Some time ago I posted about the Cat ctl I had bought and was preparing to go get . We'll, that changed . To the best of my knowledge . It is still parked on a glacier with no adequate weather for it to be air lifted down to the road system. So, the Cat dealer in Fairbanks came up with other options for us. We chose a 23 , 239D3 with 6 hours on it . Got it home. Worked it a bit at the homestead. Then I took it to the timber sale where I get my wood. Love it. Works great !
Nice machine!! Also those logs look nice and straight, plus the logs grown up there, I'm sure they are very energy dense.
Thank you ! Yes, it is Nice and cozy in the cab !! Having a machine to do the heavy lifting is most important ! No doubt. After moving wood by hand (95%with a pulp hook ) since 1969. The bloom has kinda sorta come off that rose . However, anyone that has spent much time in an open cab skid steer or small dozer at 10 below F and colder. Can well understand that it's about the coldest job known to mankind . A nice cab with a heater is 95% mandatory for this old timberbeast.
Some of what I'm doing. Well, my internet connection is too slow to upload pics at the moment. I'll try again late in the night.
It is . The first attachment I'm planning on is a Rock Grapple bucket . It will take a bunch of the excitement out of handling logs, long poles up to 60' long . Out of what I'm doing .
As someone who has bent up & mangled numerous grapples over the years I'd highly recommend this one. Best designed and built one IMHO. They have one specifically for firewood.
I'm looking at the SkidPro Rock Grapple bucket. If we can get the shipping down to reasonable. Not Skid Pro's fault that Lynden Transport thinks I run a gold mine or oil field . 4 grand for shipping a $3,000. Attachment is utterly ridiculous
What and how did others fail ? I take it pretty easy with mine. I need one that will handle the trees , logs and poles I mainly do . And scoop up splits and rounds and bounce the snow off them so I don't end up with 3/4 cord of wood and 1/4 of snow .
Those kind of grapples where the tines are all welded together near the tips are because the tines are weak and need reinforcement.
What size What size machine was the ones that got ruined on ? My 239D3 is only a 65 horse . And the wood I'm moving is primarily fire killed spruce. So it's not very heavy.
Some grapples have thin steel on the clamping grapple like this. These thinner tines bend easily when pulling a log out of a pile. Then some of the pivots are bolts and not grease able so they wear and squeak every time you open or close the grapple like this one. Some have thinner tines that bend easily. Most grapples don't open wide enough to grab big stuff. Nor do they close small enough to hold tight onto small stuff. Faver uses oversized cylinders for triple the clamping force.
It was a bobcat 753, a bigger bobcat 873(?) Also a Gehl with a root grapple. Also A bobcat S185. Most were smaller machines than yours.
I'll try to get a few more pics uploaded. This is wood i pulled from the stroker processor deck ive been working from . Ready to buck and load out .
