Well making some progress, have spent 5 days cutting. Two big trailer loads compliments of the loggers and 3 loads cut by me and Emanuel Labor. Both of the latter don't seem quite as spy as years back and the way this is going, probably only have 10 more years left, at least that is what I tell the wife. The log landing I am working is very small and my loggers asked me early in the Summer if I wanted logs left. Well DUH, yeah. But this place is a good 1/4 mile off the road on top of a very steep ridge and the path is OK for a log skidder and pretty rugged for the ON/OFF road forwarder. I have had two occasions when getting out was questionable. Once the frost came out on the top 1/2" and the second when it had rained about 4 days earlier. Anyway, the log landing has a pile of logs about 40' long and piled 6-7' tall. Some of the sticks are 10-12' long and cutting as is would risk rounds rolling down the hill like cannonballs never to be seen again. Plus I have always feared cutting on piles because if a log shifted, a foot could get trapped and I'd probably be found by deer hunters in a couple weeks, this is really off the beaten path. I've heard you really should pull real hard with a vehicle in reverse. To to get around that I needed something I could wrap a log chain around and I made contraption that will fit in the receiver hitch and can be easily removed that the log chain won't come off. This way I snatch 2-3 logs off the pile, cut up, load and repeat. Here are some pics, it is pretty up here.
That is just a few of them. Converted the ported 288XP to 404 along with the 395XP. The cable skidded logs are so dirty, the heavier chain holds up much better and works great with an old school hard nosed bar.
.404 semi chisel is really where it's at cutting on cable skidded stuff, I can get 2 to 3 times the bucking done sometimes over 3/8 full chisel. The advice you got about not pulling hard backward is correct. The ring & pinion gears in a differential are designed to take the heavier load going forward. You can break them pulling hard in reverse. Looks like a nice scenic quiet spot to work at least. Be careful!
It does look like a good spot so long as weather permits. Your hookup looks good. Good luck on cutting as long as you can. It can help the body!
Technique makes a huge difference on cutting very dirty wood. The hard nosed bar makes plunge cutting much easier. I normally plunge cut about every round, stick the bar in at the 2 O clock position and plunge till almost to the far side, cut down through the bottom then push the bar the rest of the way through and come up throwing all the dirt away from the power head. I just bought a new bar but couldn't get hard nosed, this one doesn't plunge cut as well. Is this dirty?
Yup it is what it is. Sure cutting dirty logs is hard on chain, but logs make a LOT of wood in a hurry too. I feel the dirt is just the price of admission.
