I was driving in a logging road many years ago, and a skidder operator had to move off the road so I could get by. He drove it down into a very deep, steep-sided ditch filled with thick mud and debris. The tires were maybe 3/4s under. After I drove past, I had to stop to see if buddy could get out of it. A puff of smoke from the stack and out it came. It was a pretty cool site. Several times during the following week, I saw similar things happen. Those things can get into some interesting spots.
So next time I get stuck I just got to whip my tractor, got it. Every fall we still go to the fair , the fryburg fair in Maine m, and they still have oxen and horse pulling teams as well as a lumberjack / woodsmen day . A few years there was an old timer with a set of oxen that never once used his whip those two oxen were trained like dogs all on voice commands. They would stop and pull and turn all with voice commands . It was quite impressive to watch.
I’m up in NS, there was an old farmer/cutter up the way that had a huge pair of oxen like that, he was maybe 5’ tall, quiet, arms like tree trunks lol he just said “get a goin’” and “woah” and they’d pull about anything put behind em, awesome to see
I have gotten out wood just about every way possible with two axles and a engine, so far I much prefer a 70hp+ tractor with FEL...... It was a lot of fun 40 years ago getting a 540 JD skidder stuck in 4 ft of mud first thing in the morning, then run out of fuel at same time......
That Tigercat 635 D with the dual rear axels is a beast. Its crazy how the logging industry over the past century has went from oxen a machine like that.
For anyone out there that is unsure if Timberjack or Garret manufactured the first log skidder please read this article online about Dwight Garret. So just search for " When Coal was King" , The Voice of the Valley. Unless this article is untrue it means the Timberjack actually were the first to manufacture the Log Skidder but again the timeline was close.
635 Tigercat gets it done! Of the older cable skidders the 666C Clark was a real workhorse. Good brakes and winch plus it was well balanced. One of the best of that era!
Quite amazing to see how much larger the trees were back then. I'm sure different areas of the world and what not but I know here in Maine logging is still a big industry up north and millions of acres are owned by lumber companies and every year 100s if not 1000s of acres are cut and replanted and always wondered how we get 2x12s in the building world cause as soon as a tree is larger enough to get a 2x4 out of they are cutting them down. Old lumber had tighter grains and a lot less knots compared to today. Areas planted in the 1990s are already being cut when trees are maybe 6-8 inches wide compared to those black and white films in the beginning with trees 4-5ft wide and larger.
I met a guy the other day who works in Forestry in Brazil, down there they have Eucalypts from planting to felling in 12 years....For pulp but still pretty amazing I thought
The County 4x4 equal wheel tractor was much favoured in Britain and Europe. I had an 1174 with double Iglund 8000 winches, a dozer blade and a crane . Not much I couldn't move with an outfit like that.
I would've loved to live in an era where the trees were bigger than life. One tree would take a crew of men to get to the mill. Now the trees are so small in comparison. I'll never get to sink my teeth into a tree I could lay across. 😢 Our ancestors and forefathers were beasts of men to do what they did with the equipment they had.
Back in the mid 60's when my family was logging' we didn't own a mule so my dad made me and my oldest brother pull logs by hand' they were no where as big as the logs in the video' around 16'/20' in length' 2'/3' at the butt end were the largest and several 10' to 14' ones. They weren't that bad on level ground but pulling them uphill' at times could be a challenge. We figured out by using a rope instead of a chain reduced the weight and made our job a lot easier.
Didn't see any Pettibones in that clip. There are good and bad types of skiddders and operators. Conditions can be such that cable winches work better than grapple, and grapple has advantages over the winches. Cable can be played out so the machine can get across a muddy spot, or up a slippery hill, where a grapple would struggle. But a grapple works great with a feller buncher.
Cant remember the manufacturers name, but post ww2 , they converted 2 1/2 ton trucks "deuce and a half" , into skidders. Im told "that" was the first skidder many old outfits bought.
I have never seen one used for firefighting but I’m still not surprised by that statement. The sprayers they put on those tractors are ginormous. You can dump a lot of water with them.
@@UltraMagaFan look forward up South Australian country fire service Tatiara skidder A & B. We cut dry breaks around bad terrain . One has a big set of discs, the CAT tows a large A frame v plow and leaves near smooth dirt Road behind to allow 4x4 fire trucks to access and put out the fires. The skidders have fire suppression safety systems on board in case of burn over. These are more effective than dozers on most terrain
@@petergracemeguide1280I've never seen a skidder with a crane arm fitted onto it instead of a grapple. I didn't know that was a thing. That's cool as shit. I don't know what you guys use it for but I'd imagine It would be really good for recovering stuck or disabled vehicles.
