I'm having some timber cut off of a lot that I just bought. I plan to build a house there in a year or two. Driveway will be about 2200 feet long. Keep your fingers crossed that some of the verneer logs still look good once they aren't standing anymore.
It's nice to watch someone with the right equipment, and that knows what they are doing.
And that feller/buncher is just a baby model. We had a timber harvest done last year under the guidence of our forester. The timber cutter showed up with a Timberjack feller that weighed almost 40 tons. [img]/forums/images/icons/shocked.gif[/img] It had a quad-link leveling system to keep the cab level on sloped terrain, the saw had a 3" kerf and could cut a 24" tree. After cutting, it could lift it up and position it anywhere it wanted to. Very impressive. Also very complex. The JD service guy was out here often.
I have some REAL big oaks. They said that they COULD cut them with the harvester, but it would take two cuts. They are going to be safer and cut them with a chainsaw.
They also have a chipper that will do 18" x 18". They will be chipping the limbs and tops. I think the price on the chips was only 5 bucks a ton. It's all gravy though, that is money I would have let rot, or burned in piles.
I have finally learned to let people do work that I am capable of doing. I am not a logger. I would much rather pay someone else to take care of the heavy lifting. When he is done, I can spend the next 20 years farting around cutting firewood. About that time, It will be time to cut some more wood for real.
The most important part is to find someone you trust. I am lucky enough to have a family member in the business who has lots of contacts. I don't have any worries about having the wool pulled over my eyes. A little research, a little planning, and let the right people do their jobs.
JP, I don't want to steal your thread, but I have some closeup pictures of the cutters used 2 years ago when I built a pond. This first picture shows the tree cutter.
This is the cutter in action. It is driven up to a tree, and the arms surround the tree and pull the cutting blade into the tree. For large trees (anything over 24 inches) they cut from the back, then drive around to the other side and finish the cut. For small trees, the operator will keep accumulating trees until the arms are full, then he will lay them all down.
Once the tree has been cut, the cutter picks the tree straight up. The operator can then drive around with the tree. He puts them into a pile for the skidder to take them to the loader.
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