Just figured I'd thow this thread in to the mix here and see if anyone else has pics and/or stories of these machines.
That machine in the third picture is pretty fascinating what's the story on it?
No Kidding, never seen anything like it! Is the part in the middle a stroke delimber? There's quite a few two man Hahn Harvesters around my area, but that is way neater.
It's a short-wood harvester. yes, that is a delimber on it and there is very little else I can tell you about it. Finding good (or any for that matter) information on it is darn near impossible. Baisically, all I know is that there were about 170-175 of them built between 1969 and 1975(ish) and that they were famous for big ruts. I would really like to find one some where; I've heard that there is one in new brunswick somewhere at a museum. Also, they are freaking huge! as are all Koehring forestry machines. any other pics would be welcomed!
I have some Eastern magazines from that era, I'll see if there is anything in them.
I wonder if that is what they called a pulpwood combine around here? I know International Paper had 3 or 4 of them here in the 70's, but they all went to scrap. My brother-in-law used to run one, I'll show him this pic and ask. Or maybe this is it, but from his description they seemed bigger: http://books.google.com/books?id=QSYDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA92&lpg=PA92&dq=pulpwood+combine&source=bl&ots=ngYQ_KX-kk&sig=7X-iazG2PlvIl7jZrCxGP67Mufg&hl=en&ei=F-HOTbeTIofY0QGXpf3oDQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6&ved=0CDEQ6AEwBQ#v=onepage&q=pulpwood%20combine&f=false
Here is a pic to better show the scale of the machine. This is one of the few pics I have found online. I have been told that it may be in BC some where. The picture in my first post is from a 1970 ad in a french magazine. It lists a number of Companies that had been using them; on of which was Canadian International Paper........
Lol, no wonder they left such big ruts.
I know a few mechanics that worked on these monsters, the Keohring mechanics were the "elite". I guess Great Lakes Forest Products used lots of these machine in there woodland operations in Northwestern Ontario. The biggest problem was the technology, it just wasn't there yet. Its kinda crazy to think that this huge machine does the same thing as a processor.
I knew that teh Dryden mill had a few of these machines in the bush but they have all been scrapped. I know a few guys around Emo and Ft. Frances that went up to help demolish them. Most guys can only remember that they were huge and looked kinda goofy. If there was one still around dryden somewhere I'd love to go see it. As far as being elite; you definatly had to know your stuff, particularly hydraulics. just an endless mess of hoses and valve banks.......
It would sure be nice if somebody came out with a book about Koehring, they've got a long history and some very reknown machines and certainly had a lot to do with the switchover from cables to hydraulics. It's just to bad they didn't survive like so many other North American equipment manufacturers.
Theres a shortwood machine at the forestry museum in Boisetown NB. You really cant appreciate these things until youre standing next to one, looking up! It's really hard to imagine them moving around through the woods.
245dlc that would be AWESOME! many of their construction cranes are great, and the foresty equipment they followed the same mantra as their huge cranes......overbuild it so id doesnt break Scott; now i need to go to New Brunswick! and its definatley true, the size cant be appreciated till you see one. The K4LF in the above pictures is the same way. HUGE in every possible way. i go see it once in a while in the junk yard just to remember what machines used to be like. it has got to be over 20 feet tall.
Im from New Brunswick and I found these ones sitting in a Guys yard. Thought I would Share them
GREAT PICS! I hope you dont mind if I put them up on my flikr page http://www.flickr.com/photos/jr-transport/ of course I'll put your name to them, if you consent. I see a K2FF (I only have one other pic of a K2FF) in the first 2 pics, the 3rd appears to be a K3FF, 4th (I have no Idea) and last we have again the K2FF. again awesome pics!
There use to be a feller forwarder at the mill, I will look into where it went, the other thing they still have the Koehring wood loaders, they have two of them there, If you want I have a friend there that can hook you up and take a look at them one evening? The other monster machine you might be interested in the the NESCO three man slasher, I'm trying to track them down so far I found two!
yeah that would be great! I'll be up in dryden for the hot rod and truck show next month. I would love to go see afew of those monsters. I have heard guys talk about how quickly they could load trucks in the mill.
surprised they don't use those in alberta..
There were some used out there. I found a 440 Loader forwarder being scrapped out there; mind you thats the only one ive heard of out there.
