Yesterday I went in to check the status of my skidder and it was not good. No one was in the shop so I have no idea what the exact problems are, but both front tires were off, the cradle taken out of the front (assuming pivot pin was broken) along with much of the drive train universal joints. No real need to talk with the mechanic; this is going to take awhile. So I went home and got the bulldozer prepped for logging. I put the winch on the back, mixed up my gas and oil, new chain on the chainsaw, and all that. I have been saying for awhile I wanted to get back in the woods with the bulldozer, and I guess this is the catalyst that starts that adventure. Slower logging for sure, but I have always preferred logging by bulldozer. It is just so hard to get out of a rut (get the pun...rut...as in ruts because I was using a skidder). (LOL) My bulldozer with my farm tractor winch on it... (Note: At the time this photo was taken, I was fussing with an after-market reverser cooler and the tin work was not on. Normally my bulldozer does not look this junky)
Jeesh, I have been having such a good time cutting with my bulldozer that I have not worried too much about the skidder. I am not sure why, maybe because I grew up logging with a bulldozer, but I prefer them. I LIKE TRACKS. I got my eye on a Hitachi 1100 excavator. They only want $61,000 for it (before trucking), but I am not sure the wife would allow...is even interested in that kind of thing. I told her it was a steal; when it wore itself out we would just take out the components and use it as a house! Without question, that would pull some stumps out of the ground with ease.
I wouldn't fret too much over it. It's a Deere, there just naturally junky looking. (My avatar is what a dozer should look like.)
#238,000 to be exact, that is why $61,000 is such a good deal, new it was probably a 2 million dollar machine. But the thing with used excavators is, the bigger they are, the less they cost, often being as much as much smaller machines because you are not going to truck a 238,000 pound machine from job to job behind a 1 ton! But on a farm, it could stump all the land I need it too, then work in my gravel pit for the rest of it days. In short, it would never have to be transported again.
Oh that is just a Cat. Like in the wild, they are always chasing Deere! I am not a big fan of them. They are cheap compared to other equipment, and their parts are a lot cheaper, but you get what you pay for too!
You might need to make sure that the color of the excavator goes with her red dress... if the colors clash, that could be a non starter...
Mmmmmmmmm....will this work? I might be the bread-winner, and she might be a Stay-At-Home-Mom, but when it comes to buying short, tight dresses, she has no budget whatsoever. I think she has every color combination possible...even Hawaiian! It also explains why she has (2) shoe-of-the-month-club memberships. Katie LOVES her shoes!!
I guess I am going to be logging with my bulldozer for awhile. My skidder is just about done, but another guy had the same thing happen to his skidder (rear carrier bearing), but kept using it and toe up the back end of his skidder really bad. He is in a lot worse shape than me financially, and cuts a lot more wood, so I said he could use my skidder until his gets fixed.
As for Hitachi (they are owned by John Deere), I like them, but I run John Deere controls and not Cat anyway. (I actually call it running in French, because it just seems to me everything is backwards from the way it should be). I had this Hitachi for awhile, nothing big, 34,000 pound class, and while it would stump, it was a little on the small side. The tracks were starting to get really worn, and it only took once to toss the track before I had my fill of this tractor! It took 5 hours to put this track back on, but if you look really close you can see it was off both the idler and the rear sprocket (which in the photo appears to be the front). The only thing keeping it on was the track rollers!
And you hate climbing up into the skidder. You could probably scare the stumps out of the ground with that machine!
Jeesh...do you remember everything I say? I will admit, that in going back to bulldozer logging, where I am not climbing up and down as far, it really is kind of nice! Not that I am into Caterpillar (This is rather a Maine thing as Benjamin Holt screwed Alvin Lombard over on patent rights on tracked machines), but there is a 238 Cat Excavator in New Hampshire too that I have my eye on. I wanted a 245 Cat, but the closet one is in New York...quite the trucking fee!
My wife was shoveling off the roof a few weeks ago (Katie is a good woman I must say), and I told her if we had that Hitachi 1100 she would not have to do that. Not only would I be able to look down on the house roof, with a 6 cubic yard bucket it could take the snow off the roof in a few swipes, or with its 52 foot reach, rid the driveway of snow sitting in one spot. It could even harrow the garden by just scraping its teeth along the ground. Oh the things that could be done with it!
It was a nice day today logging with the ole bulldozer and log trailer. At first it seemed kind of slow because I seemed to have cut and cut and while the logs were piling up, it only matters when the logs are piled on the landing and ready for the truck. It almost seemed I would be ahead time wise if I just cut the trees tree length, dragged them out, and bucked them and on the landing. But after sticking with the log trailer plan of logging; it became apparent that time wise, that is not the case. Because almost all the work is being done in the woods: Fell, limb, and buck; once the logs are loaded on the trailer and hauled to the landing, there is nothing else to do. It just seems slow because so much work has to be done up front before the wood starts to move out of the woods. The logs are super clean too, and piled nice and neat for my trucker to grab. It is obviously slower than a skidder, but uses a lot less fuel: 5 gallons a day instead of 40! I cut 33 logs and then start hauling them out calling that a days work, since it takes about 100 logs to make a load. In that way in 3 days I have a load. I'll see if I can get pictures tomorrow.
