaving an unnecessary inch on the stump can add up to a lot of scale at the end of a shift. Low stumps also are easier for me to maneuver around, create less breakage as I'm falling on them and make it easier on the logging shovel following me too. I hear you on the bees, especially towards the end of the summer when they're nesting in the ground, right? More than once I've had them boiling up my legs while I was looking up at the top bringing the backcut around. The bunchers really nice for bad vine maple or rhododendron patches too, just blow it up and dice it up into trail mix in front of me. Thanks for watching, and the comment, we appreciate it. Be safe.

Copy! It was nice wood for sure. It had been thinned though so the stem count was down, I'd rather have more stems! It worked out perfect to jump up here and cut it, I was set to cut a block of yarder ground next in this unit but we had a ton of rain and it was way too wet - water running everywhere. Cut this out and let things drain off a bit and then jumped back in on that. Worked out well. Good cuttin to ya!

Thanks! This was a nice block. About the felling head, our rep has dropped the ball on putting together a price, so I've kinda been fouled on moving ahead on it. I still like the concept though, just looked at a tether unit that was really nice, with big wood that would be ideal for it. Tigercat has built a couple of them but the way it's set up the factory has to have input from a dealer to move ahead. The way things are it could run 200K or so I bet, not sure it would pencil out as I'm not in that type of wood much for the foreseeable future. Thanks for asking, hope you had a good winter! Be safe.

Sounds good yea the reason I ask is we recently bought another setup and are possibly selling a low hour southstar fd750 with a live heel built to mate to it for a buncher boom. I remember you saying that a heel would be good to pin on your stick for the reach so I thought I would run it by ya. Wish I could load a picture on this

@@patrickz6940 Copy. Is it built to go on a Tigercat? We've been looking at some other machine options but haven't pulled the trigger yet on any of them so I'd like to get some more details from you. Do I remember right that you are in Idaho? Did you guys feel like the concept worked out well for you? I'm going to talk with my boss here this morning and see what we can come up with for a direct contact with you. I'd give you some contact info for me right here but the way things are with all the crazy people on RU-vid and in the world I'm going to hold off! Do you have a Facebook account? I don't have one but I think my boss does so that might be a way, I think you can Private Message on that. Thanks, I'll get back with you a little later.

10-4 yea I wouldn’t want to put contact info on here either I get enough spam calls already! A few years back we built a Timberpro buncher that we swapped back and forth from hotsaw to the fd750 falling head. It takes about an hour to do just because of the hoses. The setup we came up with to quick change the controls was pretty slick though, the whole machine went from hotsaw to falling head with a single deutch connector swap. That heel we have is made by Satco to fit their stick so I would imagine you’d have to shim/re-bush it to fit the Tigercat. It is plumbed hose-thru which is nice to not have any exposed lines. Try googling ‘Satco live heel’ there’s a few pictures of it on various boom configurations. Since it uses an overslung cylinder design it should be compatible with most buncher sticks. I don’t have a Facebook but my wife does maybe I can have her message you guys and get the details on how we made it work

@@patrickz6940 Hey right on. I checked a couple of those vids out, it looks like it's built pretty stout. Did it feel too heavy? It sounds interesting. Why are you not using it? The reason I ask is to get a feel for if you ended up feeling like it was practical, I've thought for some time that it's a good concept, but sometimes the reality of good concepts doesn't work out. It sounds like you had a good system dialed in on the swap. Did you consider quick connects or one of those multi-hose connectors like the Manuli? I would think the issue with quick connects might be stressing them from the hose radius and resulting in premature wear. They are spendy too. Also, whereabouts are you located? Anyway, it sounds interesting, and I look forward to getting more info. I think the best way to make contact is through our office landline. 503-630-6672. If that works for you, why don't you give Alex a call there, most mornings I think he hits it about 4AM. If you don't catch him, you can leave a message, and he'll get back to you. Talk with you later!

Gotta love dam rattling buncher door It drives me nuts duct tape a rag on the door frame

Pretty typical for inclosed cab equipment. Everything gets a little worn and loose over time. I hear it all the time in excavators, dozers, skidsteers, etc.

@Ronald Perry Mine does, along with about everything else. Funny how you more or less tune it out when you are in there working.

@@erikcourtney1834 I know, I was just razzing him.

I don't really hear it when I'm cutting, same as the backup alarm. I pretty much listen to the sound of the disc so I know how big a tree I can unhook next.