Were they used in The Pas, or Pine Falls? I've never seen Koehring logging machines when I use to go to Pine Falls, I have seen a few Koehring excavators though.
not that I know of
There is a fellow in sudbury, ontario looking for parts for a koehring forwarder, He has 2 pictures of it on kijiji. if you go to Kijiji sudbury ontario and go under heavy equipment then looking under volvo forwarder on may 9 he has 2 pic of volvo and 2 of koehring. Different looking machines.
thats a koehring? ive never seen one like that before; the volvo I have, but not the other one
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! In the mid seventies, I'd go up to Longlac Ontario and tag along with a friend of the family who was a camp foreman for Kimberly Clark. I have about 100 pics or so of the lake drive, cable skidders, camps etc, but for some reason I never got any of the mechanical camp. I do remember being totally in awe when I saw them ( I was about 13 at the time ), and that set me for life that I wanted to get into forestry. I've been searching for some pictures to show the "younger " fellows in the office what mechanized harvesting started out as. Great pics!
Glad we could help!
There was a Koehring buncher sold at the auction a few days ago. Got good coin for what it was
wheeled or tracked? was it a ritchie sale?
Doaktown, New Brunswick, at a forestry museum, you can find a Koehring shortwood harvester. jr-transport, you have a picture of that machine, the one with the snow on it.
Skooper Most likely the first hydraulic shovel in the woods, 1964.
cool little snippet there, thanks!
That 505 is sweet! I hope that someone restores one of these { if there is any left} and puts up some video. Love to see one of these in action.
Wow, that'd be a neat find..
The Koehring gallery I have started has moved and grown, it is now at http://www.flickr.com/photos/koehring_guy I have a couple of brochures and articles up there my most are in french......I need some in english. if you have some you would be willing to put up please let me know.
Fantastic gallery until you started posting these pictures I never knew Koehring made so much logging equipment and I grew up in an area that use to have an operating paper mill and lots of related logging. I hope your able to post more Koehring stuff including they're excavators in the future.
The excavators are pretty well covered on other areas on the net, I try to focus on the odd-ball forestry equipment they made. Some of those excavators are pretty impressive tho, and beacause of their expertise in large tracked machines they were consulted when NASA built the crawler transporters for the Apollo Program in the mid 60's. The 3 crawlers were untill recently, teh largest land vehicles on earth and were used through till the end of the Shuttle program.
Hi, Jr-Transport. Exciting viewing on one of Koehring's lesser known breeds of equipment. Seems that those loggers were popular in Canada. Also I noticed that the older machines were all on wheels and the newer ones had tracks. Question from curiosity.... Did the controls one the older log machines have the thumb buttons with the air assist? Or were they a different setup? Thanks.
Yes, I beleive that they were air assist.
THese are some odd machines, I have seen several Koering shovels but thats about it.
Cutting a block near Boisetown, stopped today and took some pics of the Koehring they have on display, post them as soon as i figure out how
how about this
some more
missed one
is that the "moss covered three handle family gredunza"? lol. always wounderd what that cat was operating, great pics acswan. hope you find more!
Great pics! This is a KH3D Shortwood Harvester. Real nice to come back after a couple of weeks to see some great new pics!
I found a great site that has thousands of old equipment brochures (even a few koehrings!) http://www.elmia.se/en/skogselmia/For-fair-visitors/Elmia-Classics/ the site is based in sweden. hope this helps any fans of old equipment!
Sorry to drag up an old tread like this, but I thought some folks might be interested; I found a fella from the maritimes who used to own a couple of Koehring Feller Forwarders back in the 80's and 90's. He has posted some videos of them working on you tube. His KFF working ( http://youtu.be/VEKrj4SvR5s ) His K3FF working ( http://youtu.be/SupCaJTGTYg ) His KFF and K3FF working together on the same block. This one is a continuation of the K3FF vid. ( http://youtu.be/IyziE3okL2w ) And lastly-to show the scale of the machine here is a vid of them trying to haul the K3FF on a float ( http://youtu.be/wITfIsqh-8Y ) Also, I have updated the flikr page as well (flikr.com/photos/koehring_guy)
I have also finally found and posted a video of a loader forwarder, and some loaders too!. the first part of the vid looks like it is in alberta, the second part, with the short wood loader is at the Mill in Dryden, On, and the 3rd part is out west some where too by the look of it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bj9_Ya_G8A pretty cool to see that loader forwarder rolling around with 15+ cd of trees on. I also posted a video of a shortwood harvester. Pretty amazing considereing it was developed in the late 60's and early 70's. electric over hydraulic and largely automated. Pretty sweet! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzPk99D3dKk&feature=related
Great videos of some really great machines, thanks fro sharing them. I had to watch them and a few more. It would be fun to see one in operation, probably then I would want to try and operate it, though.
