This was a tough little piece. Hard to cut and to log. He had to swing it sidehill quite a way to the only reasonable landing. The video doesn't really show how steep it was but you can see it when he moves from the litttle bench he is first sitting on. These big shovels are pretty impressive, a lot of weight, power and reach. Glad you liked it!
Thanks. We were just talking about if we are pushing the shovel ground a little too hard. They can really move a lot of wood but there is cleanup that has to be done after, fluffing up the tracks. That adds up over a unit. Right now it's still the most cost effective way to get it done. The idea of a tethered skidder or some form of grapple yarding sure is interesting though. Thanks for the comment.
Quick question- was changing the teeth on my saw the other day for the first time and I noticed that each tooth has a crack that goes from the edge of the disc towards the center. Most of them are about a half inch long but the worst couple are an inch or so.There are also small stress fractures all along the outside edge of the disc. I'm guessing a new disc is in my future but I was wondering how worried about it I should be and if you know of any place that sells new or refurbished discs? Thanks and happy Thanksgiving!
I know what you are talking about. I've run several bunchers that I came to with those cracks already on the disc, radiating in from the outside edge, generally from the end of the gullet and the edge of the tooth holder right? While that is not a good thing, and probably violates several regulations, that condition on the machines that I was running was there still when I stopped running them and are probably still there cutting today. Although I didn't like the looks of it, when I thought of the forces needed to extend those cracks in enough to blow the disc up it seemed that it was unlikely barring a catastrophic event. But, then again as we all know, catastrophic events do happen in logging. As far as refurbishing a disc I would think that the stresses of welding a disc and rebalancing it might make it more susceptible to failure than it currently is by making it brittle. For that reason I don't think you will find a refurbished disc available. I would suggest checking with Tigercat on a price but I would recommend sitting down when you do that! Quadco also manufactures discs for many different heads and may be more affordable. I remember helping a talented mechanic replace a broken saw motor arbor on a Koehring head years ago and was impressed when he used a liberal amount of locktite on the mating surface of the disc and the arbor to eliminate irregularities. Good trick! In closing I would say that I don't think it's a disaster waiting to happen, but something that would be good to address as soon as it is practical. I was always curious about what made the cracks show up on the machines I ran, dull teeth? over aggressive feed through? Age or heat? Never got a good answer. Hey, good luck to you on it, and you have a good Thanksgiving too!
@@thedailylogger yep that's where it's cracked. The machine has about 16k hours on it and I'm assuming it's the original disc so that's a lot of trees it has killed in its lifetime. Think it's something I'll keep an eye on and start putting some money away for a new one in the future!
Wish Cat still carried their full line of forestry equipment. My Cat dealer had the best service department far better than John Deere and Tigercat. Believe I'm going to keep my 555d Cat skidder until it finally gives up the ghost. Thank you for the fine shoveling video. The wind chill working today was bitter!
A good service department is worth its weight in gold for sure. Even though that's what it costs! I think a good relationship with a good dealer is more important than the machinery really. Personal opinion aside, the machines are all so advanced that they are on a similar operating level, without backup and support none of them are moving wood. Sounds like you have some winter going on, we've got rain coming back next week. Have a good one!
Very interesting to watch. Lots of swing power. Thanks
This was a tough little piece. Hard to cut and to log. He had to swing it sidehill quite a way to the only reasonable landing. The video doesn't really show how steep it was but you can see it when he moves from the litttle bench he is first sitting on. These big shovels are pretty impressive, a lot of weight, power and reach. Glad you liked it!
Awesome
Thanks! The mechanics just put a new set of rails on that machine.
Cool to see a little of how others do things differently. Good video keep it up
Thanks. We were just talking about if we are pushing the shovel ground a little too hard. They can really move a lot of wood but there is cleanup that has to be done after, fluffing up the tracks. That adds up over a unit. Right now it's still the most cost effective way to get it done. The idea of a tethered skidder or some form of grapple yarding sure is interesting though. Thanks for the comment.
Quick question- was changing the teeth on my saw the other day for the first time and I noticed that each tooth has a crack that goes from the edge of the disc towards the center. Most of them are about a half inch long but the worst couple are an inch or so.There are also small stress fractures all along the outside edge of the disc. I'm guessing a new disc is in my future but I was wondering how worried about it I should be and if you know of any place that sells new or refurbished discs? Thanks and happy Thanksgiving!
I know what you are talking about. I've run several bunchers that I came to with those cracks already on the disc, radiating in from the outside edge, generally from the end of the gullet and the edge of the tooth holder right? While that is not a good thing, and probably violates several regulations, that condition on the machines that I was running was there still when I stopped running them and are probably still there cutting today. Although I didn't like the looks of it, when I thought of the forces needed to extend those cracks in enough to blow the disc up it seemed that it was unlikely barring a catastrophic event. But, then again as we all know, catastrophic events do happen in logging. As far as refurbishing a disc I would think that the stresses of welding a disc and rebalancing it might make it more susceptible to failure than it currently is by making it brittle. For that reason I don't think you will find a refurbished disc available. I would suggest checking with Tigercat on a price but I would recommend sitting down when you do that! Quadco also manufactures discs for many different heads and may be more affordable. I remember helping a talented mechanic replace a broken saw motor arbor on a Koehring head years ago and was impressed when he used a liberal amount of locktite on the mating surface of the disc and the arbor to eliminate irregularities. Good trick! In closing I would say that I don't think it's a disaster waiting to happen, but something that would be good to address as soon as it is practical. I was always curious about what made the cracks show up on the machines I ran, dull teeth? over aggressive feed through? Age or heat? Never got a good answer. Hey, good luck to you on it, and you have a good Thanksgiving too!
@@thedailylogger yep that's where it's cracked. The machine has about 16k hours on it and I'm assuming it's the original disc so that's a lot of trees it has killed in its lifetime. Think it's something I'll keep an eye on and start putting some money away for a new one in the future!
@@alexpond6132 Copy that. Yeah, keeping an eye on it and replacing it when it's practical sounds like a good plan. Have a good week, be safe
Wish Cat still carried their full line of forestry equipment. My Cat dealer had the best service department far better than John Deere and Tigercat. Believe I'm going to keep my 555d Cat skidder until it finally gives up the ghost. Thank you for the fine shoveling video. The wind chill working today was bitter!
A good service department is worth its weight in gold for sure. Even though that's what it costs! I think a good relationship with a good dealer is more important than the machinery really. Personal opinion aside, the machines are all so advanced that they are on a similar operating level, without backup and support none of them are moving wood. Sounds like you have some winter going on, we've got rain coming back next week. Have a good one!