So I watched this combo tackle the fire mitigation work on the property behind us. Basically handles the work that took me 2 weeks in about 5 minutes. Got to watch that skidder, chained, climb up a 30 degree mountainside taking multiple passes until finally givin’ it the beans and taking out a few smaller trees in the process. Was actually really entertaining.
That round blade on the bottom of the red thing... that is what cuts the tree? It looks to be 2" to 3" thick. The teeth look kinda like what is on a forestry mulcher. Is interesting that the teeth/blade would be that thick. I guess if it were thinner, it is not stout enough, too flimsy.
The notched blade does the cutting. It's like a heavy, horizontal flywheel, spinning at a high RPM. Entertaining to watch.
I was watching one of these machines on a video that had a tree limb come down through the top of the cab...which is bulletproof glass! Operator was fine...other than his shorts.
The fun part is when you grab a big tree and the wind gusts and the machine starts to tip that is why the seat upholstery has those little buttons on it so your butt has something to reach out and grab The tracked ones were way better than the three wheeled Bell fellers those spent a lot of time on their side one machine you always wore your seatbelt in JB
I got to watch a similar machine years ago in the east Texas piney Woods. It was a feller buncher i think. Very cool to watch and wished I could run it some. And that was long before I was into firewood hoarding
Those are pretty nice to watch & would be nice to run. I could do without the feller, that skidder would be the cats meow though.
Heck I'd be happy with a little Bobcat MT50 or MT85 with a grapple!! That's the kind of dream machine I need in my life!
Have seen a lot of those machines working amongst the reprod in our forests. As I watch from a distance through the timber I see the dust, the swooshing of trees as they tilt over with branches flying and glimpse the huge machines twisting and moving about, It puts me in mind of dinosaurs feeding through the conifers!
Good luck finding one of those at the moment I do not think they are even taking orders they are so far behind !! Scotty as a tree climber have you had a chance to see one of the boom mounted grapple saws work yet one of my customers has one 100 ft reach 20 inch max capacity remote controlled he rarely climbs anymore he put 2 big ash on the ground that were over sheds in @3 1/2 hours it was impressive but at 180000.00 it had better be !!
The machine pictured is a feller-buncher with a “hot saw”. It holds multiple trees upright while cutting, until it has an armful, and then lays them in a “bunch” for a grapple skidder to haul. This is particularly effective in a whole-tree chipping operation. An alternative is the “dangle-head” harvester with delimbers. The cut the tree and it immediately falls, and then the tree is pulled through delimbing knives attached to the head. Often the log is “cut to length” (CTL) at the same time, and then hauled to the landing by a forwarder. This is how the company my wife works for operates most of the time. And they also sell new machines, and don’t have crazy wait times despite the shipping from Sweden.
Yeah I do not do tree removal anymore I still have my saddle and spikes but waaaaaaay to beat up to climb anymore but if they only had the stuff back when I was doing it that they do now hell I climbed with 3 strand for years and mac6, and super 2 climbers no wonder I cant hear to well either
Just think how fast you could cut firewood with a ctl machine !! it would be fun ahhh if I could just win the lottery