That machine is in Boiestown New Brunswick at the forestry museum. NBIP use to own a bunch in the 70s and early 80s I remember going in the woods fishing with my old man at the time and watch them work. They where huge and made real big ruts and destroyed everything in their path. They where drained of their fluides and buried on site in the mid to late 80s, most of them behing the old Charlo mechanical camps they where called. But one was saved and sent to the museum. I thinks a private contractor also has one in Kedgwick NB.
Neat videos JR. I am particularly fasinated by the short wood harvester. It would be a neat tool for our hardwood pulp blocks down here.
I have a photo of that machine shortly after it was placed there, as well as some of NBIP's other Koehrings on my flikr page. Interesting to hear that they were all buried, I wonder if there is much left of them. Thanks there dirty4fun! happy to hear that the videos are appreciated.
If anyone is interested, i have made some progress updating the Koehring page, Lots of new pics and I got a few good vids up on the youtube page too. The Product lineup for 1977 is probably the most interesting. http://www.flickr.com/photos/koehring_guy/ http://youtu.be/er1Gnp0tlt4 just click on my channel button on this vid if you want to see more.
Pretty good video there JR. What has happened to them now?
Thanks! Koehring Waterous was purchased by Timberjack some time around '83, but continued to build their forestry machines till about '90. The company was then closed down. After the purchase of timberjack by John Deere later on, ALL of the Koehring files were brought to the dump. Most of these machines are either being scrapped or sitting in in the back yards of the companies who used to run them. The mill in Nackawick still uses a couple of Loader-Forwarders, but they have been re-lifed with komat'su upper structures. Also I am told there is either a short wood harvester or a feller-forwarder still working in and around Kedgwick, NB
Seems a shame that they dumped all the files. It looks like they were the cutting edge of the day, and a lot of useful development knowledge sounds like it has been thrown out with the trash. The machines in the 1977 video looked far advanced for the day. Maybe they were too far ahead of the materials and tech needed to be reliable? I really liked the one that would gather a bunch of trees, then hand it to the processor for automated limbing, sizing, and loading, all while the operator gathered the next bunch.
A Koehring digger is still being run in the Wairarapa, New Zealand with a disk saw attachment for pruning shelter belts. I will try get some photos. Wont be getting any of it working. It is the type of machine that if you can see it going you are too close.
Based upon talks of loggers who used them in Northern Ontario in the early 1980's they worked okay...but only okay. Worked well on level ground, similar sized wood with lots of roads. Basically you laid your roads out to match one pass of the shortwood harvested, decked, turned around and went back. They were also really heavy machines so ground conditions became an issue if you weren't careful. With the progress in harvester/forwarder technology and more effective cutting heads for bunchers the falling side of things was eclipsed as clients went for more versitile machines. That's all second/third hand recollections though as they were gone from the woods by the time I started working. I do still see some Hood mobile slashers in use that were similar to some Koering products out there.
That would be nice to see. There are a few koehring track machines still running, but there are not many. Forester- yeah, that is the consensus I have heard from guys who remember them too, Big, bulky, and when they got stuck-yikes! Those Hood slasher are still pretty popular around NW Ontario, my dad has owned 3 or 4 and is looking at another one, but they are not nearly as big as a Koehring. Good machines thos Hoods, but can be really bulky to move in the bush.
does anyone have info/pics of a 6625 koehring log loader that had a Keto 500 harvester head installed on it? it used to belong to JB Leonard out of Chehalis WA. thanks
John Leonard was a very good friend of mine. What would you like to know?
I ran the machine a few years ago, and was wondering if anyone had pics of the machine and maybe a little history of that era of koehring machines