I was going through some of my old video productions that are still on tape and came across this from around 1996. It shows a typical high lead operation using a carriage on a Skagit tower, Link Belt with a Denis telescoping boom delimiter and a Thunderbird logging shovel. It explains a little about the process and was produced for people that had never seen logging before. Most people who were not part of the industry at that time didn't understand sorting timber in the woods. You don't see stroke delimbers much anymore.
Nice video. Thanks for sharing it. Beautiful day to be in the woods. Now, a 35* rainy winter day.... makes you appreciate the hard work done getting timber to market. I enjoyed the first season (before all the drama) of Ax Men for being able to see the different operations and equipment.
Great video, looked like an Elmer Cook truck there!
That is a great video John C. When I was a boy I got ahold of Logger’s World magazine and ended up with a subscription. There was always some fascinating stuff in the PNW. I bet somewhere on the farm there is still that Denharco VHS tape.
It probably was one of Cook's trucks. The show was out by Boisford as I recall. Thanks for the kind comments.
Back when logging actually paid money!
Stroke delimbers are still on almost every mechanical operation over here on the east coast. Mostly pro-pac. Starting to see a few pull through setups here and there.
I think I've only seen one in the last five years here. I'm told they work better when the sap is running as there is no slippage that you see on the rollers of the dangle heads that are common here now. It's mostly Waratahs and a few Keto heads now but there are others showing up as well. Maybe someone can give some insights to the new ones.
As far as I know on the pro pac limbers, slippage isn’t an issue because the rear grab arms can hold it tight enough. As far as the processer heads go slippage can be an issue towards spring because the bark gets loose on the trees. Waratah and Ponsse heads are very popular here and some guys are mating the ponsse head to different brand machines. I’ve never seen a keto head.
The Keto head uses tracks instead of tires or spike wheels. I've seen a couple of Pro Pacs here but the Denis was king for a long time.
We still have a stroker but also a 623c Waratah & just ordered a Southstar 605 grapple processor.
Nice, how old is the stroker? Let us know what you think of the Southstar.
The stroker is a Pierce 3348 on a Cat 324dfm. It's a 2010 I believe. I like the Southstar heads, we used to have a qs500.
Why the whistle? were radios not reliable?
That's a good question. I suppose the thing with a whistle is that everyone can hear it and act accordingly. Radios generally only work for the people who have them tuned to the same type of radio and same frequency. You don't garble up a whistle or mis-understand the message that is being conveyed.
I saw it shown on another place that when they were telling the yarder operator what to do over the radio only, he had to punch out the whistle signals himself so as to inform others in the area what would be happening.
I think a radio occupys too much of a guys time ,always is more chatter than neccesary. Guys on the rigging have their hands full most of the time,when i was a kid setting chokers they would joke ,run in for your money and out for your lives. No confusion with whistles,just hit the bug 3 times and shes going ahead,once and all stops
Around here, (South Carolina coastal plain), every thing is delimbed with pull through setups mounted on the loader trailer, except for one or two crawler loaders.
Nothing like a yarder whistle to get peoples attention, which reminds me I have a whistle off a Madill in a box some where around the house.
Love the sound of a yarding whistle. Stands the hair on the back of my neck up. I have 3. Don't blow for the hooker at midnight on new years eve if your neighbor has horses tho. Lucky she thought it was just the shotguns being fired off. d.d.
I have those whistles on 2 of my cranes . They do get attention on todays jobsites . So far ive had no complaints at the safety meetings. Think of those whistles echoing off the hills back in the day when there was a couple of 009 s working up a steep valley. Clouds covering the back end ,the smell of bark and ground up dirt, while your head down a##ss up welding a pin back in a grapple ,truck sitting there with half a load ,woods foreman barking over the radio how are you doin up there. Its along time ago for me but i did enjoy those days.
Thank you for sharing that video.Can anybody tell which BU that Skagit yarder is? I worked around Timberline strokers and then Waratah dangle heads for years,and given the same operator the dangle head would way out produce the stroker,but in a 16 load a day and less situation,I prefer the stroker do to power,not slipping,and not waiting a week for parts.Those dangle heads,that have all the moving parts in them,are beating against logs and slash all day.Especially with a new operator. Had a buddy that ran a Timberline stroker while I had a Timbco 445 with a quadco hot saw.We were a matched set. For a week in 2000, we shipped 30 loads a day up above Stirling City.it seemed like every Doug Fir had two long logs in it.
That is a Skagit BU-737 with the optional skidding drum.
wrong
same