How Much Wood Could A Woodchuck Chuck?

[smoke665]

If a Woodchuck was like one of these suckers, A LOT! My neighbor had a section next to me harvested. I've always wanted to photograph one of these in action, but I wasn't able to get as close to him as I would have liked, underbrush and safety dictated staying away. These things are high production machines, the large hydraulic grapples on the front the front grab the tree. A high speed circular saw at the bottom, slices it off at the ground. The operator then carries the tree UPRIGHT to a staging area where he lays it over in a stack so the skidder can grab the stack and go to the landing (the place where a processor strips the limbs, cuts to length. Then a grapple loads the waiting trucks). The speed at which they operate is unbelievable, this 70 acre plot was done in about 4 days, even with a rainout a couple of times.

The hydraulic grapple is the yellow device toward the left

untitled-5.jpg by William Raber, on Flickr

Approaching the tree

untitled-7.jpg by William Raber, on Flickr

Here he just grabbed a tree, and activated the cutoff saw.

untitled-8.jpg by William Raber, on Flickr

Here if you look close you can see the tree standing upright in the grapple as he moves to stack it.

untitled-4.jpg by William Raber, on Flickr

 

[jcdeboever]

Love it! Iron beast with talons and teeth!

 

[smoke665]

@jcdeboever Thanks. You left off FAST and NIMBLE. All wheel drive with independent steering it can go forward, backward, turn l/r, go in a circle, or like a crab move sideways (see 2nd picture). This is one serious woodchuck!

 

[jcdeboever]

@jcdeboever Thanks. You left off FAST and NIMBLE. All wheel drive with independent steering it can go forward, backward, turn l/r, go in a circle, or like a crab move sideways (see 2nd picture). This is one serious woodchuck!

Ok, now your teasing me and getting me excited, careful there young man....

 

[smoke665]

@jcdeboever Thanks. You left off FAST and NIMBLE. All wheel drive with independent steering it can go forward, backward, turn l/r, go in a circle, or like a crab move sideways (see 2nd picture). This is one serious woodchuck!

Ok, now your teasing me and getting me excited, careful there young man....

That's why I gave him a healthy distance. With the underbrush it was hard to move very fast, I was closer but without warning he decided to start a new stack in my general direction. You don't realize how TALL those pines are till you see one coming in your direction. I was just beyond the reach of the tree, but not beyond the reach of the sticks and other flying debris. I backed way off after that.

 

[Derrel]

Saw these types of machines on one of the logging shows on TV a few years back, and they are simply astounding at how fast they can fall a tree and turn it into a log. I grew up partly in timber country, and these things are a far cry from the old-school way of one man and a bigh Stihl chainsaw and some wedges.

 

[tirediron]

Feller/Buncher. Very cool piece of kit and lethal to anything it gets close to.

 

[smoke665]

Saw these types of machines on one of the logging shows on TV a few years back, a

I've seen them in the woods, driving down the road, but never stopped and got close to watch. Really amazing to watch. They had two skidders running that couldn't keep up with the logs this guy was laying down.

Very cool piece of kit and lethal to anything it gets close to

Lethal indeed. There were some pine in this plot that had to be bumping 30" diameter, didn't faze it a bit. Only sad thing is that most of these large beautiful pine were going to the chip mill, rather than the saw mill. Apparently the mills have become so specialized that they only accept certain size trees now, and these were well over their limit. I understand the reasoning behind clear cutting and re-planting, but I've spent many a days exploring this section of woods, and regret that I will never see it like this again in my lifetime.

 

[BrentC]

Take a look at this one. It literally does everything from cutting and stripping at very fast speed. Saw it first on Discovery.

 

[smoke665]

Didn't realize how dark these were when I first posted. I guess the differences in light woods/open were throwing off the meter. Just updated the bunch by a full stop.

@BrentC I've been a fan of Discovery Channel as well, but seeing them and hearing them up close is way better.

 

[tirediron]

Only sad thing is that most of these large beautiful pine were going to the chip mill, rather than the saw mill. Apparently the mills have become so specialized that they only accept certain size trees now, and these were well over their limit. I understand the reasoning behind clear cutting and re-planting, but I've spent many a days exploring this section of woods, and regret that I will never see it like this again in my lifetime.

That is sad indeed; time was, around here that 30" at the butt would have been classified as a "pecker pole"...