I had a chance to do a little bit of logging with my 977H last month. The old girl hadn’t been used in well over a year so it was good to get it moving again. The only issue I had was the cable on the winch breaking, thankfully I only lost about 20 feet and was able to get the job done. We had a pretty good storm a few months earlier and it took down a bunch of good size trees and Hydro also took some big danger trees down so we collected them too. I’m really happy with how well this thing pulls trees and how it gets around in the forest especially for its size. I had my gopro rigged up on it hoping to take some video reeling in a huge fir but for some reason the dumb thing only took still pictures...
Some more...
Were these things commonly used for skidding back in the day when they were young?
I don't know how common it was, I wasn't around when they were young... I have heard of guys setting them up with full bypass grapples on the front and using them as a one-machine logging show from skidding to loading the truck. That would be something I'd love to set up but I just can't justify it right now... I did manage to get one decent video out of the gopro... here's the link... Ran out of traction a few times, but was able to reel in my catch from better spots...
Only drawback I can see is the Custom Dry Type A/C swinging in the wind, BIG target where the old Oil Bath was tucked in some little bit more. Would be a concern for me if not a project to correct here. Old gal looks good otherwise, good sweeps, reasonable straight for age and a beast that gets the job done.
Earlier this year Logger's World magazine profiled a small, family logging outfit out of Northern CA that uses a 977 with forks to load their log truck.
Thanks for posting this! Great to see the Old Iron in action!
Yes you definitely have to keep an eye on that thing, it sure sticks out there a ways, almost to the edge of the track. The previous owner had a contract to maintain the local garbage dump with it and my guess is he installed this thing to keep things that got tangled up in the tracks from swatting it... My other machine was used for the same job and the oil pan on it (the filter) is all kinds of beat up... I really should build some kind of protective cage around it or replace it with an OEM setup if I can find one, sure don’t want to dust the engine!
I don't think either the 977 or 955 were popular skid tractors. They were sinkers in all but good solid ground. I think they were most popular as loader tractors with forks on them.
Geez I love the way they sound... gave away some of hearing to them, but still love it.
I can certainly imagine, these things are HEAVY!!!