@@UltraMagaFan the crane job is for unloading the heavy A frame plow and raising and lowering the plow settings on the job. But recovery would be another use " UN officially?" Bureaucracy prevent s us performing those tasks.
you missed the tracked skidders which are called mountain goats because they can go anywhere swamps steep hills muddy grounds they are the best in the logging industry
I 😊😊 still can remember the old skidders FRANKLIN TREE FARMER TIMBER JACK JOHN DEERE the old 1S now 2 day U dont see any more a old fellow had a logging company he used a timber skidder 4 years clean the drive ways years ago it sure was alit better than a shovel /he was a old fellow years ago when I was a kid dad worked 4 him be 4 he went 2 the sawmill and went 2 work dad use 2 turn logs 2 when he was young it wasn't long after that dad was sawing and uncle mack also worked also worked at the sawmill and turned logs also 😊😊 OMG 3 4 2O24
Please read this article online about Dwight Garret, it is "When Coal was King " The Voice of the Valley. Then you may want to change your opinion on who was first to manufacture the Log Skidder
@@SteveAdlard I had two, loved them. Put that arch up in the air and let that jimmy scream as that winch pulled, rocking back and forth on the torsion bar suspension.
A very interesting think appearin this vid! Its the damages done to the forest ground made by mecanisation. In Europe , in the very difficults forest beefs bin reintruduced.
Good video but you got three facts wrong 1 john deere made the first skidder in 1940 the 440a with the John deere two cylinder engines 2 clark made the grapple in 1972
So if John Deere manufactured their first skidder in 1940 why did they wait until 1965 to release it???? Watch the section in the video at 11.08, I think you are referring to John Deere rubber tire tractors in 1940 not skidders. About the grapple skidders. Yes they did have grapple skidders before 1978 but most of these were all cable operated grapples and not hydraulic so if you a referring to hydraulic grapples then I have to agree with this channel it was around 1978
Correction, actually Timberland which was just a bunch of loggers in Canada designed and built their first wheel log skidder in around 1947 but used it for their own use but then later changed their name to Timberjack and started manufacturing and selling skidders commercially.
@@TheSeastar19 I'm sure there were plenty of folks converting trucks to pull logs, not exactly the same as the articulated skidder we know today, which was started by Garrett, including planetary drive axles, and the Gearamatic winch that everyone else still use. later being licensed by CanCar, Treefarmer and Pettibone.
@@northmanlogging2769 Yes it is very true that they converted ex army Blitz trucks into crude wheel skidders that was in the beginning but really that is where the whole concept really started and sure there was many other brands to follow in the early fifties but actually Timberjack did have articulated frame and planetary drive axles shortly after this first concept. so I still think that Timberjack was the first. In my opinion I agree with this channel.
@@TheSeastar19 well, your opinion isn't fact, Garrett started manufacturing articulated skidders in 1949 (which means development likely started several years prior), not cobbling together spare parts for their own use, which is why I commented on this video in the first place, the folks behind Timber jack are certainly not the first to modify a truck, there are plenty of Ford Model T's that have been modified with anything from tracks to tractor tires to pull logs, plows, wagons etc to say nothing of military surplus stuff left over from WWII.
John Deere's 1st Grapple Skidder was the 740 built in 1973 not 78. I ran a 440 cable skidder from 1973 to 77. Ran a 540 grapple skidder in 1983 for 5 weeks until a timber cutter thru a tree on it and me. Grew up in a Logging World, My how things have changed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NEVER HEARD OF "SNIGGING" UNTIL THIS VIDEO!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So what do you guys call snigging logs where you are from? Have you got a photo of the 1973 model 740A with a factory fitted hydraulic grapple??? I thought John Deere didn't fit any hydraulic grapples to their skidders until 1976, when they fitted it to both the 540 B and the 740A before then they had only cable skidders. I owned 3 x 540 B grapple skidders but the oldest model was a 1978, so this is all I know. There was cable operated grapples available before then but I wasn't aware that John Deere ever had these fitted before 1976. This channel did refer to the 1978 year as approximately only so I guess they were not to far out.
