Ash and Rock maple… thinking of using these for my upcoming UC job on the D8
I definitely prefer lifting and holding devices with engineering specifications.
I wouldn't use them vertically. They can split and blow out and never use any type of round blocking. Use only GOOD square blocking laid horizontal. Oak or fir would be preferable in my opinion
I use 12X12 square blocking oak would not trust those
Yeah that’s where I’m headed at this point, to much weight and to much to risk. The ripper has a nice flat plate at the bottom on both side if the frame mount. I’m hope to crib there and then midship and then also both corners under the radiator. Planning to remove the track frames so I want to have access to the bolts at the rear to do that. I got a fair amount of access to hemlock here in the northeast… if not it will be some sort of a hard wood or I’ll cut up some timber mats.
nothing wrong with those if you can square them up and use horizontally. If they're on concrete, I might put the ripper on them vertically if the base is wide and won't dig in to split. I wouldn't put the whole thing on vertical blocking, only one end if the other end is solid on the ground. I'd prefer elm or cottonwood if it had to be vertical. I'd use any hardwood over just about any softwood, but I don't have much experience with hemlock.
I definitely appreciate your opinion, half say use them. Hard to disagree because I can tell you those pieces are about 24 inches in diameter and very heavy. Plus a very hard wet wood. The other half say don’t. Using some cribbing before (6x6 and 8x8) I can tell you those pieces I have are a lot heavier. Gonna take my time and find a safe way to do it. Might might try to use some of these and also do some horizontal cribbing as well like you mentioned.
Ever see rigging, towing/recovery, fire/rescue use round cribbing? Nope, not gonna happen, always good squared up timber used perpendicular to the grain so it can't just split like a log splitter.
The danger in using a log vertically, is that the steel and weight of the dozer - instead of compressing the log (like if you laid it horizontally), acts like a big log splitter and essentially splits the log. It splits it along the grain. If you just square them up, even with a chainsaw (you would only need 2 parallel sides), and lay them horizontally, you will be fine. Vertically your asking for trouble.
Been there done that in my 20’s when all I had was old growth Sitka Spruce and a Stihl, when the closest stick of dimensional oak is a thousand miles and months away. Plywood fastened on top of the rounds can help with the splitting. hazard. Certainly don’t encourage that practice and happy I’m not in that situation anymore.
Use a chain saw and make blocks out of them, or just cut 2 sides parallel. I've made cribbing like that before. I used fir. Depending on the area of the part of the machine in contact with the wood, you may need steel plate to protect the wood. Supporting something that weights many tons is like putting that wood in a large press, that could smash it.
A follow-up to my post. I should have saved some of that old-growth straight grained two-thousand year old Sitka Spruce when I had access to it. That stuff is selling for big bucks as music wood. I barged a pallet of bolts I sawed up from a driftwood log to a buddy in Idaho. Ten years ago, and he’s still building instruments from that stash.